Leanne Franson

Hi! I am a Canadian illustrator, cartoonist, ceramist. I have been illustrating books since the early 1990s, the great majority in French Canada. Myself, I am a bilingual anglophone (French), who moved from the prairies to Montreal, Quebec, for 30 years! I have worked with such editors as Scholastic, Annick Press, Orca, Dominique et Cie, Soulières éditeur, Pearson, on picture books (des albums), chapterbooks (romans jeunesse), textbooks (educatif), magazines (revues). I am most inspired by emotions, animals and children... I am just as likely to draw a child who wet the bed or mourning the death of a friend, as I am to draw happy kids skipping in the sunshine. I love imparting emotions to animals as well, through body language and expression. I use acrylic inks in a watercolour manner over digital line drawings printed on watercolour paper. This allows both control and spontaneity.

When I was feeling blocked after university, I started drawing semi-autobiographical comics, first published as photocopied zines, featuring liliane bi-dyke. I used rapidograph pens to do gestural line drawings, with little concern to the "trained artist" values I held myself to in other art. My comics were published in several anthologies and comic books, mostly those celebrating women or lgbtq+ themes. I also drew three plus years of daily comics in 2003-2007 (Keenspace/Comicgen), and I am putting them out again currently on Facebook (liliane bi-dyke).

There have been big changes in the publishing industry over the past 30 yrs, as well as me becoming a mother, and then a homeschooling mom. Being overwhelmed brought on mental health issues, anxiety, depression, and a diagnosis of adult ADHD! All of which meant I was drawing less and less. So, having the space in our current acreage home, I started doing ceramics seriously for the first time since the late 1980s. Since 2016, I have been creating handthrown stoneware pottery and hand modeled wee porcelain animals, which I sell on Etsy. I also take custom orders, especially ceramic pet portraits. On Etsy, Facebook and Instagram, my ceramics are ScatteredFingers.

I am currently spending time on creative exploration, taking classes on Domestika, trying to get myself to have fun drawing and painting again. My interests are drawing from nature, creating animal characters, integrating my cartooning skills into my illustrations, doing personal production outside of contracts, widening my styles and use of media.

I hope to wed this creative exploration to expanding my online presence, updating my website, getting more involved in Instagram, Twitter, learning to make reels and other videos to present my art, opening a shop to sell my original artwork. With luck, this will be a time of great growth and explosion of creativity back into the world after somewhat of a hiatus. Very exciting!