"Hello! My name is Francis. I am an illustrator and full time Associate Professor of Illustration at The College for Creative Studies. I received my B.F.A. from Ringling College of Art and my M.A. from Savannah College of Art (4.0 GPA). I've been working as an illustrator for 17 years in the comic book, video game, publishing, and gallery industries. I have spoken at numerous industry conferences and art colleges, and regularly provide guest instruction at national workshops. My book "Jazz Day" was the recipient of the "Boston Globe Horn Book award for Best Picture Book" and received the most awards of any children's book published that year. My following book, Anansi Boys, written by Neil Gaiman won Spectrum Gold, the D&AD Pencil, and other awards. I just recently received a prestigious 2023 Kresge Visual Arts Fellowship. Whether it is creating a comic cover for Image Comics or working as a production designer for an ESports campaign, I bring my wealth of industry experience and teaching background into my tutor offerings.

My lessons are based on your experience. For an artist looking for fundamental instruction, I offer sessions on the topics of drawing, composition, and media exploration (identifying which media works best for you and how to master it). For the artist that is developing their portfolio for college, I offer portfolio prep. For the more experienced artist I offer sessions that work to develop your style. Lastly, I offer sessions focused on navigating your chosen art industry which covers branding, promotion, and business practices.

I design my sessions around three goals: historical precedent, study and copy, application. We will explore how something has been done before in the past, work through lectures and demonstrations on how to develop whatever skill is being sought after followed by copying the masters, and then application with our own voice.

Feel free to reach out to me with any questions or concerns. I look forward to working with you!" less...