New Blog!

Hi everyone,

Quick note: my blog has moved to dialmformichele.tumblr.com. That's right, I'm on Tumblr now with all the other cool cats. My old posts will stay here, but new posts will go over there, if you'd like to take a look.

Yours,
Michele

Fighting the System

Here are the two most recent posts from my film blog, where it's all about going up against the powers that be. First, an illustration for Terry Gilliam's imaginative dystopia BRAZIL:

 And also for the 1940 propaganda thriller, NIGHT TRAIN TO MUNICH:

Sir this is a mirror store

If Twitter were a comic, it might look something like Twitter: The Comic, a super awesome blog started by my brother @VectorBelly. Here is my contribution, based off of the super awesome tweet by @bugbucket. And if you're on the Tumblr, you can reblog it from here.

Mountain Village

Just a little something inspired by scarf weather.

By the way, there's a new print available in my Etsy shop.

Happy Halloween

I don't know about you, but I'm celebrating this holiday with Roman Polanski's classic horror film, ROSEMARY'S BABY. You can read the review here on my film blog.

And here's the illustration I posted last month, for the 1948 crime drama, THE NAKED CITY. Best wishes to all those who are still stuck in this part of Manhattan without power.

Children's Medical Center part one

I was one of the fortunate New Yorkers yesterday who didn't suffer any damage or power outage from the hurricane. I was, however, stranded at home in the bad weather. And so it completely brightened my day when I received these photos of a project still in the works.

 

The Children's Medical Center of Dallas is celebrating their 100 year anniversary, and I've been working on a few illustrations that will be on display in the building. This is just a little piece of the massive landscape to come, but I'm so excited with how it's turning out so far!

  

I should also mention that working with West Office Exhibition Design on this project has been a treat.

Tree Town

Happy autumn! Okay, it's not fall quite yet, but I'm through with summer and I'm ready for the leaves to change. So here is an illustration I threw together over the weekend. It's sort of a sequel to my Robot City from earlier this year, and I think I'm going to expand these into a series. Expect to see more buildings in unexpected places.

San Francisco at Night

Here's part two of the work I did for Saint Mary's College of California and their 150th anniversary. The college is holding a gala with the theme of Saint Mary's being the jewel of San Francisco Bay. So the illustration had to include a view of the campus, the San Fransisco skyline at night, and plenty of jewel tones.

And here it is in print. The reflections in the water were all die cut, so you see the full skyline in reverse when you open the invitation. I'm really happy with how the production turned out on this one.

Gaelebration

Saint Mary's College of California is celebrating their 150th anniversary, and I was commissioned to create a few images for the occasion. The panorama below represents the flurry of events that are going to be taking place on campus this year, from concerts and performances, to lectures and discussions, to carnival rides. Crowd scenes are always a good challenge to draw. And a crowd scene with twenty-foot-high letters is even better.

Tomorrow I'll share the other illustration I created for them, which involves far fewer people.

Hit Men, Doctors, and Nuns

Here's another roundup of illustrations I've recently posted on my film blog, Criterion Affection. First, Jean-Pierre Melville’s ultra-cool crime drama LE SAMOURAÏ:

 

Then, it's Akira Kurosawa's sentimental tale of two doctors in a poor village, RED BEARD: 

  

And finally, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's stunningly gorgeous BLACK NARCISSUS:

The New York Crimes

My good friend, writer/zinester/audiophile Kristen Felicetti, recently wrote and produced an audio drama called The New York Crimes. It features two aimless brothers hired to be detectives and solve crimes in Brooklyn, and it's being released in four parts online. While I admit to being a biased source, let me just say that it is excellent. Clever, funny, mysterious, with well crafted DIY charm.

In addition to "acting" in it, (emphasis on those quotation marks,) I'll also be illustrating each episode as it comes out. Here are the drawings for parts one and two, which you can—and should—listen to here.

More Guideposts Magazine

Here are more spot illustrations from Guideposts Magazine, for their section called Pass It On, which I'll be contributing to all year. The stories highlight various good deeds, from starting up conversations with strangers, to taking professional photos at a dog shelter, to hosting an earth-friendly kid's birthday. I hope my drawings are half as nice as the people they're about.

Polar Bear Breakout

Last night I designed a tee shirt for Made In The Now, a company that produces a new designer shirt every day based on a recent new story, and available to purchase for only 24 hours. I think I was pretty fortunate to get an article about a polar bear making a bid for freedom from the zoo. Who doesn't like a badass polar bear? This is what I came up with:

You can order one for the next...14 hours and counting here.

Small Furnishings

There's a new illustration and short review on Criterion Affection for Lena Dunham's TINY FURNITURE. Incidentally, it's the fiftieth film that I've illustrated for the blog. Phew.

Ghost Wizard

Yesterday, I had a little game going on Twitter: send me a word, and I'll work it into an illustration. Shortly after, I was given the lovely prompts circuitous, whiplash, causticity, ghosts, wizard, and schmutz. And here is the result. It's a run-in with ultra evil Ghost Wizard in the abandoned mansion!

I think causticity wins for the most challenging of the bunch. Either something caustic is eating away at the wallpaper, or that ghost has an awfully caustic attitude. You decide.

Thanks to @JeffareHappy, @JamieESrich, @bdskibinski, @VectorBelly, @chrislebanc79, and @misty_sharon for playing along!

Kinda, maybe NSFW?

Another set of mixtape illustrations is up on Ten Paces and Draw, with the theme of Bad Reputation. I signed up for the wonderfully dirty "Wanna Be Your Dog" by The Stooges, and drew something sort of vaguely suggestive in tribute. Innuendo abounds.

Study of My Dreams

I've been feeling rather motivated to do a lot of illustration for myself lately, which is never a bad thing. Here is what the study of my dreams would look like, and what I would probably end up using it for.

You can't see it in this picture, but it also has one of those secret doors that's completely hidden behind books.

SocialFork

I've been keeping my lips sealed until it launched, but now I can share the illustration I made for the new website SocialFork.net. If you're in the London area, it's a place where you can sign up for delicious meals and meet new people. The image I got to create for their homepage is a colorful landscape of restaurants and foodies. (It's sort of big, so I recommend clicking to see it properly.)

And here's the illustration for the How It Works section:

Cute Town

There's love and cuteness all around. First up, a new review on my film blog Criterion Affection, for Lars von Trier's ANTICHRIST. I can't say I was crazy about the movie, and I wasn't going to do an illustration for it, but then I thought, hey, why not draw some adorable animals?

Next, my contribution to the astrology themed illustration swap at Ten Paces And Draw. If you haven't seen their spiffy new website yet, definitely check it out.

Mostly Harmless

Theoretically, I guess this could be any old person floating through space in a bathrobe. But no, clearly it is an illustration of Arthur Dent from The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, one of my all time favorite fictional characters, traveling to the far reaches of the universe when all he really wants is a nice hot cup of tea. Arthur, where is your towel?!