Krista A. Leemhuis 🎨

Indigo Milky Way
12”x6” Oil on cradled wood panel
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Available on my website
#SciArt

Spring is finally about to start and it makes me want to get more personal art done, but I'm lacking a bit of time for now, so have some season-themed knights while I manage to work on new illustrations! :>

As usual, I hope you'll enjoy!

#digitalart #fantasyart #medieval

When the summer sunrise cooks the road

Four years ago I woke up at 5 am from distant explosions. I asked my boyfriend if he heard them too, he said he didn’t and I should go back to sleep. I tried to calm myself down, went on the internet, it was silent, no news or explanations.

A painting of Link from the Legend of Zelda. He rides Epona into a gray, ashen forest, where all the trees seem to be dead. But he turns as a ray of light shines through the gloom and illuminates a single pink flower on a tree--there is life here yet, and this forest can be saved.

Happy 40th Zelda anniversary!! 🤯
⚔️🛡️🧚🏽‍♂️🐎💚

Here's some art I made a while ago & still love.

"The Ashen Forest"

Painted by a human. 💚

#zeldaanniversary #zelda #legendofzelda #zeldafanart

Surely someone who follows me needs to know that this exists. 💚

sketchbook

Image is a vertical painting in blue and yellow depicting a large field of yellow grass in autumn, and a few very tall trees in the field, the trees cast lines of blue shadows across the field, and in the distance, much larger trees l--a dense forest of them--can just be seen amid the fog. In the field, two tiny people are just visible, lending a sense of scale.

A second shot that is a close up of the people in the field. One stands in the sunlit yellow grass and wears a purple cloak, with red hair. She looks back at her companion, who has stopped in a shadow, and stands facing the forest behind. He wears black, and has spiky blond hair.

More concept art for my graphic novel.

Painted by a human. 💚

#conceptart #graphicnovel #digitalart #digitalpainting #art

Bluesky Map Interactive map of 3.4 million Bluesky users, visualised by their follower pattern.

I made a map of 3.4 million Bluesky users - see if you can find yourself!

bluesky-map.theo.io

I've seen some similar projects, but IMO this seems to better capture some of the fine-grained detail

A digital painting in cool desaturated gray-blues and golden yellows of a hillside in the morning. A few buildings peek out of the hill, one catching warm morning light. In the foreground, a tree glows yellow in the morning light, amid waves of dark gray-green pines and other winter-bare trees.

Little 30m study from a photo I took of #capitolhillseattle in the morning light. There was regrettably a chain link fence blocking full appreciation of this lovely morning palette, but fortunately...that's the beauty of painting.

Painted by a human 💚
#digitalpainting #artstudy #morninglight #art

SCREENCRAFT WHAT IS "MA"? In an interview with film critic Roger Ebert from 2002, Ebert tells Miyazaki he appreciates what he calls "gratuitous motion" in his films, adding that, "Instead of every movement being dictated by the story, sometimes people will just sit for a moment, or they will sigh, or look in a running stream, or do something extra, not to advance the story but only to give the sense of time and place and who they are," said Ebert. Miyazaki answered with, "We have a word for that in Japanese," he said. "It's called Ma. Emptiness. It's there intentionally."

My piping hot take on PLURIBUS is that it’s one of the most Ghibli-esque shows on TV today, and people who think its pacing is too slow ought to really sit with and examine why they feel that slow pace = bad.

Its first season has several minutes worth of “mā”, and is much stronger for it, IMO

Sir Ian McKellen performing a monologue from Shakespeare’s Sir Thomas More on the Stephen Colbert show. Never have I heard this monologue performed with such a keen sense of prescience. Nor have I ever been in this exact historical moment.TY Sir Ian, for reaching us once again.
#Pinks #ProudBlue

A man in a white robe sits huddled against the cold--or against his own anxiety--while bathed in blue moonlight. He faces right, and light catches through his pointed ear. His breath mists as he speaks. In the foreground, a person in red, in warmer light, seems to hesitate, stopped by the man's words. We see only their side and their hand.

"Is this farewell?"

Some Endai concept art today!

As always, painted by a human. 💚

#oc #graphicnovel #digitalpainting #conceptart

A painting of a sandy desert with distant mountains, rendered in pale light blues and yellow-oranges. In the midground, at an angle, sits an iron cage, large enough to hold a human. A human seems to be in it too, seated on the ground, though it is unclear whether they are still alive. In the foreground, partially buried by sand, are a wooden bucket and an iron ladle leaning against it. Between the foreground and midground, the heat of the day creates a watery mirage that reflects the cage.

Just a little sketch, trying to explore relationships between compositional elements & storytelling while maintaining believable light & textures.

As always, painted by a human. 💚

#digitalpainting #desertart #sketch

I flip my image horizontally to check proportions. Sometimes I think things look right, but feel off, and usually the flip shows me exactly what's wrong (usually to my mild horror).

A portrait in 3/4 view of Shane Hollander (played by Hudson Williams), in warm light. He looks intensely past the viewer with a small, perhaps devious, smile.

1h study of Shane Hollander from #heatedrivalry

Painted by a human. 💚

#artstudy #digitalpainting

A man in white robes with red stripes with its hood up sits at a table, a cup in one hand. The light is limited, and beams down from above, illuminating his arms and the table, but leaving his face partially in shadow as he tells the person across from him (not shown), "No."

"No"

Little 2.5h painting in Photoshop of a concept for Endai, my graphic novel in progress.

#conceptart #digitalpainting #digitalart #oc

My fairy portal paintings

With all the A.I. generated imagery out there, I would like to share some of the thoughts that go into a painting created by a human being...

Aw, thank you! 💚

A painting of a landscape at a high elevation that appears to be arid--sweeping orange rock angles down to the right, lit by the sunset. It is interrupted by angled rocks. The viewer appears to be standing on a white path (snow?) that runs along the ridge. In the distance, a mountain is bathed in the glow of sunset.

I accidentally sketched something while modifying my brushes in PS a bit. So...here's a little mountain pass at sunset for ya.

Color is weird.

#digitalpainting #mountainart #landscapeart

Bloom Tender, AD @jameelawahlgren.bsky.social -- for Magic's Lorwyn Eclipsed. This is my favorite thing I've ever made.

Watercolor painting of a sloth clinging to a birch tree, with detailed green-tinted fur and mossy bark textures.

Tried painting a sloth without it turning into green mush. Layered strange shadow colors and fought for fur texture at this size. Honestly kinda proud of how soft it turned out. #sciart #watercolor

Finish of my latest Sunset Cliffs painting. ("Against the Wall", 24"x36") brianbelfield.com #oceanbeach #sunsetcliffs #sandiego #ocean #seascape #artwork #impressionism

A painting in very pale yellows and blue-grays of the silhouettes of trees in late afternoon. One coniferous tree is nearer the foreground and has some saturated yellow highlights. The middle of the silhouette is paler and bluer than its edges. The sun hangs brightly on the top edge of the image.

I am trapped under a cat and I have an iPad, so I attempted to capture the weird hazy light that was happening this afternoon. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Painted by a human. 💚

Not a bad way to spend the last afternoon of 2025. 🐈‍⬛🎨

#digitalpainting #landscapeart #treeart #hazy

A plein air painting of a row of trees along a small hill. The trees are in a deep reddish purple, highlights are in bright yellow, and the background is a foggy bluish purple. Bright winter sunlight streams between the trees, illuminating the ground between the shadows.

Plein Air painting today...

I love winter lighting--low sun angle, long shadows--but sheesh it is cold sitting outside for 30m.

Please enjoy while I defrost myself with tea. ☕️

Painted by a human. 💚

#pleinair #digitalpainting #landscapeart #forestart

A painting of a humanoid figure, with an orangish-pinkish yellowish cuttlefish like head with empty eye sockets. It wears an orange-red coat with black diamond buttons and a black collar, and the coat seems to smear or run toward the bottom of the image. The figure appears to be held up by a black pole beneath the coat. It is...unsettling.

"A Portrait of 2025"

It's important to reflect on whatever the hell that was.

Happy new year, folks. Hopefully 2026 will be better.

Painted by a human. 💚

#digitalpainting #portraiture #year2025 #portrait #yearinreview #wth

A painting study from a screenshot of the movie Troy (2004) in which Boagreas the Giant is called forth to face Achilles, looming above the army that stands behind him in the pale golden morning light.

Movie study from Troy (2004)
"BOAGREAAAAAAAS!"

Time-boxed this one to 35m. Long enough for my coffee to go cold again :(

Color is weird.

Painted by a human. 💚
#digitalpainting #troymovie #paintingstudy #boagreas

A painting of a screenshot from the movie Troy wherein Priam asks Achilles to return the body of Hector.

Movie Study from Troy (2004)
...I really should do these more often to study the subtleties of expression, lighting, composition, etc.

I'm happy with how his cloak came out in particular.

Painted by a human. 💚

#troymovie #peterotoole #priam #digitalpainting #moviestudy

Love the color palette for this piece! 💖