expressions and happy NEW YEAR!

The happiest of New Years to everyone! 07 was great, 08 should prove to be even better. Art-wise I have many simultaneous projects going on right now. The sketches above are for a top-secret illo that I'm almost done with. Unfortunately I can't reveal the final piece for a week or so, but I'm really excited with the direction that it's going. A few of the heads above are courtesy of copying Mr. Rockwell to help me understand how he got those perfect expressions on his characters.

In other news, I 'll be heading to Seattle this Thursday for the Revelations art workshop ! Soon after I'll be heading to the other corner of the country to Sarasota, FL to head back to school. Once I get back I'll finish up my projects from over break before classes get too heavy.

New Year's resolutions:
-PAINT MORE!!!!
-attend the Illustration Academy over the summer
-attend Comic Con in San Diego
-make it to the Rockwell museum
......if I can make all of these 2008 will be all kinds of great!!

take care,
-francis

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

Digging the Template Change??

airport drawings + my pops

So I'm setting up shop in my old room. CRT monitor and all..haha. But I've spent some time in the airport lately so I'll start uploading a few of the drawings I did while waiting. I've been wanting to experiment with a lot of digital coloring stuff so I'm going to try some new things.

I'm pretty happy with the top image. I don't know if my dad appreciates it since he is about 30 lbs lighter than the drawing I did of him. But I've been stressing so much with color it was fun to do a b&w focused piece. I'm thinking I may want to do a monoprint or some kind of traditional flat color to this, once I get back to the studios.

The 3rd image page was a 2-3 minute sketch (I hope to get my "tight" work this alive) of a guy that was obviously getting uncomfortable from me drawing him. I have to give credit to Sonia Pulido (http://soniapulido.blogspot.com/ ) for inspiring the colors on this.

take care,
-francis

p.s. I'm doing this on a goofy monitor, if you could please let me know if the colors/values look off that would help me out with calibrating this thing over the next couple of weeks..thanks!!

new caricatures!

Hey guys! So classes have ended and I celebrated by doing some caricatures for some great locals from Tampa Bay, Sarasota, and Orlando. I'm a little bummed since my camera is dying a little more every day and most of these pics are a little blurry/grainy. You can still make out the gist of the images though! I'll be in Detroit Friday night, so from then until early January it will be a little harder to post without a scanner and all but I'll do the best to keep blogging. As this may be my last blog before Christmas....MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!!!!!

take care,

-francis

galas, pearls, and suits

Christmas is almost here, I can't believe it! Classes are wrapping up and I'll be heading home to spend some time with the family and girlfriend. But this time is always the busiest so here is some stuff I've been goofing with.

The top image is a work in progress of a book cover to John Steinbeck's "The Pearl. I was hoping I could get some feedback on it as I head into the final.

The other two images are from the "Tata Gala" which was a fund raiser show for Breast Cancer where the theme was none other than breasts. I'm not sure the final numbers but we raised a lot of money!!! The event was hosted by Erik Jones, check out his great work at http://irison.blogspot.com/ . Other artists were Nathan Fox, George Pratt, and Phil Noto as well as myself, among others.

The last image is a figure painting I recently did. It's a bummer that I missed the last session as there were still some things I would have liked to touch up. O well. take care!

-francis

Finished "Sagging Pants"

Hey guys. Finally! finished this beast. Thanks Laura ( http://lauractemple.blogspot.com/ ) for taking the awesome photos! 95% oil paint, a little digital modifications.

take care-

francis

p.s. And if you get the chance, read "How I Make a Picture" by Norman Rockwell. Best book I have ever read.