Designing My Michael Jackson Poster
This Michael Jackson poster was my illustrated response to the Michael movie and to the iconography, music, and visual language that made him hard to forget.
I grew up loving Michael's music, lyrics, dancing, videos and his constant transformation. I understood it all before I knew what he was saying. As a kid in Peru in the 80s, I was surrounded by chaos, family drama, and what felt like a never-ending trap of stress and uncertainty. But then there was Michael, like only a few pop artists could, reaching beyond America into my little radio in Lima and asking me to dream.
Michael made creativity feel like an invitation to another life. It felt like music and artistry could lift you out of whatever chaos you were born into. Like Janet and Madonna, Michael made transformation feel necessary. Physical. Creative. Liberating.
When I saw people getting excited about the Michael movie, I realized I wasn’t alone in that feeling. So many of us were kids when Michael was at the center of everything. We’re adults now, still trying to figure life out, and his music still reaches the part of us that remembers awe and wonder.
The Michael I Wanted To Capture
For this poster, I wanted to capture Michael in that window between The Way You Make Me Feel and the Dangerous album.
That era feels iconic to me. He was young, cool, elegant, and completely electric. He had broken free into his full artistic persona. He still looked like himself, but the myth was already forming. He was at the height of his creative potential, and you could feel that something huge was moving through him.
I listened to “Can You Feel It” by The Jacksons and the entire Dangerous album while working on the piece. Those songs carry that huge global feeling I associate with him. That sense that music could gather everyone for a few minutes and make the world feel accessible.
Michael often talked about being an instrument for creativity. Like some mystical force worked through him and his job was to conduct it into music.I have always understood that feeling through my own art.
From Crown To Cloak
My first idea had a crown. It made sense at first. Michael as king. Michael as pop royalty. Michael as legend.
But after sitting with it, the crown felt too obvious. I wanted regalness without being so literal. So I started looking at his fashion again. The military jackets, the gold details, the regalia and the drama. Michael dressed like someone who understood how clothing could turn a person into a symbol.
That’s how the cloak came in.
The cloak felt royal, theatrical, and protective at the same time. It gave him stature without making him cold. I made the cloak black velvet because velvet absorbs light. That mattered to me. Michael received so much adoration, so much attention, so much blinding public love, but he never seemed overlit by it. There was always this shy, humble, gentle quality to him. The black velvet became a way to show that.
A Quiet King
Most Michael Jackson images show him dancing, singing, or glowing under stage lights.
I wanted the pause. The quiet moment.
Maybe a moment where inspiration hits him before anyone else can see it. That private second creatives know so well, when the idea is still inside you and you’re the only one who can feel it coming.
In this piece, he is aware of his power, but he isn’t performing it. He is a young icon who knows he is becoming something larger, and still somehow remains gentle.
That balance was the hardest part.
Michael has been depicted a million ways. I didn’t want to make another dancing image. I kept asking myself: what artwork would Michael like of himself? That question guided everything.
The Embroidery
The embroidery was absolutely the most difficult part of this piece.It was a pain in the ass, honestly.
I redid it three different times. I had to decide which moments and symbols to include without having seen the movie. The details had to feel like embroidery and illustration at the same time. They needed to carry movement, story, legacy, and beauty without turning into a cluttered mess.
The cloak became his history worn on his back.
The little figures, the gold thread, the flourishes, the stars, the movement. It all became a way to let his life and creative energy bloom out of the fabric. Since the main portrait is still and quiet, the embroidery carries the motion. It lets the dance live inside the stillness.
That felt right for Michael.
Three Days With An Icon
I created the piece in three days.Three days is not a long time to capture someone like Michael Jackson. But I knew the feeling I wanted. I knew the era. I knew I wanted quiet power and a sense of closeness.
Close enough to see the details of him.Close enough to remember that behind all the myth was a young artist. A person. Someone blessed with an unearthly talent, but still human.
That was the part I wanted to honor.
Personal Mythology
I wasn’t trying to copy Michael. I was trying to translate what he meant to me.
The glamour, the hope, the transformation, the otherworldly creative force. The feeling that art could change the direction of your life if you honor the voices inside you.
That is why illustration matters to me so much. A photo can capture what someone looked like. Illustration can capture what they felt like in your imagination. When an artist has a personal connection to the subject, the image carries it. You can feel it. The work becomes richer because it comes from somewhere real.
What I Hope He Would Feel
If Michael could see this piece, I would hope he felt understood.
I would hope he felt a connection to another artist who knows those quiet creative moments. Who understands the doubt and the strange little visions only you can see until you finally make them real.
And yes, in my perfect fantasy, he would invite me to raid his closet and let me take home just one of those jackets for inspiration.