by Michael Whelan | Nov 3, 2016
While applying a dark blue background color to a painting I was working on, I made the mistake of listening to the news. I found myself standing with a brush full of leftover paint and a need to respond to what I was hearing. I decided to commit to what my mind was... 
by Michael Whelan | Oct 27, 2016
This started as a smear of paint on a sheet of palette paper. 
by Michael Whelan | Oct 21, 2016
While sitting in front of our table and painting sketches at IX9 (IlluXCon), I looked down and saw something on the palette. I took the pic included below on my phone and then painted the final image there in front of everybody. 
by Michael Whelan | Oct 13, 2016
This piece of mat board was used as a palette while working on the cover for Brandon Sanderson’s Words of Radiance. Half of the scrap was turquoise while the rest was reds and oranges. Random brushstrokes suggested the figure that I painted in. I still had... 
by Michael Whelan | Oct 5, 2016
I’ve been painting a LOT of weird trees lately for the new Osten Ard Trilogy, trying to come up with a design idea that Tad Williams, Betsy Wollheim, and I like. The trees figure importantly in the new books so I’ve been working on them for weeks! It’s been a... 
by Michael Whelan | Sep 28, 2016
When I’m painting a tight area with my nose to the canvas, a larger palette becomes something of a nuisance. So whenever I trim down a larger Gessobord, I keep the remaining scrap for use as a mini palette. I’ve been working on a couple of projects in... 
by Michael Whelan | Sep 22, 2016
The photo included below was sent to me by my Facebook friend Justin David Russell during a discussion about seeing images in accidental shapes. As soon as I saw it I was taken by the image it sparked in my mind. Last week, having found some leftover Raw Umber on my... 
by Michael Whelan | Sep 14, 2016
This one was created with leftover paint, Raw Umber and white on a palette I was using while trying to cover up spots on an oil painting. Wiggly lines made on a scrap of canvas suggested a figure and scene to me. Often when I’m painting off-the-cuff like this I... 
by Michael Whelan | Sep 7, 2016
As you can see in the photo I took of my drawing table, the source of this one came from a piece of mat board I was using as a palette. I cut off part of it to square it off and made it into a small painting. 
by Michael Whelan | Sep 2, 2016
I grabbed a piece of scrap board I was using as a coaster under my morning coffee mug and challenged myself to whip up something from whatever I found there. My first thought was to make the circle into a porthole on either a spaceship or a pirate ship or something,... 