Write your picture book!

  Lilla’s innovative picture book writing course, My Kid Book Pitch, is back as a LIVE course in 2026! Find out more and sign up here.

Category:Featured
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Replay of Public Live with Lilla, Zoë and Riley! Join us for the Character Bootcamp class!

Hi everyone! If you missed the fabulous live zoom, we have posted a replay below for you! Create winning characters that you can license for children’s books, toys, games and more – Bootcamp Special: Character Play 2023 started yesterday so there is still time to grab your spot!   We hope you enjoyed the show and have an idea of how Bootcamp Special: Character Play can grow your art, fill your portfolio, and help you create gorgeous on-trend artwork that will help you create more income. 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

Character Bootcamp what is your assignment going to be

Increa$e your income! Student success stories

  Create winning characters that you can license for children’s books, toys, games and more 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. Every month for three months, you’ll get a mini text and an assignment from Zoë, along with some top tips and tricks to help you start illustrating characters. Then, the following week, Riley will help you take those characters you created in week one and make them into an amazing toy pitch. And art agent Lilla will add her insight along the

The Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel Game

See the Sneaky, Snacky board book!

Win a FREE place in Bootcamp Special: Character Play 2023! Join art agent Lilla along with beloved teachers Zoë and Riley for a FREE live Zoom event on the first day of class, Monday, July 10th at 12 noon ET/5 pm BST. They’ll be talking about the fab FREE #MATSprep warm-up exercise, answering your creative career questions and giving away a FREE place in class! Don’t miss it! You’ll find the link to join on the front page of our website at www.makeartthatsells.com and in our Instagram Stories. There’s less than a week to go until Bootcamp Special: Character Play 2023, which starts THIS MONDAY, July 10th! Bootcamp Special: Character Play is all about creating winning characters that you can license for children’s books, toys, games and more – and today we wanted to share some news about a character some of you may already be familiar with. Make Art

IMG 6298 2 2 Make Art That Sells Here’s Part 2 of your FREE illustration assignment!

Here’s Part 2 of your FREE illustration assignment!

Lilla here. Today I’m sharing Part 2 of the FREE #MATSprep illustration assignment I created for you to get you warmed up for Bootcamp Special: Character Play. Today you’re going to find out exactly how easy it is to create winning characters for some of the hottest art markets right now. This course really is for all levels! Win a free place in class! First I need to remind you to join me and my brilliant Bootcamp Special teachers, Zoë and Riley, in a FREE live Zoom event on the first day of class, Monday, July 10th at 12 noon ET/5 pm BST! Zoë and Riley are both incredible teachers who are a joy to learn from as well as having huge amounts of information to share, and I know we’re going to have a blast. Join us – scribble a note on your hand now so you don’t forget!

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Open for a sweet treat: FREE assignment inside!

Lilla here. Today I’m sharing the first part of a FREE two part #MATSprep illustration assignment I’ve created for you to get you warmed up and ready for Bootcamp Special: Character Play, which starts Monday, July 10th! Q: Hold up. What’s Bootcamp Special: Character Play? A: Bootcamp Special: Character Play is a playful, relaxed course that’s designed to boost your creativity and give you more income streams for your art, so you can make more money doing what you love. It focuses on two fabulous art markets – children’s picture books and toys and games – and is taught by two top experts. I am grateful to the thousands of students who have taken my Make Art That Sells courses and the kind words you send me about my teaching style, because you’ve found that my assignments grow your art like nothing else and because they help you land real

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Light your fire: 2 FREE mini assignments from art agent Lilla

Lilla here. Something else came up in a recent live Zoom event with my My Arty Book Pitch students that I wanted to share with you. Here’s what I want you to know. I see how hard you’re working to get that project to happen, whatever it might be. For my My Arty Book Pitch students, it’s their illustrated book pitch, but it might be building a portfolio or setting up a new website or sending out kidlitart postcards or honing your style. That new phase – learning new things, discovering new things you want to do – should never stop. Here I am, in my late 60s, and I’m still figuring out what floats my boat, how I can help, what makes me excited, and what I’m dying to do. My first book, I just like to make things, for Quarry Books. I want you to keep that passion.

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Peek at some of Lilla’s art history 👀

Lilla here. As many of you already know, before I was an art agent, I was a full-time illustrator, and today I wanted to show you some of my old artwork that I recently shared with my My Arty Book Pitch class. I went to illustration school in California, and after I graduated I moved to New York, because that’s where you had to be to be an illustrator back then, before the internet was invented. I lived at 255 Clinton Street, Brooklyn. In 1985, after I’d been there about a year, I got a job from San Francisco Focus, who I’d done a few illustration gigs for already when I lived in San Francisco. They wanted me to illustrate an excerpt from A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, maybe because I was in Brooklyn, so they thought I’d have some insight. In those days you couldn’t just Google your references,

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LAST CHANCE! My Kid Book Pitch class closes TODAY!

Do you want 2023 to be the year that you finally write and pitch your picture book story? Have you already taken My Kid Book Pitch and want to polish your story writing skills? Or have you already published a picture book and want to write another? Then hurry HURRY – registration for My Kid Book Pitch closes TODAY! This course won’t run again until 2024, so if you want in then book your spot now. You’ll get tons of tools, support and advice to help you write your very own unique picture book story, including Lilla’s fabulous 128-page downloadable workbook, a set of her dreamy Magic Cards, her Write a Story Recipe, twice-weekly live Zoom events where she’ll review student art and talk you through that week’s worksheets and assignments, and tons more. Plus Lilla will be choosing her favorite submission to the class gallery and offering one lucky

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FREE VIDEOS: 11 different themes for your picture book story

Art agent Lilla shares 11 different themes for your picture book story Hurry HURRY – My Kid Book Pitch 2023 starts TODAY, and there’s still time to sign up! Join the class now and get Section 1 of your [128]-page workbook and your full set of Lilla’s dreamy Magic Cards, and join Lilla for your first LIVE webinar of the week! Don’t miss out! Here’s your schedule for Week 1. Find the full schedule for this four week magic-packed class here. Still wondering what your story could be about? Still worried that you’re maybe not really a writer? Lilla has tons of experience of working with artists and other creative people, and she designed this course especially to teach artists and illustrators how to write, beta testing it on her artists before rolling it out to you, our wonderful students. Katie Vernon, a Make Art That Sells student who is

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Win a FREE place in class TODAY! Join the Live with Lilla!

Lilla’s picture book writing course, My Kid Book Pitch, starts in just a few days, on Monday, May 29th, and you could win a FREE place in class in today’s Zoom! Join art agent Lilla plus author-illustrator Erica Root for this FREE live event TODAY at 12 noon ET/5 pm BST – click here to find the time for wherever you are or RSVP for the Facebook event here to get a reminder. Join the ZOOM here   Here’s what to expect in this FREE live Zoom: Lilla will be talking about the FREE Magic Cards warm-up exercise we shared yesterday (click here to get it now if you missed it), showing off some of her favorite picture books and explaining what makes them so great, and popping up a volunteer live on-screen so they can chat 1:1. Plus she’ll be chatting to Make Art That Sells student and author-illustrator Erica Root, and giving