Liiga Smilshkalne
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liiga.bsky.social
Liiga Smilshkalne
@liiga.bsky.social
7.5K followers 510 following 2.2K posts
Artist from the mysterious and far away land of Latvia. Mostly drawing for Magic: The Gathering these days. Big on shinies and coffee.
She/her

Prints: https://www.inprnt.com/gallery/liiga/
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/liiga_s_art
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liiga.bsky.social
Liiga Smilshkalne @liiga.bsky.social · Jan 14
Hi #portfolioday ! I'm Liiga and I do freelance illustration.
My focus is on dreamlike imagery and spells, though I'm no stranger to characters and the occasional scenery.

I've done work for Magic: The Gathering, Android:Netrunner, Bella Sara etc.

🎨 liiga.artstation.com
✉️ [email protected]
Illustration for the card "Magma Opus" shows a giant spell in the shape of an elephant that aggressively combines ice and fire magic. A drawing of a rabbit standing in the middle of a whole lot of sweet peas that have started growing over massive swords impaled into the ground. A giant green "flower" explodes atop of a tall mountain and streams of green mana wash down its side, sprouting star flowers as they go. An illustration of the big bad of Magic's Duskmourn set, Valgavoth, enmothifying literally everything. There's a planet inside golden threads and the oceans of the planet are in the shape of a hand and a face pressed against a round glass marble. Going outwards, moths shaped a little like nebulae fly out of their golden 'cocoons', leaving glitchy trails in their wake.
liiga.bsky.social
I think today is a good day to share my second piece for the Magic: The Gathering in Miniature III exhibition that'll be in Gallery Nucleus Jan 31 - Feb 15, 2026:
Elspeth in Bloomburrow with sweet pea wings! 💖 This is done in acrylics on the back of a Swords to Plowshares artist proof.
An itty bitty painting of Elspeth, the planeswalker from Magic: The Gathering, as a white mouse clad in silver armor with golden decorations. She's wearing a white cape and holding a spear that took more than one try to get to look right. Behind her, white sweet peas are arranged in the shape of wings (because Elspeth is an angel) and she's making friends with an orange butterfly. This is on the back of my Swords to Plowshares artist proof, which also involves sweet peas. Pencil for scale!
November 24, 2025 at 7:05 PM
Reposted by Liiga Smilshkalne
serenamalyon.bsky.social
Krona, Keeper of Eons - watercolour, acryla gouache on paper with some digital touchups

For Hearthstone's latest expansion, Across the Timeways.
AD: Jim Nelson
A giant, multi-armed figure adorned in gold, skin blue and shimmering like the night sky. 3 glowing eyes surround his head, and his hands wield a golden time-magic. In the foreground we see a floating platform that holds many archways. Stars appear at each joint, he is a living constellation.
November 17, 2025 at 4:31 PM
Reposted by Liiga Smilshkalne
kiell-art.bsky.social
If you see this, post your bird art 🐦

#birds
November 15, 2025 at 3:52 PM
liiga.bsky.social
The art vs the artist’s hand

With a bonus sighting of fuzzy gremlin paws.
A digital illustration for the Magic: The Gathering card "Bottle-Cap Blast". It shows an explosion full of Nuca Cola bottle-caps and fragments of a Fallout lunchbox. A hand partially covered by a very fuzzy cat because the little gremlin wouldn't stop howling about the inferior contents of his food bowl and had to sit on my lap and endure gentle kissies as punishment. He hated every second of it and no lessons were learned.
November 11, 2025 at 6:03 PM
Reposted by Liiga Smilshkalne
liiga.bsky.social
I had the honor to be interviewed by the lovely PapyMagic about my process as a Magic artist! 🎨
Featuring Bucha and his glare of a million lemons because he hates sitting on a lap.
papymagic.bsky.social PapyMagic @papymagic.bsky.social · 18d
Artist INTERVIEW🎙️ : Liiga SMILSHKALNE, Mystical & Magic !👩🏻‍🎨 - EXCLUSIVE
youtu.be/ynE5L16VuGU

Amazing and exclusive interview of @liiga.bsky.social on my YouTube channel: discover the behind the scenes of a #mtg Card through the mystical and magic angle of Liiga

#mtgart #magicthegathering
November 8, 2025 at 11:12 AM
Reposted by Liiga Smilshkalne
fantasmary.bsky.social
If you see this, post your bird art 🐦

#birds

Do owlbears count? They have feathers.
November 10, 2025 at 4:13 PM
liiga.bsky.social
If you see this, post your bird art 🐦

#birds

Keeping with the crane theme~
"Musaazi", an illustration for the Android:Netrunner LCG. It shows a red gray crane being dramatic in cyberspace.
November 10, 2025 at 3:59 PM
liiga.bsky.social
I had the honor to be interviewed by the lovely PapyMagic about my process as a Magic artist! 🎨
Featuring Bucha and his glare of a million lemons because he hates sitting on a lap.
papymagic.bsky.social PapyMagic @papymagic.bsky.social · 18d
Artist INTERVIEW🎙️ : Liiga SMILSHKALNE, Mystical & Magic !👩🏻‍🎨 - EXCLUSIVE
youtu.be/ynE5L16VuGU

Amazing and exclusive interview of @liiga.bsky.social on my YouTube channel: discover the behind the scenes of a #mtg Card through the mystical and magic angle of Liiga

#mtgart #magicthegathering
November 8, 2025 at 11:12 AM
Reposted by Liiga Smilshkalne
liiga.bsky.social
Bun bun bun bun bun bun; that is all. 🐰
A photo of a small marker drawing on the back of an artist proof, surrounded by dry autumn leaves. The bunny is fussing around with some sweet pea vines while golden butterflies flutter about.
November 6, 2025 at 6:29 PM
liiga.bsky.social
Bun bun bun bun bun bun; that is all. 🐰
A photo of a small marker drawing on the back of an artist proof, surrounded by dry autumn leaves. The bunny is fussing around with some sweet pea vines while golden butterflies flutter about.
November 6, 2025 at 6:29 PM
Reposted by Liiga Smilshkalne
ginsays.bsky.social
IT'S NOVEMBER but I'm not ready to give up the ghost just yet!! Go for it young miss!! 💚 #spookycute #ocs
a young miss sits in an arm chair tilting a book to her ghostly companion, who's pulling the "arm over back of chair not quite around shoulder" move. all the portraits hung on the wall look on in excitement of this development. go for it girls!!!
November 1, 2025 at 5:44 PM
Reposted by Liiga Smilshkalne
aliceduke.bsky.social
myosotis
decorative illustration of myosotis scorpioides
October 29, 2025 at 10:58 AM
Reposted by Liiga Smilshkalne
liiga.bsky.social
Super excited to be a part of this!!

Here's the first of my three, Tamiyo in acrylics on the back of an Enduring Innocence proof.

Going to elaborate on the meaning and technique in the alt text.
An acrylic painting on the back of a Magic: The Gathering artist proof of "Enduring Innocence", 6.3x8.8cm in size. The "droplets" are raised a bit above the surface - though not too much - and they're made by using teensy tiny glass beads as 'seeds' for volume, and built upon with heavy gel and many, many layers of a shiny medium. There's also symbolism to it that calls for some lore. Tamiyo - like most planeswalkers - has a long and interesting life, but it comes to a tragic end soon after she's compleated by the Phyrexians, when she purposefully allows her friend the Wanderer to kill her in battle. However, her story doesn't end there, as a part of her spirit (a shade) is captured in a memory scroll which eventually ends up on the Duskmourn plane - which is the set that the "Enduring Innocence" belongs to. While Tamiyo's adoptive son Nashi goes to Duskmourn to find her, the shade is continuously drained of her memories by the plane's ruling demon's cultists. When she is found all that's left and the only thing that's allowed her to persist is her love for him. In the end, she asks to be released into the Blind Eternities, and Nashi honors the request. So with that context, I wanted to show Tamiyo with a loving and peaceful expression as her memory fades away into little droplets - maybe Nashi's tears. The flowers are spider lilies since their symbolism is tied to death, remembrance and transformation. They're yellow to go with the "Enduring Innocence" (well and also because yellow and blue together are nice to look at.)
October 24, 2025 at 6:57 PM
liiga.bsky.social
Super excited to be a part of this!!

Here's the first of my three, Tamiyo in acrylics on the back of an Enduring Innocence proof.

Going to elaborate on the meaning and technique in the alt text.
An acrylic painting on the back of a Magic: The Gathering artist proof of "Enduring Innocence", 6.3x8.8cm in size. The "droplets" are raised a bit above the surface - though not too much - and they're made by using teensy tiny glass beads as 'seeds' for volume, and built upon with heavy gel and many, many layers of a shiny medium. There's also symbolism to it that calls for some lore. Tamiyo - like most planeswalkers - has a long and interesting life, but it comes to a tragic end soon after she's compleated by the Phyrexians, when she purposefully allows her friend the Wanderer to kill her in battle. However, her story doesn't end there, as a part of her spirit (a shade) is captured in a memory scroll which eventually ends up on the Duskmourn plane - which is the set that the "Enduring Innocence" belongs to. While Tamiyo's adoptive son Nashi goes to Duskmourn to find her, the shade is continuously drained of her memories by the plane's ruling demon's cultists. When she is found all that's left and the only thing that's allowed her to persist is her love for him. In the end, she asks to be released into the Blind Eternities, and Nashi honors the request. So with that context, I wanted to show Tamiyo with a loving and peaceful expression as her memory fades away into little droplets - maybe Nashi's tears. The flowers are spider lilies since their symbolism is tied to death, remembrance and transformation. They're yellow to go with the "Enduring Innocence" (well and also because yellow and blue together are nice to look at.)
October 24, 2025 at 6:57 PM
Reposted by Liiga Smilshkalne
michaelwhelan.bsky.social
HOPE (1997)
Acrylic on Watercolor Board - 13” x 10”

Ammonites have always been meant as a personal form of “memento mori” symbols in my art. They are cautionary reminders of our impermanence. 1/3
A woman in flowing robes stands on a mound of rock. In front of her, large ammonite fossils stack, unevenly fused together by coral. The s-shaped formation blocks vibrant blue night sky, but the ammonites are ancient and deteriorating. The woman holds a hand to her chest as she stares through the eroded spiral center to witness a bright shining star.
October 21, 2025 at 12:53 PM
Reposted by Liiga Smilshkalne
strangehouse.bsky.social
Sleepseers illustration for ’Pilgrims of the Murk Dome’ TTRPG
October 20, 2025 at 12:42 PM
Reposted by Liiga Smilshkalne
thatzombiecat.bsky.social
Share your couples’ art 💕

Look at em, all smiling and happy
October 15, 2025 at 9:33 PM
liiga.bsky.social
QRT with your skull art 💀
A small painting of a deer skull sinking into the void. Its antlers have been snapped off in places, but branches are magically growing out of those spots. There's a green amber egg embedded in the top of its head, sat in a golden nest, and a small bird is looking at it - probably wondering how that got there - with a golden grass in its beak. Also there are butterflies 'cause I like drawing them.
October 12, 2025 at 5:58 PM
Reposted by Liiga Smilshkalne
lindalithen.bsky.social
Now that I've recovered from my cold and isn't sneezing my brains out, I finally managed to finish up my piece from @paulscottcanavan.com 's mentorship :D

Knew I wanted to paint a horse, so decided to draw some inspiration from the wild hunt folklore and ended up with bonus doggies.
A male rider dressed in leather armour rides across the sky. He's carrying a spear, and a half cape is flying out behind him. His horse have blue glows across its body, and they're flanked by two demonic canines with red glows across their body. Behind them is a eclipse and clouds.
October 10, 2025 at 10:10 PM
Reposted by Liiga Smilshkalne
peapuck.bsky.social
Conker flail 🌰⚔️
January 28, 2025 at 3:37 PM
liiga.bsky.social
Leave a leaf, take a leaf

QRP with a leaf! 🍁

#LeafPosting 🌿🖌️
A photo of a white fluffy cat wearing a beautiful yellow maple leaf as a fascinator. He's not entirely thrilled by it, but not to the extent of doing something about it.
October 7, 2025 at 6:43 PM
liiga.bsky.social
w/o downloading anything new - where are you mentally?
A digital drawing of two big eyes and a tiny mouth focused on ✨SHINIES✨
October 6, 2025 at 7:15 PM
Reposted by Liiga Smilshkalne
keturahrose.bsky.social
𝐅𝐨𝐱𝐠𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞🍂

Another addition to my personal project of making my illustrations more diverse✨ I've always loved foxes, and I 100% used this as an excuse to draw one, too ❤️
#fantasyartist
October 4, 2025 at 4:11 PM
liiga.bsky.social
Once upon a time I planted the seed of a cherry tomato in a pot, thinking that surely it won't grow very large.

Anyway, here I am pollinating the ceiling tomatoes.
The photo of a hand holding a ruler with a long paint brush taped to it, pollinating tomato blossoms at the ceiling. The plant is a little over 250cm above soil (and the flowerpot is 20 cm tall, it really wasn't supposed to go like this).
October 1, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Reposted by Liiga Smilshkalne
skullsandsheets.bsky.social
She who steals the leaves from the trees
A horse skulled lady in a cloak of triangular sectional with floral and leaf pattern with a crown of antlers with leaves forming a halo
September 30, 2025 at 6:14 PM