About the Artist
Hi! My name is DeAnna, but I illustrate under my two middle names - Francine Maile - both of which I inherited from my grandmas. I’m Native Hawaiian (as well as Chinese, Filipino, Portuguese, and Puerto Rican), born and raised on Maui, Hawaiʻi, and now residing in the Pacific Northwest with my wonderful husband and our three cute and kolohe (mischievous) cats.
My art journey began in 2020 during the covid pandemic. I originally went to school for human biology and public health, graduating with my bachelor’s degree from Stanford University and my master’s in public health from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. After a few years of working in public health administration, I decided I needed a change. Instead I chose a more creative path: first trying my hand at creative writing; failing to publish, but succeeding at completing a certificate program in editing from the University of Washington. I then somehow found my way to video game testing for a few short months before the pandemic hit.
Like the rest of the world, I found myself “stuck” at home during lockdown. (Stuck is in quotations because I’m a hardcore introvert who loves to stay at home in her dragon cave. While my extroverted husband was going a little stir-crazy, our cats and I were in our element.) This was also when my friends and I started playing D&D virtually, which led me to draw my own character portrait, then their character portraits, and other friends’ character portraits, and everything kind of snowballed from there. Here’s my very first portrait from 2020 (top), and a recent 2025 Arcane fanart portrait (bottom).
Five years later, I’m finally confident and comfortable with calling myself an artist. I’ve found my bliss and passion in creating illustrations and patterns, making prints, cards, and more, as well as sharing my culture and inspiration with the world.