Dinosaur height chart // Talltape

Recently, I was thrilled to work with London-based company "Memories of Growing Up" who asked me to design a tall tower of 30 individual, characterful dinosaurs for their “Talltape” range.

“Talltape, the portable children’s height chart, helps you to keep an on-going record of your child’s height from birth all the way to adulthood. The perfect alternative to recording measurements on a wall or door, Talltape won’t get left behind or painted over – it just stays with you. As featured in the Daily Mail, New York Metro Parents and Baby London Magazine.“

Each dinosaur is unique and annotated by hand with his/her scientific name. I had a lot of fun designing it! I aimed to include a broad variety of dinosaur species, so that children can discover the wide spectrum of different types. They are all (approximately!) sized to scale in comparison to one another. 

The dino Talltape is available to buy in my online Etsy shop now. Find it here!

Artists & Illustrators Feb 2017 // Pocket Painting Guide

This month's issue of "Artists & Illustrators" includes a free pamphlet full of art-improving tips - featuring artwork by me! I was asked to create a cover design for the little guide and had free rein to have fun and add my own "flair" - obviously it turned out to be very enjoyable to do.  

The idea was to create a messy, busy and energetic front cover reflecting the contents to be bursting with creative tips and tricks. I illustrated each element as an individual object before scanning and reassembling the design digitally. The single illustrations were also used as chapter headers.

The guide is beautifully designed and is indeed bursting with helpful advice - I've already discovered a few things I didn't know and plan to keep it handy for future reference.

The Artists & Illustrators February 2017 issue featuring the Pocket Painting Guide is available NOW in Tesco and Sainsburys store around the 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
For more wildlife illustrations visit the Play section

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:

Artwork (C) Amy Holliday 2016

"Cook Healthy & Quick" by DK Publishing // Book Cover Illustration

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.

To see more from this project visit the "work" section.