Medical Cannabis - Reefer Madness.

Whatever way you look at it pot has come a long way since the 1950's scare tactic days of "Reefer Madness".  Still classified as illegal by federal law, it has long been preached as a gateway drug to "worse things" by those who oppose it. Or is it?

More recently it has been gaining recognition for it's medicinal properties, ranging from help with chronic pain and chemotherapy relief to anti-anxiety and even as an anti-seizure medicine. Because of it's status as a schedule-1 drug, marijuana research is unfortunately less about scientific proof than it is word of mouth user accounts. As written in Time Magazine's June 23rd article, "23 states and Washington, DC, laws allow doctors to recommend cannabis products for their patients for medical reasons. But with little in the way of solid scientific evidence for which products works best, and in which doses, it’s up to the patients to adopt trial-and-error to figure out which, if any cannabinoids help to relieve their symptoms."

Illustrations for Public CIO Magazine

Good mail day! Copies of Public CIO Magazine, for which I was recently asked to  illustrate a spread, just arrived on my doorstep. I was asked to illustrate four different CIO's for an article titled, "Leading in the Limelight", written by Adam Stone.

Below are the spreads and close ups of the portraits. The art director was looking for something striking to go with the article layout and I thought that grayscale portraits with a pop of color would accent it nicely. The printed final turned out great!

Dickie Howze

Rob St. John

Rosa Akhtarkhavari

Jeff Uyeda

One Year Ago...

I hope that you like my (poorly drawn) comic.  I'm poking a little fun at myself so indulge me in a chuckle. I also dare any other freelance illustrator to look me in the eye and honestly tell me that you have never felt that way at one point or another. ;)

A year ago (June 6th and I'm posting a few days early) I left my job to pursue illustration full time. It seems like it was just yesterday - time goes by so fast these days. Although I have been freelancing for years I never had the opportunity to give it a go full time and it was partially out of fear.  Fear of the unknown: would I make enough money? Would I fall flat on my face and have to go crawling back to a job that I couldn't stand being at because I was dead broke and not getting any work at all? What about that (measly) paycheck that I "relied" on every two weeks? How would I survive without it? Fear of unknown was keeping me from being more successful with my art.

So with the help of Brian, the mastermind behind The Unselfie Project, as well as the support from my family and awesome friends, I made a plan and jumped. A LOT has happened in one year. I have had the opportunity to work with so many fantastic people on all kinds of interesting illustration assignments. Plus, The Unselfie Project took off, I've created hundreds of portraits for it and was able to turn it into a successful side gig. Of course, sometimes there are the unglamourous bread and butter jobs that I would not put in my portfolio but I'm steadily getting more of the kinds of assignments that I love and thrive on as well. I am grateful for both.

Finding balance has always been a struggle for me. I tend to go all out on everything and am a bit of a self proclaimed workaholic. I do need to make sure that I find the time to relax a bit more. Sometimes I tend to confuse relaxation with laziness, the latter being a trait which I despise! I do need to get a more structured, as opposed to the current "somewhat" structured, day to day schedule that I live. All of that will fall into place, eventually.

Being an illustrator is not an easy career choice, but it's the path that I chose. At times it can be stressful and you need to have a thick skin because you get a lot of "no's". But when you get those "yes's" it's such a thrill. Even after all of these years I still get that rush of excitement when a great new project comes my way. So yeah, I can say that I don't mind working my ass off to be able to do what I'm doing. I don't know where the path will take me but I know that I am on the right one. So I march forward. And the fear? Well, there were ALWAYS be the unknown. You just gotta get over it.

Peace

Michele

"Dance For Style" campaign poster illustration

For the past few years I have been lucky to collaborate with the good folks at branding agency, PRIMER, to work on the campaigns for Blue, A Hair Studio. Each year Blue directs a campaign to benefit a local Philadelphia area art or music charity. This year's charity is The Koresch Outreach Program. You can read about the Blue "Dance for Style" campaign here.

The poster illustration always centers around the art which the specific campaign represents. This year's focus is on dance so we needed to come up with a solution that would visually express it without being cliche. Primer came up with the idea of referencing old Art Noveau posters because of their flowing and organic, yet structured shapes. The natural curves of the hair in the illustration create motion which perfectly represents dance.

Illustration by Michele Melcher Illustration. Design by Primer

Back of poster, design by Primer.

Follow PRIMER on Facebook and on Twitter @Primer

Follow BLUE on Facebook and on Twitter @BlueAHairStudio

Portrait illustration of author, Jami Attenberg for Chicago Tribune.

Below is another portrait illustration for the cover of Chicago Tribune's Printers Row Journal. This time it is of author, Jami Attenberg.