Victoria Francés

Victoria Francés (born October 25, 1982) is a Spanish illustrator.

Life
Francés was born in Valencia, Spain on October 25, 1982, though she spent part of her childhood in Galicia. She returned to her hometown to earn her degree from the San Carlos School of Fine Arts, at the Polytechnic University of Valencia.

The first volume of the Favole trilogy was her first illustrated work to be published. Manifested throughout the entirety of the Favole trilogy (2004–07) are themes emerging from Dark Romanticism, highly influenced by both the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and well-known works of Gothic art. Her work received a number of awards and achieved great success in countries where it was published. Dark Horse became interested in her work, which allowed the work of Francés to be published in North America. She made her first public appearance at the XXII Barcelona Comic Convention. There are calendars featuring her artwork, as well as other promotional merchandise, such as posters, puzzles, and tarot cards. In 2007, the course of her artistic career took another direction with the publication of Arlene’s Heart (El Corazón de Arlene) by Planeta DeAgostini.

In 2009, she published the first volume in her Misty Circus series (Norma Editorial) based on the world of the travelling circus, but written for a younger audience. In the same year, Dark Sanctuary was published (Astiberri Ediciones), written in collaboration with Dark Sanctuary, a “Dark Atmospheric” band from France.

The second volume in the Misty Circus series is entitled The Night of the Witches (La Noche de las Brujas), published in 2010.

In 2011, the Favole trilogy was re-edited to create one single volume entitled Integral Favole (Norma Editorial), a compilation of the three books in addition to unpublished sketches and illustrations. In 2012, Ocean's Lament (El Lamento del Océano) was published, in which the author features a listless, spectral mermaid as the main protagonist..

Francés makes images for her merchandise, undertaking commissioned work and collaborating with other artists on works, including the illustration “Hekate” for the album “Luna” for the German Pagan Folk band, Faun, and the artwork for a project entitled "Naked Harp," which was made by the Pagan Folk band, Omnia.

At the end of 2014, Francés presented a new project named MandrakMoors in collaboration with the South Korean bjd doll company, FairyLand. For this project, the author decided to combine both the work of new character design, specifically of characters related to the world of witchcraft and pagan traditions, with the subsequent creation of bjd dolls, in partnership with FairyLand.

Style
Francés and her style are inspired by the Gothic movement, and her work contains characters such as ghostly women wearing long dresses with vampirical attributes. Her illustrations tend to depict solitary characters, young women, or couples in a romantic or melancholic atmosphere. She is influenced by a number of writers, including Edgar Allan Poe, Anne Rice, Goethe, Baudelaire, Bram Stoker, as well as illustrators such as Brian Froud, Arthur Rackham, Edmund Dulac or Luis Royo and bands like Dark Sanctuary, whom she worked with in 2009.