We are so proud of our wonderful Make Art That Sells alumni and are pleased to showcase a series of gorgeous student work that was produced in the previous session of the Illustrating Children’s Books class. View more student showcase posts here. *** Lynn Gaines | Lynn Gaines Design This image is from week 4 MATS ICB: Environment -the image shows our story’s main character, Eleanor, trying to get her pet giraffe up to her 27th floor apartment in the elevator. How did the ‘Illustrating Children’s Book’ class help you grow? This class helped me to work on developing characters that have more life in them, conveying emotion and movement and setting them in an environment as well as working on the craft of story-telling through my art. What did you discover about yourself? I actually enjoy drawing characters that have personality and a story to tell. How would you describe the course to
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’ Illustrating Children’s Books 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.
Illustrating Children’s Books Student Showcase part 1 {Oct 2017 class}
We are so proud of our wonderful Make Art That Sells alumni and are pleased to showcase a series of gorgeous student work that was produced in the previous session of the Illustrating Children’s Books class. View more student showcase posts here. *** Michelle Vinson | Brush & Inc. My favorite submission and week for Illustrating Children’s Books was the emotions week. Making my character come to life was always a struggle (or fear) and I felt like I broke through a barrier during this week and now feel more comfortable telling my stories through my illustrations. How did the ‘Illustrating Children’s Book’ class help you grow? Illustrating Children’s Book class helped me grow professionally because it confirmed that, YES, I do want to illustrate children’s books. I feel like the class gave me the steps to work hard and make that happen. What did you discover about yourself? I discovered that I have so
Alumni success ‘spotlight’ interview with Kate Mazeika
We are so proud of our Make Art That Sells Alumni, and we are pleased to feature a series of spotlight interviews showcasing their successes and artwork. We’ve asked them to share how the MATS courses have helped them learn and grow. You can see more Alumni Success stories here Today, we have an interview with Kate Mazeika who has taken Illustrating Children’s Books class twice! 1. Tell us a little about how you got started in art and design… I knew I wanted to be an illustrator since high school when a local illustrator spoke to my art class about his job. I went to Columbus College of Art and Design and earned a BFA- my major was illustration. 2. Lilla always says “People buy your joy”. What brings you joy? I get a lot of joy from creating textures and playing with color. I also like to learn new skills/digital
Alumni success ‘spotlight’ interview with Katy Halford
We are so proud of our Make Art That Sells Alumni, and we are pleased to feature a series of spotlight interviews showcasing their successes and artwork. We’ve asked them to share how the MATS courses have helped them learn and grow. You can see more Alumni Success stories here Today, we have an interview with Katy Halford who has taken MATS A, MATS B, Bootcamp, Home Decor and Illustrating Children’s Books 1. Tell us a little about how you got started in art and design… Ever since I have known I have always loved to draw. I was supported from a young age by my parents and grandparents and they encouraged to draw whenever I could. I remember I used to draw eyelashes on every character, and this became a distinct quirk in my drawings and has stuck with me ever since. I also used to make little cut out houses
Here’s how to be a Children’s Book Illustrator
Imagine being a children’s book illustrator, spending your days drawing for a picture book and getting paid for it. How do you get that gig? I will tell you: You create a pitch that is exactly what art directors need to see to hire you, and our popular course, Illustrating Children’s Books will teach you just that. Join me, Lilla Rogers, and my co-teacher, the highly regarded children’s book art director Zoë Tucker as we provide everything you need to launch your children’s book illustration career or bring it to the next level in our popular Illustrating Children’s Books e-course. Through this step-by-step, supportive and engaging five-week online course, we will help you create a brilliant pitch and also give you all the tools, insight, and advice you need to succeed. Co-teachers Lilla Rogers & Zoë Tucker Enroll in Illustrating Children’s Books and you’ll get: Facebook Live broadcasts from class
Hurry! Class starts tomorrow! Read about Student Successes
Hurry! Class is filling up fast! I hope you’ll join me as we make some incredible art together. Today, I want to share some recent MATS alumni successes, focusing on the illustration jobs our students have gotten for the Children’s Book industry after taking some of our courses! These are so wonderful to celebrate as we prepare for the next session of the Illustrating Children’s Books class, starting on Monday, October 2nd. Please join me in congratulating them! MATS WORKS! ANNABEL TEMPEST Annabel illustrated three BabyLit Books published by Gibbs Smith. ‘Pride and Prejudice’ and ‘Moby Dick’ (above) were just released and the third book, ‘The Jungle’ book, is next. Annabel writes: The reason I took MATS courses was in order to build my portfolio to a point where an agent would take me on. It worked! I’m delighted to say that I was taken on by Vicki Willden-Lebrecht’s agency ‘Bright’ Read Annabel’s
How to select a text to illustrate. Free download and Join our Facebook live! Our Illustrating Children’s Book course—starts Monday!
I thought it would be really fun to pull a handout from the upcoming Illustrating Children’s Books course (starts Monday!) and give it to you now so you could get started early. Download your free copy here. This handout will help you choose which text to illustrate for the course. It focuses on examining your personality type, art style, and preferred art media. I always want my students to be able to dive right into art-making, and the most effective way to accomplish this is by breaking everything down into tiny, bite-sized bits and making the process fun. This prevents procrastination and engages the creative brain. Hear directly from one of our students just how terrific the course was. Watch this fun short video by Kirsti Davidson. The first step in creating an illustrated children’s book pitch is this: You need to select a text that shows off your style! The cool part of this course is that we actually provide you with three carefully-selected texts that you’ll enjoy illustrating. Don’t worry—we help you every step of the way to do your
#MYMATSPREP: Jitna in your scene (Day 5)
Oh, man, you are a whole bunch of brilliant artists! You delight me with your imagination, sensitivity, talent. Are you enjoying yourself? Play. Visit Instagram and search the hashtag #mymatsprep to see the vast array of terrific art being created this week for the MATS Prep. You know, a few years ago we came up with the idea of a free mini series as preparation for our courses. We figured that it would be a way for the students to get geared up for class and also to get a taste for what my teaching style is like, to see if it’s a good fit. We have been wowed with the response to our MATS Preps, and I thoroughly enjoy writing them. I hope you’ve found them helpful. So today, for our last day of Prep, you’re going to live the life of a children’s book illustrator. It’s about placing a
Alumni success ‘spotlight’ interview with Mateja Lukezic
We are so proud of our Make Art That Sells Alumni, and we are pleased to feature a series of spotlight interviews showcasing their successes and artwork. We’ve asked them to share how the MATS courses have helped them learn and grow. You can see more Alumni Success stories here *** Today, we have an interview with Mateja Lukezic from Mima illustration who has taken our Illustrating Children’s Books class. Tell us a little about how you got started in art and design I was working for seven years as a graphic designer in a big company. When I came back to work after the birth of my second child I felt something was missing. I couldn’t be creative in the way I wanted. I decided to leave my job, which was not an easy decision and go to college. I obtained a degree for Scenography and Animation. I was invited to make illustrations
Alumni success ‘spotlight’ interview with Nikki Upsher
We are so proud of our Make Art That Sells Alumni, and we are pleased to feature a series of spotlight interviews showcasing their successes and artwork. We’ve asked them to share how the MATS courses have helped them learn and grow. You can see more Alumni Success stories here *** Today, we have an interview with Nikki Upsher Design, who has taken MATS A, MATS B, Creating Collections for Home Decor and Illustrating Children’s Books. Nikki was also a finalist in our 2015 Global Talent Search. Tell us a little about how you got started in art and design I did a degree in fashion design and graduated in 1988….i worked in the fashion industry for 20 years. I retrained 10 years ago in graphic design and worked as a greeting card designer for 5 years for a big UK company and left to freelance in Nov 2014. Lilla always says