Sepultura covers (albums and singles) by Michael Whelan. Michael’s comments are in italics.

NIGHTMARE IN RED (1981) - Cover for Beneath the Remains, the band’s third studio album. The image was originally the cover illustration for Tales from the Nightside by Charles L. Grant.

ARISE (1990) - Original painting for the band’s fourth studio album. The single “Dead Embryonic Cells” and “Under Siege” use a detail from the painting for their covers.

CACOPHONY (1992) - Original painting for Chaos A.D., the fifth studio album. The cover of the single “Territory” was an early digital piece.

I took a class in NYC to learn how to use Photoshop way back when [I think it was Photoshop 4 we were using!]. While I waited for some of the newbies to learn how to press cntl/alt/click or whatever, I stayed in the back and worked on this piece, which ended up being used for the “Territory” cover. I had painted the “S” logo and the rocks but then I scanned them in and fiddled around with filters and cloning and stuff to make the firey background.

ROOTS (1996) - A digital painting for the band’s sixth studio album.

The concept for ROOTS was largely Max Cavalera’s idea. He wanted me to paint the face off of a denomination of Brazilian paper money [I don’t remember what bill it was] and just put in some kind of background. I tried to digitally paint the face off the bill, then fooled around with some photos I had taken of tree branches and stuff till I came up with a background I thought might work.

(via theartofmichaelwhelan)

Source: michaelwhelan.com

THE PLANET SAVERS (1976) by Michael Whelan, commissioned by ACE for a reissue of the Darkover novel by Marion Zimmer Bradley

The artwork can be found in Wonderworks, Michael’s first art collection, but the book just doesn’t capture the life of the piece.

When you see a Whelan painting in person, the colors jump out at you. It’s an experience you just can’t simulate on the page or computer screen.

Sure his sense of composition is exquisite, and his devotion to anatomy and texture grounds his work in realism. But man, the color…you just have to see that up close to appreciate his mastery.

Source: michaelwhelan.com

DRAGONSBANE (1985) by Michael Whelan, cover for the book by Barbara Hambly. Note the two figures in the background. This is the original version of the cover art. Michael remastered the image a few years back for Brandon Sanderson, who was a huge fan...
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DRAGONSBANE (1985) by Michael Whelan, cover for the book by Barbara Hambly.

Note the two figures in the background. This is the original version of the cover art.

Michael remastered the image a few years back for Brandon Sanderson, who was a huge fan of the book, because we had sold out of the original print—an edited version of the cover.

Last year, we reissued the original image as an open edition print, which is available in our shop.

Source: michaelwhelan.com

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