FREE course from art agent Lilla!

  Click here to sign up for Lilla’s magical course, Manifest Your Dream Creative Career, for FREE!

Category:Course: Illustrating Children’s Books
Page 1 of 14

Learn how you can build a lucrative career in the dreamy world of children’s book illustration with Make Art That Sells’ Children’s Book Illustration Course and Illustrating Children’s Books Plus courses!

Designed for newbies and pro illustrators alike, this career-changing course covers everything you need to know to give your children’s book illustration career a huge boost. In just five weeks, you’ll create a ready-to-send pitch presentation that contains everything an art director or publisher needs to see to give you work. Taught by industry professionals, you’ll gain real-world insights into the thriving children’s book market, whilst honing your skills through weekly assignments, live reviews, downloadable worksheets, video lessons, interviews with publishers and illustrators and more. Get all the tools, insight, and advice you need to succeed with Illustrating Children’s Books.

Martina + mural

Write a picture book illustration success story like this

Check out this picture book illustration success story! Hurry hurry HURRY – registration for our career-changing Illustrating Children’s Books course closes TODAY, but there’s still time to sign up! Join now to get instant access to all the class materials released so far, including Daily Sketchbook prompts, lessons on things like pitching, the first Art Director’s Cheat Sheet from Zoë, and bonus lessons from former art agent and illustrator Lilla. Plus the rest of the class only got the first assignment yesterday, so you still have time to catch up and maybe get your art reviewed in the first weekly LIVE review on Monday! Sign up here. picture book illustration success story: Martina Stuhlberger Today we wanted to share an amazing success story from Make Art That Sells student Martina Stuhlberger, who is currently working on her sixth and seventh books since taking Illustrating Children’s Books! Martina (left) and with the

Replay of Live with Lilla and Zoe screenshot

Replay of Live with Lilla and Zoë: Illustrating Children’s Books begins today!

If you missed the fabulous live Zoom, then watch the replay of Live with Lilla and Zoë below! Over five incredible weeks, your brilliant teachers, top art agent Lilla Rogers and acclaimed children’s book art director and author Zoë Tucker, will lead you step by step to create a fabulous pitch presentation that contains everything an art director or publisher wants to see to give you work. And on the way, they’ll teach you everything you need to know about the wonderful world of children’s book illustration in a way that’s both fun and fascinating: you won’t want it to end. You’ll get daily drawing prompts, weekly LIVE reviews with Lilla and Zoe, tons of beautifully designed downloadable worksheets, and tons more. Book your spot here. Don’t forget – registration for Illustrating Children’s Books closes THIS THURSDAY, July 10th, and the course won’t run again until 2026. Do you want

childrensbook square 1 1

Illustrating Childrens Books 2025 starts TODAY!

Illustrating Childrens Books 2025 starts TODAY! Our raved-about online course, Illustrating Children’s Books, starts TODAY – and you could win a FREE place on this career-changing course in today’s free Zoom event! Scroll down for the Zoom link. Every year, this course creates a whole new flurry of book deals for our wonderful students – we’ll be sharing an amazing student story on Thursday, but until then you can read more student success stories here. Over five incredible weeks, your brilliant teachers, top art agent Lilla Rogers and acclaimed children’s book art director and author Zoë Tucker, will lead you step by step to create a fabulous pitch presentation that contains everything an art director or publisher wants to see to give you work. And on the way, they’ll teach you everything you need to know about the wonderful world of children’s book illustration in a way that’s both fun

matsprepSQ DAY5

FREE picture book illustration assignment – Part 5

Get your FREE picture book illustration assignment – Part 5 Lilla here. Oh, man, you are a whole bunch of brilliant artists! You delight me with your imagination, sensitivity, and talent. I’ve loved seeing all the art you’ve created over the past couple of weeks for this #MATSprep. I love to teach my intensive live courses, like Illustrating Children’s Books, for exactly that reason: it’s amazing to see how the work blossoms over the five jam-packed weeks. The passion and achievement of our students are awe-inspiring. I hope that you’ve enjoyed taking part in this free #MATSprep as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it and seeing all your beautiful art. It gives you a taste of my teaching style, to see if it’s a good fit, and it’s also a great way to warm up and get ready for Illustrating Children’s Books, which starts THIS MONDAY, July 7th. Don’t forget,

matsprepSQ DAY4

3 picture book art tips from an art agent

3 picture book art tips from an art agent 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 work a fresh, vibrant edge and be another tool in your ever-growing toolkit. I’ve created this series of FREE assignments to help you get ready for my LIVE online course, Illustrating Children’s Books, which starts this Monday, July 7th! There are still a few places available, so if you’d like to spend five weeks with me and my co-teacher, brilliant children’s book art director and author, Zoë Tucker, learning everything there is to know about children’s picture book illustration, then book your spot now! Over the last week, we’ve created a new character and explored fantastic new worlds – if you missed out then

matsprepSQ DAY3

How to give your picture book art more visual impact

Lilla here. Today I’m going to make you flip out, literally. Over the past week or so, 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 Monday, July 7th, so book your spot now! How to give your picture book art more visual impact Today I’m going to help you make some magic that will give your picture book illustrations more visual impact. 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. Think about your audience. Children are so in touch with their imaginations: they are going to love the imaginative worlds that you create. In Illustrating Children’s Books, we spend a whole week on creating a dreamy full page spread

matsprepSQ DAY2

FREE: How to create a setting for a picture book

Illustrating Children’s Books 2025 starts in just over a week, on Monday, July 7th! To help you get ready for class and warm up your creative muscles, we’re sharing a series of five FREE assignments from course co-teacher and renowned art agent, Lilla Rogers: read on for Part 2! How to create a setting for a picture book 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. This will be the twelfth 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! Art by Make Art That Sells student Pamela Goodman for Illustrating Children’s Books. You’ll create a pitch presentation containing

matsprepSQ DAY1

FREE picture book illustration assignment – Part 1

FREE picture book illustration assignment – Part 1 Our student-favorite LIVE online course, Illustrating Children’s Books, starts in just over a week, on Monday, July 7th and there’s still time to sign up! Why is this course, which is now running for the twelfth time, so popular? Why do our students take it again and again? Because it’s incredibly rigorous but also playful and fun – and it really works. Tons of our students have gone on to get picture book illustration deals, land agents, and more after taking this course (you can read some of their stories here). Plus it’s led by industry experts. Your teachers, former top art agent Lilla Rogers and renowned children’s book art director and author 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

childrensbook square 1 1

HOW many picture book deals?!

Building a lucrative career in the dreamy world of children’s book illustration is totally possible – and we’ve got the receipts to prove it (see below!). It isn’t just about skill or style – for example, you also need to show an art director or publisher that you have what it takes to create a character that will appeal to children, and that you can recreate in different poses and with different expressions while still being identifiably the same character. That’s where our student favorite Illustrating Children’s Books course comes in! Now in its tenth year (and twelfth iteration), you’ll spend five intense weeks creating an eye-catching ready-to-send pitch presentation that contains everything you need to show an art director or publisher so they give you that gig! Meet your teachers! Former top art agent, Lilla (left), and children’s book art director and picture book author, Zoë (right), have tons

kid books photos

Create your dream book cover

Create your dream book cover Everyone knows that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover … but from that pile of unused journals (we see you – and yes, we know, they were just too pretty to pass up) to browsing your local bookstore, that’s exactly what we all do. Plus it’s one of the key things that an art director or publisher will look at when they look at your picture book illustration portfolio. Some of the many thousands of books agented by Lilla Rogers Studio. Check out those amazing covers – and see how the lettering can really add to the overall impact. A book cover needs to work hard to get you to pick the book up out of thousands of others on offer. It needs to look good even if viewed as a thumbnail online. It needs to tease a little bit of the story,