Online art courses

to boostyour portfolio!

Make Art That Sells provides raved-about career-changing online art courses for artists and illustrators who are passionate about what they do and want to make real money from their art while staying true to their unique, individual style.

CLICK HERE TO FIND THE ONLINE ART COURSE THAT’S RIGHT FOR YOU

Get the motivation and inspiration you need with our incredible LIVE online art courses, or get instant access as soon as you register with our fabulous self-paced courses; the choice is yours. Don’t miss out, start planning your creative career now!

View all our courses

don’t miss our next live online art course!

Join us in Illustrating Children’s Books  and find out how an engaging character is so important to a successful children’s book. That’s why top agent Lilla Rogers and brilliant children’s book art director Zoë Tucker, spend so much time focusing on characters in class, and why they share boatloads of hints and tips from their decades in the industry.

You don’t just get our insight though: in case you missed it, you’ll also get interviews from industry experts including an art agent, an art director, a publisher and award-winning illustrators. This is gold! Plus of course you’ll also get three brand new exclusive texts from Zoë and all the other amazing content, including assignments, live reviews, daily drawing prompts, downloads and tons more. Want in? Book your place here.

Erika Jones book spread illustration from the Loud Librarian. Children playing in a park.

Illustration for Make Art That Sells student Erika’s first picture book, The Loud Librarian. Find out how you can land jobs like this in Illustrating Children’s Books.

Lilla’s Lettering demo – replay

 

Catch the replay of Lilla’s lettering demonstration and watch a professional at work! Find out about how she approaches the creation of letterforms  and hear her share some of her favorite  materials.

By popular demand…the materials Lilla used in her demo:

  • A variety of papers such as Arches 88 silkscreen paper, any watercolor paper, any drawing paper
  •  Big journal to paste the pages into
  • Ritmo pencil 3B or 6B
  • Micron pen 03, 05 & 08
  • Prismacolor Premier colored pencils
  • Derwent Colorsoft colored pencils
  • Fountain pen revolution with flex nib
  • Dip pen with any pointy nib
  • Fine Tec Metallic paints
  • Escoda number 8 brush
  • Lamp brand: CANVAS

Registration to this class has now closed.  Want to join the next Bootcamp? Boost your characters with Zoe and Riley in Bootcamp Special: Character Play. Find out more here.

 

why take make art that sells courses?

a selection of illustrated products laid out on a desk: oracle cards, toothbrush, embroidery transfers, cards, chocolate bars and gift items

Products illustrated by artists represented by Lilla Rogers Studio. Do you ever look at products like these and wonder how the artist got that gig? Let Lilla show you how!

Make Art That Sells is the perfect place for artists who are passionate about what they do and dream of making a living out of their art while staying true to their style.
We offer a fantastic range of online art courses to support your creative career and make your work pop. Our courses will help you understand the most lucrative markets for art, and show you how to boost your portfolio with stellar work!

Whether you need to up your creative game by working on a killer portfolio, or need business advice to sell more of your art, Make Art That Sells is the place to be. Here’s a quick summary of what we do:

  • Exciting LIVE courses for those who love deadlines, and getting their work in front of art agents.
  • A selection of self-paced courses with instant access so you can work at your own pace
  • On-trend assignments set by art agents and art directors that will boost your portfolio
  • A supportive Facebook community of artists from all around the world for friendship and support

So let’s get started!

which bundle is right for me?

If you’re thinking of taking any online art courses then you’re in the right place. Grab one of our 2024 online art courses and you can get our best prices when you buy as part of a bundle.

Are you ready to take your creative career to the next level and start making real money from your art? Let Lilla and the other brilliant Make Art That Sells teachers show you how. Check out which bundle is right for you.

Get you art of products like these by artists represented by Lilla Rogers Studio

What would you like to achieve?

Whatever your goals, whatever you’re dreaming of, we have all the insight, tools and knowledge to help you get there.

Take a look at our bundles here!

what our students love about make art that sells!

We launched our massive video testimonial competition. We wanted to know what you loved about Make Art That Sells, the great work you’ve gotten, the friends you’ve met, and the courses that have blown your mind, and you did NOT disappoint!

Art agent Lilla said: “I loved each and every video”.

Our students give amazing feedback! Here’s a rocket-fuelled video review by Make Art That Sells student Lisa Chow which shows how our online art courses, Kid’s Books, Home Decor, Editorial and more, helped her on her creative journey. She gained from MATS: Expert teachers – Fun approachable assignments – Support from fellow students – and a boost in confidence and creativity!

Watch Lisa’s video here…

 

Which online art course is right for you?

Supercharge your art career: choose the right MATS class for you for 2024.

MATS works! It’s the gold standard in the industry. Many of our alumni have gotten work with top companies as a direct result of these classes.

individual art courses
live

Illustrating Children's Books

Live from May 20, 2024
5 weeks

In five weeks, you’ll create a brilliant children’s book pitch to help you land your dream children’s book gig. You’ll get videos, weekly assignments, live weekly video reviews, interviews with publishers and illustrators and more. Co-taught by top art agent Lilla Rogers and highly-respected children’s book art director Zoë Tucker, you’ll get insider knowledge and hints and tips from the experts.

Bootcamp Special: Character Play

Live from July 8, 2024
12 weeks

In this course, you’ll get something every Monday for twelve weeks that will teach you how to do just that, while creating six show-stopping pieces of art for your illustration portfolio. Imagine getting paid to dream up appealing characters for children and adults to fall in love with … Let Zoë and Riley show you how! Join brilliant children’s book art director and picture book author, Zoë Tucker, and art agent and smash-hit game creator, Riley Wilkinson, in this exciting course! Your portfolio will love you for it!
New

Find Your Art Style with Style

Live from August 8, 2024
4 weeks

Tamisha will inspire you with her charming collection of vintage accessories and light you up as you explore some wonderful art eras and discover some remarkable women from history. Get ready to discover a variety of floral imagery, styles and motifs from four different visually-exciting vintage eras, then add a cool contemporary spin to make your work unique and marketable. Let’s discover your art style with style!

My Arty Book Pitch

Live from October 14, 2024
5 weeks

This five-week course is fantastic for creative people such as artists, crafters, illustrators, writers, designers, photographers or anyone who is passionate about a hobby or interest. And you don’t need to be an expert! You just need to care about something you want to share. Lilla will give you the tools you need to make your dreamy passion into a book pitch that agents and publishers will love.

individual art courses
self-paced

Former full-time illustrator, Lilla Rogers, shares her insights into the exciting world of illustrating for magazines and more. This course has run as a live course four times (including twice in its launch year after it sold out the first time) and you’ll get access to all of the assignments from all four tracks, to give you an incredibly powerful editorial illustration portfolio across a wide range of subject matter.
This course provides the skills and knowledge to fill a huge gap in the lucrative home décor market – for artists who can conceptualize and pitch full product collections. By showing art directors that you can do this, you put yourself ahead of the game, and stand out from other artists as a commercial professional. Not only are they more likely to buy your work, they are likely to buy MORE of your work – perhaps even your entire collection. So let’s get started!
Explore five of the most exciting and lucrative markets for your art, from bolt fabric to children’s apparel. You’ll get tons of gorgeous downloads and access to a huge vault of live reviews. Graduates of this course have gone on to win work from clients such as Anthropologie, Blue Q, Scholastic, HarperCollins, Crate Kids, Chronicle Books, Hallmark, Uppercase Magazine, West Elm, and more – you could be next!
Build a professional illustration portfolio while learning how to make art that sells in 5 of the most lucrative markets: stationery, baby/children’s apparel, scrapbooking, editorial (magazines, books and more), party paper. The course is full of expert advice from the people who buy art, through a series of exclusive interviews with industry leaders who collectively buy millions of dollars of art every year. Find out exactly what art directors look for in each market.
Art agent and author, Lilla Rogers, says: “Creating a unique book comes from understanding what makes you unique and discovering the story you’re excited to tell. To help you do this, I’ve created a playful, personalized and structured course that will bring out your special story. It’s packed full of quirky worksheets and fun exercises that will guide you step by step to create your own special brilliant story.” Plus if you can illustrate and write a story, you are much more appealing to editors and art directors. You also make twice the money—you get the advance as author and illustrator, and all the royaltie$ as well!”
Business learning for creative people from art agent Lilla and award-winning entrepreneur, best-selling author and Make Art That Sells co-founder Beth Kempton. You’ll get a 130-page downloadable playbook that will show you how you can make money doing what you love and build a thriving business, with actionable and concrete tips that will help you create your own formula for success.
It’s a fact: being able to draw faces will get you more work and make your career more rewarding, both emotionally and financially. In this playful short course, art agent Lilla breaks it down in a fun, fresh way that you won’t have seen before so you’ll be confidently drawing faces in no time.
In this short mini course, you’ll work with a gorgeous trend board created by Lilla to crank out a stunning piece of art for your home décor portfolio, with tons of content to dive into, including Lilla’s playful worksheets, video lessons from creative director and trend queen Margo Tantau, recordings of Lilla and Margo’s reviews of student art, and lots more.
Create a beautiful piece of job-snagging eye-catching children’s book illustration art to strengthen or broaden your portfolio. You’ll get four mini- texts to work from, plus access to recordings of Lilla and Zoë’s reviews of student art and more.
Have you ever wondered how an art agent reviews a portfolio? In this energizing self-paced course, you’ll watch art agent Lilla review portfolios, websites and social media of artists and illustrators just like you, and find out what you’re getting right, what you’re getting wrong, how to attract attention and jobs, why your About Me page is so important, and tons more.
Enjoy five recordings with top art agent Lilla Rogers as she explores her creative world, plus fascinating downloadable worksheets that will help you find your joy and your passion. This course is for anyone who does any kind of creative work, and will give you insights into yourself, creativity and success, as well as giving you concrete tips for a happy, fulfilled creative life.

My Toy Pitch

Instant Access

Turn play into pay! In this course, innovative art agent Lilla Rogers and brilliant children’s toy and game creative director Riley Wilkinson will guide you through the playful world of the toy and game market. They’ll share industry secrets and show you how to showcase your unique art on products that’ll capture the hearts of children as you create an exciting original toy and develop your own winning, playful pitch. You’ll discover how you can use all the great art that you already have, maybe from our courses, or your own projects, and leverage it to make new products ready to pitch. This incredibly fun duo will take you on a deep dive into the booming toy and game market. The course is jam-packed with assignments, videos, insider lessons, expert interviews and Lilla’s trend boards.

Online art courses to help your career in art and design

Since launching in 2013 Make Art That Sells has rapidly gained a reputation for the go-to online art courses for anyone serious about making commercially viable art whilst staying true to themselves.

We have been completely blown away by the response of our participants (many of whom have come back to repeat the online art courses), and have been thrilled to see huge leaps forward in their artwork.

Here are just a few of the kind words that other participants said about the impact the course had on them.

“This is the course you need to do if you want to sell your art to the masses. As far as I know its the only course like this in existence. The information is like gold dust. It’s that valuable! ”
CHANTEL DE SOUSA

“Best investment in your art career, ever.”
LISA RIVAS

“I feel that I have learned fantastic amounts about the industry – information that money can’t buy. I feel that I have a thousand positive ideas in my head and am enjoying pushing them through.”
EMMA BURNETT

“I got some commissions and new works because of some Lilla’s challenges. Now I know I can even do more and can adapt more to client demands.”
JENIFER ESPINOSA