by Michael Whelan | Sep 13, 2017
This started as a collection of brushstrokes on palette paper while working on a Lovecraft painting. 
by Michael Whelan | Jul 31, 2017
I was listening to Frank Muller’s excellent reading of THE MIST when I saw one of the scenes in the marks on this palette board. 
by Michael Whelan | Jun 7, 2017
Both a leftover AND a palette gremlin—the purest combination that I’ve done so far. With oils left on my palette, I painted over shapes on an old illustration board. As soon as I started to lay the color on it, I was thinking of the ruins of... 
by Michael Whelan | May 23, 2017
This was a sketch done with leftover cadmium yellow and raw umber. I had a scrap of canvas used for a test print. I was curious if I could coat it with grey gesso and sketch on it. I guess the answer was yes. 😉 
by Michael Whelan | May 17, 2017
A board used as a palette which became a scene reminiscent of a Lovecraft story…but not so much of a palette gremlin as a palette snowscape. 
by Michael Whelan | May 8, 2017
A dark smudge on palette paper suggested a hooded figure…and it turned into the Man in Black. 
by Michael Whelan | May 2, 2017
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... 
by Michael Whelan | Mar 23, 2017
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... 
by Michael Whelan | Mar 18, 2017
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). 
by Michael Whelan | Jan 23, 2017
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... 