Happy Holidays! // Mince Pie

Happy Holidays everyone! Hope you all enjoy your festivities and have a very happy start to the new year. Thank you for all your support this year, it means a lot to me. See you all in 2015!

Sneaky Peek #4: Romantic Candlelit Bistro

(C) Amy Holliday 2014, please do not use without permission.

Personal // Lemur King! (Tribute to The Ring Tailed Lemurs of Madagascar)

A little personal piece I've gradually built on over the last few months. Lemurs are amazing little creatures with huge personalities and it is so sad that there are so few left in the wild. (90% of their Madagascan forest home has been lost to produce agricultural land for man's livestock). We must not let the remaining forests be destroyed, or we will lose these loving, funny little characters forever.

Artwork is (C) Amy Holliday 2014. Please do not use without permission.

Twinings Infusions Packaging // My Watercolours!

These little mock-ups are a personal experiment I did earlier this year but silly me forgot to post them! I wanted to see how my style would look gracing the front of the lovely Twinings tea packaging. These fruits and herbs are from my November 2013 project: (here) and I added my own watercolour wash for the backgrounds.

I think the Twinings range kind of suits my watercolours...what do you think?
 

Artwork (C) Amy Holliday 2014. Please do not use without permission.

Sneaky Peek #2: Lavender Pot

Another snippet of new work :)

(C) Amy Holliday 2014 please do not use without permission.

Mediterranean & Arabic Sweets: Baklava and Turkish Delight

Some little baklava and turkish delight. I did these alongside a project as they were sketches that didn't make the final cut but I decided to finish them anyway! :)

I enjoyed lots of baklava desserts and turkish delight sweets during travels to Greece, Turkey and Tunisia - have you tried them? Baklava are layers of filo pastry, syrup and ground nuts; the coconut and pistachio flavours are very popular. Authentic Turkish delight really is a "delight" that melts in the mouth, so good!

 

 Let me know what you think! :)

  All artwork is (C) Amy Holliday 2014. Please do not use without permission.

Sneak Peek // Red Wine

I've been much quieter than usual lately, very busy with work, family and trying to stay healthy! (i.e. life?)

I am now in the final stages of completing a large project that's been with me (on and off) since June. With no animals, flowers or fruit in sight it was daunting to say the least! Its been hard work but, I'm so pleased I've done it.

I'll share some sneak peeks before I have the go-ahead to release the full versions :)

Artwork (C) Amy Holliday 2014. Please do not use without permission.

Sketchbook: Kangaroo Studies/Sketches

Happy Autumn! Halloween Pumpkins

I can't wait for Halloween! An ever-so-slightly spooky take on the vegetables this time!

Study // Plump Purple Aubergine (Eggplant)

Another veggie produce study. This time plump, purple Aubergines. These were very experimental, it was quite a challenge in itself to decide which colour hues I was going to use.  

Images (C) Amy Holliday 2014. Please do not use without permission.

Throwback Thursday: Lovebirds

Here is a zoom-in on a pair of bright and happy love birds from 2011. Mrs Lovebird (on the left) was part of a private commission, and Mr Lovebird (on the right) was just for fun. I still have the original painting for Mr Lovebird, which is for sale in my Etsy shop.

Study // The Finest Red Ramiro Sweet Pointed Peppers

More fresh fruit/veg/food/produce studies :) Another self-initiated lesson in painting with red. Heavily inspired by the sweetest red peppers I have ever tasted, the organic kind are the best of course. Ahem, other supermarket brands are available!

Artwork is (C) Amy Holliday 2014. Please do not use without permission. 

Study // Red Royal Gala and Green Granny Smith Apples

Yummy Royal Gala and Granny Smith apples study. I tackled these with a slightly more botanical/scientific approach...

I loved painting these! Can you tell? 

Study // Fruit: Juicy, Tropical Pineapples!

Pineapple study! Pineapples are a symbol for all things tropical and exotic so I hope I have captured this in some way. 

 

It feels good to finally have a few recent personal workings scanned and finished - there has been a number of illos around my desk that I've been meditating on before I've been ready to call them truly finished. 

More coming very soon...

All content and images (C) Amy Holliday 2014 - please do not use without permission.

Study // Cherry Tomatoes on the Vine

Personal portfolio/self development work.

Yummm. This tomato study turned into a bit of a painting lesson. After scanning the finished painting I found that I wasn't overly happy with it. The tomatoes were just not red enough! I decided to re-visit them, and this time really focus on getting that rich, ripe, firm and fragrant tomato colour. I realised that in order to get the richness I was hoping for, they needed a LOT more paint. I ended up finishing a second set too which I prefer more than the first! Let me know what you think :)

All content and images (C) Amy Holliday 2014. Please do not use without permission. 

Better Homes and Gardens: "Live Well" // Photo Frames, Car Keys and Swimming Pools

The second of the two articles I worked on in the July issue of Better Homes and Gardens US magazine. For the "Live Well" section, I contributed four small spot illustrations to accompany the content.

As with the Better Health illustrations, these also required a consistent colour palette to compliment the page theme. I love those fancy "fine art" photo frames! Here they are as they appear in the magazine:

:: Process and Roughs...

Here's a variation on the car keys that didn't make the final cut.

If you missed yesterday's post on the Better Health article, you can find it here!

Thank you for reading! Please let me know what you think, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

All artwork is (C) Amy Holliday 2014 please do not use without permission.

Better Homes and Gardens: "Better Health" // Medical Clinic Illustrations

I can finally share with you my illustrations for Better Homes and Gardens US Magazine's July issue! This is one of two articles I illustrated for this issue. For the "Better Health" section, I was asked to draw four types of convenience health clinics.

They included a retail health clinic, online consult (including apps), an urgent care clinic and the emergency room. I needed a street view of the numerous clinic selection, as well as each clinic's individual front door.

This project required more research than usual as the American health care has quite a different look compared to the UK equivalents.

A consistent colour palette of blues, greens and teals was required to compliment the page theme, as well as some extra paint textures to use as page backgrounds. This main "clinic street" illustration in A3 in size.

I was thrilled to be asked to illustrate for Better Homes and Gardens. The client was so pleased with the illustrations that I even received a complimentary copy of the magazine along with a thank you card which was really lovely.

:: Process and Roughs...

Preliminary sketches for the designing of the clinics:

Thank you for reading! Let me know your thoughts! :)

All artwork is (C) Amy Holliday 2014 please do not use without permission.