Makes illustrations of French tribesmen (7)
I believe the answer is:
depicts
'makes illustrations' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are verbs in their -s form, I can't understand how one could define the other.
'of french tribesmen' is the wordplay.
'of french' becomes 'de' ('of' in French).
'tribesmen' becomes 'picts' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'de'+'picts'='DEPICTS'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for depicts that I've seen before include "outlines" , "Paints or draws something" , "Describes or shows as picture" .)