Tempting Teatime Treats - Cakes, doughnuts and 'vintage' tea room classics

In an attempt to expand and enhance my portfolio, I have been working on some cafe - themed illustrations. I was inspired by a visit to a vintage fair that sprang up in a field just outside of the neighbouring town during the buzz of the Queen's Jubilee celebrations.

Here are some more of my drawings, I'm hoping to paint these too. With these, I have designed a menu-style layout that I hope I can complete for my website with all of the finished illustrations, (you can see this on my facebook page in the sketchbook folder!)

All Images are (C) Amy Holliday. You may not use without permission.

Pet Portraits - gerbil babies, budgies and fancy goldfish

These are some pet portrait commissions I have completed recently.

This little series was a commission for a5-sized paintings of three gerbil portraits and one budgie. I worked from photo references but the client had some requests for little extras which I added in too.

 The rainbow was an unexpected request, and it called for some practice and experimenting with various techniques before I painted the final piece.

This handsome boy's name is Merlin, so he needed a bit of extra magic! 

Another recent pet portait was of this playful chappy named Bartholomew (the best name for a fish I have ever heard)

More Flamingos!

 More "'mingos", just some personal work. I played around with some grouping - some of them pair up nicely, and some even look at home in a three. What is it with me and birds? They're just so full of energy and life, it makes them a lot of fun to illustrate. Flamingos have a contrasting mix of both grace and vitality about them that makes them very interesting birds.

Flamingos!

I'm working on some flamingos! I really love their knees, so I want to make sure they stand out...more to come!

Art is (C) Amy Holliday, please do not use without my permission

"New Home" and "Home Sweet Home" Nest Typography

 I have finally completed my "new home" and "home sweet home" typography, using my original "nested" letters as the starting point. They probably still need some tweaking, but for now, here they are.

BBC Wildlife Competition 2012 and Glossom Feature!

BBC Wildlife Competition

Ooh the new blogspot layout is niice! I am very excited to let you know that four of my illustrations have made it to the finals in BBC Wildlife Magazine's "Wildlife Artist of the Year 2012" competition! Wow! I'm not getting my hopes up, but I will be keeping all of my fingers and toes crossed. The four that have reached the finals are:

Glossom Feature

The lovely people at Glossom have featured my "nest" typeface on their blog. I am very honoured as it is featured alongside some excellent typography work! You can check it out here.

Work in Progress - "New Home/Home Sweet Home" Nest Banners

 Some test runs using some new letters to see how they match up and fit in with the originals before I paint them...I'm not looking forward to trying to remember how I painted the originals and what colours I used ha! (I did them a long time ago)