Miles Tsang

@milestsang.bsky.social

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🇨🇦 Toronto 🩸 Gigposters / Illustration (No AI) / Prints 📧 hello@milestsang.com ⬇️ Mailing List + Portfolio + Shop ⬇️ 🖤 milestsang.com 🖤

Illustration featuring a giant skeleton (Bertha) exploding out of the Sphere venue, surrounded by flora/fauna of the locale and characters, props and scenes from the Dead's visual history.
Illustration depicting a pair of tyrannosauruses in forest of bones and ferns engaged in a territorial dance as the burning sky threatens to fall down around them. Since this is a gigposter for the southern jam band Widespread Panic, the band name appears in archetypal psychedelic fashion (hidden in plain sight).
With this poster, I was inspired by the band’s visuals and tour name to dive into familiar nautical themes, freezing the moment a skeletal surfer catches the attention of an emerging mermaid who may now be tempted to “step into the sun,” above. The background references the area (particularly the nearby Twin Points at Laguna Beach) while the foreground is comprised of a kelp forest populated by various corals, fishes and other assorted sea creatures found in the locale. Everything is tied together by the motion of the clouds above, the intermediate wave which displays the band’s name while connecting the two worlds in the middle and the drift of the seaweed below. To me this illustration can be boiled down to the importance of holding space for curiosity towards others; a sentiment I find increasingly important to center and strive for.⁠
Enormous stylized dimensional letters spelling the name PHISH burst with energy, expressing the transcendental elemental chemistry of the band connecting the heavens to the earth via Toronto’s most prominent landmark (the CN Tower). Flying saucers descend, abducting/elevating silhouetted citizens and symbols of the city (trash panda, moose, Kensington’s garden car, etc). The landscape of condos and skyscrapers is suffused with smoke emanating from the dance between a dragon and phoenix, referencing my Chinese heritage and the immigrant energies which fuel the city. The image playfully mixes a variety of genres while flexing well-practiced drawing chops to achieve artistic apotheosis, echoing the core ethos of the band.
This triptych expands upon my preceding Dead poster by celebrating the community and creativity surrounding the band while also showing appreciation for the hilly city which birthed them during the dawn of the Psychedelic Era. Dozens of skeletons engaged in a plethora of joyful activities populate a surreal landscape comprised of Shakedown Street, Haight’s Painted Ladies and the Japanese Tea Garden located within the sprawling park venue, all set against a distant backdrop of San Francisco Bay and the iconic landmark from which the venue derives its moniker. Characters, iconography, and various threads of storytelling encrust the design, infusing it with detail and life to create a smorgasbord of connection, fun and love for the Dead and their multi-generational legion of fans.
Illustration inspired by Black Sabbath’s Heaven and Hell album art as well as the song War Pigs depicting a giant Satanic demon rising from the ground, connecting heaven and earth like an atom bomb. Ashen wings on fire torch the landscape as Four skeletal Horsemen with pig skulls arrive through a cross-shaped tear in the fabric of the realm bearing the band’s name, inciting death and violence amongst the soldier population on the ground. A procession of angels spills from the sky, clearing a space for the band to ascend as the trumpets sound and the apocalypse is given form.
Illustration heavily inspired by facets derived from the album …In Times New Roman which lyrically mines themes of tragedy, dissolving relationships, and embracing hidden darknesses which reside within. Conceived as a companion piece to last year’s cursed Nero, taking the form of my version of Charon (the Roman boatman of the Dead) who is shown grinning with a knowingly wry nihilism as he ferries the deceased from the land of the living.
This piece continues my Divine Feminine / Muses series with a concept revolving around my internal emotions as opposed to external inspirations such as instruments or songs, coming by way of recent meditations on change and grief.⁠ Our central figure is an introspective woman sitting atop the Noblesville Courthouse which acts as a throne (as well as the center of its downtown), warmly petting a baby deer chosen to reflect the original namesake of the venue. Small animals symbolizing metamorphosis populate the edges of the composition as giant peonies (the state flower) fill out the spherical window, suggesting a connection with an abstract realm and the beautiful but delicate and ever-shifting grandeur of nature. A phantom of a felled deer emanates from below to signal her identity as a ghostly maternal figure to the fawn, echoing the aforementioned themes of change and grief. Overall the image is meant to express an atmosphere of loving melancholy for things that have changed, are changing, and will change.⁠
Photo of my very distinguished cat Nona
The only drawing book you actually need (The Marvel Way)
Illustration vignette depicting a dead monarch ensconced in ornate golden jewels, artefacts and nuggets. Bones and rust fill out the background as serpents slither through the figure’s skull. A crown and coffin appear above and below the skull which opens its mouth as if silently screaming.
Illustration of Cthulu rising out of watery entropy surrounded by a broken planetary halo set against a vignetted black background. A tiny humanoid figure can be seen at the bottom of the composition engulfed by bones and the elements, indicating the enormity of the monster. Drawing directly inspired by the instrumental Metallica song The Call of Ktulu.
Big ass illustration inspired by Dead & Company and the Tibetan-Buddhist Wheel of Life, sparked by Kendrick Lamar's "reincarnated," and the Dead song "The Wheel." Composed of a giant Marching Bear in place of a demon holding onto the wheel which is filled with various Dead-inflected details loosely corresponding to the realms depicted in the traditional mandala floating above the Nevada desert where the concert/venue reside.
This bit of fun is a portmanteau of the iconic Metallica cover art injected with a healthy dose of Primus absurdity. I’ve seen footage of the latter riffing on Master of Puppets while playing Too Many Puppies live so I think it’s a fun connection to highlight. The illustration consists of a platoon of American war pups being puppeteered into hostile territory by a pair of unseen but blood-red hands. The energy reflects my love of old MAD Magazine covers while honouring sentiments shared in each song, playfully making creative hay out of this surreal moment in history.
Illustration depicting a psychedelic space housing a plethora of Dead and Company characters in various states of play. The image uses 5-point faux-spherical perspective to echo the shape of the Sphere venue where the concert this gigposter is commemorating takes place.
The song that sparked this concept: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ek7UvQPCQnE
Sketch after approval
A siren-like mermaid sits atop a glistening formation of rock surrounded by the wreckage of a flying saucer and a wooden rowboat. Various musical accessories and sea creatures can be found amongst the thrashing, Hokusai-inspired waves. The main figure is haloed by a pair of Pisces fishes to denote the time of year the concert this poster is for tool place in as she stares alluringly into the viewer’s soul.
My Dead & Company 2025 weekend Sphere poster featuring a Dead-inspired interpolation of The Buddhist Wheel of Life. A giant marching bear grasps an enormous wheel representing the cycle of life and death (samsara) with sections containing various iconography relating to the band’s art and history. This composition floats above a stylized desert landscape featuring flora and fauna found in and around the sky islands of Las Vegas. The entire illustration is meticulously detailed with an intensity meant to echo the overwhelming audio-visual journey offered by The Sphere.
This piece features my take on the Wendigo; a supernatural mythological creature hailing from Indigenous Canadian folklore heavily associated with the north, winter, cold, famine and starvation. Some view the creature as enlightened and possessed of ancestral insights but it is more commonly connected to negative human aspects such as insatiable greed, environmental destruction, and the arousing of cannibalistic appetites. . As such, my version is corrupted and desiccated with enormous antlers (modelled after the moose specifically) and bone spurs exploding from its body, rotten tufts of uneven fur and cervid prions (cysts) depicting Chronic Wasting Disease representing the potential rot inherent to the human condition. It stands above the remains of a feasted skeletal victim in a forested alcove, greeting the viewer with an inviting but hollow glare; a deceptively pensive image simultaneously acknowledging the hidden darknesses and resilient spirits that call this country home.
Florida swamp-inspired artwork. A trio of baby gators ride atop the head and snout of a parent gliding through the duckweed-dense water. A playful otter climbs onto mangrove roots and looks across at a heron sifting for fish. An enormous gator basks on the shoreline with its body reflected in the water. A snake can be seen twisting in the trees which frame the scene. The palette is violet-blue with red highlights in the gator eyes, mimicking the eyeshine of gators seen at night.
Poster for 311's Caribbean Cruise featuring a Rihanna-coded mermaid perched on a red rock cloistered within walls of waves decorated with various details further denoting the band (crashed UFO and weed paraphernalia) and setting (sea creatures; Pisces halo for the season).
A skeletal punk rock figure triumphantly raises his guitar as if about to take a final bow, Heavenly and Hellish wings high-stretched behind him. His leather jacket is adorned with patches and emblems as tendrils of flame and bolts of lightning dance around him. The band's name (SUM 41) anchors the illustration's bottom quarter.
My 2012 drawing of Rihanna's husband crouched and engulfed in a miasma of THC haze with a mic in hand. His moniker is spelled out in the smoke and show info occurs along the top and bottom of the poster. The colour palette is a desaturated fuchsia/orchid (light purple) tone with yellow accents.
Process timelapse of my Billy Strings poster
Dead & Company Sphere 2024 illustration sketch
Three goats cautiously cross a snowy stone bridge as a cold moon glistens above and a smirking troll emerges from the ice below. The band's name (BILLY STRINGS) is spelled out in chromatically contrasting rocks and tour info appears in the water amongst the ice shards.
Video showing different variants of Avett Brothers Texas 2024 screenprinted gigposters The illustrations depict my take on the Aesop Fable of The Rooster and The Fox which felt like a decent fit for this rustic folk rock band. I’ll have main, blue, and foil editions for each plus a handful of uncut diptychs for sale on Sunday. Thanks for looking/reading!
No necc
Cannibal Corpse poster repurposed as a White Walker
Childish Gambino test print with reversed and doubled up screen layers