Don’t miss our last flash sale! We’ve been running flash sales on some of our favorite self-paced courses all month, and our final August flash sale is for …

Bootcamp Special: Character Play!

Join brilliant children’s book art director and picture book author, Zoë Tucker, and smash hit game creator, Riley Wilkinson, to learn how to create winning characters kids and adults will love, and crank out some gorgeous eye-catching art for your portfolio.

Meet your teachers! Join brilliant children’s book art director and author, Zoë Tucker (left, with one of her books) and creative director and smash-hit game creator, Riley Wilkinson (right, with his Sneaky Snacky Squirrel game), for this unique course! Click here to save 20%!

We created Bootcamp Special: Character Play because learning how to create characters is fantastic for your art career! Here’s why:

You can get tons of work! You can license your characters for two huge art markets – children’s books and toys and games – but also basically anything you can decorate: apparel, cushions, bedlinens, tea towels and oven gloves, phone cases, socks and more.
It’s a great way to show an agent or art director that quirky, unique personality of yours. Whether you’re witty, dreamy, playful, nerdy or whatever else, the characters you dream up will reflect that.
It’s perfect for all levels. Creating a character can be as simple as a stick figure or putting eyes on a lamp.

In this one-of-a-kind course, you’ll get a taste of two of the biggest children’s markets for your art: book illustration and toys and games.

First, you’ll get an exclusive mini-text from picture book author Zoë, plus supporting downloads to help you start to focus on your unique character, including a gorgeous Character Inspiration Board created for you by art agent Lilla.

Art for class by Tina Burke. You’ll explore the dreamy world of picture book illustration with exclusive mini-texts from author Zoë, then turn them into fabulous toy and game ideas with input from Riley. Sign up now.

Then smash-hit game creator Riley will show you how you can use your character to create one-of-a-kind toys, games, play sets, and more, ready for licensing.

Plus you’ll have access to a huge vault of assignments and recordings of live reviews with Lilla, Zoë and Riley from when this course ran as a live class.

Art for class by Anna Kamburis. Explore two amazing markets for your art – children’s book illustration and toys and games – with a whopping 20% discount!

Like all our self-paced courses, you get instant access as soon as you sign up, and full access to all course materials until January 31st, 2027, so you can complete it at a time and pace that suits your schedule – but you need to sign up by August 30th if you want to save a tasty 20% and get it for just £63 (approx. $85)!

Bootcamp special: character Play success stories!

Erin Vanessa

The game which Make Art That Sells student Erin came up with in Bootcamp Special: Character Play ended up inspiring her author-illustrated picture book, You Do You-nicorn, which was published by Running Press Kids/Hachette – read more here!

The game concept which Erin created in Bootcamp Special: Character Play (left) and the front cover of her author-illustrated picture book, You Do You-nicorn (right).

Lele Saa

Lele told us how Bootcamp Special: Character Play helped her when she landed her dream job of creating children’s illustration characters, which also appeared in an advertising campaign for Google.

Lele told us: “I would like to share my biggest illustration achievement so far, not to brag but to point out how wonderful Make Art That Sells courses are and how great they are in preparing you for the real working world. I was commissioned by an advertising agency to create children’s illustration characters for their client (dream job!) and also showing my process in an advertising campaign.”

The advert for Google was be shown across Spain both digitally and on TV, alongside print adverts, radio and more.

Characters created by Lele for her dream job. She told us: “All the insights, thoughts, practices done in Bootcamp Special: Character Play helped me to carry on with the commission.”

Kim Malek

Make Art That Sells student Kim landed a fabulous job designing packaging for Nancy’s Yogurt based on work she’d done for Make Art That Sells.

Kim told us: “The characters needed to be adorable and engaging, and instantly read as a flavor … They saw my work from Bootcamp Special: Character Play, Illustrating Children’s Books and Editorial: Illustrating for Magazines and More, and knew that I would be the perfect fit for this project.

The packaging for Nancy’s Yogurt with Kim’s animal-fruit characters. Kim told us that she got this fabulous job based on the art she’d created for Make Art That Sells courses.

Hurry HURRY, don’t miss our final flash sale – get this one-of-a-kind course here!