Lyss Menold
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lyssmenold.bsky.social
Lyss Menold
@lyssmenold.bsky.social
260 followers 220 following 120 posts
Freelance illustrator, sci/fi fantasy nerd, board game fan. Also loves robots. they/them

https://linktr.ee/lyssmenold?utm_source=linktree_profile_share&ltsid=3cf45145-3b9a-4d4e-8b90-4686c23b5103
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lyssmenold.bsky.social
Lyss Menold @lyssmenold.bsky.social · Jan 14
Hi #portfolioday!

My name is Lyss and I love painting colorful and surreal things! I'm hoping to do more book cover and tabletop work this coming year 😁

💙 www.lyssmenold.com
Digital painting of a woman's back breaking apart to reveal an android underneath Digital painting of Jack Frost in a hoodie being formed from snow Digital painting of a woman's with a dress made of raven feathers Digital painting of an android repairing herself in front of a city
Reposted by Lyss Menold
gingerpk.bsky.social
Goodbye December ❄️

Wishing everyone a beautiful ending to the last day of the year tomorrow and a beautiful start to a new one!!
December 30, 2025 at 10:58 AM
Reposted by Lyss Menold
neonhemlock.bsky.social
I’d be grateful if folks followed this project on Kickstarter 🖤

Aiming right now to go live in January, depending on when I get all my materials ready.

We have some exciting invited authors and @mspencerdraws.bsky.social is on board for interior illustrations.
December 24, 2025 at 4:28 PM
Reposted by Lyss Menold
dieworkwear.bsky.social
Photographer Christopher Anderson on the Vanity Fair photoshoot
An excerpt from The Washington Post's interview with photographer Christopher Anderson: Question: "Were there moments that you missed? Anything that happened that’s on the cutting room floor?" Anderson: "I don’t think there’s anything I missed that I wish I’d gotten. I’ll give you a little anecdote: Stephen Miller was perhaps the most concerned about the portrait session. He asked me, 'Should I smile or not smile?' and I said, 'How would you want to be portrayed?' We agreed that we would do a bit of both. And then when we were finished, he comes up to me to shake my hand and say goodbye. And he says to me, 'You know, you have a lot of power in the discretion you use to be kind to people.' And I looked at him and I said, 'You know, you do, too.'"
December 18, 2025 at 12:31 AM
Reposted by Lyss Menold
rj-palmer.com
The thing thats so insidious about using AI this way is that one of the main ways artists get hired are studios looking for art references and they find us and reach out.

This is removing a major avenue to get work if they can just generate nameless derivations of our ideas.
Swen Vincke @LarAtLarian Holy fuck guys we’re not "pushing hard" for or replacing concept artists with AI. We have a team of 72 artists of which 23 are concept artists and we are hiring more. The art they create is original and I’m very proud of what they do. I was asked explicitly about concept art and our use of Gen AI. I answered that we use it to explore things. I didn’t say we use it to develop concept art. The artists do that. And they are indeed world class artists. We use AI tools to explore references, just like we use google and art books. At the very early ideation stages we use it as a rough outline for composition which we replace with original concept art. There is no comparison. I talked about how we use ML here if you would like to know more: https://gamespot.com/articles/baldurs-gate-3-dev-embraces-machine-learning-for-tasks-that-nobody-wants-to-do/1100-6531123/ We've hired creatives for their talent, not for their ability to do what a machine suggests, but they can experiment with these tools to make their lives easier.
December 17, 2025 at 12:32 AM
Reposted by Lyss Menold
tylerwalpole.bsky.social
Watching someone toss away S Tier good-will for the sake of…AI is…kinda hard to watch.

Hope companies start to figure out the toxicity of AI, because their employees and consumers do.
jasonschreier.bsky.social Jason Schreier @jasonschreier.bsky.social · 20d
NEW: I spoke to Larian boss Swen Vincke about their ambitions for their new RPG Divinity, cutting down development time, pressures from Baldur's Gate 3, why BG3 wouldn't have happened without Tencent, how Larian uses generative AI, and much more www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...
‘Baldur’s Gate 3’ Maker Promises ‘Divinity’ Will Be ‘Next Level’
‘I think this one is going to be way better’ than ‘Baldur’s Gate 3,’ Larian CEO Vincke says
www.bloomberg.com
December 16, 2025 at 11:39 PM
Reposted by Lyss Menold
everydaymerlin.bsky.social
LOOKING FOR WORK!! i’m merlin and i’ve worked in animation, games and comics as a visual developer and illustrator 🫶🎨 past clients: netflix, d&d, magic the gathering, volta

🎨 www.artstation.com/merlin-gg

📧 [email protected]
December 2, 2025 at 10:54 PM
Reposted by Lyss Menold
benmce.bsky.social
Autumn’s Waning 🍂
A digital painting of a large tree in fall. A figure walks through a creek in the foreground, surrounded by fallen leaves.
November 28, 2025 at 6:33 PM
Reposted by Lyss Menold
evelynepark.bsky.social
Cover illustration for The Broken Binding special edition of ALL THAT WE SEE OR SEEM by Ken Liu

acrylics on watercolor paper
November 24, 2025 at 12:59 PM
lyssmenold.bsky.social
I got to do an endpaper for the Broken Binding edition of Ken Liu's All that We See or Seem. And I got to paint little robot dinos in it!! Thanks to Petrik Leo for the super fun project 😁
Painting of a woman descending digital stairs that originate from a mind, with psychedelic elements like robot dinosaurs and matrix-y lines of code around her.
November 21, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Reposted by Lyss Menold
nozomimats.bsky.social
It's my birthday today! ☺️
If you could spare a repost, it would be much appreciated!
A woman with pale skin, white hair in two braids, and delicate gold tattoo on her face floats in the night sky with a full moon and starry sky behind her. She is wearing a thigh length purple dress with long sweeping sleeves. There are glowing blue lines etched on the fabric of the dress, and two ribbons of light with geometric patterns are trailing behind her. A ring of magic with glowing orbs is circling around her as she floats. Commission work done for YeetMaur A dark skinned man with dark brown hair and a beard framing his jaw, dressed in a white robe and dark brown pants crouches with one hand on the ground as he swings at demons with his katana. The enemy demons are dressed in red rusting armor that looks worn and damaged. The scene is set in a bamboo forest with a path cutting through it, red banners on either side of the road. It appears to be in the afternoon, with a rich orange glow streaming in between the bamboo. A man sits in his study, contemplating a dark, box shaped artifact, while a dark spirit looms behind him. This was a commission work done for JacenLandry
November 20, 2025 at 6:54 AM
Reposted by Lyss Menold
olliemnjones.bsky.social
Hi, looking for some illustration work at the moment, send me a message if you'd like some art for your project. You can also email me at [email protected]
Thanks!
November 20, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Reposted by Lyss Menold
igdoods.bsky.social
holidays are coming 🎶
November 16, 2025 at 10:20 PM
Reposted by Lyss Menold
emiliusdraws.bsky.social
#3157 A helpful tutorial
A digital drawing of one of those drawing tutorials that says 'don't do this, do this.' The drawing is of an almost naked middle-aged man doing a flying kick. The 'Don't do this' one has a bunch of areas circled and a cross under it. The 'Do this' one is exactly the same but without the circles and a tick instead of a cross. The text reads 'Needlessly adding red circles will ruin your art' and a smaller bit of text at the bottom reads 'Bonus tip! Add a tick under all your art so people think you did it right.'
November 17, 2025 at 11:40 PM
Reposted by Lyss Menold
reikomurakami.bsky.social
Got my contributor copies the other day! Cover art for “Awkward On The Rocks” by Marcel Feldmar
Cover art for Awkward On The Rocks. A mysterious male figure presenting a burning drink over the bar counter. His face is hidden in the shadow. A photo of the book Awkward On The Rocks by Marcel Feldmar
November 14, 2025 at 10:05 PM
lyssmenold.bsky.social
I had to say goodbye to my sweet Clair Bear today. I'm heartbroken. She was the best dog.
Photo of the best dog
November 11, 2025 at 12:37 AM
Reposted by Lyss Menold
cotronis.bsky.social
My alt cover for @joeyesposito.bsky.social and @pandamusk.bsky.social MADAM comic book, now on Kickstarter: www.kickstarter.com/projects/joe...
November 1, 2025 at 12:02 PM
Reposted by Lyss Menold
suzannehelmigh.bsky.social
If you're an artist wanting to break through in TTRPG illustrations and feel like you need an Art Directors feedback on your current portfolio. Feel free to reach out, comment or DM me here.
I feel like the industry is hard enough as is. I will reply slow but I'll do my best to support! 💜
October 28, 2025 at 12:07 PM
Reposted by Lyss Menold
kaseygifford.bsky.social
Nothing fills me with a sense of dread quite like the work of artist Chris Van Allsburg. When I was very young, his illustrations terrified me just as much as the ones in Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, but in a way I didn't even have words to describe yet. He was liminal before liminal was cool
October 25, 2025 at 3:17 AM
Reposted by Lyss Menold
juliametzgerart.bsky.social
✨Mein Sehnen ✨
New piece I've done within Cynthia Sheppard's smARTschool class, featuring Lúthien Tinúviel from Tolkien's Silmarillion.

#art #juliametzgerart
October 22, 2025 at 10:57 AM
Reposted by Lyss Menold
hoovybaby.bsky.social
Wake up, babe, the least subtle visual metaphor in history just dropped
October 21, 2025 at 4:18 AM
lyssmenold.bsky.social
Aaaaaaaand Gone to Gaia has launched! This is the culmination of a lot of work and love, and I'm so excited to share it! gamefound.com/en/projects/...
Gone to Gaia by Rose Gauntlet Entertainment - Gamefound
Safeguard the last remnants of humanity in Gone to Gaia, a sprawling cooperative roguelite campaign for 1 or 2 players.
gamefound.com
October 21, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Reposted by Lyss Menold
juliedillon.bsky.social
I just finished this up in a SmArtSchool mentorship class with Sam Weber. 😊 The assignment was to create an illustration with an original character, and I went with my current D&D character 😅
A woman with a shaved head in gold armor stands among dark briars. The briar thorns pierce her armor and skin in a few places, and she hangs her head in a defeated posture.
October 14, 2025 at 5:31 PM
Reposted by Lyss Menold
artbonnie.bsky.social
Hi, #PortfolioDay I'm Bonnie and I'm a BG artist working in animation. Clients include Nickelodeon, WB, Cartoon Network, Netflix and more! I’ll be available for full-time or freelance work in the spring of 2026. I’m interested in BG design/paint/vis dev work! 🌺

Web: artbonnie.com
Insta@artbonnie
October 14, 2025 at 9:33 PM
Reposted by Lyss Menold
brianlarossa.com
Popping into #portfolioday on behalf of art directors to say thank you for sharing your work. It makes our job easier. We appreciate you.
💙❤️

Also, FWIW, I made a starter pack of hiring art-, creative-, design-directors who actively use Bluesky.
go.bsky.app/Hxoz9KX
October 14, 2025 at 1:52 PM
Reposted by Lyss Menold
reikomurakami.bsky.social
Hi #PortfolioDay !

I do book covers and comic covers, working on both full color digital and traditional media using graphite and ink.
Cover art for Black Sun be Rebecca Roanhorse, The Broken Binding Minor Arcana #2 variant cover, Boom! Studios Cover art for The Black Phone by Joe Hill, Suntup Editions Personal work from my exhibition last year. “Identity” 11x15 inches, Graphite mixed media Available at Keep Contrmporary
October 14, 2025 at 2:32 PM