Olena Shmahalo
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natureintheory.bsky.social
Olena Shmahalo
@natureintheory.bsky.social
12K followers 480 following 3.3K posts
✦ #SciArt #3Dart #Physics
✦ Previously the establishing Art Director of Quanta Magazine

✦ https://linktr.ee/NatureInTheory
✦ https://www.OlenaShmahalo.com
✦ Art-Only Feed: https://bsky.app/profile/natureintheory.bsky.social/feed/aaadycj4x6e72

❌ NO AI
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natureintheory.bsky.social
If you use #CSP and have favorite v3-4 updates not to be missed, LMK! Because I cannot read all these pages right now 😵‍💫

Good thing they made a video thumbnail for that one or I would've missed it.

Better snapping is a godsend too:
Snap to objects (EX / PRO) You can now snap to other objects when moving or transforming vector layers, rulers, text, and more. Snapping is available when using the Object sub tool, Light table sub tool, Control point sub tool, and the Text tool or commands under the Edit menu > Transform. You can access snapping settings from the Sub Tool Detail palette > Enable snapping. When turned on, you can move and transform objects while snapping to other objects or the canvas grid.
November 5, 2025 at 10:14 PM
natureintheory.bsky.social
Oooh love a good QOL update!* I'd been wanting this feature Procreate has #clipstudiopaint #csp
www.clipstudio.net/en/dl/releas...

I generally hate updating. Usually screws things up → hours of work-time lost to fixing. Thus, getting July update in November xD

*On that note, our new Mayor too 😄🎉
Screenshot, text reads: What's New in the Clip Studio Paint July 2025 Update (for Annual/Monthly/Update Pass Plans) Ver. 4.1.0 (Released July 29, 2025) Version 4.1.0 includes the following new features. Align with the orientation of an object when transforming You can now adjust the orientation of the bounding box when using the Edit menu > Transform. This allows you to rotate the bounding box to match the object being transformed, for more control over scaling objects.
November 5, 2025 at 10:09 PM
natureintheory.bsky.social
OMG

THAnk YOU @procreate.com !

Lasso. Fill. Planned!!!!!!!!! 😍
folio.procreate.com/discussions/...
Screenshot from the Procreate forums: Reply by Clarey: "Thank you for your feedback, everyone! I am updating this feature request as we now have this listed as Planned."
September 9, 2025 at 10:35 PM
natureintheory.bsky.social
Just some hungry chickadees I drew for a Nature article D:

share.google/images/v3VFN...
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

#SciArt #graphics #neuroscience #chickadees
🧪 🐦 🧠
Infographic showing a chickadee looking for food in a test environment, and its place cells (neurons) firing in response to detecting the feeders and food. Art and design by Olena Shmahalo for Nature.
September 9, 2025 at 8:25 PM
natureintheory.bsky.social
xD this is what I do to overcome this problem.

PureRef. It's the best.
To-do list next to cropped WIP illustration of reionization Art by Olena Shmahalo for Scientific American
September 8, 2025 at 7:28 PM
natureintheory.bsky.social
I'm late to the party but 1. the phrase "clanker slop" is very funny

2. 🥹🤭:
Reddit comments: miso_soop Checks out. AI hit when I was 35 and I hate it. 10art1 Now you're destined to be someone's old racist grandpa. You're going to tell your granddaughter that she can't date some clanker because marriage is between two humans, and she's going to call you a robophobe
September 6, 2025 at 8:17 PM
natureintheory.bsky.social
Bottled celestial events ✨
www.olenashmahalo.com/project/time...

🧪⚛️🔭
#SciArt #Illustration #ScienceIllustration #NoAI
#Physics #AstroPhysics #Astronomy
Stylized illustration of time-domain (transient) astronomical events like gamma ray bursts, TDEs, and supernovae contained in glass bottles. Art by Olena Shmahalo for Symmetry magazine.
July 28, 2025 at 5:31 PM
natureintheory.bsky.social
What I've been saying.
Tumblr post by existennialmemes that says "Can't believe we're doing The great depression and nazis again. We literally did this already. I am sick of these low quality reboots no one wanted."
July 21, 2025 at 6:08 PM
natureintheory.bsky.social
When you find your own work out in the wild and wonder wtf people have going on with their radioactive saturation settings.

Saw this & exclaimed "WHY DID U DO THIS, WHO DID THIS??" 😂🥲🫠

Related: yesterday I found someone photoshopped a gorilla into one of my old things 🤣 whyyyy
Pin on pinterest of an iridescent cloud form with black spheres on it. The original artwork was rotated 90° and oversaturated to hell.
July 17, 2025 at 10:22 PM
natureintheory.bsky.social
New work up! →
www.olenashmahalo.com

#SciArt #illustration #NoAI #infographics #scicomm #science #astrophysics #astronomy #physics 🧪 🔭 ⚛️ ✨
Screenshot of 2D and 3D scientific illustrations about topics in astrophysics and particle physics, by Olena Shmahalo on https://www.olenashmahalo.com
July 7, 2025 at 11:17 PM
natureintheory.bsky.social
Among other things I'm behind on sharing:

I made an #infographic & illos for @sciam.bsky.social about star-death by black hole! 🌠⚫💀

www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-...

Thanks to graphics-master @jenchristiansen.com for the project & guidance!

#SciArt #illustration #NoAI
#physics ⚛️ 🔭 🧪
Timeline of star death by black hole includes two branches. One branch shows relativistic outflow, in which a jet emerges then abruptly turns off around 550 days later. The other branch shows non-relativistic outflow, in which burp-like emissions occur around 1,000 days after the initial disruption, with a few possible additional burps later. Infographic and illustrations by Olena Shmahalo for Scientific American.
June 17, 2025 at 11:25 PM
natureintheory.bsky.social
2003 - 2022

Fuck 🖕 AI
Digital drawings of a cartoony winged ungulate with wings 3D sculpture of a winged ungulate with wings, rearing up on a snow mound. #Art by Olena Shmahalo
May 30, 2025 at 5:17 AM
natureintheory.bsky.social
The character vs how you [sculpted] the character
Illustration of "Tiffany on the Chalk" by Paul Kidby Painted 3D sculpture of a girl with brown hair wearing a witch hat. The top of the hat is a cutaway diorama of a landscape: a shepherd's hut on a hill. 3D hand-lettering surrounding her reads "A Hat Full of Sky" with smaller text, "A Tiffany Aching Story" Fan #art by Olena Shmahalo; character (C) Terry Pratchett #Discworld #TiffanyAching
May 28, 2025 at 8:01 PM
natureintheory.bsky.social
Just a couple of weird sketches that didn't work out, but I like 'em. ⚛️🕸️🌱
Sketches of neutrinos being caught by fly traps and a spider web. Highly unlikely events that are not to scale, obviously. #Art by Olena Shmahalo
May 24, 2025 at 1:18 AM
natureintheory.bsky.social
Really liking the look of the top rows of new work on my site right now! ✨

www.olenashmahalo.com

#SciArt #SciViz #SciComm #NoAI
#physics #astronomy #illustration
Screenshot of OlenaShmahalo.com Header text: Olena Shmahalo Hello! I'm an independent artist & designer who enjoys creating scientifically-informed & fantastical visuals. Collaborating with researchers, science publications and others globally. Previously, as the establishing Art Director of Quanta Magazine, my work included developing the publication's visual identity, directing and creating feature art, and more → Imagery includes thumbnails of 2D and 3D illustrations about subjects in astrophysics and particle physics.
May 21, 2025 at 10:17 PM
natureintheory.bsky.social
Don't worry, weird total stranger, you never have to see my humor again thanks to the nice block button.

Wtf is this overreaction though? 😂 Yikes
May 21, 2025 at 6:00 PM
natureintheory.bsky.social
This is a just crop, but I'd been thinking about reformatting the original into a more print-friendly size. But how're interest levels for prints of physics potions flowing into an AGN in a space-cauldron? 😂

#SciArt #illustration #NoAI
#astrophysics #physics #science #scicomm
⚛️ 🔭 🧪
Crop: Stylized illustration of an AGN (Active Galactic Nucleus, e.g. quasar) inside a cauldron in space. Art by Olena Shmahalo for BBC Science Focus.
May 20, 2025 at 4:01 PM
natureintheory.bsky.social
So excited to share of my favorite recent projects! ✨ Got to illustrate another article by @astrokatie.com for BBC Science Focus, about the ingredients that make up astrophysical jets →

www.olenashmahalo.com/project/agn-...

#SciArt #illustration #NoAI
#astrophysics #physics #science #scicomm
⚛️ 🔭 🧪
Stylized illustration of ingredients (magnetism, gravity, rotation) flowing out of their vials and pouring into an AGN (Active Galactic Nucleus, e.g. quasar) inside a cauldron in space. #Art by Olena Shmahalo for BBC Science Focus.
May 7, 2025 at 7:51 PM
natureintheory.bsky.social
If you see this, post a dragon! 🐉✨
Painting: Inspired by antique nautical maps depicting monsters in unknown waters, a worn celestial map shows dark matter styled as a draconic serpent wrapping around galaxies. (Dark matter is like a gravitational glue that binds galaxy clusters together, while dark energy pushes them apart.) Imagery and labels on objects around the map (books, papers, photos) suggest dark matter candidates like axions, WIMPs and black holes. #Art by Olena Shmahalo for Scientific American.
April 17, 2025 at 5:24 PM
natureintheory.bsky.social
#ArtTrain 😍 🚂💨💨

Thank you for the tag @mnemolli.bsky.social! ✨

Tags:
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@anireal.bsky.social
@danliimatta.bsky.social
@heyitsjaki.bsky.social
@mahlanah.bsky.social
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@macspace.bsky.social
+ any who want to join!
Stylized illustration of an autumnal scene at the famous Institute Pond at the Institute for Advanced Study. Silhouettes of people around the pond observe a strange event in the dark, star-filled water: two orbiting black holes create ripples, symbolizing gravitational waves. Art by Olena Shmahalo for The Institute Letter. https://www.olenashmahalo.com/project/gravitational-waves-ias Procedural 3D art of a pulsar shooting out colorful jets. The North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav). https://www.olenashmahalo.com/project/nanograv A quad of stylized 3D science illustrations depicting quantum physical systems: a gold quantum computer chip, a particle beam traveling through a prism and polarizing filter, an electron pair in a superconducting device called a Josephson junction, and quasiparticles called anyons braiding around one another. Art by Olena Shmahalo for The Quantum Atlas / University of Maryland. https://www.olenashmahalo.com/project/quantum-atlas Crop of a painting: Inspired by antique nautical maps depicting monsters in unknown waters, a worn celestial map shows dark matter styled as a draconic serpent wrapping around galaxies. (Dark matter is like a gravitational glue that binds galaxy clusters together, while dark energy pushes them apart.) Imagery and labels on objects around the map (books, papers, photos) suggest dark matter candidates like axions, WIMPs and black holes. #Art by Olena Shmahalo for Scientific American. INFO: https://www.olenashmahalo.com/project/here-be-monsters
March 21, 2025 at 7:24 PM
natureintheory.bsky.social
Anybody else need to gaze at a soothing sphere today?

Yeah well... no promises / not responsible for any add'l anxiety induced by this ripply wobbler ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

#3Dart #C4D
March 8, 2025 at 1:32 AM
natureintheory.bsky.social
Art about hard science (see ALT). I love using magical aesthetics to emphasize the wonder of natural phenomena.

#SciArt #physics #astrophysics
🧪 ⚛️ 🔭 🧮
Crop of a painting: Inspired by antique nautical maps depicting monsters in unknown waters, a worn celestial map shows dark matter styled as a draconic serpent wrapping around galaxies. (Dark matter is like a gravitational glue that binds galaxy clusters together, while dark energy pushes them apart.) Imagery and labels on objects around the map (books, papers, photos) suggest dark matter candidates like axions, WIMPs and black holes. #Art by Olena Shmahalo for Scientific American. INFO: https://www.olenashmahalo.com/project/here-be-monsters Stylized painting of neutrinos traveling from an AGN or supernova and plunging into a dark blue sea, producing Cherenkov radiation (conical blue light) underwater. INFO: https://www.olenashmahalo.com/project/cosmic-neutrinos By Olena Shmahalo for a Symmetry Magazine article about detecting extragalactic neutrinos using the Pacific Ocean Neutrino Experiment (P-ONE). Painting of a gold armillary sphere on a beige background, containing a blue galaxy and a spherical black hole at its center. Gears are faintly visible beneath the galaxy. By Olena Shmahalo for Quanta Magazine. INFO: https://www.olenashmahalo.com/project/bh-gyroscope Painting: a white tower made of blocks with mathematical symbols, floating in the sky. The tower is foundationless and breaking off into pieces towards the bottom, representing mathematics given Kurt Godel's proofs. Obelisks hovering around it represent undecidable problems — statements that can never be proved, thus never reachable from the central structure. #Art by Olena Shmahalo for an explainer article on Kurt Gödel's incompleteness theorem: "How Gödel’s Proof Works" INFO: https://www.olenashmahalo.com/project/godel-tower
March 5, 2025 at 8:17 PM
natureintheory.bsky.social
The proton was modeled with gluons (using the Y shape, not triangle (E.g. ALT)). But it's blurry; the cloudy appearance took precedence. Since this was originally for an editorial article header, it's just meant to convey the "particle sea", not ID / explain particulars as a figure/graphic would.
Example of a Y-shaped graphical representation of gluons in a still from a different (unpublished) video I made for a client. This was more in-depth than the Proton Sea header.
March 3, 2025 at 9:53 PM
natureintheory.bsky.social
3D animation / sim of a the antimatter sea inside a proton particle. Originally for Quanta, 2021.

INFO →
www.olenashmahalo.com/project/prot...

#SciArt #physics #particlephysics 🧪 ⚛️
#3D #3Dart #C4D #mograph #NoAI
February 28, 2025 at 10:36 PM
natureintheory.bsky.social
lol + with ALT +

1. Yes developing one consistent style makes your life as a working artist easier in some ways

2. However as AD, I've worked w/ ppl with multiple styles & it's super easy to just ask "Can you please do it like THIS one".

(Likewise as artist, fine to ask me for that!)
text post: ilja @fumaria_s consistent art style is a myth created by the government to stop you from having fun and playing btw
February 28, 2025 at 9:14 PM