MICHAEL WHELAN

TRICK OR TREAT by Michael Whelan

This was another one of my morning oil painting exercises, this time based on a sketch of a face I had done on a piece of scrap paper. There was something compellingly creepy about that smile, which I tried to capture in the painted version. I liked where it seemed to be going so I continued to fiddle with it every once in a while until I felt I had done enough with it.

(via theartofmichaelwhelan)

NIGHT CRAWLER by Michael Whelan

I often take walks at night to give my eyes a break and to stretch my legs a bit. Late one foggy night I was out on our street when I came upon a bare, oddly shaped tree in a neighbor’s yard, looking very mysterious in the glow of a nearby streetlamp. Staring at the ghostly shape my imagination added a naked pale creature twisting there in the fog, clambering around amid the branches with some unknown intent. Hmm.

I immediately went back to my studio and sketched the scene out, altering the lighting to look as if the tree and it’s denizen were caught in the headlights of a passing car. I tidied the painting up later, but it was no problem because the image in my mind stayed there and nagged at me until I got it down.

Don’t ask me where these things come from!

(via theartofmichaelwhelan)