Peacock Wallpaper - for Desktop, iPad & iPhone/iPod

I am designing some wallpapers!

Feel free to decorate your computer desktop, iPad, iPhone or iPod with them, and share them with others. I experimented with a few different layouts for the designs, but in the end it was clear that simple and clean is best, with plenty of space for desktop icons and apps. Please let me know if you like them!

First to be made into a wallpaper is his royal-blue highness, the peacock.

To download: Right click and select "open link in new window"

 

Desktop (1920 x 1080)

 



iPhone/iPod (40 x 960) 

iPad (1536 x 2048)




 



Sketchbook: Carlisle Cathedral

This is one of a few recent drawings for a potential future project involving the historic and beautiful Carlisle city... (after living there for three years during my studies at uni I have grown to love Carlisle very much!)

I may reduce the amount of detail in some areas, as I would like to have a slightly looser look to the final illustration.

And these are some very tiny and very rough idea sketches for more of the main tourist attractions in the city. Its funny to see the initial sketch of the cathedral next to the final drawing above!

Fine Art Greetings Cards by Green Pebble

I am very excited to announce that you can now buy some of my illustrations as fine art cards!

They are: the wheaten maran hen, welsummer rooster, three lutino (yellow) budgies, proud blue budgie, goldfinch pair, kingfisher and bullfinch.

Green Pebble are the makers of beautiful fine art greetings cards, and their products appear in shops, galleries and museums all over the south east of England. They are quite a new brand, and originally they started by featuring the artwork of only East-Anglian artists on their cards, however they are now branching out to feature artists work from all over England.

I am so proud to be included in their range of cards, as all of their other artists are so very talented!

You can shop my range from the Green Pebble website here

Berry-Purple "Barry M" & Coral "Maybelline" Nail Polish in Watercolour

Just a bit of experimentation with something different - I prefer illustrating animals and nature but I wanted to challenge myself to do something cosmetic and shiny, and really make those colours pop. These are some of my favourite nail polishes I had laying around.

Finished final piece: 

All Images are (C) Amy Holliday

Do not use without permission.

Peacock Feather Logo Design for "Argus"

This was something I did a few months ago now, although I still feel it is worth sharing. A small business approached me to create a pair of logos for their "Argus" name, using my peacock feather illustration and the "Harrington" font. (Even though I already had the elements I needed to create the logo, it was a big surprise to be asked, as logo 'design' is not something I can say I do very often!)

I experimented with various placements of the feather around the Argus name and came up with many ways in which the logo could be done.

After a few tweaks, the following are the resulting final pair of logos which are to be used for the business's website and office stationary.

 Here are some of my previous experiments. I enjoyed fitting the shapes together and seeing if I could create a flowing, oragnic shape that flowed in harmony with the type.

I was surprised at how well my feather illustration lent itself to a more structured shape/design. Using my illustrations/putting them into context reminds me of how versatile illustration has the power to be.

 

 

As an alternative version and to simply see how it would work, this full peacock design was also considered, but we decided that it was slightly too extravagant for this particular purpose!

Prints & Products Update on Society 6

I have been adding more prints & products (packs of greetings cards, iPhone/iPod cases, T-shirts) to my shop on Society6 lately. You can find it here!

For today only there is also free shipping! when you use this link: http://society6.com/amyholliday?promo=586bbb

If there are any pieces that you would like to buy as a print/pack of greetings cards/iPod/iPhone case or T-shirt that are not on the site yet, let me know and I will do my best to make it available for you!

Computer Arts Opinion Slot "The Business of being an Illustrator"

This month's issue of Computer Arts magazine has included an opinion slot, written by myself! I was asked to write an opinion article focusing on my first year of being a freelance illustrator and how winning the Graduate Showcase competition last year has helped me. (I almost turned it down at first as of course I am no writer, and I wasn't sure what to focus on as there are so many points I could make and issues I could talk about...!)

Every author of the opinion slots in Computer Arts are illustrated by Constanze Moll, who won the Computer Arts Graduate Showcase 2009! Here is the page and article as it is in the magazine, (click for a larger view)