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.

Fruit Study // Juicy Blue Blueberries

Watercolour studies of some juicy blueberries! There's nothing better than a refreshing, sweet berry addition to breakfast (or a smoothie) in summer. 

Sealife/Crustaceans Series: Atlantic Blue Crab

Self-initiated. Another addition to the sealife and crustacean series - a beautiful Atlantic Blue crab. 

They may look like aliens, but lots of people love to eat them, as the Atlantic blue is another popular edible crustacean. I just think they are super cool creatures. 

This one was especially inspired by scientific/educational illustration styles.

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

Parrots in Love! Red and Blue Macaw Pair // Avairy Logo

I recently had the pleasure of painting more macaw parrots. This time a loved-up couple to be used as a new logo for the wonderful "Feathered Companions Avairy" in Delmar, Maryland. The aviary breeds many kinds of parrots, but the stars of the show are of course the big-hearted and beautiful macaws. 

It was great to work on the parrots' face detail this time, (my previous paintings are less detailed)

:: Process and Roughs...

There were many possibilities for the design, which I drew inspiration for from the aviary's own photos. Below are just some of my exploratory drawings...

...in flight and very happy:

...and a baby.

You can find previous posts with my macaws series from 2011 here:

Blue and Gold

Catablu

Scarlet 

Catalina

Military 

More Sketches

All images are (C) Amy Holliday 2014.
Please contact me first to seek permission before using. Thank you!

4G British Isles Map // for O2 UK Magazine October 2013

In August I was absolutely thrilled to illustrate for UK telecommunications brand O2.

O2 required a watercolour map in their signature brand colours, to show their 4G coverage in England, Scotland and Wales. I also provided the sea background as well as they pink and blue markers, leaving O2 to then added the labels.

This is a full page illustration which features in this month's magazine, available to pick up free in stores all over the UK, I've already got my copy!

 

 

 

 

 

All images are (C) Amy Holliday 2013, please do not use without permission.

Sketchbook: Mini Pegasus!

Just something a little different I thought I'd share. 

This doodle is only a few centimeters big but I was just dying to add a few licks of colour.
I used to doodle horses a lot when I was little (what animal-obsessed girl didn't!)
and I have only just started to draw them again......  

Updates of new work coming soon!

(C) Amy Holliday 2013 not to be used without permission.

Cat Breed Studies: Siamese

The final of my large cat series for now, a very playful Siamese. I used a more subtle colour-scheme for this one to emphasize the delicate neutral colours of the fur. More info on this feline breed series can be found in the previous post here. 

More cats:

Maine Coon

Russian Blue

Ginger Tabby

Silver Tabby

Siamese

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

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)

Peacocks!

 The first two of some very experimental painting with the peas...with a very abstract approach to their tails. I've been meaning to paint peacocks for so long now so it feels good to finally do it! I saw the first one as a complete disaster at first and I'm still not totally ok with it...but it seems worthy enough to post. The second is more true to what I'm going for! (click for a bigger view)

Blue and Gold Macaw (Parrot number two)

I actually coloured the rest of my parrot drawings straight in my sketchbook, but they kind of lacked the...sparkle...the first one had, so I'm now transferring them all onto watercolour paper, like the first, before re-painting them. I have finally learned the value of decent paper!

Wild Scarlet Macaw Appeared!

The first to be completed in my series of macaws. I had a bit of a paper experiment with this one and actually printed the drawing onto better quality paper before painting it. Let me know what you think! More macaws to come soon!