Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #leftoversandpalettegremlins, aggregated by home.social.
ELRIC AT THE FORGE OF FOREVER (2019)
Acrylic on Watercolor Board - 14 ½” x 6 ½”
When I tossed out the old container of paints used to do the cover painting for WORDS OF RADIANCE, it landed upside down in my wastebasket on a piece of paperboard I had been using as a palette for something else. 1/2
THE KEY QUESTION (2026)
Acrylic - 6” x 6”
I recently listened to a talk about space travel and the implications of Einstein’s equation. The topic was fresh in my mind when I stumbled on a simple gold key on black background, originally painted years ago for a potential website redesign. In that moment, the final image formed in my mind. 1/4
PASSING BY (2025)
Acrylic on Watercolor Board - 12” x 16”
During my college years in the late 60s, I was fortunate to see Santana in concert—and they were great! 1/5
THE UNINVITED (1974)
Oil on Illustration Board - 10” x 15”
When I first moved to the East Coast in search of illustration jobs, I had to prepare a portfolio with a selection of the variety of work I was able to do. This was the “horror” piece that I took around to the art directors.
Painted with oils left over from another portfolio piece back in ‘74.
THE LOST CITY (2017)
Acrylic on Watercolor Board - 14" x 7 ½"
Members of the Miskatonic Antarctic Expedition discover an ancient city while searching for Gedney, missing from the advance camp and the massacre that took place there. 1/2
#leftoversandpalettegremlins #fantasy #illustration #hplovecraft
A TOUCH OF WONDER (2024)
Acrylic on Paper - 12” x 7”
In a recent attempt to clean up my studio, I found a color study of crystals done for RHYTHM OF WAR. The obvious direction would have been to add a Stormlight character, but I didn't think about that. I hadn’t painted a spaceship in far too long and felt the pull of the stars.
THE OFFERING (2026)
Acrylic - 11” x 6”
Sometimes—especially with Palette Gremlins—it feels more like my brush did the painting, not me. It’s like driving down a street and a little voice in my head says turn left. I go with it just to see where a brushstroke takes me.
Well, some of the neighborhoods I find myself in (art-wise) can be...unexpected. 1/2
HIGH FLIER (2018)
Acrylic on Illustration Board - 16” x 12”
On a whim, I added the figure to a study for EMPIRE OF GRASS, a Tad Williams cover recently completed at the time.
This was the first installment in the 2018 Leftovers & Palette Gremlins gallery. Leftovers are spur-of-the-moment doodles or sketches created from paint left over from a work in progress. In this case, both the paint and the background painting were leftovers.
PATH (2016)
Acrylic on Panel - 12" x 16"
This painting featuring my granddaughter Seren was done for the inaugural Leftovers and Palette Gremlins gallery. Every week I set out to complete a small piece inspired by paint marks or other found patterns. 1/3
#leftoversandpalettegremlins #fineart #personalvisions #imaginativerealism
ELRIC AND THE COLD DRAKE (2018)
Oil on Canvas - 11" x 17"
I had a quantity of the pigment left on my palette while working on an H.P. Lovecraft painting. I fished a canvas scrap out of the wastebasket in our print room and sketched this scene with the leftover Payne’s Grey and white. 1/2
A BREATH OF STRANGE (2016)
Acrylic on Canvas Board - 8” x 10”
While I’m standing nose-to-artwork painting little details, I try to avoid having a big clumsy palette in my way. I’ll grab one of the little canvas or masonite panels I use for comps and mix paints on that. When I go to another section of the painting—or even to another painting altogether—I usually just coat the board with colored gesso and keep using it. 1/3
SKIMMING THE RED ZONE (2021)
Acrylic on Board - 9 ½” x 17 ¼”
I often see pictures in my mind when I glance at accidental shapes created by brush marks or overspills in the studio. 1/2
THE GOLDEN WAY (2021)
Acrylic - 13” x 10”
When I looked at that scrap of random shapes, this is what I imagined. I felt all I had to do was “clarify” the shapes so that other people could see it too. 1/2
DARK FORTUNE (2017)
Acrylic - 12” x 9”
A dark smudge on palette paper suggested a hooded figure...and it turned into the Man in Black from Stephen King’s opus The Dark Tower.
https://www.michaelwhelan.com/galleries/2017-leftover-7/
#fantasy #leftoversandpalettegremlins #stephenking #darktower
CRAZY DIAMOND (2026)
Acrylic - 10” x 8”
"Come on, you raver, you seer of visions
Come on, you painter, you piper
You prisoner, and shine"
Pink Floyd, Shine On You Crazy Diamond
https://www.michaelwhelan.com/galleries/crazy-diamond/
#sciencefiction #illustration #leftoversandpalettegremlins #originalart
1/5
THE GREEN WOMAN (2017)
Acrylic on Illustration Board - 11” x 6 ½”
Palette gremlins appear when I’m splashing paint around in the studio. Occasionally the random patterns will suggest something and soon I’ll find myself nudging it a bit closer to what I imagine. 1/3
PARTY ANIMAL (2016)
Oil on Canvas - 8” x 10”
This “Leftover” was gleaned from a palette set up for a morning oil painting exercise (a horror riff depicting author Stephen R. Cox as one of the “rad leps” from his Mutant Hunter series). 1/3
RHEA THE WITCH (2019)
Oil on Canvas - 19” x 15”
A plastic glove discarded and the witch it inspired. As I approached the bottom of this sketch, I longed to add a different note of color and in slithered the snake.
This is a riff on what my mind was seeing and certainly not intended to be “my take” on the infamous evildoer from The Dark Tower saga—but my ultimate Rhea is something I hope to get to eventually!
PRE-FLIGHT CHECKLIST (2021)
Acrylic - 7 ½” x 9”
In the summer of 2021, we were entertained by turkeys walking through our yard, which may explain why I had birds on my brain. 1/3
THE MIST BEYOND (2017)
Acrylic on Mat Board - 8" x 8"
I was listening to Frank Muller's excellent reading of The Mist when I saw this scene in the paint marks on a palette board.1/2
#horror #illustration #leftoversandpalettegremlins #stephenking
CHAINS OF THE SEA (2018)
Acrylic on Canvas - 12" x 16"
A small study for a larger planned painting that never happened. I began working on this at the same time as the cover for Words of Radiance back in 2013. 1/2
CHAOS ABIDES (2024)
Acrylic - 13” x 5 ½”
The prompt for this came while working on concepts for Wind and Truth. The brush marks kept telling me to turn the palette horizontally for a landscape but I refused! 1/2
HIDDEN HEART (2022)
Acrylic on Palette Paper - 12” x 5”
Occasionally I cut my 9x12 gray paper palettes in half to make them easier to maneuver on my cluttered work table. This one I had cut at an angle. 1/2
BETWEEN TWO WORLDS (2021)
Acrylic on Illustration Board - 10” x 7 ½”
This started with a piece of the illustration board that I was using as a backsplash for a series of small monochrome works. One morning I came into the studio and in the random lines and shapes that marked the surface, I glimpsed a finished space scene.
DANCING IN STRANGE SEAS (2023)
Acrylic on Canvas - 8” x 12”
The other day I woke from a vivid dream. I was stranded on a deserted island—but quite happy about it as I was swimming! 1/3
BIRDS OF A FEATHER (2021)
Acrylic on Board - 5 ½” x 10”
Palette Gremlins start with incidental shapes that occur in my environment. They seem to take on a life of their own as I react to whatever is happening on the surface. 1/3
HEAD IN THE CLOUD (2022)
Acrylic - 7 ½” x 8”
I went where the assortment of shapes and colors seemed to point to me. If I painted what was actually running through my mind, it would have been fear in the shape of a mushroom cloud. With a crazy Putin rattling his nuclear saber, it’s hard to think of anything else. Perhaps that’s what drove me to find a bit of escapism in a SF illustration.
TANGLEWOOD (2016)
Oil on Canvas - 10” x 8”
Even though this leftover has a Hobbit in it, it’s not related to any story. It’s just what I felt like painting.
The oils left on my palette were from a session spent trying to visualize the Witchwood trees in a Tad Williams’ novel that followed the Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series. 1/2
BEE TAXI (2016)
Acrylic on Gessobord - 12" x 16"
The last painting I used this palette for, HARBINGER, had a lot of yellows in it. When I finished, I covered the palette with a yellow ochre gesso so I could use it again. 1/3
DRAGONET DANCE (2018)
Oil on Canvas - 20” x 16”
This began as a demo piece, working from a doodle done by an audience member. 1/2
CHAINS OF THE SEA (2018)
Acrylic on Canvas - 12" x 16"
A small study for a larger planned painting that never happened. I began working on this at the same time as the cover for Words of Radiance back in 2013. 1/3
#personalvisions #imaginativerealism #leftoversandpalettegremlins
PATH (2016)
Acrylic on Panel - 12" x 16"
This painting featuring my granddaughter Seren was done for the inaugural Leftovers and Palette Gremlins gallery. Every week I set out to complete a small piece inspired by paint marks or other found patterns. 1/3
#personalvisions #imaginativerealism #leftoversandpalettegremlins
THUNDERHEAD (2025)
Acrylic - 8” x 11”
There's a small winter themed painting on my work table that I wanted to finish for the holidays but ran out of time. I got frustrated and smeared some of the colors on mat board I was using as a palette. 1/4
https://www.michaelwhelan.com/galleries/2025-leftover-1/
#leftoversandpalettegremlins #sciencefiction #scifi #illustration
A DREAM OF SPRING (2022)
Acrylic - 10 ¼" x 5 ½"
It was still winter when I imagined this vision of springtime in the patterns of paint on my drawing table. I guess you could say she was inspired by my hope for the green to come.
SPIRIT OF ENDURING HOPE (2016)
Acrylic on Mat Board - 12" x 9"
I turned a smear of paint on my drawing table cover into 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.
1/3
STARCASTER (2018)
Acrylic on Palette Paper - 9" x 12"
This one grew out of a splatter of raw umber on a sheet of gray palette paper. 1/2
#sciencefiction #scifi #scifiart #sff #illustration #leftoversandpalettegremlins
TOUCH OF WONDER (2024)
Acrylic on Paper - 12” x 7”
In a recent attempt to clean up my studio, I found a color study of crystals done for RHYTHM OF WAR. 1/3
DANCING IN STRANGE SEAS (2023)
Acrylic on Canvas - 8" x 12"
The other day I woke from a vivid dream. I was stranded on a deserted island—but quite happy about it as I was swimming! 1/3
#fantasy #fantasyart #illustration #leftoversandpalettegremlins #dragon
YOUR RIDE IS HERE (2024)
Acrylic on Paper, 13” x 8 ¼”
As I take afternoon walks, I relish the reds, golds, and greens all around me. It’s no accident to see the colors of autumn represented on my palette.
https://www.michaelwhelan.com/galleries/2024-leftover-4/
1/4
NEITHER A BOY NOR A BOY-SIZED SPIDER (2022)
Acrylic on Canvas - 11" x 14"
At an exhibition some years ago, Jordu Schell and I were comparing notes on work that truly made us shudder. Jordu is a master VFX artist and sculptor who has a long history in the "horror" business. I wondered if there were things that really scared him.1/5
#horror #horrorart #mordred #darktower #stephenking #leftoversandpalettegremlins
ALL SOULS EVE (2024)
Acrylic on Canvas - 9 ½” x 7”
With leaves starting to fall and temperatures cooling, the color patterns on this scrap of canvas shifted me right into the Halloween spirit. Clearly something possessed me to paint all of those ghastly faces.
TURN LEFT AT TETHYS (2024)
Acrylic - 9" x 5 ½"
Palette gremlins live at the intersection of accident and imagination. Here is one in the truest sense—a sketch that began as a brush mark on palette paper. The initial prompt led me to the moons of Saturn for this whimsical exchange. 1/3
#leftoversandpalettegremlins #sciencefiction #scifi #scifiart #originalart
CHAOS ABIDES (2024)
Acrylic - 13” x 5 ½”
The prompt for this came while working on concepts for WIND AND TRUTH earlier this year. 1/3
https://www.michaelwhelan.com/galleries/2024-leftover-1/
#fantasy #fantasyart #elric #leftoversandpalettegremlins #stormbringer #originalart
ELRIC AND THE COLD DRAKE (2018)
Oil on Canvas - 11" x 17"
With Payne's Grey and white left on my palette while working on an HP Lovecraft painting, I sketched this scene. 1/3
#fantasy #fantasyart #sff #illustration #elric #dragon #leftoversandpalettegremlins
TRIPOD WALKER (2016)
Acrylic on Watercolor Paper - 19" x 13"
Painted on the back of a misprinted Dark Tower image I was using as a mixing palette of mostly white, yellow ocher, and raw umber. The print was on such a fine grade of heavyweight watercolor paper that I was loathe to throw it away. 1/4
YOUNG CASSANDRA (2016)
Acrylic on Mat Board - 13" x 13"
HEARTSWOOD (2019)
Oil on Canvas - 16" x 12"
CRISTATE 2 (2018)
Oil on Canvas - 12" x 9"
Executed with leftover Raw Umber oil paint, this is a riff on painting from 2009 called CRISTATE. Both sprang from my fascination with the shapes made by Cristate cacti.
I fancy trying a third that will be more along the lines of the original, which was larger and somewhat more ambitious. Perhaps the next time I have leftover paint and a surface to put it on.
AMETHYST FANTASY (2016)
Acrylic on Masonite - 7" x 5"
BEE TAXI (2016)
Acrylic on Gessobord - 12" x 16"
The painting HARBINGER had a lot of yellows in it. When I finished, I covered the palette with a yellow ocher gesso so I could use it again. 1/2
HIGH FLIER (2018)
Acrylic on Illustration Board - 16" x 12"
On a whim, I added the figure to a study for a Tad Williams cover recently completed at the time.
THE LOST CITY (2017)
Acrylic on Watercolor Board - 14" x 7 ½"
A board used as a palette which became a scene reminiscent of a Lovecraft story...not so much of a palette gremlin as a palette snowscape.
The smears of color later caught my eye and motivated me to fish the board out. Intrigued by the possibilities, I saved it to make into this little painting. 2/2
https://www.michaelwhelan.com/galleries/2019-leftover-2/
#fantasy #fantasyart #sff #illustration #leftoversandpalettegremlins
ELRIC AT THE FORGE OF FOREVER (2019)
Acrylic on Watercolor Board - 14 ½" x 6 ½"
When I tossed out the old container of paints used to do the cover painting for "Words of Radiance", it landed upside down in my wastebasket on a piece of paperboard I had been using as a palette for something else. 1/2
#fantasy #fantasyart #sff #illustration #leftoversandpalettegremlins
DARK FORTUNE (2017)
Acrylic - 12" x 9"
A dark smudge on palette paper suggested a hooded figure...and it turned into the Man in Black.
https://www.michaelwhelan.com/galleries/2017-leftover-7/
#fantasy #fantasyart #sff #illustration #darktower #stephenking #leftoversandpalettegremlins
THE SWORD GOES NORTH (2022)
Acrylic - 6" x 15"
Synchronicity is a mysterious force that I've felt at play from time to time. Related events seems to happen in harmony with each other out of sheer coincidence. 1/3
#fantasy #fantasyart #sff #illustration #elric #leftoversandpalettegremlins
THE GREEN WOMAN (2017)
Acrylic on Illustration Board - 11" x 6.5"
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. 1/3
THE MIST BEYOND (2017)
Acrylic on Mat Board - 8" x 8"
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.
https://www.michaelwhelan.com/galleries/2017-leftover-11/
#horror #horrorart #illustration #stephenking #themist #leftoversandpalettegremlins
PAGE TURNER (2023)
Acrylic - 8" x 5 ¼"
A small riff on the power of the written word to enthrall and hold attention...regardless of the place or time.
https://www.michaelwhelan.com/galleries/2023-leftover-9/
#sciencefiction #scifi #scifiart #sff #illustration #leftoversandpalettegremlins