Looking for an exciting creative focus? There are just over six weeks to go until the start of our raved-about online course, Illustrating Children’s Books, and we can’t wait! Taught by top art agent and Make Art That Sells co-founder, Lilla Rogers, and brilliant children’s book art director and author, Zoë Tucker, it’s an incredibly intense five week course that will teach you everything you need to know about the wonderful world of children’s book illustration, and is renowned for its ability to make careers and change lives (look out for some more of our incredible alumni success stories in next week’s newsletter!).
Today, with huge thanks to publishers Quarto, we’re sharing a mini-video on the making of children’s book Greta and the Giants, written by Illustrating Children’s Books co-teacher Zoë Tucker and illustrated by Zoe Persico. The story was originally written by Zoë for Illustrating Children’s Books, before being picked up and published as a children’s book, and is the second of Zoë’s course texts that has now been published: in this course you get real world experience of professional quality texts!
In this short film, you’ll get to see and find out more about the printing process, and hear directly from both Zoë Tucker and Zoe Persico about the process of creating the book, and what it meant to them. Scroll down to watch!
Make Art That Sells co-teacher, Zoë Tucker, holds a copy of Greta and the Giants, based on one of the texts she originally wrote for Illustrating Children’s Books.
Every Illustrating Children’s Books course includes three brand new and exclusive texts written especially for the course. All three are designed to bring out the best in every student and to be market-savvy, so they’ll look incredible in your portfolio to help you snag your amazing children’s book illustration career. Plus you’ll also get a playful and informative Text Chooser download that will help you dig down into your own personal style and choose the perfect text for you (you’ll have access to all course materials for six months after the course ends, so you are more than welcome to go back and work with the other texts in your own time as well). All this means no dithering and procrastinating trying to find the perfect text: you can just get stuck straight in! Want in? Grab your spot here.
Full page spread from Greta and the Giants, written by Make Art That Sells co-teacher Zoë Tucker for class and illustrated by Zoe Persico. Zoë’s texts are always on trend: in an article on The best children’s books of 2019, The Guardian said “Saving the planet will be 2020’s lead story in children’s books, foreshadowed this year by Greta and the Giants.”
Greta and the Giants is based on the text Greta and the Wolves, which was originally written for Illustrating Children’s Books in 2019. Published in 2019 by Quarto, it has since been translated into 25 languages. Greta and the Giants is Zoë’s second book to be published in 2019, alongside Ada and the Number Crunching Machine which came about when Illustrating Children’s Books alumni Rachel Katstaller took the art she’d done on an earlier Illustrating Children’s Books course to the Bologna Children’s Book Fair. Her portfolio was so strong it was immediately snapped up by international publisher Nord Sud (North South) and the rights for the text were secured. Rachel’s work on Ada Lovelace has received wonderful recognition: read more about it here.
Full page spread from Ada Lovelace and the Number-Crunching Machine, written by Zoë Tucker for Illustrating Children’s Books and illustrated by Make Art That Sells student Rachel Katstaller. Maybe next time it will be you! Book your spot here!
As you may have guessed, Greta and the Giants was inspired by the story of climate change activist Greta Thunberg, and is a wonderful (and beautifully illustrated) introduction to the theme for younger children. Due to its important message, the book was printed locally on 100% recycled paper, with a proportion of the proceeds going to charities supporting the fight against climate change. Pringint locally meant that author and Make Art That Sells co-teacher, Zoë, was able to go along and see some of the printing process.
Below is a short video sharing more about how it was made, a word from illustrator, Zoe Persico, and get to know your Illustrating Children’s Books teacher, Zoë Tucker!
We hope that you enjoyed the film, and if you’re ready to build or boost your incredible children’s book illustration career, book your spot here!
Lots of love
The Make Art That Sells team xxx
P.S. Would you also love to write and illustrate your very own children’s picture book? Then you should definitely check out art agent Lilla’s brand NEW course, My Kid Book Pitch, which will help you come up with a unique character and authentic children’s picture book pitch containing everything you need to catch an art director or publisher’s eye. You can grab it now together with Illustrating Children’s Books and save 15% on the total RRP with our Kid Book Double Scoop bundle!
