by Michael Whelan | May 3, 2023
The end of a long shift may seem routine, but the universe is still a wonder to behold for a hardworking astronaut. 
by Michael Whelan | Apr 5, 2023
Random brush strokes made me think of a girl with her head in the clouds, but lately my thoughts have been in the stars. 
by Michael Whelan | Jan 12, 2017
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. 
by Michael Whelan | Jan 7, 2017
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.... 
by Michael Whelan | Dec 28, 2016
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... 
by Michael Whelan | Dec 23, 2016
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... 
by Michael Whelan | Dec 17, 2016
For several months, I’ve been taking daily walks after sunset, and the moon has been my companion much of the time. One evening a crescent moon hung over the horizon with Venus glowing brilliantly below it. I stared long enough to convince myself it actually WAS... 
by Michael Whelan | Dec 9, 2016
On impulse I grabbed a scrap of canvas that had been trimmed off one of our prints. Using leftover paint I had mixed for the Tad Williams’ cover I just completed for DAW, I painted in a portrait of Elric. 
by Michael Whelan | Dec 1, 2016
This was a piece of scrap paper used to test the flow of paint on my brush while I was working on the Tad Williams book cover currently on my drawing table. I saw a face in the paint—maybe because it was after midnight and I was tired—and I sketched in a more complete... 
by Michael Whelan | Nov 24, 2016
I turned a smear of paint on my drawing table cover a tree. Other marks suggested rocks and became an island to which I added a figure. I started to paint in clouds but stopped because the image was getting boring. It called for something else, but I didn’t have... 