Michael Dashow
LightNews LightNews
banner
mdashow.bsky.social
Michael Dashow
@mdashow.bsky.social
3.8K followers 1.2K following 2K posts
Illustrator, character designer, kidLit artist & gameDev art director.
Rep'd by @vickyweberbooks.bsky.social‬ @ CMA
Also developing indie puzzle game Puzzle Spy International at @agentepsilon.bsky.social

https://linktr.ee/mdashow
he / him
Posts Replies Media Videos
Pinned
mdashow.bsky.social
Michael Dashow @mdashow.bsky.social · Jul 9
Hi, #PortfolioDay !
I'm Mike and I like creating fun, colorful character-driven art. I make lots of art for video and tabletop games and would love to create some MG book covers. I am also seeking representation.
Cheers!

#kidLitArt #characterDesign #characterIllustration #gameArt #illustration
A girl is trying to walk two fluffy samoyeds but has gotten entirely tangled up in the leashes of the two dogs who are happily running circles around her. The title reads "Zoey Crocker, Pet Walker" by Maureen Keene. Two kids explore a hallway in a dark mansion. They look worried, and the boy holds a flashlight. The hallway is lined with paintings in ornate frames, all of the eyes of the paintings watching the kids. We can see the shadow of some sort of horned monster coming up the stairs. The title reads "The Mystery of Mystic Manor" by Jo Barnett. Sherrif Saguaro, an old-timey western sheriff who also happens to be a walking cactus. He's wearing a dusty leather coat and boots with spurs and a red bandana, and while he wears no hat, his cactus head is the shape of a 10-gallon hat. He's dashing through a dusty old western frontier town about to throw a lasso. In the background is his trusty horse, who also happens to be a cactus. A panicked apprentice witch (she's human, with pink hair, glasses, and light academia clothing) makes a mess of her cauldron while being calmy advised by an older, wiser witch (who is a bear.) Aside from the exploding cauldron, the browns of the scene make it warm and cozy. The cover reads "DeepWoods Academy for the Magically Inept" by Jo Barnett, book 1: Trouble Brewing
Reposted by Michael Dashow
direkittengames.bsky.social
Play our game if you want a moth to be your valentine ❤

(20% off this week in honor of LOVE!) #indiegame #valentines
February 14, 2026 at 5:37 AM
mdashow.bsky.social
It definitely feels quiet and human, but it's also really disappointing how all the #kidLit artists ended up here but seemingly none of the kidLit art Directors, publishers, and only a handful of agents. (Yes, I know Brian LaRossa's active here but he's the exception, not the rule.)
February 13, 2026 at 8:45 PM
Reposted by Michael Dashow
nickcarver.bsky.social
Bless this mess!
Voice acting by Shoko Plambeck

The layout of this apartment is very similar to the one I had as a student in Kyoto 25 years ago (though this one's about 4 times bigger for gameplay purposes!)

#MadeWithUnity #LostInDreams #gamedev #indiedev
February 13, 2026 at 12:22 PM
mdashow.bsky.social
They look gorgeous, and add a really wonderful handmade feel! 😍

(Also, I really enjoying the voice-over narration.)
February 13, 2026 at 8:40 PM
mdashow.bsky.social
The Drawing Board was another one I was really active in, it was very focused on comics and animation, and attracted a lot of people who
came to be pretty well known in those areas… Shane Glines, Kazu Kabuishi, Enrico Casarosa, Rad Sechrist, and many more who I’m now forgetting… 👴
February 13, 2026 at 7:32 PM
mdashow.bsky.social
One of them was public: CGTalk, which had great WIP forums (and even art challenges centered around sharing your work progress), but it wasn’t kidlit, just general digital art. Another one was a private server hosted by some folks in concept art and illustration that attracted a handful of pros.
February 13, 2026 at 7:24 PM
mdashow.bsky.social
I was never active on Twitter, but very much so on IG, and I had conversations with & made friends there, within the circles of folks posting work in similar genres. But the bulk of what we posted was still public-facing, so what I really miss is posting WIPs in private forums with other artists.
February 13, 2026 at 6:03 PM
Reposted by Michael Dashow
azalben.bsky.social
Dude regularly works for Disney, DreamWorks, Netflix and CN so speculate away. But this sucks no matter which studio is doing it, and gross to think some major movie this year is running with a plagiarized image from ChatGPT.
Post from Art Director Bill Robinson on LinkedIn saying: Welp, it finally happened. I was hired to work on a MAJOR live action Hollywood film (and I mean it’s one of the biggest anticipated films of the year). They needed a small animated sequence and wanted a character designer. I was handed a ChatGPT image and told “make it different”. I did - I spent hours finessing the design into something better and more specific for the character in the film. Waited a week for notes - then was told they got clearance from legal to use the original AI image instead. No need for any further work. This is what the director wanted. What are we doing as a society? What’s the endgame here? Replace every human until we are all homeless? I just don’t get it. If a major Hollywood film with a huge budget doesn’t see the need to work with real artists, is there any hope left?
February 13, 2026 at 1:36 PM
Reposted by Michael Dashow
janbehchanbeh.bsky.social
Be a matchmaker this Valentine's Day with Love, Ghostie - currently at 50% OFF for a Steam Daily Deal!!!!!

AND for every copy purchased from now to Feb 17, we are donating a percentage of the sale to the American Heart Association!
Screenshot of Steam's front page with Love, Ghostie shown as "Today's Deal!" with 50% off at $9.99
February 12, 2026 at 7:23 PM
mdashow.bsky.social
What I miss from earlier days - pre-Twitter & IG - was being able to share process and talk shop with other artists. Not just showing a public-facing final image but having a private space to share the WIP work and get actual crits & feedback from other artists, and talk about our livelihoods.
February 13, 2026 at 5:15 PM
Reposted by Michael Dashow
abeba.bsky.social
civil society and right groups orgs that often keep a tab on and organise campaigns against these evil corporations are overstretched and underfunded. this internal memo from Meta is insidious and sickening
benforward3.bsky.social Ben Ewen-Campen @benforward3.bsky.social · 1d
Facebook plans to put facial recognition in its glasses and they think we’re too stupid to fight back.

Their internal memo: “We will launch during a dynamic political environment where many civil society groups that we would expect to attack us would have their resources focused on other concerns.”
Meta Plans to Add Facial Recognition Technology to Its Smart Glasses
www.nytimes.com
February 13, 2026 at 3:08 PM
mdashow.bsky.social
This is so sad. I know Bill and I've worked with him and his character design skills are amazing, and without seeing any of the work I can still confidently say it had infinitely more soul than whatever the director chose to go with. And he's right: What are we doing here? 😩
February 13, 2026 at 3:34 PM
Reposted by Michael Dashow
oxinabox.bsky.social
AI is mediocre white men at scale.
Which is never a resource we have truely been bottlenecked on.
February 13, 2026 at 5:10 AM
Reposted by Michael Dashow
marynmck.bsky.social
Babe, wake up, new sarcastic but entirely worthwhile internet abbreviation just dropped
katemckean.bsky.social Kate McKean @katemckean.bsky.social · 2d
Over on threads someone just use ai;dr and we all need to adopt that right quick
February 11, 2026 at 11:16 PM
mdashow.bsky.social
Glad you’re finding drawing fun again! And hope you’re doing well, I haven’t seen you in a while! (I wish the Modern Mouse think tomorrow went later, as I’ll be working all day & probably won’t make it there. 😢)
February 13, 2026 at 2:30 AM
Reposted by Michael Dashow
makevisualnovels.itch.io
Hey, it's been a while! I just submitted my entry into this year's MVNA Jam. There's 423 transitions for use in RenPy to make your visual novel!

makevisualnovels.itch.io/mvn-renpy-tr...
Check it here^ #renpy #vndev #visualnovel
Make Visual Novels RenPy Transition Kit by Stella @ MakeVisualNovels
Need help transitioning? Look no further!
makevisualnovels.itch.io
February 11, 2026 at 9:55 PM
Reposted by Michael Dashow
maggietokudahall.bsky.social
If you saw the creepy Ring Super Bowl commercial then you know they're manufacturing consent for a surveillance state (that serves ICE) by emotionally blackmailing us with our dogs' safety.

This flyer can be printed out and posted all over, or shared online. Get your $ back, fuck ICE.
Title: Ring cameras feed data to ICE to help round up immigrants Subtitle: ✨ Get a full refund direct from Amazon ✨ Body: In the past few months Amazon Ring enabled AI and facial detection by default for all users. Worse, they altered existing features such that your footage can end up in the hands of Flock Safety, the company responsible for 80,000 license plate readers across the country. ICE has been documented using Flock to know exactly where to go to find susceptible community members. Don’t help ICE round up your neighbors. What can I do? You can get a full refund directly from Amazon. Request a refund telling them their agreement with Flock is a breach of trust and invalidates the reason you invested into their security products in the first place. Amazon refunds because what they are doing is blatantly against the Terms and Conditions under which you originally purchased. ➡️ Reolink or Defender PhoenixM2 are great comparable camera alternatives. ➕ Request refunds for Amazon Blink Cameras as well on basis of lost trust.
February 11, 2026 at 8:33 PM
Reposted by Michael Dashow
mdashow.bsky.social
I made some of the art for this game! See the really sketchily-drawn figures on the cards? Those are all mine! 😅😬
(All the good character art is by @desireemoffatt.bsky.social , with lovely backgrounds by @fangedbunnydraws.bsky.social )

#gameArt #indieGame #indieGames #gameDev
ledgerbound.bsky.social Ledgerbound @ledgerbound.bsky.social · 6d
(Pt. 1) She may not be able to change the fate of the battlefield, but can Rayna rewrite the outcome of Prince Thalen and Knight Cedric's love story?
February 10, 2026 at 1:40 AM
Reposted by Michael Dashow
czedwards.bsky.social
With alt-text:
Screen capture of model language to use with a Ring camera return: Customer Service Chat Like-New Ring Floodlight Cam Agent: Upon checking here the return window for this item has expired already we no longer accept the return. But no worries, let me go ahead and check my other option here for you. Customer: Yall did change the terms of service. I bought what I thought was a secure device. It is not. I refuse to let Amazon sell my footage so ICE can kidnap brown people in my community. Agent: I understand your concern. In this case, let me go ahead and give you an exemption to help you create a return label so you can return it and get your money back. May I know if you want a printable label or a Qr code? End this chat Send a message
February 10, 2026 at 11:54 PM
Reposted by Michael Dashow
weratedogs.com
we need to talk about that Ring Super Bowl ad
February 10, 2026 at 8:18 PM
Reposted by Michael Dashow
gwenckatz.bsky.social
For the new folks: I am a disaster survivor and my only income is making shirts and art.

www.etsy.com/shop/thenigh...
Me wearing a shirt with a gold phoenix Me wearing a shirt with a green and orange poppy
February 10, 2026 at 6:56 PM
mdashow.bsky.social
I just came here to say this. I need it today! 😄
February 10, 2026 at 7:12 PM
Reposted by Michael Dashow
shadefish.bsky.social
I mean this as hard as I can: cancel your fucking nitro. it is LITERALLY the only thing that they fucking listen to.
February 9, 2026 at 3:47 PM
mdashow.bsky.social
I made some of the art for this game! See the really sketchily-drawn figures on the cards? Those are all mine! 😅😬
(All the good character art is by @desireemoffatt.bsky.social , with lovely backgrounds by @fangedbunnydraws.bsky.social )

#gameArt #indieGame #indieGames #gameDev
ledgerbound.bsky.social Ledgerbound @ledgerbound.bsky.social · 6d
(Pt. 1) She may not be able to change the fate of the battlefield, but can Rayna rewrite the outcome of Prince Thalen and Knight Cedric's love story?
February 10, 2026 at 1:40 AM
mdashow.bsky.social
Post a banger not in English

www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHp3...
February 10, 2026 at 1:27 AM