Milk Packaging Completed

I went back and added more colour to my typeface to give it more of an impact and to complement the colour scheme of the illustrations. I painted over the top of my pencil drawing in Photoshop:

 Today I finished photographing my milk carton designs and point of sale stand, which completes the uni brief of illustrating/designing milk packaging that is aimed at children and parents.

I also finished building my website! http://www.amyholliday.co.uk

Tourist "Camel Trek" Camels of Tunisia & the Sahara Desert

The series was inspired by last summer's visit to Tunisia and a Camel trek in the Sahara desert! I worked from photographs which supplied a change from my recent life studies. I wanted to capture the atmosphere by showing distance through differences in scale and conveying the variety of textures.

Click to view full-size images.

Here are some early camel drawings and rug patterns; I found coloured pencils brought out the surface of the paper underneath which created quite a believable fabric texture:

 I added colour as well as textures, experimenting with various implements and techniques until I got the hot, dusty atmosphere I desired:

 

 

 

I incorporated my rug patterns into the drawings:

I experimented with different ways of drawing the camels. The elongated shadows and different viewpoints can make the desert seem a very alien environment, especially at sunset:

I focused on the foreground details and textures for some up-close camels:

The final composition: (click for larger view!)

 

 

 

2012 Edit: The evolution of a project! This is a good step by step example of how I work and progress through a project, from early drawings, to experimental stages, to producing many studies of the subject before selecting the best to use for the final illustration(s). 

Hare Tattoo

I did a quick tattoo design for a friend, she asked for "a silhouette of a slender looking hare/rabbit". I started by making studies of hares and possible positions for it before asking her to choose which one she liked the best. I then worked on the chosen design to establish cleaner lines before going over it in pen.

She is very pleased with the result!

Budgies and Bunnies

During my first visit to the pet shop to draw the fish, my attention was caught by the lively, brightly coloured budgies they had in the next room. I just had to go back there a second time to draw them.

I not only wanted to capture the vibrant colours, but also their movements and characteristics.

 

On the same trip to the pet shop, I also made some sketches of the English rabbits.

Dairy Cattle Studies for my upcoming Milk Packaging Illustrations

Brief: Produce illustrations for and create a brand new range of milk packaging aimed at both children and parents.

For my illustrations, I spent a morning at a local livestock market making studies of the dairy cattle being sold. I make sketches while I was there and took photographs to use for colour references later on.

I could not find a typeface that I was happy to use within my milk carton designs, so I designed my own, keeping the buttercup-filled grass theme in mind:

Milk packaging designs to come, once I photograph them!

Fish Studies: Exploring movement through drawing, watercolours and ink.

I set myself the personal brief of capturing the fluidity and movement of fish. I decided to use a local pet shop for reference so I took my sketchbook along to do some studies of their various types of goldfish. 

 

I was also interested to find out how I would illustrate their transparency using my watercolours, so when I got home I added colour to the sketches:

I wanted to recreate the sense of life my initial pet shop drawings had and so it was suggested to me that I work at a very large scale and draw with very fluid lines. I used India ink and a large paintbrush on A1 (ish) sized card to produce new, very large, fish drawings:  

 

I experimented on some of the large scale ones with coloured inks, before altering the black ink lines in Photoshop to add more colour:

  

I then wanted to see if I could simplify the fishes' design so I restricted myself to only a few lines:

One of the tutors at my university wanted a photograph of my ink-fish obsession for the blog, and got me to lay them out around the studio! You can get a feel for how big each piece actually is!  (Click for a bigger view)

After photographing the large ink drawings, I printed them at A4 and A3 and experimented with my watercolours on top of them:

I found that I wanted to add colour to the whole of the image including the black lines, so I used Photoshop to add colour and after scanning in some separate watercolour textures, brought the two elements together:

I was now feeling like I was getting closer to a more polished outcome with my ink designs. I then completed a series of compositions and patterns to show the finished fish designs off:

I played around with other colours too; such as these reds for the moors, but I found they weren't "watery" enough in comparison to their blue versions.