Learn how to get paid for illustrating children’s books!

  Our hugely popular online course, Illustrating Children’s Books, starts May 20th

Plan your amazing 2019 with our FREE Dream Snail downloadable worksheet!

What are your plans for 2019? This part of the year feels like a pause, doesn’t it? A big breath in, a time to take stock, to think about plans for the year ahead. So many of us will be planning resolutions, from small to huge, from mundane to life-changing. And we also know that even as everything settles down into the quiet of wintertime, there’s new life tucked away under the earth, just waiting to burst out and bloom. Art produced by MATS student Nancy Chalmers during our most recent Illustrating Children’s Books course. Nancy landed representation with a global agency during the course and has just been approached by her dream client. Huge congratulations, Nancy, we’re thrilled for you! The Make Art That Sells teachers really know their stuff. Between them, they have decades of experience in illustration, in education, in commissioning work, in home décor, in creating


Happy holidays from MATS! REVEALED: our winning holiday card! Plus our holiday gift to you

Happy happy holidays from all of us at Make Art That Sells! All month you’ve been sharing your beautiful entries to our 2018 holiday card competition with the hashtag #MATSholidaycard and we’ve been blown away to see all your amazing art! We’re thrilled to share that the winner of this year’s competition is: Joanna Winograd! Congratulations!   The winning entry was chosen by art agent Lilla, and it was then sent off to the talented Parsons student and animator/illustrator Natasha Dewitz* to be animated just for us! Isn’t it fabulous? Runner Up Lilla also chose Sara Netherway’s design below as our runner up. Special Mentions Lilla also chose a selection of her favorite designs below. Anna Lindsten Annie Bakst Arancha Perpinan Erica Root Faye Hurley Jennifer Ray Stahl Jo Podmore Karina Busquets Karolien Vanderstappen Kay Wolfersperger Kelly Anne Dalton Krista Langley Haner Lisa Coutts Martina Schachenhuber Sabeth Elberse Sarah Knight Stephanie Marian


free illustration resources

WIN BIG with our huge video testimonial competition!

Ever wondered how a top art agent views your website? Want a children’s book art director to review your work? Want to know how to tweak your portfolio so you get work in the home décor market? Now’s your chance to find out: we’re offering the rare opportunity for an exclusive 1:1 with your choice of one of our amazing teachers PLUS a place in our raved-about My Year of Art School LIVE, which includes every single one of our live courses for 2019 in our huge video testimonial competition to keep you creating over the festive period! This is one of our stunning manifestos from former student Abigail Halpin which sums up what we’re all about. Now we’d like to hear what you love about Make Art That Sells, whether it’s the courses as a whole, a favourite class, our amazingly supportive community, our outstanding teachers, the boost it’s


IMG 8456 Make Art That Sells Make your business fun and lucrative! Plus a sneak peek into Lilla’s artists’ retreat!

Make your business fun and lucrative! Plus a sneak peek into Lilla’s artists’ retreat!

Wouldn’t you like to make your creative career even more enjoyable and lucrative? Maybe you’ve already built a successful business, or maybe you feel like you just don’t have a head for numbers, but wherever you are in your journey, it’s all about finding something that works for you. Business can be warm, personal and fun if you make it that way! For example, in our first ever MATS MBA (Money BadAss) course over summer, we asked our students to design a to do list for themselves. Of course you can just write a list, but if it’s beautiful to look at then it’s more inspiring, you’re more invested and it’s just more fun for you. We suggested that our artists focus on three areas or projects that they wanted to do and then maybe three more things that would be nice to haves. This was Erica Root’s to do


Erica Root holidaycard Make Art That Sells Win in our Big Holiday Competition!

Win in our Big Holiday Competition!

  Art by MATS student Sandrine Monnier Phew! Our huge cyber sale is now over and we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. It was amazing to experience all the great energy you brought to Lilla’s live sessions, read all your lovely comments, and hear what you have planned for next year. 2019 is going to be amazing! But for now, we’re feeling festive and getting into the holiday spirit, and we’re excited to announce our new holiday card competition! Entry from 2017 by Cass Urquhart We loved last year’s theme so much that we’re going with the same one again, so the theme for this year is: Draw your favorite festive winter beverage! Hot cocoa with chocolate sauce? Spearmint tea with wild honey and peppermint leaf garnish? Brandy egg nog in a vintage shot glass? Is it in your favorite mug? Do you drink it with


FionaBarden ICB5 EMOTIONS AFTERNL Make Art That Sells Before + after student work PLUS Sale ends tonight!

Before + after student work PLUS Sale ends tonight!

The best possible testimonial for any course is the quality of the work that comes out of it, and a great way to assess this is by seeing the befores and afters from the students taking the course. Plus everybody loves a makeover, right?! Today we’re thrilled to share some extraordinary work by our Make Art That Sells students, showing their progress before and after taking courses from Make Art That Sells. As an educator, Lilla prides herself on the effectiveness of her teaching, and she works hard to make sure that her students find her courses useful and fun: you can expect lots of surprises, cliffhangers, inspiration and whimsy along solid wisdom and insight in any MATS course! As a top international art agent, Lilla views hundreds of portfolios and sells millions of $$$ worth of art every year. She knows exactly what art directors are looking for and


matsproducts Make Art That Sells Our biggest sale of the year kicks off TODAY! Save up to 50% on EVERYTHING!

Our biggest sale of the year kicks off TODAY! Save up to 50% on EVERYTHING!

YAY! OUR GIANT CYBER SALE IS HERE! Lilla says: “I want gifted people to make money with their art. They deserve it. I want them to make art that sells, while being their own cool selves. That’s my deal. Sign up now to make better art and make more $. Make 2019 be the year your art shines!” It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Yes, the holidays are coming, but we’re also really excited because today we’re kicking off our GIANT CYBER SALE, our biggest sale of the year and an amazing opportunity for you to save big on everything from individual classes to our huge My Year of Art School bundles! Grab your free guide to everything in our amazing sale here! For this week ONLY, all your old favorites plus our exciting NEW classes for 2019 are heavily discounted! Registration for the new courses, Editorial Live, Illustrating


NLeditorialpromo Make Art That Sells The courses you’ve been asking for: brand new MATS courses launching in 2019! Plus find out how to snag your place - with a big discount!

The courses you’ve been asking for: brand new MATS courses launching in 2019! Plus find out how to snag your place – with a big discount!

We are thrilled to announce that, due to popular demand from art agent Lilla’s students all over the world, we’ve decided to launch three brand new courses in 2019, and we hope you’ll love them just as much as we do! Drum roll please! Our new courses are … Editorial Live Illustrating Children’s Books PLUS Home Décor PLUS Did you guess right?! Read on to find out more about these fabulous new class formats … Lilla Rogers is not only renowned art agent but has many years’ experience as a top illustrator. In this course she’ll be sharing her wisdom, expertise and top tips from her decades-long editorial and agenting career working for top clients such as Anna Wintour, Editor-in-Chief of Vogue Magazine, the Grammies, the New York Times, top ad agencies, Chronicle Books and hundreds more. Imagine working in the fun and lucrative editorial market! In this four-week live


Carrie Chapko May RoseJournal 8x10print 72 Make Art That Sells See the MATS students work that made it into the Flow Calendar 2019!

See the MATS students work that made it into the Flow Calendar 2019!

Recently, Flow Magazine published their gorgeous tear-off calendar for 2019, and we were thrilled to see that so many MATS students were selected to be included in the calendar! Flow told us, “We paid attention to quality, diversity, colors, orginality and if the illustration makes us happy, or touches us. We think with this calendar we bring an ode to illustrators, and we give you a different ‘painting’ on your wall, every day of the year!” In many cases, the images were created during Make Art That Sells online courses. This is because MATS courses are designed to help you create showstopping portfolio pieces which are just what art directors are looking for and which can help you get real work! Read on to see just some of the stunning images from MATS students and to find out how they felt that their experience of MATS has helped them to develop their careers so far … Bénédicte Barret: “Paris sera toujours Paris” Bénédicte says:


DevonHolzwarth GranRuthieAndes Make Art That Sells Read our amazing Illustrating Children’s Books alumna success stories!

Read our amazing Illustrating Children’s Books alumna success stories!

Do you dream of finding work in the magical world of children’s book illustration? Would you love to create memorable characters and see your work in print? Our outstanding online course, Illustrating Children’s Books, started Monday and there’s still time to sign up. Just think: in just five weeks you could be holding your very own stunning book pitch in your hands, ready to send off to potential clients! But HURRY: registration closes tonight! Click here to grab your place now. MATS works! To celebrate our the launch of our course, we’re thrilled to be able to showcase some of our recent MATS alumni successes, focusing on the illustration jobs our students have landed in the children’s book industry after taking our courses.   ANDREA STEGMAIER Through sharing her work for the Illustrating Children’s Books class on social media, Andrea got her very first illustration job: making an activity page