Badger Family in the Snow // Merry Christmas!

One thing that has occurred in my drawing and sketching lately (somewhere in the midst of my experimentation with new subjects/themes) are woodland animals. Badgers are gorgeous little things, they remind me of dogs or little bears. So...here is very wintery illustration, inspired by Britain's beautiful badgers and the wonderful news that they have been reprieved from their cull here in the UK, hurray! Now lets see if we can use this extra time to put a stop to it happening completely. I wish you a very merry Christmas and hope you are having very happy holidays!

Close ups:

Images are (C) Amy Holliday and are not to be used 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!

Sketchbook: Smiley Cats

The limited number of daylight hours here in the north of England are limiting the time I can spend painting - and when the weather is bad it can seem like nighttime, all the time! I have lamps but nothing beats bright daylight for getting colours right. Drawing on the other hand is fine, as any light will do for that! And this I am very thankful for. Here is one of the subjects I have been sketching lately: new cats. With these I have been really aiming to capture very sweet feline faces. (Click for a larger view)

  

    

UrbanPup Ad Concepts - Update!

I recently posted about some mock advertisement illustrations I'd been working on. Well, here is an update on them! The four designs I have been concentrating on now look more complete and cohesive as a set. There are still a few tweaks that need to be made, plus I feel a bit more experimenting with textures may be in order! Your comments and opinions/feedback are very welcome.

You can go here to see my previous post about them which includes more info about the idea behind them. You can also find my initial drawings and concepts for them here.

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

New Bird Nests Illustrations // A Sneak-Peak at some details...

I can't share the full illustration with you all just yet - so for now, here are some crops of a bird-nest-related project I have just finished...

More Dairy Cow Illustrations! Jersey heads and Bursting Udders

I recently completed three more illustrations for the same client who commissioned the five during the summer. (Go here to see the previous five) There is now a total of eight(!) in the series.

I always end up learning about the subjects I draw, (apart from generally being interested I also find it helps when I understand the subject better) - but during this project I have quite simply learned that I LOVE Jersey cows, they are so beautiful!!

 Two of these three are slightly more educational  illustrations, but are still in-keeping with the same style of the others. One includes a vet checking the cow over with a stethoscope, and another shows a detailed view of the Dairy cow's udder full of milk.

Images are (C) Amy Holliday, you may not use without permission.

Starsigns 2012: Cancer Crab (Red Rock Crab)

Another personal project: Star signs for horoscopes...(something which I take an interest in since they are directly related to the true constellations, and I find all of that fascinating) The first one has turned out to be Cancer, because crabs are amazing creatures and so fun to draw. I chose the Red Rock Crab, as it is one of the few species whose latin name includes "cancer". These are an edible kind too - so they are loved around the world for more than just being cute.

I have also tried some new type with this using watercolour. I experimented with reversed colour (see below) but felt that this style suited this particular image better and was clearer to read. I may add the corresponding symbols to these perhaps the dates and/or the current horoscope.

 Works in progress: the reversed type design:

 

Images are (C) Amy Holliday and are not to be used without permission.