DARK FORTUNE (2017) by Michael Whelan, installment 7 in his 2017 LEFTOVERS & PALETTE GREMLINS gallery project.
A dark smudge on palette paper suggested a hooded figure…and it turned into the Man in Black.
Re-blogging with Michael’s commentary from Facebook:
The back side of the paper had an interesting look to it too [I thought maybe it could turn into the Plain of Gorgoroth] but I chose to fiddle around with the other side instead.
(via theartofmichaelwhelan)
Source: michaelwhelan.com
DARK FORTUNE (2017) by Michael Whelan, installment 7 in his 2017 LEFTOVERS & PALETTE GREMLINS gallery project.
A dark smudge on palette paper suggested a hooded figure…and it turned into the Man in Black.
Source: michaelwhelan.com
THE GREEN WOMAN (2017) by Michael Whelan, the sixth installment in his 2017 LEFTOVERS & PALETTE GREMLINS gallery project.
The first bonus image shows the orientation of the original board as I was holding it while mixing colors. When I turned it sideways, I saw a face in the smear of green paint.
My sense of the developing figure was as a kind of fortune teller “reading” a gold or brass egg. Perhaps the egg is a subconscious reference to the Phoenix myth. I confess that I was listening to an audiobook of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets while working.
Interestingly the brushstrokes where her hair would be became feathers. Surely Faulks slipped into my head then to inspire the painting.
Source: michaelwhelan.com
BACK IN HIS PLACE (2017) by Michael Whelan, the fifth installment in his 2017 LEFTOVERS & PALETTE GREMLINS gallery project.
Don’t let the dominating presence of this tiny diva fool you. Her head is less than 1/8". Like many of my palette gremlins, this is a small piece. The bonus images below offers some context.
I mixed the reds on this palette for the sky in my recent OATHBRINGER cover illustration.
Source: michaelwhelan.com
TWO FACES (2017) by Michael Whelan, the 4th installment in his 2017 LEFTOVERS & PALETTE GREMLINS gallery project. Two faces painted on a scrap of mat board used while painting the cover art for Brandon Sanderson’s OATHBRINGER. The scrap is an odd shape, not rectangular (see bonus images below).
Source: michaelwhelan.com
THE ELUSIVE DOODLEHOPPER (2017) by Michael Whelan, the third installment in his 2017 LEFTOVERS & PALETTE GREMLINS gallery project.
I had been watching this kinda bizarre critter slowly evolve on my drawing table. Rather than risk damaging it further—you can see the cuts and score marks he’s acquired while resting under other projects—I cut him loose from the mat board protecting my drawing table.
Source: michaelwhelan.com
POINT / COUNTERPOINT (2017) by Michael Whelan, the second installment in his 2017 LEFTOVERS & PALETTE GREMLINS gallery project.
Like so many of my palette gremlins, I saw this head in the paint on my palette and let it become what I saw there. I dipped my finger in gesso and made an eye, then went on from there.
Source: michaelwhelan.com
OVER THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS (2017) by Michael Whelan, the first installment of his LEFTOVERS & PALETTE GREMLINS gallery project for 2017. That’s right, back at it again for the new year!
I recently bought some slanted brushes that I find fun to play with when I want straight edges in a picture. While applying random brushstrokes to a piece of illustration board, they began to look more and more like little cubes to me. This brought to mind H.P. Lovecraft’s descriptions of strange shapes seen on the mountain range his explorers fly over when traveling to the Plain of Leng. With the addition of windblown ice crystals and a little ‘aeroplane’ for scale, these random brushstrokes became a scene from AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS.
Source: michaelwhelan.com
STOWAWAY (2016) by Michael Whelan, the final week in his 2016 LEFTOVERS & PALETTE GREMLINS gallery project.
I sketched out this little guy on a scrap of canvas, using a jar of leftover paint mixed for rendering the sky in my recently finished Tad Williams’ cover. I set it aside to dry and forgot about it until a few days ago.
Although it made me smile, I thought there were parts that could use a little extra cleaning up. Oops. Thank goodness I had the presence of mind to take a shot of the first version before I mucked around with it.
Some collectors go for sketches and preliminary works, preferring the raw vitality and freshness of the inspiration as it was first expressed, unhindered by second-guesses and overthinking. I get that—now.
Source: michaelwhelan.com
THE CRYSTAL TREE (2016) by Michael Whelan, week 51 in his LEFTOVERS & PALETTE GREMLINS gallery project.
This one arose from brush marks on a scrap piece of mat board fished out of my wastebasket. I had been testing a new angular brush, making strokes in various directions in white on a purple-black wash which had been applied some time earlier. The shape of the combined brushstrokes suggested a Christmas tree, and since it was the winter solstice I played with the idea to see where it would take me.
Source: michaelwhelan.com
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