Sketchbook // Bird drawings: Street Pigeons

Drawing exercise - freehand, quick, loose, no erasing - some turn out fine but others not so much, but that's OK. Here is a handful of the better studies from life and some from photos. I love drawing birds!

POWER SAUCE by Essentis Berlin // Packaging Illustration for Organic Chilli Sauce

This week I had the pleasure of working with lovely people behind "Essentis" - a new brand created by chef Nicolas Petrucci. The brand "Essentis" shares its name with the popular biohotel in Berlin where Nicolas is head chef. Their first product is a pro-biotic and organic chilli-based sauce named "Power Sauce" and I was asked to create some vibrant chilli and mango-inspired 

artwork to adorn the product labels.

The initial inspiration came from my own chilli pepper painting, which I used as a base to add more colourful watercolour splashes to make it that little bit more exciting(!) and painted new mango slices to match. As you can probably tell, this was a lot of fun to paint - 

bold colour and abstract splashes? Right up my street.    

The first concept labels: 

I love how the typography works with the artwork. Here are the simplified labels on the first wave of packaging, ready to go: 

And finally, a wonderfully designed Power Sauce poster using my artwork:

Essentis Biohotel - http://essentisbiohotel.de/en/

 Artwork (C) Amy Holliday 2016

Photography (C) Essentis by Nicolas Petrucci 2016

Pattern Design // Honey Bee & Bumble Bees | Watercolour illustration bumblebee patterns

EDIT 03/01/24 - re-added artwork with watermarks. If you would like to use these illustrations and/or patterns please contact me, thank you :)

As a little side project I've been working towards perfecting the art of "repeat patterns", which I hope will help me create a variety of decorative fabrics and products with my illustrations. Some of the first I've put together are based on this small series of pollen-dusted bee paintings. Let me know if you like them.

Fluffy Bumblebees

And I couldn't forget the iconic Honey Bee. I wanted this one to be quite symmetrical to create a more uniform pattern. 

And just for fun, a fat bumblebee!

Images and artwork (C) Amy Holliday 2016

To view more of my work please visit www.amyholliday.co.uk

UK Wildlife // Squirrel Studies

A second batch of UK wild animal watercolour studies - this time its the squirrel.

The introduced US Grey Squirrel vs the resident British Red Squirrel. The grey has become the most widespread out of the two and is now the dominant species. (Luckily for me I live in the North where reds still survive, but I love both kinds!).

I also took a little time to try a softer style...

Images and artwork (C) Amy Holliday 2016

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

UK Wildlife // Red Fox Studies

I was glad to finish some paintings from one of my own personal projects this week - the first in a UK wildlife series, the red fox. I am aiming for a slightly more traditional, non-fiction approach with these but that still has my own contemporary style. What do you think?

A collection of some of the initial loose sketches: 

  

And then some of the more refined sketches, exploring various positions and face styles:

Images and artwork (C) Amy Holliday 2016

To see more of my work visit 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

Radio Times // Natural Histories Live: The Big Story

Radio Times magazine recently asked me to create another spot illustration for their radio listings. This time it was for BBC Radio 4's "Natural Histories Live: The Big Story".

"Lions, sharks, whales and apes are four well-known A-list groups of animals that have got under our skin, enthralled us with their wildness and inspired literature, film, myth and legend. But so have cockroaches and fleas and the much lesser-known burbot and mandrakes. Radio 4’s Natural Histories series has brought 25 groups of animals and plants together across 25 episodes to tell the stories of nature’s influences on human culture from across the globe.  The Big Story, a special live event presented by satirical comedian Rory Bremner and Natural Histories presenter Brett Westwood tells a story of the earth from dinosaurs to people.  With comedy, music, readings and discussion all recorded live in the spectacular Hinze Hall of the Natural History Museum, this programme tells a uniquely Big Story of 100 million years’ worth of natural history."

Being a huge lover of nature and natural history in general, as well as being a big fan of the Natural History Museum in London, I was obviously very pleased to work on this one. I was full of ideas but also had the challenge of fitting it all into small, narrow dimensions, (and a tight deadline)! After narrowing the ideas down, here were my final sketches and the finished piece.

The Radio Times Christmas Issue is now on sale around the UK.

"Natural Histories Live: The Big Story" will air on December 23rd, 8.00-9:00 pm on BBC Radio 4.
You can also listen to all 25 episodes of the "Natural Histories" radio show on the BBC iPlayer Radio website.

Artwork and Photography (C) Amy Holliday 2015