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Category:Course: Illustrating Children’s Books
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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.

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HUGE NEWS for Illustrating Children’s Books students!

Illustrating Children’s Books 2025 starts in just over a month, on Monday, July 7th, and we have some fantastic news: Tamisha Anthony will be joining Lilla and Zoë for one of the reviews! Illustrator, educator, Make Art That Sells student and now author Tamisha with some of the books she’s illustrated. Who’s Tamisha Anthony, we hear you ask? She’s a busy working professional illustrator, with five gorgeous picture books under her belt since 2022 (her clients include Penguin Random House, Little Brown, Macmillan Publishers, and Chronicle Books), and another SEVEN on the way – including her very own author-illustrator debut! She’s a gifted and passionate educator, who’s taught at institutions including the New York Historical Society and the Harlem School of the Arts, as well as leading two incredible Make Art That Sells courses of her own: Redrawing Black History and Find Your Art Style with Style. She’s a Make

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See the beautiful books our students have illustrated

Picture books are one of the most magical and rewarding art markets out there, and we couldn’t be more excited to see so many of our graduates landing incredible picture book illustration deals! Here’s your teacher! As an art agent for 30 years, Lilla has viewed thousands of artists’ portfolios and agented many hundreds of picture books, so she knows just what you need to show in your portfolio. Today, we’re celebrating some of the amazing picture book success stories our talented students have shared with us – they’re truly inspiring! (Love these? You can explore even more of our alumni’s fantastic achievements right here.) And don’t forget—our huge Spring Sale is happening right now! That means 25% off every single course – and if your dream is to get paid for illustrating picture books, don’t miss our game-changing Get Me a Picture Book Deal bundle, packed with even bigger

How to write, illustrate and pitch your book

How to write or illustrate your book Here at Make Art That Sells we have three courses jam-packed with information and tips on how to illustrate and pitch your book to get work in some of the hottest markets: My Kid Book Pitch – writing and/or illustrating your own children’s picture book Illustrating Children’s Books – how to get into the world of illustrating beautiful picture books My Arty Book Pitch – write and illustrate your own ‘arty’ non-fiction book We give you the tools, insights and hints showing you how to write or illustrate your book, and then we share our insider knowledge within each course on the best way to pitch your work. This information is gold, and we’re sharing some of it here for free! By  student Jen Jamieson for My Kid Book Pitch How to Find Publishers Once you’ve written your brilliant children’s book story in

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LAST CHANCE + 4 more student success stories!

Hurry hurry HURRY – LAST CHANCE! Registration for Illustrating Children’s Books 2024 closes TODAY! This class won’t run again until 2025, so if you want in – sign up now! There’s something magical about a picture book, isn’t there? Opening the pages, the feel, the smell – and of course the beautiful art. How must it feel to get to illustrate a book of your very own: to spend weeks or months digging deep into the text and bringing it to life for generations of children to enjoy – and getting paid to do it? How do you get a picture book gig? By showing art directors and publishers exactly what they want to see in your portfolio and pitch. And that’s what top art agent Lilla Rogers and brilliant children’s book art director and author Zoë Tucker are going to do in just five weeks in Illustrating Children’s Books.

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Replay of Live with Lilla and Zoë: First day of class live zoom!

Hi everyone! If you missed the fabulous Live Zoom with Lilla and Zoë, you can find a replay below! There is still time to join us in class and learn everything you need to know to boost your picture book illustration career. Grab your spot here. This class won’t run again until 2025! You’ll get: Zoom Lives from class! (all added to the classroom as replays in case you miss any) Your choice of one of three BRAND NEW carefully-chosen texts for you to illustrate. This will give you a structure for the course, and allow you to dive in instantly. Twenty in-depth videos with Lilla and Zoë on every aspect of the creating and pitching of your children’s book, growing your creative business, and Lilla’s art technique demonstrations Interviews with top art directors and successful illustrators. We ask them everything you want to know. Lilla’s inimitable style of teaching

Illustrating children's book online art courses

Win a FREE place in Illustrating Children’s Books TODAY!

Our raved-about online course, Illustrating Children’s Books, starts TODAY! Every year, this course creates a whole new flurry of book deals for our wonderful students – we’ll be sharing some brand NEW stories on Thursday, but until then you can read about just some of them here! Over five incredible weeks, your brilliant teachers, top art agent Lilla Rogers and renowned 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. 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

Your MATS Prep

Get the final part of your FREE children’s book illustration assignment from top art agent Lilla Rogers!

Lilla here! I recently shared the first two parts of a FREE three-part warm-up exercise that I’ve created for you ahead of my raved-about online course, Illustrating Children’s Books, which starts NEXT MONDAY, May 20th. If you missed them, you can catch up on Part 1 and 2 here. How did you enjoy Part 2? I bet you had some fun accessorizing. Are you seeing that the more time and thought you spend on your character, the more interesting it is? An engaging character is so important to a successful children’s book, and that’s why my co-teacher, brilliant children’s book art director and author Zoë Tucker, and I spend so much time focusing on characters in class, and why we share boatloads of hints and tips from our decades in the industry. Want in? Book your place here. Today, we’re going to move on to the third and final part

Your MATS Prep

FREE childrens book illustration assignment Part 2 – plus bonus assignment!

Get Part 2 of your FREE childrens book illustration assignment! Lilla here! Last week I shared the first part of a FREE three-part warm-up exercise that I’ve created for you ahead of my raved-about online course, Illustrating Children’s Books, which starts on Monday, May 20th. If you missed it, you can catch up here. In this hugely popular course, you’ll spend five weeks with me and my brilliant co-teacher, children’s book art director and author Zoë Tucker, creating a ready-to-send pitch presentation that contains everything an art director or publisher needs to see to give you work. This #MATSprep is a terrific warm up for class, because it will help you to start thinking about how you can create winning characters for your children’s book illustrations. Characters are absolutely central to children’s picture books, which is why we spend several weeks in class focusing on characters, and why Zoë and

Your MATS Prep

Get Part 1 of your FREE picture book illustration assignment!

Get Part 1 of your FREE picture book illustration assignment Lilla here! Today I’m going to share the first part of my FREE #MATSprep for my online course, Illustrating Children’s Books. This is the eleventh time we’ve run this hugely popular course, with dozens of students taking it two or even more times – it’s a great course to repeat even if you’ve done it before, because you get brand new texts every time and you’ll build a really powerful portfolio to help you get representation and jobs. Find out what the fuss is about – sign up here. What’s a #MATSprep? It’s a FREE warm up exercise to get you ready for class, and it’s open to everyone, whether you’re signed up for class or not. Illustrating Children’s Books 2024 starts in just a few weeks, on Monday, May 20th, so over the next few newsletters I’ll be sharing

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FREE download: How to create childrens book characters

How to create childrens book characters: FREE download! Get your FREE download on how to create characters for kids’ books from brilliant children’s book art director, Zoë Tucker! Zoë teaches our raved-about online course, Illustrating Children’s Books, alongside top art agent Lilla. As well as being a renowned children’s book art director, Zoë also writes all the texts for Illustrating Children’s books and has published seven acclaimed picture books since 2019 (read about some of them here). Three of her picture books were originally written for Illustrating Children’s Books, and one of them was illustrated by a Make Art That Sells student. In other words, you’ll be illustrating professional level texts on the course. Three of Zoë’s picture books, which she originally wrote for Illustrating Children’s Books. Ada Lovelace and the Number Crunching Machine (left) was illustrated by MATS student Rachel Katstaller. Greta and the Giants (middle) was read by