A BREATH OF STRANGE by Michael Whelan, week 5 in a new gallery project LEFTOVERS AND PALETTE GREMLINS on MichaelWhelan.com.

Acrylic on Canvas Board - 8" x 10"

When I’m standing nose-to-artwork painting little details, I avoid having a big clumsy palette in my way. Instead I’ll grab one of the little canvas or masonite panels I keep for making comps and mix paints on that. When I go to another section of the painting—or even to another painting altogether—I usually just coat the board with colored gesso and keep using it.

Occasionally I’ll see an accidental shape on the “palette” which intrigues me, so I’ll set the piece of board aside and take a fresh one. Later, I’ll go back to the panel with the suggestive shape on it. Using leftover paints mixed for the finished painting, I add to the random shapes and turn it into something.

The “bonus” image is an example of the small boards and scrap I use as working palettes. The one at the center bottom with the name “Fredrix” on it is this week’s image, turned over to show the back side. This was one of the palettes I used while working on my cover painting for Brandon Sanderson’s WORDS OF RADIANCE.

Source: michaelwhelan.com

94 Notes/ Hide

  1. coffeeinacoldhell reblogged this from saathi1013
  2. kengzilla666 reblogged this from theartofmichaelwhelan
  3. basedassseal reblogged this from theartofmichaelwhelan
  4. javatunes reblogged this from theartofmichaelwhelan
  5. coldfishchica reblogged this from theartofmichaelwhelan
  6. theartofmichaelwhelan posted this