Inner Circle – small group mentoring with illustrator and former top art agent Lilla Rogers – is BACK, with a brand new intensive starting this September. But hurry HURRY – places are limited, and it won’t run again until late 2026! Lilla told us: “I’m so incredibly excited about Inner Circle small group mentoring. It’s a chance for me to do what I love most: closely mentor a small group of artists and help them reach the next level. So many artists crave individual guidance, and with my decades of experience as an agent and teacher, I know exactly how to help people make their work more true to themselves, more gorgeous, and more lucrative. That’s what lights me up.” But what does getting mentored by Lilla really look like? And what can it do for you and your creative career? We caught up with Ilana Diamond, who took part
Category:Creativity
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What did our students really think about Inner Circle?
For 30 years, top art agent Lilla Rogers nurtured and brought out the best in the dozens of artists she represented via her innovative art agency. Now that her agency has closed, she’s free to do the same for a small select group of students in a small group mentoring intensive, Inner Circle. The first round of Inner Circle has just finished, and we were keen to find out what the participants – just 12 artists – thought of the experience. What did they think of Lilla’s mentoring style? And – crucially – was it worth it? Inner Circle will be running once more in 2025, for six weeks from September 29th, and places are extremely limited and going fast. This is the last time this intensive will run until late 2026, so if you want in, sign up now. Scroll down to find out how these students found the
FREE Instagram challenge: Boost your portfolio and win courses!
#LillasStylePlay2025 is here! Join our FREE Instagram challenge every day from September 1st to 30th! Join our FREE Instagram challenge! We’re so excited to announce something we’ve never done before: Lilla’s Style Play, our very first free Instagram challenge! We’ve teamed up with some incredible hosts to bring you a 30-day drawing challenge that will give you space to experiment, loosen up, and reconnect with the playful side of creating. For 30 days, from 1st to 30th September, we’ll be sharing exciting daily prompts designed by Lilla to help you explore, stretch, and evolve your unique artistic style. Art by Lilla in her distinctive style. How do you figure out your style? By drawing little things every day. A lot of artists wonder how to find and develop their own unique style, and this 30-day challenge will help you do just that! Lilla says: “A great way to discover, evolve
Moments of beauty: See art from our most recent challenge
We ran our most recent FREE quarterly Art Challenge in June, and, as ever, we loved seeing the beautiful art that you created! This time the challenge was a little bit different: the assignment was to illustrate a quotation from Lilla: Even so, there are tiny moments of beauty. Former art agent Lilla looked at every single entry to pick a winner and runners up: we share some of her favorites below, as well as an important update about the next FREE challenge, which is due to drop September 1st. Huge congrats to Ilana Diamond, who wins FREE place in Illustrating Children’s Books. Want the chance of winning courses and more? Don’t miss our next challenge in September! Lilla said: “The confidence in style, lovely painterly background, the hand-lettering add beauty to the piece. Conceptually, the quirky, atypical imagery—ice cream as paint, swaying seaweed—all make for a very personal style
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
What should you do if your style isn’t on trend?
Lilla here! I was an art agent for 30 years, and I’m also an illustrator, an author, a columnist, a speaker, and an educator. I love sharing what I’ve learned from my decades in the industry. It’s just over a month now until the start of one of my favorite courses (spoiler alert: they’re all my favorites), Illustrating Children’s Books, which I teach alongside my brilliant friend and colleague, children’s book art director and author, Zoë Tucker. This will be the twelfth time we’ve taught Illustrating Children’s Books, and every year it just gets better and better! Children’s book art director and picture book author Zoë Tucker with three of her picture books. Zoë co-teaches Illustrating Children’s Books with me, and between us we have a wealth of expertise to share! As you probably know, I worked as an art agent for 30 years, during which time I agented many
Get started with Procreate – FREE guide!
Make Art That Sells student Ruth Burrows is an artist, professional illustrator, and author of The Illustrator’s Guide to Procreate, and she’s created a fab FREE project especially for you to help you create some gorgeous florals that will look amazing in your illustration portfolio. Don’t miss this amazing FREE tutorial! Click here to download your copy. Florals are fantastic for your portfolio because they’re always in style and can be sold in so many art markets, like fabric, home décor, greeting cards, wall art, journal covers and more. Ruth is a professional illustrator and author of The Illustrator’s Guide to Procreate, which was agented by Lilla Rogers Studio and is filled with easy to follow projects to help you get started with digital art. In this project, Ruth will show you in an easy step-by-step format how to get started in Procreate by creating and arranging a beautiful bouquet.
We are the champignons! See the winner of our FREE Quarterly Art Challenge
Our most recent FREE quarterly Art Challenge took place last month, and, as ever, we loved seeing the beautiful art that you created! See some of Lilla’s favorites below, and learn how you can take part in the next FREE challenge on June 1st. Huge congrats to our joint winners, Alicia Fairbourn (left) and Rainbow Wang (right). They each won a FREE place in class – don’t miss our next challenge for your chance to win courses and more! The standard of entries was so high that Lilla couldn’t pick a single winner! Joint first place went to Alicia Fairbourn and Rainbow Wang, who each won a FREE place in Bootcamp Special: Character Play* – join in with our next challenge for your chance to win places in class, gorgeous products and more! (*Kicking yourself for not signing up to Bootcamp Special when you had the chance? Keep your eyes
#6: Is this you? (The arty book author-illustrator who needs a nudge)
Lilla here. Recently I’ve been sharing a few imaginary creatives—characters I dreamed up who I can easily picture thriving in Inner Circle, my small group mentoring intensive. Maybe you identify with one of them, but even if not, I hope you have seen how this incredible opportunity could help you take your career to the next level. Class starts soon, on Monday, April 14th. I really hope you’ll join me. We’re going to do such wonderful things together. If you missed my earlier emails, catch up here: #1 The illustrator who needs a guide to help them shine #2 The fired up activist who’s ready to make a difference #3 The potential picture book artist who’s dreaming big #4 The illustrator who wants to make a living from their art #5 The established artist looking for a change #6 The arty book author-illustrator who needs a nudge You know exactly
#5: Is this you? (The established artist looking for a change)
Lilla here. To give you a glimpse of who Inner Circle might be perfect for, I’ve dreamed up a few imaginary creatives—fictional artists who I can absolutely imagine thriving in this small group mentoring intensive. But of course, this is just a springboard: I know you’ll bring your own personality, quirks, and creative spark to the table, and I can’t wait to help you shape your career into something truly extraordinary. I hope these examples give you some ideas about how this powerful opportunity could be the perfect next step for you! If you missed my earlier emails, catch up here: #1 The illustrator who needs a guide to help them shine #2 The fired up activist who’s ready to make a difference #3 The potential picture book artist who’s dreaming big #4 The illustrator who wants to make a living from their art #5 The established artist looking for