FREE assignment: Get started with illustrating for home décor

Get started with illustrating for home décor

Creating Collections for Home Décor is back as a LIVE course in 2023 by popular demand!

That means you can enjoy all this:

LIVE weekly reviews with your brilliant teachers, top art agent Lilla Rogers and trend queen creative director Margo Tantau
Weekly deadlines to keep you accountable, motivated and on track
Brand NEW market-savvy trend boards to inspire you
A fantastic group of creatives from all over the world to share your journey with and learn alongside

… and more!

Create ready-to-send home décor pitches

Every week for five weeks, you’ll explore one of the five main substrates for home décor design: metal, fabric, glass, ceramics and wood/MDF. By the end of the course, you will have a complete collection of home décor products, ready to send to companies like West Elm, Anthropologie and Target.

Plus, crucially, this unique course teaches you to present your designs as collections, meaning that clients are more likely to buy your art – as they can instantly see how the art works with the products – and more likely to buy more of it!

Home décor products agented by Lilla Rogers. Manufacturers need your art: let Lilla and Margo show you how you can get amazing gigs like these!

Get your FREE #MATSprep warm up assignment!

To help you get warmed up ready for class, art agent Lilla has created this fantastic FREE five part assignment for you. It’s open to everyone, whether you’re taking the class or not, and will help you start to learn more about your own aesthetic sensibilities, as well as starting to introduce some of the concepts you’ll learn more about in class.

Here’s your schedule for the next few weeks – don’t forget to set an alarm on your phone, pop a Post-It on your sketchbook and (if you’re reading this on our blog) sign up for our mailing list so you don’t miss anything!

Today: In Part 1 of your warm up assignment, you’re going to start playing with color and making your own gorgeous palette.
Friday, February 3rd: In Part 2, we’re going to dive deep into one of the most popular substrates for home décor design.
Monday, February 6th: In Part 3, we’re going to explore some of your kooky collections (we know you have some) and talk about how you can monetize your passions.
Wednesday, February 8th: In Part 4, we’re going to delve deep into your wacky personality and find out what makes you you.
Friday, February 10th: And finally, in Part 5, we’re going to build a gorgeous texture library you can refer back to during class.
Plus join Lilla and Margo for a FREE live Zoom event on Friday, February 10th at 12 noon ET/5 pm GMT, where they’ll be chatting about the #MATSprep assignment, answering your questions and giving away a FREE place in class!
Monday, February 13th: Class starts TODAY! Grab your spot here, and check out the full course schedule below. It’s packed with goodness!

Art by Make Art That Sells student Paloma O’Toole, now represented by Lilla Rogers Studio. Learn how to design your own home décor line, and how to present it as a collection so it’s more appealing to clients. Class starts Monday, February 13th – sign up here.

Part 1: Color Hunt

Lilla here. I’m so excited to be teaching Creating Collections for Home Décor as a live class again! I love teaching live courses because I find that my students really thrive with weekly deadlines and live reviews. Plus I adore working with Margo, who is hugely inspiring and knowledgeable – if you don’t know her already then I guarantee you’re going to love her.

Don’t forget to join us both for the FREE live Zoom event on Friday, February 10th at 12 noon ET/5 pm GMT, where we’ll be answering your questions, showing off some eye candy and giving away a FREE place in class.

Meet your teachers: top art agent Lilla Rogers (left) and creative director and trend queen Margo Tantau (right).

I’ve created this playful but powerful five part #MATSprep assignment for you to help you prepare for class. Today we’re going to play with color and make some beautiful, fresh color palettes.

This is a fantastic warm up for class because the more color work you do, the more skill you’ll have in making beautiful presentations. Your art will shine.

As an art agent, color is a dealbreaker for me: in fact, it’s the first thing that I take in when looking at an artist’s work. Without fantastic color, all the gorgeous drawing and design in the world won’t have the same magic appeal. That’s why knowing how to make a new color palette is so important.

Art by Make Art That Sells student Lydia Graves for Creating Collections for Home Décor. Lydia is yet another student I now represent after falling in love with her art in class. Want to get your art in front of me? Sign up now!

Let’s get started with today’s assignment. Here’s a little recipe that I made for you to get you going with making your own custom color palettes.

COLOR PALETTE RECIPE

Step 1: Grab an item that you like the color of.
Step 2: Gather three more items in that color family.
Step 3: Add a pop of a different color.
Step 4: Add a few neutral colors like beige, grey, putty, or cream.

I’ve gathered a few of my oddities to demonstrate what I’m talking about.

Tip 1: Neutral are key! Why? Because as you know if you’ve taken my courses, neutrals help your colors sing. Neutrals add nuance to your piece. Doing this warm up means that when you get your first assignment in Creating Collections for Home Décor, you’ll have a few more neutrals to play with.

Tip 2: Try to select some colors that you don’t normally select. Why?

It gives your work fresh energy.
It broadens your job possibilities. Different palettes offer more variety for the client as some prefer moody colors. Some like pale colors. Some like bright colors.

Tip 3: Play around with different surfaces you place your items upon. Think about how you compose the picture. Move stuff around. You can go busy or simple.

For extra credit, you can make paint swatches to match your palette.

The point of this is to get you to gather some fresh color palettes for your work in Creating Collections for Home Décor, plus you can also use the colors you come up with now later in this #MATSprep assignment.

I can’t wait to see what you do! When you’re done, make sure you share on social media and tag @makeartthatsells and use the hashtag #MATSprep so I can find it.

Art by Make Art That Sells student Rocio Mariposa for Creating Collections for Home Décor. Look at that delicious color palette. See how it contributes to the mood of the piece.

See you on Friday, February 3rd for Part 2! Don’t miss it – make sure that you’re signed up for our mailing list and keep an eye on our social media so you don’t miss out.

Want to get five weeks of playful, creative exercises like this to help you build a successful career in the dreamy world of home décor? Then join me – sign up for Creating Collections for Home Décor today! Hurry HURRY – class starts Monday, February 13th!