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Category:Creativity
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get a home dec collection

FLASH SALE + see the MATS student on Britain’s high street!

FLASH SALE! Dreaming of a home décor line all of your own? Get one step closer with 20% off our unique course, Creating Collections for Home Décor, but HURRY – this offer is only valid for the next 72 hours! Home décor includes all of the beautiful, decorative items you have in your home: bedlinens, kitchen textiles, ceramics like vases and dining sets, soft furnishings like rugs and cushions, and hundreds more. As you can probably imagine, it’s a HUGE market for your art: market analysis platform Statista puts the worldwide revenue for the home décor market for 2024 at an impressive US$133.60bn, and projects it will grow steadily, with an annual increase of 3.89% in the next five years. Meet your teachers! Trend queen creative director Margo Tantau (left) and top art agent Lilla Rogers (right) will teach you everything you need to know to sell your art in

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FREE worksheet: How to choose what to focus on next

Lilla here. Today I want to share a FREE worksheet that I’ve created for you to help you decide what to focus on next. I’ve worked with creatives for decades and I know how hard it can be to pick sometimes. You want to do all the things! Markets! You want to illustrate children’s books, and also maybe finally write up that kids’ story idea that’s been hanging around the back of your head, and you want to design for home décor and also maybe your own toy or game, and you want to look at getting into magazine illustration, too. And art supplies! You want to use all the toys! Like your gorgeous smudgy pastels, and also that amazing new fountain pen you just bought, and also your dreamy Japanese watercolors and maybe a little bit of gouache … And what to draw, what to draw – maybe some

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Plant parents assemble! Lilla’s favorite art from our Quarterly Art Challenge!

Our fourth FREE quarterly Art Challenge took place in June, and, as always, we loved seeing the amazing art that you created! Today we’re sharing Lilla’s favorite art from the challenge, and letting you know how you can take part in the next FREE challenge next month. The assignment was to draw a house plant (or two). Like florals, plants are a perennial (no pun intended) favorite for journals, notecards, bags, bolt fabric, wall art, editorial illustration, book illustration and more, so are a fantastic addition to any portfolio. Plus they’re open to all styles and media. The winning entry for the fourth FREE Quarterly Art Challenge, by Make Art That Sells student Kristina Skutlaberg. Kristina wins a FREE place in class – join in with our next challenge for your chance to win! As always, Lilla looked at every piece of art submitted before the deadline and – after

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Hurry HURRY – Character Bootcamp flash re-opening!

Have you seen the gorgeous art coming out of the first month of Bootcamp Special: Character Play? Kicking yourself for not signing up? Want to learn how to create winning characters you can license for toys and games, books, and more? Then we’ve got good news for you! Art for Bootcamp Special: Character Play by Make Art That Sells student Clare Vacha. Hurry – registration is only open until Friday, then it closes for good! Join here. We’ve had a ton of emails asking if there’s still time to sign up, so we thought we’d re-open registration for Bootcamp Special: Character Play for a few days, from now until this Friday, August 2nd, so no one misses out. Want in? Then sign up now! This course won’t run again until 2025! Learn how to create winning characters and turn them into unique toys, like this one by Make Art That

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Bootcamp starts TODAY! Win a FREE place!

Create winning characters that you can license for children’s books, toys, games and more – Bootcamp Special: Character Play 2024 starts TODAY! A strong character is the backbone of stories, games and more, and that’s why they’re such a great addition to your illustration portfolio. In this playful but powerful course, you’ll get something from your teachers – brilliant children’s book art director and picture book author Zoë Tucker and art agent and smash-hit game creator Riley Wilkinson – that will help you create some amazing art that’s specifically designed to get you paying jobs. Art by Make Art That Sells student Kerrisa Treanor for Bootcamp Special: Character Play. First you’ll create a character based on an exclusive mini-text from Zoë, then turn it into a toy with help from Riley! Sign up here. The first Monday of every month for three months, you’ll get a mini-text and an assignment

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Lilla’s secret: Time management for artists

Get art agent Lilla’s inside scoop on time management for artists Art agent Lilla has had her fingers in a ton of creative pies (just roll with the metaphor here) – as well as her busy agency, she also teaches her Make Art That Sells courses online (and recently in person in France), writes a regular column for Uppercase magazine, has worked as a full-time illustrator, guests on podcasts, judges illustration competitions, has run her own craft jewelry line, has written a book, mentors the artists she represents, writes new content for class, and tons more. Meet Lilla Rogers! She has tons of wisdom to share from her decades of working in the creative industry. With decades of experience under her belt, we’ve been asking her to answer some of the Big Questions about life as an illustrator. Questions like: How can I keep creating with joy in difficult times?

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Is making art that sells selling out?

I want to be commercially successful – but do you have to sell out to make money from your art? Over the past few months, we’ve been asking art agent Lilla some of the Big Questions about life as an illustrator. Questions like: How can I keep creating with joy in difficult times? How can I deal with envy in my work as an illustrator? Some of Lilla’s career highlights so far, including her first book, I Just Like to Make Things, her regular column for Uppercase magazine, her jewelry craft line on the front cover of Stringing magazine, and more. With decades of experience in the creative industry – as an art agent, an illustrator, a speaker, a columnist, creator of a national jewelry craft line, an educator, an author and more – Lilla has tons of wisdom to share. She shares it through her Make Art That Sells

your childrens book career starts here

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.

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

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