Sunday 17 December 2023

Wild Fungi Series | Personal Project Mushroom Studies in Watercolour | Scientific Botanical Style Illustrations

Some recent completed wild fungi illustrations - a personal project I've been working on in my spare time. Fungi are fascinating! More 'shroom species have since been in the works.




Artwork © Amy Holliday 2023/2024
NOT FOR USE without written permission
www.amyholliday.co.uk

Saturday 16 December 2023

Wooden Pin Badges | Woodland Wildlife Watercolour Illustrations with Fly Agaric Mushroom, Honey Bee, Bumblebees, Butterfly and Snail

I made some new wooden pin badges featuring some of my nature-inspired illustrations!

Made from responsibly sourced, fast-growing maple wood. Not only are they nice to look at but they use 20 to 24 times less energy to produce than enamel pins!

The wood grain compliments the watercolour textures really well. I'd love to expand this collection over time with more designs.

These lovely pins were made with the help of the great Zap Creatives here in the UK. 

Available at amyholliday.etsy.com 





Artwork © Amy Holliday 2023

Monday 30 October 2023

"Book of Scones" illustrations are now a print!

I have always been fond of these tasty looking scone recipe illustrations, painted back in 2016 for a book called "National Trust Book of Scones". The book still appears to sell well and has great reviews. I recently received the lovely news that I have now been granted permission to make prints! I added some labels, hand drawn in pencil, to avoid any confusion with the recipes! 

If you'd like a print, you can get one here: www.amyholliday.etsy.com






Artwork © Amy Holliday 2023

Sunday 14 May 2023

I made my first washi tape! Pollen-Dusted Bumblebees Design


I made my first washi tape! and it is now available! Of course my first design is fluffy pollen-dusted bumblebees. For anyone who isn't familiar with washi: it is a Japanese-style paper-based decorative tape, usually made from rice paper and printed with soy-based inks, making it eco friendly as well as pretty. It's mainly used for gift-wrap, packaging, and things like journals and scrapbooking.

I'm so happy with the quality - the print is sharp, the paper is strong and lovely, and the adhesive is very sticky! It's got me thinking what design to do next...
  • Width = 30mm / 3cm
  •  Length = 10 meters
  • Designed and made in the UK
  • Paper sourced from Japan
  • Biodegradable and vegan

 

Tuesday 11 April 2023

A Fiery Rainbow Phoenix! | A Pastel Pride Rebirth Design

So I've been asked a few times if I could create a rainbow coloured version of my "Fiery Phoenix" painting, well I finally did it! 

The phoenix bird has such a strong and beautiful meaning of rebirth and rainbow feathers make it even more special.

If I ever get the time, I would love to paint a new rainbow phoenix from scratch! but for now I added fresh colours to the orange/light phoenix painting in Photoshop.

I played around with a few different colour ways - one of them has a red head and rainbow wings - but this is my favourite so far. The pretty pastel shades are completely different from my usual work. 

Stickers of this colourful rebirth birdy are already available here 



Artwork © Amy Holliday 2023

Monday 3 April 2023

Watercolour Flowers Tattoo Design | Vintage-inspired Floral Bouquet

A private commission of a floral bouquet design completed early 2022. The three featured flowers are aster, freesia and elderflower. It was inspired by and influenced by lovely old vintage book illustrations. Each flower had a special meaning to the client.

This was quite the technical challenge to do! At the time I was unsure about how to approach such an intricate design, and considered it would be best to draw and paint each flower separately, then later reassemble into a bouquet digitally. If I were to do this again, I would dive in and draw it all as one piece.










These three flowers were then combined and layered together to make the finished bouquet: 





Artwork © Amy Holliday 2023

Monday 31 October 2022

Happy Spooky Season | Watercolour Halloween Pumpkin

 I doodled some spoopy pumpkins recently and here's one I painted for a bit of practice and fun. Happy Hallowe'en, and a happy a blessed Samhain :)



Artwork © Amy Holliday 2022