About
“ I love my job. I love being surrounded by gorgeous countryside and wild flowers. Each day brings a new species to draw and learn about ”
Lizzie Harper is a free-lance natural history and botanical illustrator with a keen love of nature.
Her scientific training as a zoologist helps complement her illustrations.
Please get in touch to Commission Work
She works in watercolour, pencil, and pen. With over 25 years experience as a free-lance illustrator, she has a broad range of clients.
Publishers, environmental charities, postage stamp designers, packaging firms, design companies, and private individuals have all commissioned her illustrations.
“ Lizzie was great to work with! She was enthusiastic and efficient with excellent attention to detail. ”
Recent books illustrated include “A Life on Our Planet” by David Attenborough, “The Hidden Universe” by Alex Antonelli, and “30 Animals that made us Smarter” by Patrick Ayree.
Her tree illustrations feature in “The Treeline” by Ben Rawlence and “The Living Wisdom of Trees” by Fred Hageneder
She’s illustrated The Hedgerow Handbook, The Garden Forager, The Tree Forager, and Foraging with Kids by Adele Nozedar.
Her work is in HarperCollins Flower Guide by Streeter, and The Bumper Book of Nature by Stephen Moss.
Her illustrations appear in National geographic and BBC Countryfile Magazine.
Lizzie’s work pops up on information boards and nature reserves around the country.
For more information on her work, visit her
“ I've used Lizzie's wildlife illustrations in my work for many years. The quality of her illustrations is always superb. ”
Shop
Booking for my 2026 illustration workshops @CambridgeUniversityBotanicGarden are now open.
The first is:
Pen & Ink stippling workshop March 24th - 26th
https://www.botanic.cam.ac.uk/.../pen-and-ink-stippling.../
The second is:
Painting Blue flowers May 20th - 21st
https://www.botanic.cam.ac.uk/.../painting-blue-flowers.../
And the final one is a day of grasses July 7th:
https://www.botanic.cam.ac.uk/.../courses/drawing-grasses/
This is the only teaching I`m planning on doing in 2026, and I`d love to see you there!
(Copy the links or visit CUBG education page to book)
#stippling #botanicalillustration #sciart #paintingplants #teaching #botany
This is the endemic Bottlebee Melipona lautipes, on a Tridax daisy. This endearing bee is from Montserrat in the Caribbean.
It`s pouring with rain here, so I`m posting a summery insect illustration to remind me of tropical sunshine
The bottle bees have no sting, are fluffy and friendly, and make nests in the shape of bottles. What`s not to love? I was lucky enough to see them going about their business, visiting flowers, when I visited Montserrat back in February
#bottlebee #naturalhistoryillustration #sciart #naturalscienceillustration #melipona #bee
Latest blog is all about illustrating thebeautiful grasses of Montserrat for UK Overseas Territories Conservation Forum and Montserrat National Trust
https://lizzieharper.co.uk/2025/11/grasses-of-montserrat-and-the-eastern-caribbean/
Grasses are amongst my favourite subjects, so this was a dream of a job.
#botanicalart #botanicalillustration #sciart #Poaceae #graminaceae #montserrat
These are Red-rumped agouti, Dasyprocta leporina nobelie.
They fill the same ecological niche as rabbits, and are a common sight in Montserrat, grazing on grasses and fallen fruit.
As with all mammals, the challenge is to build enough colour and texture into the fir using tiny brush strokes.
Other challenges include figuring out the anatomy of the feet and the ears, and trying not to give the animal a n expression.
I have failed on the last point. One looks scared and hopeful, the other looks irritable. What can you do?
These are one of the 17 illustrations I completed for the UK Overseas Territories Conservation Forum for Montserrat earlier in the month.
#naturalhistoryillustration #naturalscienceillustration #nature #agouti #dasyprocta #sciart #montserrat
Lizzie Harper Newsletter October 2025
Take a look, October`s newsletter is out. Fancy catching up with what Lizzie`s been working on, accessing her films and blogs, and having the chance to buy originals? You know where to look...
Well, that`s this week done.
For various reasons I had a whole lot to get through, and I`ve managed to knock out 16 full watercolours in one week. Very pleased, relieved, and surprised.
They need tweaking, scanning, cleaning and filing. But getting them done means I can start on the next set on Monday.
(I`ll probably post them separately at some point, so you can see them a bit clearer. Suffice to say they`re all animals from Montserrat and, even at high speed, were a total joy to work on.
#naturalhistoryillustration #sciart #notahobby
My latest blog is out, it`s on the Lamiaceae, or Dead-nettle family of wildflowers:
https://lizzieharper.co.uk/2025/10/wildflower-families-lamiaceae/
It`s one of a series on common flower families I`ve been doing, featuring my botanical illustrations and attempts to simplify the complexities of botany and classification.
So come and have a look at the mints, bee-balm, dead nettles, and wild thyme that feature in this family; and learn what features put them all under the same classification umbrella.
#wildflowers #wildflowerfamilies #botany #botanicalart #botanicalillustration #sciart #naturelovers #flowerart #illustration
Had a excellent weekend painting a penny bun Boletus edulis fungi & a Rosy button one, and chatting to @fungitownhay visitors in @haycastletrust in Hay.
My mate @emanations_myth filmed me at work in a borrowed (appropriately themed) shirt.
It was such a hrwat event, such passion for all things fungi, such hard work from @puffinsmithofficial and so so many others to make it happen.
So much going on! Fungal hats, tables of foraged beauties, the whole town full of fungal themed shop windows, amazing art installations, hundreds of visitors, talks and films, so much humour and fun...
I even got to drive the glorious bonsai exhibits of @mycomyth home afterwards (an honour, but super scary).
Thankyou everyone involved
#fungi #hayonwye #fungitown #botanialillustration #boletus
Exhibitions
Lizzie has recently shown in Exhibitions at the following venues:
Herford Art Week 2019
Association of British Botanical Artists show 2018
Shepherd’s Parlour, Hay on Wye 2018
Booth’s Bookshop, Hay on Wye 2018
Hereford Art Week 2017
Obsidian Gallery, Oxfordshire 2017
Hunt Institute of Botanical Studies, Pittsburgh 2015
Teaching Workshops
“ Lizzie was a wonderful tutor. Dynamic, encouraging, and friendly. ”
Frequently Asked Questions
Questions about inspiration, how Lizzie started out, and illustrations vs photographs often come up.
Click here for Frequently Asked Questions (and answers)
Lizzie loves nothing more than spending a day immersed in the beautiful landscape round her home in Wales; where she investigates slugs and mosses, and does sketchbook studies of the wild flowers she finds.
She works from her garden studio in Hay on Wye where she lives very happily with a long-suffering husband and two lively children.
