MORE ABOUT ALLISON

​Allison Peairs was born in Santa Ana, California in 1990. Peairs works predominantly in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, but often incorporates an infusion of both traditional and digital media to create the most effective imagery. Peairs completed a BFA in Illustration with honors in 2013 at Cal State Long Beach. She has had her illustrations featured by numerous Bay Area musicians, and was a contributing illustrator for the 826 Valencia writing center. Peairs currently resides in Long Beach, where she attends CSULB once again working hard to earn her single subject teaching credential in art education.

A TOUR OF ONE OF MY ILLUSTRATIONS

Here is a podcast I made to describe my work process by exploring one of my favorite illustrations. 

The Script

“My name is Allison and I am a story teller. Well, I’m technically an illustrator but in my opinion they’re one in the same since my favorite part of illustrating is the story telling aspect. When I make an illustration I usually have a story I’d like to tell first. I ask myself questions like, “Who are my characters?” “Where do my characters live?” “How to they interact with each other?” After I’ve answered these questions, I start to play around in my sketchbook and dream up different ways I can use to illustrate my story in an interesting way.

 For my latest illustration it all started with an odd fascination I have with raccoons. At one point I had been seeing them all over the city, which inspired me. It inspired me to make an illustration telling the story of a raccoon after a long night’s of scavenge.

 After I settle on my story, the fun begins. DRAWING!

 I usually start with a rough sketch in Photoshop. I use a light color to map out the flow of the image. Once I’m happy with my foundation, I go back in and build on top of my sketch with an ink brush and I start refining shapes.  This is the most time consuming step in my process because I tend to draw with a mixture of confidence and uncertainty, meaning that I’ll draw a shape. Erase it. Draw another shape, and erase it again. And so on, and so on. In this inking phase I use my line work to create texture movement, and definition. I try to give my illustration personality.  Finally, I incorporate color. For this raccoon illustration I wanted to emphasize the line work in the drawing, so I went with a minimal color pallet. I used the complimentary colors yellow and violet try and give the drawing a soft luminous quality.

 At the end of it all, my ambition is to entice my viewer with details. To invite them to peek into my imagination, and see the world from another perspective. And to also, perhaps inspire them to tell their own stories.”