Ingredients for a Chocolate Cake! | Cottagecore cute and cozy kitchen tools

 

I combined some paintings, originally created for Bloom Puzzles' "Baking Day" puzzle, to create a little chocolate cake recipe design. As it is currently the season of love, this inspired the cute pink colour theme :)

Artwork © Amy Holliday 2025

www.amyholliday.co.uk

Book Cover Illustration // "Cook Healthy & Quick" by DK Publishing

This week I received a wonderful surprise in the mail from the lovely team at DK publishing. Back in August I was asked to illustrate a pair of fitting ingredients for the cover of their new book "Cook Healthy & Quick". The only request was that the paintings were soft so that they wouldn't overpower the photography. I actually finished four pea pods in varying ways so that they could choose their favourite. This was my first time working for Dorling Kindersley and they were lovely to work with. 

Seeing my work on the finished book cover is fantastic, and I'm incredibly pleased with the results!

My lemon illustration was also used in its entirety on the reverse side of the jacket.

  The book is a new release this month (January 2016) and is packed full of excellent healthy recipes.

Images and artwork (C) Amy Holliday 2016

To see more of my work visit www.amyholliday.co.uk

Avocado Studies // Watercolour + Graphite VS Watercolour + Ink

A little experiment with a simple subject matter, the humble but super healthy avocado fruit. A lot of people believe the majority of my work is made with watercolour and ink, yet this is not the case as I usually don't use any ink. So! I thought I would give ink a go - here is a comparison showing the two techniques on different illustrations of the same subject. 

Here is my regular go-to technique, simply graphite and watercolour:

More avocado studies, this time using watercolour and ink:

I really enjoyed using the ink with my watercolour - surprisingly it is also a little quicker to complete than my usual graphite and watercolour technique. It does seem to create a different overall look to the illustration, perhaps a more fun, sketchy vibe than the traditional, more polished feel the graphite exudes. I will definitely continue to experiment with the watercolour + ink more.

Do you have a favourite out of the two styles? Let me know your preference in the comments! :)

Artwork (C) Amy Holliday 2015. Please do not use without permission.