The Fran Pages

Shaman you!

2009-09-18T11:40:00.001-04:00

Just thought I'd share a drawing I did for an upcoming book on magic (title not yet finalized but will let you know when it's out!). This is a shaman making the sun go dark! (ie. an eclipse ;-)

Two educational mini comics for Scholastic

2009-03-11T10:39:00.004-04:00

It's been an age since I've updated my art blog, and that's mostly due to having had a baby! Little Yolanda leaves me just enough time to post a recipe once in a while, or make myself a cup of tea, but time to draw? Not a chance!

But, here are two small comics I created for Scholastic last year that are now being distributed to schools. These were two very fun projects, the first being an info comic about garbage and recycling. My inspiration for Garbage Strike was the real garbage strike we had here in Toronto around 7 years ago -- what a mess!

The second comic is also informative, introducing Galileo to young readers and the birth of astronomy as we now know it.

I grew and learned very much working on these books, which I had to research, write, lay out, draw and colour, all for professional publishing as opposed to personal work. I hope I do more of them, and hope the kids enjoy them.

My latest illustrated fiction

2008-06-06T09:44:00.006-04:00

CLICK TO ENLARGE

Some months back I wrote and drew a 6-page comic for the Toronto-based literary magazine, Taddle Creek, and have been since wanting to post the art here but gave the magazine a chance to publish it first. Actually, I'm not sure if I should post the whole story -- maybe when the next issue of Taddle Creek is out, I'll put the whole thing online!

(The cover, by the way, was drawn by my insanely talented husband Michael Cho. See it on his blog.)

Meanwhile my story, called The Grass Seed, was recorded as an audio clip by the magazine which you can listen to here. Above is the first page of the story, plus a few of my favourite drawings from it below. I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to create this comic story, for an older audience, and of a topic of my choosing -- in this case, thinking about life within the perspective of the universe, and how we and everything in existence are basically made up of the same wonderful, elemental stuff.

Chocolate Cartoons

2008-04-24T13:24:00.007-04:00

I design the wrappers for a local chocolatier who has Chocoland's How Sweet chocolates, all fair trade, organic and hand-made. For her booth at the Green Living Show this weekend she asked me to draw some cartoons to display her chocolates, which were glued onto the art and framed in a shadow box. Here's the result! I think it's a super cute idea with the wacky text and all.

Inked with Pitt brushpens on watercolour paper and coloured with watercolours. Here's a close-up of my favourite panel...

I love nature...

2008-03-18T10:29:00.003-04:00

And yet, I've often strugged with drawing wildlife like birds and trees and horses and dogs and cats... but my latest episode of Luz surprised me! I'm really happy with how this chirping bird in the bare early-spring branches turned out, with the perspective of looking down to the sidewalk and Luz's front stoop.

I had a dream...

2007-09-14T12:02:00.000-04:00

Nothing revolutionary, I'm afraid. But I had found a long-lost child of mine who I welcomed with open arms and assured would have a loving home with my two children. I tucked them into a large bed in a big room with a great fireplace. This picture is a snapshot of my dream in the early morning when the fire's gone out and the ground outside is covered in snow.

If I fail to update this blog frequently enough...

2007-09-10T18:40:00.000-04:00

...it's because I'll be spending a lot of my free time drawing my new online web comic, Luz: Girl of The Knowing. Here is Luz.

ShopFeeble is Online!

2007-09-05T17:28:00.000-04:00

Good news everyone, my new online shop is now open! Now you can order copies of SPOILED or the silkscreen prints posted below, plus
the mini-sketchbook of my talented husband through our site at shopfeeble.blogspot.com. You can also follow the banner link at
the side of this page. All payment will be handled via paypal and delivered via the post -- we're going to try and keep things as low-tech and simple as possible.

Right now, the site features 3 different items for purchase and ordering but we'll be adding more items regularly. If you've got suggestions on what you'd like to see for sale, please let me know
and I'll try to add them to the list!

Silkscreened art posters of Spoiled!

2007-08-03T09:55:00.000-04:00

Debuting at my spOILed book launch the Thursday before TCAF (see post below), I'm preparing a limited edition of silkscreened two-tone posters of the last spread in the comic. Masterfully printed by Yasmine Louis on cold press 100% cotton watercolour paper with deckled edges.

Visit my online store if you'd like to purchase a print!

SPECS: art 9x12", paper 12x16"
$25 plus shipping
PayPal available

SPOILED book launch at the Toronto Comics Art Festival on August 16th

2007-08-01T19:22:00.000-04:00

Click to enlarge

Good times! I will be having a book launch event for SPOILED along with Toronto author Jim Munroe and Montreal artist Salgood Sam who together created THEREFORE REPENT!

The three of us will be in attendance, with our original artwork from the comics on display. Books, original artwork and silkscreened posters will be on sale. This event kicks off the Toronto Comic Arts Festival, which culminates in the weekend fair of international artists on the U of T campus.

Come to Tequila Bookworm (512 Queen St. W., upstairs) on Thursday, August 16th from 8pm to 10pm. It's free! And you can get your copy of SPOILED!

It's hot out! Time for some...

2007-06-13T21:26:00.001-04:00

A 1-page comic about a sweet deal for the U.S.

2007-06-07T15:19:00.000-04:00

My comrade Jeff Berg of the Toronto Post Carbon group has written a witty comic for me to illustrate about the sweet deal the U.S. has with Canada. Basically they have priority in getting our oil in times of shortage or crisis. Gordon Laxer of Alberta's Parkland Institute is going to discuss this in a few weeks, where we'll be handing out copies of this comic for fun.

More general info at The Coalition for a Green Economy, Green Enterprise Toronto, and The Parkland Institute. : )

You never forget me

2007-06-05T16:56:00.000-04:00

Ink and watercolour

Introducing my comic about peak oil!

2007-05-11T17:53:00.000-04:00

Those who know me also know I'm a doomsday fanatic about the end of the petroleum era. As such, I felt compelled to make my first comic book all about that. It is called SPOILED and will be coming soon to TCAF!

Here is a sneak peak...

For a photo of the cover, more info, or to order a copy,
visit my my online store.

Franken-doll

2007-05-11T17:19:00.000-04:00

This isn't technically a drawing, but looks cartoonish enough to me to include on my drawing blog. :-)

My friend Christine Cosby of Swizzle Gallery (textile division) is putting together a fun group art project where participants make various parts of creatures (make a head, make legs, etc) and then she mixes them up and stitches them together, making crazy frankenventions. This is the head I made; I'll post when all the parts get assembled and showcased!

Green Living Kids energy comic

2007-04-26T17:37:00.000-04:00

Another installation of my one-pagers for Green Living magazine. I enjoyed this one because, 1) I love drawing girls sitting cross-legged, and 2) I like how my silhouette of a polluted city with traffic turned out.

Green Living Kids recycling comic

2007-04-14T08:52:00.000-04:00

A few posts back I presented the new generation of environmentalists, Marco and Angela. They're the protagonists of a few comics I did for Green Living magazine, who right now have their new Spring edition out with a special Kids supplement distributed to schools.

At the risk of sounding like a geezer, kids today know more about issues than we think -- they're savvy, but just need adults to set a better example of how to be aware of our part in nature.

For Star Wars fans

2007-03-27T12:37:00.000-04:00

My friend Mo had a theme party for her birthday recently where everyone had to wear some sort of head gear -- preferably related to the Star Wars movies, and/or pirates. My husband Michael pointed out that Han Solo and Chewbaka were space pirates, so it was settled! I found images of them on the net and re-drew them (in Adobe Illustrator), printed them out, and wore them on our faces as masks -- with the eyes cut out, of course.

They are posted size-as so feel free to copy and print to make your own mask! If, that is, the force be with you.

Kryptonite

2007-02-22T11:03:00.000-05:00

An assignment for a math text book (I'm not joking), and inspired by the most indulgent, delectable cake and pastry shop in town, despite the abominable counter service. They made our wedding cake, and I'd get married again just to have more!

A new generation of environmentalists

2007-01-25T12:21:00.000-05:00

I'm doing a comic for a kids' supplement in the next issue of Green Living Magazine and thought I'd share my drawing of the protagonists. I'll post the finished comics once it's in print!

Happy Holidays!

2006-12-11T21:15:00.000-05:00

December brings many things... Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa, and various other celebrations I know nothing about. But December for me is Winter Solstice. When darkness peaks as the longest night of the year on the 21st, bringing the beginning of lightening back up, minute by minute each day, until the Spring Equinox when daylight and nighttime are equal.

Happy December to everyone. I hope we are lucky enough to get some snow, and maybe catch a snowflake, too.

Plum sugar

2006-12-09T23:02:00.000-05:00

My upstairs neighbour, Joyce, asked me months and months ago to paint a little portrait of her grand daughter, and at last I did this for her. I am not a portrait artist in the least (as you can see from my illos on this blog), and get quite daunted at the thought of painting something by hand, as much as I love it. Doing this digitally would have been interesting and much easier, but for the love of earth and water, I've got to use my brushes!

When it comes to art by hand, I am most comfortable illustrating in pen and shading with a combination of hatching and watercolour. I usually only use the black cake to create greyscale watercolours (so simple and classy) but thought some colour would be nice in this one. Hope you like it, Joyce!

1970's romance

2006-11-20T17:53:00.000-05:00

I thought I'd share a little black-and-white watercolour I did of my parents when they met, before getting married and having my brother and I. This was in downtown Chile, after the summer of love, when everything felt new and hopeful in the dawning of a technicolor world of peace in the age of Aquarius...

Patiently waiting for Spring

2006-11-07T23:16:00.000-05:00

A handful of quotes

2006-09-05T15:39:00.000-04:00

(...women have 2 choices...)
You're either a feminist
or a masochist.
Gloria Steinem

(...on where to begin with making the world a better place...)
Be the change you wish
to see in the world.
Mahatma Gandhi

(...on troubles...)
What you resist, persists.
Carl Jung

This illo is part of a hallowe'en handout I made about the un-truths about dairy and chocolate (you know, how commercial dairy is horrible for your health and chocolate is made using child slave labour, that sort of thing.)

Lollipop girl

2006-09-02T21:32:00.000-04:00

Ah, memories of going to those old-fashioned candy shops where huge jars were filled with colourful candies of all kinds! My favourite flavour was always CHOCOLATE! Barring that, my second choice would be... CHOCOLATE! Or orange or lemon or cinnamon but don't tease me with the cruel pointlessness of grape, mint, cherry or banana. I am happy to say that in my adulthood my palate has become more refined over time. Now I'm quite content with exotic scents of cardamom and ginger and plums and blueberries. Oh, and CHOCOLATE!

Baking with Grandma

2006-08-14T22:25:00.000-04:00

I just finished this piece for an assignment and thought I'd post it up. I love the subject of grandmothers and kids spending time together, it's a beautiful thing that I hope doesn't get lost in the dumbness of my generation. Personally, I grew up with my grandmother living with us, and despite the in-law tension with my mom, I would never change that aspect of my childhood! :-)

More Zodiacs

2006-08-07T11:20:00.000-04:00

Due to popular demand, I thought I'd post some more of my Zodiac calendar drawings (including Leo, HB!)

First is my brother the humanitarian Aquarius...

...then Leo (based on Ilana), the energetic multi-tasker...

...my friend Yasmine, the passionate and determined Scorpio...

...and the warm-hearted Taurus (that's you, chancha)!

Yay! My book won an award

2006-08-05T09:03:00.000-04:00

As I mentioned in my post below, I've worked on a book series of wacky activity books for kids by Maple Tree Press, including Boredom Blasters which won a Silver Birch Award! This award is selected by Ontario readers -- yup, by kids! There could be no greater honour :-) While I was the illustrator and designer for these books, it was written by the insanely hilarious Helaine Becker, author of many, many MTP, Scholastic and OwlKids books.

Pics from my book "Like A Pro"

2006-07-31T21:31:00.000-04:00

I thought I'd share some illustrations from a recent book published by Maple Tree Press, called Like A Pro! It's the 3rd in a series of books by Helaine Becker (after Boredom Blasters and Funny Business) that are fun activity books to enjoy with friends. I'm currently illustrating and designing the 4th book and will post art from it when it's published...next spring!

Permanent black-out

2006-07-10T10:05:00.000-04:00

Peak oil has been on the mind of late. Here is a drawing I just finished of a possible vision of our future city in the absence of electricity, a permanent blackout. (See post below about my new blog relating to peak oil.)

Peak Oil blog of Hope

2006-07-08T11:09:00.000-04:00

Is it possible to have too many blogs? Well, who cares, I started a 4th blog about a matter very much at the forefront of my thoughts lately: our civilization's relentless unsustainability leading to a Peak Oil crisis starting right about... now.

If you haven't heard of Peak Oil, it's the phenomenon of beginning a steady decline in the amount of crude oil being extracted from the earth now, which will lead to crises of energy, economy, peace and general chaos. You know, on top of global warming. Have you seen An Inconvenient Truth yet?

Despite tales of doom, which may or may not be accurate, there are communities in the world that are making fantastic examples of themselves with becoming self-sufficient and promoting equality, cooperation and sustainability, and we need to see this!! In my new blog, Our Pueblo, I'll be cataloguing these inspirations. Perhaps it will spur positive actions of our own, or at the very least promote a collective consciousness of hope.

Zodiac calendar drawings

2006-07-07T10:20:00.000-04:00

I'm thinking of mass-producing a zodiac calendar using these illustrations I did for my own personal project I did a little while back. Each drawing represents a sign, and describes a person's traits, their planet, their plant, and is coloured to reflect their element (water, earth, fire, air).

This is me, a Cancer (water), using my intiutive healing to help the sick :)

This is my friend, a Libra (air), and her partner, as she is very suave and romantic.

This is Sagittarius (fire), depicting my brother-in-law chillin' by the campfire.

Cat girl

2006-06-27T21:33:00.000-04:00

I lied. The Swamp Thing sketch wasn't my first superhero sketch -- this one of Cat Girl was! A quicky marker sketch for Brian during the comic con this past spring -- I believe he built up quite the collection of sketches!

New template!

2006-06-27T15:04:00.000-04:00

I got sick of all the bugs with the original (pretty, earthy, fanciful) design, so hope y'all like this new look!

My swamp thing

2006-06-26T10:28:00.000-04:00

I gave Alan Moore's Swamp Thing another try this past weekend, about 5 years after trying to read it the first time and simply not being able to get past the nauseatingly garish artwork! But I'm so glad I read it, and without getting too "I love Alan Moore" like every other non-comic-reading girl, this series is such a beautiful description of life and nature and how everything is connected because we're all made up of the same thing -- the radiant energy of life. It resonates completely with how I've been seeing life in the universe, and here's a hero that's, first of all super buff, but also totally depressed, but also green and earthy like the swamp itself. Who wouldn't fall in love with him?

Anyhoo, here is a sketch I did of my beloved Swamp Thing, with a few alterations from the series' beast, namely he has a kelp beard -- obviously! Also his lower half is all soft long grasses, his "ribs" are mud, and his hands and feet are wood, like tree roots. I love him with flowers and moss growing on him, and some leaves sprouting from his viney veins.

There you have it, my first comic super hero drawing. I also love Frankenstein.

Kid's bedroom as sanctuary

2006-06-18T09:51:00.000-04:00

A new book just came out for kids that I illustrated, about decorating your own room... it's kinda nice, discusses colour concepts, layouts, tapping into your "uniqueness" -- stuff that I think would resonate with a 9-year-old!

Here are some of the illustrations for the book, called It's Your Room (...excuse my super cheezy bio if you go to this link, I don't know what I was thinking!) by Tundra Books.

Another year, another birthday

2006-06-14T21:18:00.000-04:00

Yeah, we can either laugh or cry at relentlessly getting a year older every twelve months... or we could go with the flow, lay back and enjoy a good cubano!

I'm 32 for another week, and in this past year I think I learned a little something, something very liberating, and that is that most of the stuff I spend my time worrying about is really really really unimportant. No, really! It is finally sinking in that we're such tiny blips in all of existence through time and space, that a lot of stuff we fret about isn't really worth our sweat. Or the paid work we devote our waking hours to might not deserve our attention at all. I am simultaneously rejecting most of what is out there in our society, while really appreciating what there is. And being way more picky about what I choose to spend my energy on, and what I choose to worry about.

I think I'm going to be late a bit more often. And maybe I'll get a tattoo. : )

Fan mail

2006-06-12T23:26:00.000-04:00

I've been teaching Saturday art classes to kids recently and got my first piece of fan mail ever! There's a little girl named Claudia in the class, and we have a routine greeting each Saturday: she says "Hola, Claudia!" and I say "Hola, Claudia!" At the end of the morning it's, "Chao, Claudia!", "Chao, Claudia!" The only thing sweeter is her drawing for me, of us. I think she meant to switch the "from" and "for" since she's the little girl...!

"Las Amorosas" colour piece

2006-05-29T09:36:00.000-04:00

I've been having fun with gouache, the medium I've never managed to get right, but thought I'd try it out for a colour piece for the Dear Pablo story I posted earlier. Maybe this would be a nice back cover (I picture the front cover being graphic, and if I do a series of these stories perhaps only the cover colour and title would change, as opposed to having an illustration on the covers pertaining to the story inside -- boring! predictable!).

I like hot reds, pinks and oranges next to greys and dark browns like I used in this piece.

Sweet stuff

2006-05-20T15:24:00.000-04:00

I recently finished 63 illustrations for a kids' book on the history and culture of sweets, to be published this fall by Tundra Books. Here is a sampling (no pun intended) of the work I did on it. Incidentally, a few nights ago on CBC there was an excellent documentary on the history and politics of sugar, called Big Sugar. I had nightmares that evening. Thankfully I've been off sugar for a few years and plan to keep it that way.

The book is quite appropriately called "Sweet!"

Chirp, chirp!

2006-05-13T17:40:00.000-04:00

Most of my commissioned illustration work is in my digital style, using Illustrator for the shapes and colours and then adding shading in Photoshop, no outlines. This is one of my first successful pieces that was a vertical double-page spread published in Chirp magazine in 2002 as a family tree photo project. Guess where the family photos go... : ) I'm happy with this piece because I hate drawing animals but think this turned out cute, with that quiet winter feel of a grey day.

La Parra

2006-05-12T22:58:00.000-04:00

As much as Victor Jara is a hero to me, he was influenced enormously by Violeta Parra who was also a folksinger in rural Chile, singing songs about political injustices against the poor, among other things. Here she is playing the charango, a crazy little guitar with 10 strings that is often made with armadillo shells. My charango is vegan. When I play it it sounds like the noise an armadillo might make. But not Violeta. She played it like an angel.

Dear Pablo

2006-05-09T19:42:00.000-04:00

In my mind a superhero should take care of wounded souls and show some compassion to disregarded victims of love crimes -- and truly, aren't all crimes betrayals of love? I present Las Amorosas, a trio of urban women who work as sous-chefs at Juice for Life. Their love for humanity at the personal level has given them the power to sense others' pain and help heal them through unwavering compassion. This first story shows an Amorosa attending to one such broken-hearted lad.

Pen on paper, digital collage and photoshop.

A hero to many

2006-05-07T22:43:00.000-04:00

I am working on a personal project of "heroes". This is a result of thinking and pondering and realizing I had no one to look up to as a mentor in anything meaningful to me. How many people are lucky enough to know someone like this in their lives? Also, I thought more specifically of unsung heroes, especially Latino ones. This is Victor Jara, a folk singer from Chile who sang songs of peace and el pueblo before being executed during the military coup on September 11, 1973 in my birth country.

You may notice a variety of style in the Fran Pages... I have yet to narrow it down to a bonafide style of my very own, and may never do so...!

To deaf ears

2006-05-06T00:16:00.000-04:00

A summer ago I realized how preposterous my neighbours' behaviour was when it came to front yard care. Behaviour that included watering the interlocking brick (no lawn), presumably to clean it (instead of using a broom), and watering the garden as rain clouds were rolling in. These are a few little drawings that resulted from those observations, which I put together as photocopied little flyers and put in each neighbour's mailbox, many of which I found flying around the street later in the day. Drawn in pen and black watercolour.

Hello, friends!

2006-05-05T23:57:00.000-04:00

Despite already having 2 other blogs (Fran's House of Ayurveda and Dumplings of the World, Unite!), I felt compelled to start a third, this one for my personal drawings, ongoing art projects and commissioned illustrations. I hope you enjoy them and I'd love to hear your thoughts on what you see.

This blog I think will push me to do less work and more art in my day, which is always a goal. On that note, til soon!

~ Claudia