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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

Against a pink background, a dark skinned enchantress is captured in profile mid-ritual. Her eyes focus on overlapping bubbles of light evoked by an elegant gesture. Fingers thrown wide, a soft glow illuminates the back of her hand in silhouette. In her other hand, she daintily pinches a tiny ornate vial by its long neck. Vapors trailing off the tincture waft low in a zig-zag motion. Light warms her face, brightening silver highlights of her headdress saturated in lilac tones. The patterns of spiral along her cheeks seem tangible, so do bell-shaped tassels dangling to her shoulders, but her figure fade to astronomical abstraction filled with 5-pointed stars and many spiral galaxies. Her hair whips wily in silhouette as the background shifts to blue behind her.
#illustration #scifi #sciencefiction #scifiart #sff #leftoversandpalettegremlins
in reply to Michael Whelan

Michael Whelan
Michael Whelan
• •

I fiddled with it almost as an afterthought and liked where it was going enough that I took a photo before adding anything. Over that weekend, I spent time bringing it into sharper focus.

michaelwhelan.com/galleries/20…
2/2

Work in progress photo of STARCASTER. The figure is worked out in detail in raw umber on black. Her eyes focus on overlapping bubbles of light evoked by an elegant gesture. Fingers thrown wide, a soft glow illuminates the back of her hand in silhouette. In her other hand, she daintily pinches a tiny ornate vial by its long neck. Vapors trailing off the tincture waft low in a zig-zag motion. Her hair is held back by an ornamented headdress of swirls and stars that give way to ringed planets and spiral galaxies.
An early photo of the figure in progress with the face defined in silhouette. Taken at an angle, the artist's illustration table occupies most of the photo. The space is a bit of a mess. This is how the sausage is made!

2018 LEFTOVER 9

This one grew out of a splatter of raw umber on a sheet of gray palette paper. I fiddled with it almost as an afterthought and liked where it was going enough that I took a photo before adding anyt…
The Art of Michael Whelan
in reply to Michael Whelan

Aral Balkan
Aral Balkan
• •
Absolutely adore the raw version too :) Really enjoying your process posts; thank you for sharing them :)
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