allison sommers art.

the inside

This made me laugh as I was sketching around last night-- behold, the inner scaffolding of those long-necked fellows.  Goofy even at their barest minimum.

The Alchemist & His Son.

 
3.5 x 5.5 gouache on illustration board.  Click for a bit larger.

The pride bursts in his besmocked chest as they sit for their first portrait.  Can't you just hear the little fellow now?  "DAAaaad..."

Click for detail.

Apologies to my little brother Taylor, whom this boy resembles uncannily.  T does have all parts accounted for, of course.

/Illustration Friday: One man's experimentation is another man's paternal love.  It's your opinion.

the astronomer.

4.75 x 4.5 gouache on Rives BFK.

This is a little sketchbook doodle that I decided to paint to try out the Rives BFK I just ordered.  I'm going to have to see what technique it best suits, because the way I typically work is a little too tough for this paper, apparently-- I guess illustration board really does put up with a lot of abuse.  I found the paper too mealy, if that makes any sense, particularly with pencil lines.  I just have some more fiddling to do.

After I was done with the observatory mistress, I realized she reminded me vaguely of the trolls from David The Gnome-- anyone remember that show?  And Der Kleine Maulwurf influenced the background treatment & flora... apparently my doodle-wanderings are referencing children's shows lately....

P.S. (this is my favorite episode of Maulwurf.  Doesn't show the typical background, but it's fantastic-- and has the best music at the beginning, I catch myself whistling it sometimes...)

PB & Justine go for walkies.

Paperclay, gouache, glass beads, string, feathers, & cicada nymph skin, around 5" tall.

"Every morning, right around nine, you'll see him in his monogrammed jacket, walking that dreadful pet of his... he always mumbles forgotten songs to himself to drown out her incessant noise..."

I'm so pleased to share this dapper fellow and his lady pet.  I'll admit I've had the initial lump of him around for a month, even two; he was an aborted paperclay project until it occurred to me last week to take an X-acto knife to it-- ah, you can actually carve this stuff.  I've been struggling to find my medium in sculpture-- I have lots of ideas, but can't quite seem to express them in the media I've tried-- but with the combined sculpting & carving of paperclay (plus, not even having to leave the comfort zone of gouache), I might be getting closer.  Expect more in the future.

Justine began life (so to speak) as a cicada nymph skin, discarded (& quiet for once) at the end of the summer-- here in Virginia you find them clinging to stone walls and tree bark and pretty much anything else they can get their legs hooked into.  I've lived here for years but still find them irresistible & collect the best ones I can find.

When I had begun to paint him, it started to become a little uncanny-- he really does occupy space in the way I imagine all those longnecks in my paintings do-- it was a little too real.  I may spend an awful lot of time painting these fellows, but I sure as hell don't want them in the "real" world-- they're trouble.

Click for details.

pastry contest

 
1.25 x 2.25" gouache on illustration board.  Click for larger.

the plague herder & errata.

detail, ~5 x 7 (original, 8 x 10) gouache on illustration board.  Click for larger.

"The dogies are really quite sweet when you get acclimated to their mournful clicks...  They sweep their moustachey faces over yours in the wee hours of the morning, waiting to get fed... they've gotten quite used to the blood sausages, and it's very rare now that I find them eying my ankles for a quick bite..."

—from Unsung Heroes of the Latter Half of our Lord Pfeffigrew's Century: Diarye of a Plague Herder.

click for details:

Also, Me and You:
 
1.25 x 2.25" graphite on bristol board.  Click for larger.

Also, a quick peek at my studio hovel last night-- oy vey!  Head on over to flickr for annotations.

Thompson's Feral Hoo-dē-coot

1.25 x 2.25" gouache on illustration board.

in ictu oculi.

3.5 x 8.75 gouache on illustration board.

Perhaps because fall reminds me of college (and thus, my long hours spent holed up in the library with the Golden Legend or other such dry medieval tomes)-- or perhaps it's the colors, or Halloween-- I always seem to have elderly art on the brain around this time of year.  It's so indulgent-- little restraint on meaning or composition, just pile it all in there like so many pieces of candy.  Thus, timely for the festivities later this week, I present to you In Ictu Oculi, in all its overladen mock (well...) pretentiousness.

(It was intended originally to be entitled a little less obscurely as Memento Mori, but after a bit more research I named it after a beautiful Valdés Leal piece I saw... I nod to the previous title, at least, in the priest's stole, and offer apologies to the ghost of Valdés Leal.)

the illuminated manuscript reads "Lorem Ipsum..." across the pages... *ducks tomatoes*

click for details:

p.s. I am among the perpetually dieting, so painting all those goodies was pure torture... all that icing!... I can't wait for Friday.  I'm going to eat an entire bag of candy corn and lay around the apartment moaning and holding my stomach...

redcap.

1.25 x 2.25" gouache on illustration board.
(She's the same size as this fellow.)

Trepidation on his face?

the expulsion

8 x 10 gouache on illustration board.

That morning the group's members awoke to find a High Council Bull nailed to each and every one of their doors, final and on pain of death absolute:

Fie, away with thee!  Take thy beasts and leave our ancestral home!

click for details: