Write your picture book story with Lilla’s writing course designed for artists!

  HURRY! My Kid Book Pitch starts TODAY! Sign up now here.

Category:#matsprep
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FREE Magic Cards to generate your picture book story idea!

Lilla here. I’m so thrilled that my picture book writing course, My Kid Book Pitch, is running as a LIVE course again this year. Class starts next Monday, February 23rd, and I really hope you’ll join me. Lilla here! I can’t wait to help you write your fabulous unique picture book story, just like I helped the artists I represented when I was an art agent for 30 years. Why? Because I love helping creative people like you thrive, and picture books are such a wonderful income stream for artists and illustrators – that’s why I started working on them with the artists I represented when I was an art agent. I know you’re probably thinking: “But Lilla, I’m not a writer!”. I think you are, but you just don’t know it yet. I bet you have tons of characters and little stories whirling around in your magical brain. I

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Get your second FREE lettering assignment – from a creative director!

Lilla here. Last week I shared a little sneak peek of some of the content you’ll get in my unique lettering course, Assignment Bootcamp: Lettering, which starts Monday, September 8th: I hope you enjoyed it! Today I’m going to give you another FREE assignment to play with and learn from. Read on! In Assignment Bootcamp: Lettering, you’ll get one of these assignments – which I’m calling Micro Mini assignments – every day from Monday to Friday of the first week of each month. I gave you one last week and I’m giving you another one today to give you a real taste of what the course will be like. Just like in the course, you can do a little bit each day when you get the Micro Mini assignment, or you can save it all for the weekend. Plus this one is going to be extra fun. I came up

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Get your FREE lettering download!

Lilla here. I’m so excited to share a FREE example of some of the content you’ll get in my lettering course, Assignment Bootcamp: Lettering, which starts Monday, September 8th. BIG NEWS! I’ve concocted a wild new approach for five of the assignments you’ll get in Assignment Bootcamp: Lettering: I’ve pretended that I’m a creative director who is commissioning you with some very cool jobs! Having been on the receiving end of job commissions for decades, it turns out I have a knack for being a fake creative director creating fake jobs! And although the jobs are just pretend, they are tuned in to current lettering needs in the marketplace and will be phenomenal for your portfolio. I give specifics, fantastic lettering styles to follow, and sometimes color palettes and more. I hope they make you giggle, but also motivate you to draw while teaching you tons. I had so much

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FREE picture book illustration assignment – Part 5

Get your FREE picture book illustration assignment – Part 5 Lilla here. Oh, man, you are a whole bunch of brilliant artists! You delight me with your imagination, sensitivity, and talent. I’ve loved seeing all the art you’ve created over the past couple of weeks for this #MATSprep. I love to teach my intensive live courses, like Illustrating Children’s Books, for exactly that reason: it’s amazing to see how the work blossoms over the five jam-packed weeks. The passion and achievement of our students are awe-inspiring. I hope that you’ve enjoyed taking part in this free #MATSprep as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it and seeing all your beautiful art. It gives you a taste of my teaching style, to see if it’s a good fit, and it’s also a great way to warm up and get ready for Illustrating Children’s Books, which starts THIS MONDAY, July 7th. Don’t forget,

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3 picture book art tips from an art agent

3 picture book art tips from an art agent Lilla here. Today we’re going to create magic together! I’m going to teach you three great tricks to create depth (distance) in your artwork, and explain why you might want to do so. It’ll help give your work a fresh, vibrant edge and be another tool in your ever-growing toolkit. I’ve created this series of FREE assignments to help you get ready for my LIVE online course, Illustrating Children’s Books, which starts this Monday, July 7th! There are still a few places available, so if you’d like to spend five weeks with me and my co-teacher, brilliant children’s book art director and author, Zoë Tucker, learning everything there is to know about children’s picture book illustration, then book your spot now! Over the last week, we’ve created a new character and explored fantastic new worlds – if you missed out then

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How to give your picture book art more visual impact

Lilla here. Today I’m going to make you flip out, literally. Over the past week or so, I’ve been sharing some FREE assignments that I created for you to get ready for my online course, Illustrating Children’s Books. I hope you’ll join us: class starts Monday, July 7th, so book your spot now! How to give your picture book art more visual impact Today I’m going to help you make some magic that will give your picture book illustrations more visual impact. Whether it’s dreamy, moody, whimsical or witty, digging deep into a manuscript and creating all those little details is one of the most rewarding parts of children’s book illustration. Think about your audience. Children are so in touch with their imaginations: they are going to love the imaginative worlds that you create. In Illustrating Children’s Books, we spend a whole week on creating a dreamy full page spread

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FREE: How to create a setting for a picture book

Illustrating Children’s Books 2025 starts in just over a week, on Monday, July 7th! To help you get ready for class and warm up your creative muscles, we’re sharing a series of five FREE assignments from course co-teacher and renowned art agent, Lilla Rogers: read on for Part 2! How to create a setting for a picture book What’s Illustrating Children’s Books? It’s an incredible five-week LIVE online course that will teach you everything you need to know to launch or boost your children’s picture book illustration career. This will be the twelfth time that your teachers, art agent and Make Art That Sells founder, Lilla Rogers, and acclaimed children’s book art director and author, Zoë Tucker, have run this course – and each time, it just gets better and better! Art by Make Art That Sells student Pamela Goodman for Illustrating Children’s Books. You’ll create a pitch presentation containing

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FREE picture book illustration assignment – Part 1

FREE picture book illustration assignment – Part 1 Our student-favorite LIVE online course, Illustrating Children’s Books, starts in just over a week, on Monday, July 7th and there’s still time to sign up! Why is this course, which is now running for the twelfth time, so popular? Why do our students take it again and again? Because it’s incredibly rigorous but also playful and fun – and it really works. Tons of our students have gone on to get picture book illustration deals, land agents, and more after taking this course (you can read some of their stories here). Plus it’s led by industry experts. Your teachers, former top art agent Lilla Rogers and renowned children’s book art director and author Zoë Tucker, will teach you everything you need to know about the wonderful world of children’s book illustration, in an accessible, step by step way that will break everything

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The plates have eyes Get Part 2 of your FREE 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. Children’s books and toys and games are both huge markets for illustrators – but you could also license your characters for products like gift, stationery, partyware, apparel, fabric, greeting cards and more. (One of our students recently landed a gig illustrating children’s food packaging after taking Bootcamp Special: Character Play – read more here.) What’s more, this course really is for all levels – and it’s just £99 (2approx. $126)! 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

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FREE warm-up exercise on creating a character

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 in just a few weeks, on Monday, April 7th! I can’t wait for Zoë, Riley and I to show you how easy it can be to create winning characters that you can license for children’s books, toys, games and more. 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. Art by Make Art That Sells student Valerie Hamill for Bootcamp