Radio Times // BBC Proms 2015: The First Night of the Proms

I was very excited to be asked by Radio Times magazine to illustrate "the first night of the Proms" which was due to air on BBC Radio 3 on Friday. I came up with a number of various designs, compositions and colour schemes before a favourite was selected. 

I drew inspiration from the page's purple colour scheme and incorporated this into illustration. Drawing the Royal Albert Hall and classical instruments provided an interesting change to the norm. :)  

This work was commissioned via my agent, Lemonade, who very kindly sent me a copy of the issue featuring my work.

 

rough thumbnail ideas:

practice sketches:

Artwork is (C) Amy Holliday 2015 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.

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.

Starsigns 2012: Libra Scales

This is my second post about this series, (see the first post about Cancer here)

Next up: Libra! I saw a challenge in depicting the only "inanimate" sign, which is what drew me to tackle this one next. I wanted to include some more celestial influences in this one, and also became inspired to include a nod to the zodiac's ancient Greek origins! Here is my finished design, alongside my previous Cancer illustration.

I have been trying out some very painterly-styled fonts with these, trying a normal vs a reversed/inverted style before picking my favourite to use within the final design. Here they are together.

Images are (C) Amy Holliday and are not to be used without permission, thank you!

More Fruits: Lemons and Blackberries

I set myself a challenge to re-illustrate the graphic for the Twinings' tea "Green tea with lemon". I also wanted to experiment with various styles and approaches to a subject, and lemons seemed like a good, simple subject to do.

As well as some quite detailed and highly textured studies, I also tried some simpler versions, using less colours and for others, minimal brush strokes.

 My final design:

I also painted some juicy and very ripe blackberries. They were fun to do but it was difficult to select the best colours to use, as I found that I wanted to highlight the rich shades in order to really emphasise their juicyness, but I had to do so without making them appear unnaturally colourful!

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.