Michael Whelan
Michael Whelan  ·  4 weeks ago

Content Warning

PEEKABOO FUZZIES (1983)
Acrylic on Watercolor Board - 16" x 22"

The Fuzzy Sapiens created by H. Beam Piper first appeared in the early 1960's and they were a welcome contrast to the menacing aliens that seemed to dominate science fiction of the day. 1/2

#sciencefiction#scifi #scifiart #sff #illustration#hbeampiper

A pair of adorable furry creatures poke their heads out from the cover of dense tropical vegetation. Their huge eyes are strikingly green, cat-like and glossy so that the treetops reflect in the light. Their noses lie long, wide, and flat. Their mouths aren't pronounced like an ape, but thin lips and the slit of their mouths does seem ape-like. Long tufts of light brown hair sweep outward around the eyes like a flaring mane, giving their faces a disproportionately wide countenance. Hair over the pate is smoothed back of their heads. Cat-like ears—soft rounded triangles—are set above and just outside their big eyes. One thick-fingered paw, lacking claws or nails of any sort, extends as if pushing the alien foliage aside.
A pair of adorable furry creatures poke their heads out from the cover of dense tropical vegetation. Their huge eyes are strikingly green, cat-like and glossy so that the treetops reflect in the light. Their noses lie long, wide, and flat. Their mouths aren't pronounced like an ape, but thin lips and the slit of their mouths does seem ape-like. Long tufts of light brown hair sweep outward around the eyes like a flaring mane, giving their faces a disproportionately wide countenance. Hair over the pate is smoothed back of their heads. Cat-like ears—soft rounded triangles—are set above and just outside their big eyes. One thick-fingered paw, lacking claws or nails of any sort, extends as if pushing the alien foliage aside.
A pair of adorable furry creatures poke their heads out from the cover of dense tropical vegetation. Their huge eyes are strikingly green, cat-like and glossy so that the treetops reflect in the light. Their noses lie long, wide, and flat. Their mouths aren't pronounced like an ape, but thin lips and the slit of their mouths does seem ape-like. Long tufts of light brown hair sweep outward around the eyes like a flaring mane, giving their faces a disproportionately wide countenance. Hair over the pate is smoothed back of their heads. Cat-like ears—soft rounded triangles—are set above and just outside their big eyes. One thick-fingered paw, lacking claws or nails of any sort, extends as if pushing the alien foliage aside.
Michael Whelan
Michael Whelan  ·  last month

Content Warning

LAST LOOK BACK (1989)
Acrylic on Watercolor Board - 36" x 24"

The way to the far horizon can only be made by transcending the red hill...beyond is only sky. 1/4

#sciencefiction#scifi #scifiart #illustration #robertheinlein

Portrait of author Robert Heinlein standing boldly in profile to face the twilight of an alien world. White hair recedes back on his forehead. A thin mustache traces his upper lip. He looks debonair, with the air of a mystic as shadow falls across the back of his coral robe. He holds a cane loosely in his right hand; his weight doesn't rest on it. Baked by strange light, papers and a half buried book lie discarded on the rippling sand behind him. A shiny silver rocket, suggesting a Hugo award, points skyward. Caught in a moment—either taking flight or landing, with wings unfurled—an owl curls its talons about a curl of branch set on a plaque. Just beyond the shore where Heinlein stands, pearlescent blue water undulates and churns. A pair of islands, flanking him on either side, sit the horizon. A striped moon hangs over a mountainous peak on one isle; a square arch sits on a longer stretch of land to his right. Higher up, two gibbous craggy moons hang overhead.
Portrait of author Robert Heinlein standing boldly in profile to face the twilight of an alien world. White hair recedes back on his forehead. A thin mustache traces his upper lip. He looks debonair, with the air of a mystic as shadow falls across the back of his coral robe. He holds a cane loosely in his right hand; his weight doesn't rest on it. Baked by strange light, papers and a half buried book lie discarded on the rippling sand behind him. A shiny silver rocket, suggesting a Hugo award, points skyward. Caught in a moment—either taking flight or landing, with wings unfurled—an owl curls its talons about a curl of branch set on a plaque. Just beyond the shore where Heinlein stands, pearlescent blue water undulates and churns. A pair of islands, flanking him on either side, sit the horizon. A striped moon hangs over a mountainous peak on one isle; a square arch sits on a longer stretch of land to his right. Higher up, two gibbous craggy moons hang overhead.
Portrait of author Robert Heinlein standing boldly in profile to face the twilight of an alien world. White hair recedes back on his forehead. A thin mustache traces his upper lip. He looks debonair, with the air of a mystic as shadow falls across the back of his coral robe. He holds a cane loosely in his right hand; his weight doesn't rest on it. Baked by strange light, papers and a half buried book lie discarded on the rippling sand behind him. A shiny silver rocket, suggesting a Hugo award, points skyward. Caught in a moment—either taking flight or landing, with wings unfurled—an owl curls its talons about a curl of branch set on a plaque. Just beyond the shore where Heinlein stands, pearlescent blue water undulates and churns. A pair of islands, flanking him on either side, sit the horizon. A striped moon hangs over a mountainous peak on one isle; a square arch sits on a longer stretch of land to his right. Higher up, two gibbous craggy moons hang overhead.
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