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
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
Had an amazing day at #Fungitown in Hay on Wye today, sat upstairs painting this gorgeous pink-flushed Rosy bonnet mushroom, Mycena rosea.
So many fascinating people to talk to , and so much sharing of fungal inspiration and ideas. A privilege to be a part of it.
If you`re here for the weekend, be sure to come and say hi, and DO NOT miss out on the amazing bonsai / fungus / video installation in the upstairs gallery at Hay castle!
I`ll there 10 - 4pm tomorrow.
#fungi #fungus #fungiart #naturalhsitoryillustration #botanicalart #mycena #watercolour @fungitownhay @haycastletrust Trust
This weekend, Hay on Wye hosts Fungitown.
https://www.fungitown.org.uk/
The whole town is involved with talks, walks, mushrooms in shop windows, exhibitions, fungal films, and mycelogical stalls in Hay Castle Trust (where I`ll be selling mushroom and fungus prints, drawing toadstools, and selling originals of my botanical and animal illustrations from 10 - 4 on sat 4th and sun 5th October)
Come and visit! There`s so much to do! And if you are in Hay, stop by the castle and pop up to the mezzanine (outside the gallery) to say hi. I`d love to see you.
#botanicalart #botanicalillustration #sciart #fungus #fungusart #fungitown @fungitownhay #fungi #fungilove
Sorting prints and original illustrations for @fungitownhay this weekend.
Looking forward to drawing and painting fungus in Hay castle, sharing my sketchbooks, chatting to visitors, and having the chance to sell original botanical, animal, and fungal illustrations.
#botanicalillustration #sciart ##hayonwye #fungus
@haycastletrust @puffinsmithofficial
This is Purple toadflax Linaria purpurea, it`s a common enough plant, but one that benefits from a closer look.
Like most wild flowers, the closer you look, the more amazing details and structure, not to mention nuances of colour, you see.
#purple #toadflax #linariapurpurea #botanicalillustration #BotanicalArt
New step by step botanical illustration film out:
https://youtu.be/BrhlvsnfYEc
This one shows me painting a Cosmos flower, and explains the materials and processes involved
Make a cup of tea and take a look?
#stepbystep #botanicalillustration #cosmos
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.
