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
New real-time film out of me doing a botanical illustration of the Daisy Bellis perennis a couple of weeks ago.
https://youtu.be/TJZZV6DU7zI
The film shows me adding watercolour to my pencil drawing of the common daisy, explaining my techniques, colour mixing, equipment, and approach as I get on with the painting. I also touch on the anatomy of the plant, and talk a bit about thefolklore of daisies.
As usual, I struggled with the autofocus a bit (its impossible to turn off on my phone!) but hope I edited out the worst of the blur...
Make a nice cup of tea and take a watch. Unusually for me, this one comes in at just under an hour (instead of closer to 2!), so feel free to use it as a bit of an escape from the flurry of day to day life and the news cycle
#botanicalillustration #howtopaint #stepbystep #daisy #bellisperennis #wildflowers #watercolour #watercolor #artlessonsonline
This week`s blog is another in my series of Wildflower families.
This time it`s the turn of the Rose family, Rosaceae:
https://lizzieharper.co.uk/2025/01/wildflower-families-rosaceae-the-rose-family/
My blog covers the variety of this family, which includes plants as diverse as plums to piri-piri burs, as well as roses.
It also discusses the anatomy & botanical features that unite members of this family, and touches on the incredible variety of fruit types in the Rosaceae.
#roses #apples #Rosefamily #rosaceae #botanicalillustration #botanicalart #wildflowers #botany #sciart
Brooklime Veronica beccabunga botanical illustration, completed for Field Studies Council, for their identification guide to plants of waterways and riverside.
This is one of my favourite aquatic plants and one of my favourite latin names of a plant.
#Veronica #veronicabeccabunga #brooklime #aquaticplants #botanicalillustration #sciart
Here`s #RedAdmiral #Vanessa atalanta #butterfly, completed as a side project to V&As Beatrux Potter exhibition a few years back.
I`ve posted this before, but it`s one of my illustrations I`m happiest with, so thought I`d pop it up again.
I love this species, the flash of orange & dash of blue, & spent ages watching them on buddleja in the garden when I was a kid
#sciart #naturalhistoryilliustration
This week`s blog is another on the Wildflower families, in this case the Brassicaceae or Cabbage family.
https://lizzieharper.co.uk/2024/12/wildflower-families-brassicaceae-the-cabbage-family/
I`m doing a series of these, this is the 3rd. Brassica are a pretty easy family to spot, with their four-petalled flowers and familiarity as garden vegetables. They`re also a lot of fun to illustrate.
Often the leaves have a bloom on which gives the plant a blueish hue, and this is always a lovely colour to try and capture.
#wildflowers #wildflowerfamilies #plantidentification #botany #plantfamilies #brassicaceae #brassica #cabbage #cabbages #CabbageFamily #botanicalillustration #sciart #vegetables
This is an Adonis Blue butterlfy Polyommatus bellargus on a Carthusian carnation Dianthus carthusianous.
In September I visited Cluny, near Lyons in France. We walked in the woods and amongst the vineyards nearby, and these Adonis blues were everywhere, it was stunning.
I`d not seen the Carthusian carnations before, and the blue butterflies on the magenta petals was wonderful.
Watercolour illustration completed as a birthday card for @twmpacycles
#butterfly #adonisblue #polyomattus #naturalhistoryilliustration #sciart #botanicalillustration #carnation #dianthus #Cluny
I`ve just published a Youtube film showing me completing a pencil illustration of pears in real time, and explaining how I use graphite to show tonality and detail:
https://youtu.be/aSgeW6k11CQ
The pears were drawn for a packaging design job, and now grace the labels of bottles of sparkling Cabalva perry produced by Cabalva Mill Cottage & Cwm Pelved
#pear #Perry #pyrus #pyruscommunis #packagingdesign #botanicalillustration #pencildrawing #pencil #stepbystep #drawingfruit #fruit
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.