I just found the name of my absolute childhood hero!

**brokk** · December 5th, 2005, 07:21 PM

When I was really young I had these collectable cards that I really treasured, they had dragon illustrations on them. Really great paintings, it was the first contact I ever had with fantasy illustration. I think the main reason I ever became interested in illustration was because of the paintings on those cards. I wanted to be like the guy who painted them.

Growing up and moving houses (and countries) at some point I sadly lost the cards. I couldn't remember the artist's name, not a hint.

But I remembered the images and quite vividly. I've searched around from time to time on the net over the years but I couldn't find the images or the artist. I thought I probably never would, that they had gone out of print, or something like that.

Until a few moments ago, I was reading through Todd Lockwood's site, and I saw him mention a guy named Michael Whelan. The name sounded vaugly familiar... from somewhere... I did a google search, and it turns out it was the person I admired from my childhood! I recongnised it was him because of the "06.jpg" image on this site, the one with the green dragon.

I'm really happy, I feel like I reconnected with a very early memory of my life that I had forgoten part, and been looking for years.

Just wanted to say that. I don't think Michael Whelan needs much introduction to a lot of you, but if you don't know him, take a look at his works, they are really quite wonderful.

EDIT: Found his biography on another site, here's the link.
Winner of the World Science Fiction Award for Best Professional Artist, which he won eleven times, seven of them consecutively. What really fascinates me is what says at the end:

All of Whelan's artwork is, at its most fundamental level, about creating a sense of wonder. Most closely allied to the scope and feeling of what is referred to as contemporary visionary art, his paintings are imbued with a strong sense of the mystical or dreamlike and are highly allegorical in nature. There is a deliberate attempt to invest the image with a marked degree of symbolic meaning while having an immediate subjective or emotional appeal.

EDIT2: In my haste, I used google images first, and then the web engine, so I missed the official page the first time

But here is is

Michael Whelan Official Site

**darth massacre** · December 5th, 2005, 10:17 PM

Thanks for the introduction B_S. They still look great even though they look dated. We have a lot more tools at our disposal these days though. So did you find out whether he went into digital painting?

**Steinmetz** · December 5th, 2005, 10:26 PM

alright, so this is a thread about heros, you can't go past M.C escher, the Op art master, I've always looked up to him for some reason.

**DSillustration** · December 5th, 2005, 10:31 PM

Originally Posted by darth massacre

So did you find out whether he went into digital painting?

absolutely not!
i dont think he would ever touch digital.
at least not professionally, anyways.

michael is not only an amazing artist,
but he's a pretty swell guy too.
as for the "dated look"...
i think its just his website.
he recently did a bunch of paintings for stephen king's "dark tower".

easily one of my biggest influences.
i had an old issue of airbrush magazine when i was about 14.
it was filled with his stuff.
my sketch book was littered with clippings of his art,
and copies of his drawings.
man, i was in LOVE with his stuff.
i remember seeing one of his originals for the first time, and being blown away.

**0kelvin** · December 6th, 2005, 04:59 AM

I LOVE his Dark Tower paintings. Out of all the artists that have illustrated books in the Dark Tower series, he's been the only one to really capture it for me. He brought it to life in a way I couldn't have imagined. He's fantastic.

EDIT: I just remembered, earlier today I watched a movie called The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues and one of the actors was named Michael Whalen. I was sure it said Michael Whelan the first time I saw it and I had to rewind and check. I just thought it was weird that this thread was posted on the same day that happened.

0kelvin

JM · December 6th, 2005, 05:20 AM

Thank you for sharing this with us

I never knew about this guy till now.

Totally bookmarking his site

**figure2** · December 6th, 2005, 08:58 AM

I don't know if he still works the same way but the last I knew, Michael Whelan works almost exclusively in acrylic. Just goes to show how far you can push a medium once you gain a mastery of it.

**brokk** · December 6th, 2005, 10:14 AM

Whats strange is that, when I look at the works by artists that I admired when I was younger, today its like I can "comprehend" certain things better. Like, I can see what perspectives they use, get an idea of the composition, the treatment of edges, etc. Even though I absolutely love the images, they don't cause the same sense of wonder as when I was younger, at least not in the same way.

I thought something similar was going to happen when I looked up Michael Whelan's works the other day. I was surprised when the exact oposite thing happened, his works marvel me today in the same way when I was young, maybe even more. I feel like a kid watching his paintings. Its hard to explain, I've learned to think analytically about images but I had forgotten what it was like to just feel this... wonder.

When I was younger I wanted to be like him. I want to be that person again.
If this isn't motivation I'm feeling, I dont know what is.

EDIT: I don't know if he does work digitally... I didn't see any mention of it. I don't think so, like DSIllustration already answered

He paints with acrylics but he also uses oils sometimes, according to the FAQ on his site.

**Elwell** · December 6th, 2005, 11:14 AM

Michael actually has experimented with some digital work, but not digital painting. There's a piece of his in Spectrum III that's sort of a Dave McKean-esque photocollage. Acrylics are still his primary medium, but he is doing more and more oil painting. BTW, his originals are huge.

**JERI** · December 6th, 2005, 04:11 PM

Dude, you've searched for this guy all these years, you might as well put his site in your sig so it's not just the people who read this thread that can enjoy the fruit of your efforts.

**brokk** · December 6th, 2005, 04:59 PM

haha, Michael Whelan's website is most certainly not the fruit of my efforts : P
He needs no introduction actually, it was just me that was too ignorant that I didn't know his name, and it wasn't an in-depth search that I had been doing... because I didn't really have any clues of reference, other than putting "dragon paintings" or something like that in search engines.

Anway... he is already an established and very well known guy

(and thats quite the understatement actually...)

**Phaethon** · December 6th, 2005, 05:05 PM

Very cool. I've seen his work before too, 17.jpg on the first site you mention is, I am pretty sure, the cover of an older versions of Asimov's Robots of Dawn that I remember seeing in my grandmother's apartment a number of years ago...

And 23.jpg, Cosmonaut Statue.jpg, Sage du Futur.jpg, and Seconde Foundation.jpg are covers of older versions of other Asimov Foundation books, including Forward the Foundation or Foundation and Earth at least, and 43.jpg is a cover for Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles. It's really amazing to see all this stuff together, because I never really connected it before...

**JERI** · December 6th, 2005, 05:17 PM

I'm browsing thru his stuffs now, they friggin own!

**loomer** · December 6th, 2005, 06:09 PM

That's so weird....I used to do drawings of the covers he did for the death-metal band Sepultura when I was like 15. brings me back man *tear*

**young paddy1** · December 6th, 2005, 06:25 PM

just went and rooted out my copy of "The Art Of Michael Whelan" top notch book, full of interviews sketches and finished work, always loved his stuff especially "the summer queen" and "the snow queen" they both have an insane level of detail. My favourite piece of his is a study he did for "Shonto's Garden" it's of a meditating monk floating.

**S.C. Watson** · December 6th, 2005, 07:02 PM

Ooooh, Michael Whelan is a biggie. I've got a HUGE print of the White Dragon on my wall - signed just for me!

I actually literally ran into him in the hall last year at the Norwescon in Seattle - we were both leaving a lecture by Todd Lockwood, and the crowed sort of jammed us both together - I had no idea who he was until I went down to his booth to pick up a print! It was pretty funny.

Anyway, here's his website if you haven't found it already. And yeah, he's done at least one picture digitally, though it's no longer on his site that I can see. And he uses a combination of acrylics and airbrush for his backgrounds.

I sort of go stupid fanboy whenever his name comes up

~Oreg.

**solorpower** · December 6th, 2005, 07:17 PM

Whelan rocks!

**Bowlin** · December 8th, 2005, 09:45 AM

Ooooh, Michael Whelan is a biggie. I've got a HUGE print of the White Dragon on my wall - signed just for me!

Me too!

Yeah, the digital image is called, Wired!

**S.C. Watson** · December 8th, 2005, 01:30 PM

Originally Posted by Bowlin

Me too!

Yeah, the digital image is called, Wired!

Bingo. That's it.

**DavePalumbo** · December 8th, 2005, 01:30 PM

yeah, if anything I'm surprised how many of you hadn't heard of him before. He's a regular in Spectrum if for nothing else.

**SeraphSword** · December 8th, 2005, 02:49 PM

Yeah, I've been a big fan of his since Stephen King's Gunslinger. I also bought a book just because I loved the cover and it turned out to be one of his. Great artist, but you usually can't find his art books anymore. Not last I checked anyway.

Walk into the Sci-Fi/Fantasy section of any bookstore and you'll find tons of his stuff on the covers. I think the guy has like a dozen Hugo awards for best cover artist too.

**jubilee** · December 8th, 2005, 03:59 PM

anne mccaffery's books.. melanie rawn's books.. so many books he's done the covers for that I've kept just for the art. I think the first one I pulled off the shelf when I was in .. oy.. 1978. Next to possibly Boris I think he's probably my favorite. Though I gravitated to anything signed by Rowena because I was happy to see a woman's name as an illustrator.

and if Michael Whelan is new to some people.. there's Keith Parkinson, Todd Lockwood, Larry Elmore.. Frank Frazetta.. Luis Royo.. just to start.