Write your picture book!

  Lilla’s innovative picture book writing course, My Kid Book Pitch, is back as a LIVE course in 2026! Find out more and sign up here.

EUNJI JUNG ENVIRONMENT 2 Make Art That Sells Day 4: FREE mini art class: Three giant tricks that will take your art to the next level!

Day 4: FREE mini art class: Three giant tricks that will take your art to the next level!

Lilla here. Today we’re going to create magic together! I’m going to teach you three great tricks to create depth (distance) in your artwork, and explain why you might want to do so. It’ll help give your artwork a fresh vibrant edge and be another tool in your ever-growing toolkit. Want more tools in your kit? Book one of my classes today. For the past few weeks, I’ve been handing out FREE assignments to help you get ready for my LIVE online course, Illustrating Children’s Books, which starts THIS MONDAY, July 27th! There are still a few places available, so if you’d like to spend five weeks with me and my co-teacher, renowned children’s book art director and author, Zoë Tucker, learning everything there is to know about childen’s picture book illustration, then book your spot now! Over the past few weeks, we’ve created a new character and explored fantastic


Tinypeopleinplants Make Art That Sells Day 3: Art agent Lilla Rogers teaches you a cool trick to find the magic in your environment

Day 3: Art agent Lilla Rogers teaches you a cool trick to find the magic in your environment

Lilla here. I’m going to make you flip out today, literally. For the past few weeks, I’ve been sharing some FREE assignments that I created for you to get ready for my online course, Illustrating Children’s Books. I hope you’ll join us: class starts in less than two weeks, so book your spot now! Today I’m eager to help you make some magic that will give your picture book illustrations more visual impact. Think about your audience. Children are so in touch with their imaginations: they even live in fantasy land a great deal of the time! They are going to love the imaginative worlds that you create: whether it’s dreamy, moody, whimsical or witty, digging deep into a manuscript and creating all those little details is one of the most rewarding parts of children’s book illustration. Do you want a career in kids’ picture books? Register for Illustrating Children’s


gardenview Make Art That Sells Get your Day 2 of your FREE children’s book illustration assignment from art agent Lilla!

Get your Day 2 of your FREE children’s book illustration assignment from art agent Lilla!

This month, in the run up to Illustrating Children’s Books 2020, which starts on Monday, July 27th, we’re sharing a series of FREE assignments from course co-teacher and renowned art agent, Lilla Rogers, to help you warm up your creative muscles and get ready for class. What’s Illustrating Children’s Books? It’s an incredible five week LIVE online course that will teach you everything you need to know to launch or boost your children’s picture book illustration career. It’s hard to believe that this will be the seventh time that your teachers, art agent and Make Art That Sells founder, Lilla Rogers, and acclaimed children’s book art director and author, Zoë Tucker, have run this course – and each time, it just gets better and better! Every year, our students net dozens of wonderful book deals – read about some of them here – and we can’t wait to see what


janie secker character 1 Make Art That Sells Five weeks of FREE assignments for children’s book illustration

Five weeks of FREE assignments for children’s book illustration

Our raved-about, life-changing LIVE online course, Illustrating Children’s Books, starts on Monday, 27th July (places are still available: book yours here)! It’s an incredibly rigorous course that’s also hugely playful and fun, which is why our students take it again and again. Your teachers, top art agent Lilla Rogers and renowned children’s book art director Zoë Tucker, will teach you everything you need to know about the wonderful world of children’s book illustration, in an accessible, step by step way that will break everything down and help you bring your A-game to every assignment: as Lilla always says, she tricks you into doing your very best work! You’ll get daily drawing prompts, weekly LIVE Facebook reviews with your teachers, and weekly assignments that will build into a show-stopping professional pitch presentation that contains everything an art director or editor needs to see to give you a kids’ picture book gig.


erikaroot residencyimage Make Art That Sells Find out what Lilla’s artists thought of her My Kid Book Pitch course

Find out what Lilla’s artists thought of her My Kid Book Pitch course

Is there a children’s picture book inside you, longing to get out? Do you dream of holding your very own beautiful children’s book – actually written and illustrated by YOU, even if you don’t think of yourself as a writer – in your hands? Then you’re going to want to check out art agent Lilla’s exciting NEW course, My Kid Book Pitch, which takes place this fall. You’ll learn everything you need to know to create your own incredible authentic picture book, from a showstopping first line to a memorable central character. Lilla will be sharing tons of hints and tips along the way, with insightful ways to help you discover the unique story that only you can write using her Magic Cards, and an amazingly indepth workbook that she’ll share with you section by section to take you through the whole process step by enjoyable step. Get it now


NADJA SARELL icbplus week2 1 Make Art That Sells BRAND NEW alumni success stories: See the book deals our 2019 Illustrating Children’s Books students got!

BRAND NEW alumni success stories: See the book deals our 2019 Illustrating Children’s Books students got!

Do you want to know how YOU can have a successful career in children’s book illustration? We absolutely love sharing our students’ many success stories, and with just five weeks to go until the start of Illustrating Children’s Books 2020, our emphasis today is on our former Illustrating Children’s Books students who have gone on to land book deals and build amazing children’s book illustration careers in this wonderful art market. Imagine getting a call from an art director to say they adore your work and would love to work with you … Imagine going into a bookstore and seeing your own beautiful art on a front cover … Imagine holding your very own children’s picture book in your hands! This has been a reality for huge numbers of our students – let Illustrating Children’s Books co-teachers, renowned art agent Lilla Rogers and brilliant children’s book art director and author


zoebook Make Art That Sells Get your FREE mini-video on the making of a children’s book

Get your FREE mini-video on the making of a children’s book

Looking for an exciting creative focus? There are just over six weeks to go until the start of our raved-about online course, Illustrating Children’s Books, and we can’t wait! Taught by top art agent and Make Art That Sells co-founder, Lilla Rogers, and brilliant children’s book art director and author, Zoë Tucker, it’s an incredibly intense five week course that will teach you everything you need to know about the wonderful world of children’s book illustration, and is renowned for its ability to make careers and change lives (look out for some more of our incredible alumni success stories in next week’s newsletter!). Today, with huge thanks to publishers Quarto, we’re sharing a mini-video on the making of children’s book Greta and the Giants, written by Illustrating Children’s Books co-teacher Zoë Tucker and illustrated by Zoe Persico. The story was originally written by Zoë for Illustrating Children’s Books, before being


get your work in front of an art agent Make Art That Sells BREAKING: Lilla reveals the assignment for the Hot Markets for Your Art Live Review!

BREAKING: Lilla reveals the assignment for the Hot Markets for Your Art Live Review!

Want to get your art directly in front of a renowned art agent who’s looking to take on new artists? Our wonderful online courses, Hot Markets for Your Art Part A and Hot Markets for Your Art Part B are self-paced, meaning you can start the moment you sign up and complete them at a pace that fits around your other commitments. However, once a year, to motivate and inspire you, Lilla sets a deadline for submission for an assignment from one of the courses. She’ll then view all of the pieces submitted to the gallery by the due date, and review her favorites in a video that you can download and watch. How would it feel to get a call from a top agent to say they love your work and want to represent you? The live review is a fantastic opportunity to get your work seen by renowned


perfectshelter asaGilland Make Art That Sells What does your home life look like right now? Plus get your final FREE assignment

What does your home life look like right now? Plus get your final FREE assignment

We hope you’ve enjoyed all the Arty Assignments that art agent Lilla has created for you this month – if you’ve missed any, head over to our blog to catch up, and don’t forget to check out Lilla’s favorites on our Instagram feed. We’ve considered the future and the past, such as things that you might be missing from our pre-pandemic lives. What about the present? What does your home life look like right now? As for me, British Jennie, I’m writing this from the bathroom, because it’s the only room in my house with a lock. Every now and then I can hear crashes, which reassure me that my children are still alive and give me a vague idea of their location, plus it’s a fun guessing game for me (what do I own that makes that noise as it hits the floor?). Eventually they’ll find me and I’ll


What makes you sad Make Art That Sells Lilla shares what makes her sad, plus get your FREE Arty Assignment

Lilla shares what makes her sad, plus get your FREE Arty Assignment

Lilla here. How are you doing? How are you feeling? I’m excited to share my third free Arty Assignment with you today and I wanted to reach out to you and check in. Like many of us, I’ve found myself feeling the need for connection even more than usual during this time, and I’ve enjoyed chatting live in our free MATS MBA (Money BadAss) Facebook group and my recent free WebinARTS with six of my artists (find details on my site here). Art by Make Art That Sells student Socorro Vega, illustrating a quotation by our co-founder Beth Kempton from her book Wabi Sabi: Japanese Wisdom for a Perfectly Imperfect Life. My free Arty Assignment this week is all about what makes you feel sad. There’s a lot of sadness right now and those feelings are important to acknowledge. Which isn’t to say that we do or should feel sad all