You might already know that, before she became a renowned international art agent, Lilla Rogers had a long and illustrious career working as a professional illustrator. All of the courses from Make Art That Sells are based on the fact that, from over 30 years in the business, Lilla knows exactly what you need to know in order to make art that sells in your own unique style.
Some artwork by Lilla from her Art Recipes: Drawing Faces ecourse
In today’s newsletter, we’re going to talk about how to have an illustration career in three steps. Note that we don’t say easy steps! Each of these steps will be an ongoing process that will become easier and more rewarding the more that you practice them. But one thing that Lilla does know for sure is that big daunting things become very much less overwhelming if you just break them down into smaller pieces.
1. Make art that you love
As Lilla always says: people buy your joy. So make sure that your art is full of it. Clients, agents and art directors are all drawn to work where you get a sense that the artist was coming from a place of passion and joy. The work exudes a kind of appealing energy.
Draw every day. The more art you make, the better you will get at it; and the better you get, the more work you will get and the more interesting and lucrative your career will be.
Need some help? There are masses of classes and courses out there that can help you, but of course we’re going to suggest MATS classes because we know MATS works! Read our students’ testimonials and success stories here.
Grow your art, grow your income and create a lucrative career doing what you love: let Lilla show you how!
If you want to start right now, you can sign up for Hot Markets for Your Art Part A and/or Part B and get started right this minute. MATS A and B are self-paced courses which include a detailed insight into the hottest 10 markets for your art, what work sells in those markets, who buys, what they are looking for and loads more. Actual companies are listed to help you get started with whom to submit your work to.
Products by Lilla’s artist Sarah Walsh.
Imagine seeing your amazing art on cool products like these!
Creating Collections for Home Décor is a another self-paced course which focuses on the five most popular materials used in the lucrative Home Décor market, and everything you need to know to get your art on them, plus pitching your ideas for product concepts as full collections – so not only will you make art that sells, you will learn to sell MORE art to each client! In short, you’ll learn how to put your gorgeous art on products in a way that will get you work.
If you prefer the accountability of a live class with deadlines, then be sure to sign up for Illustrating Children’s Books, which kicks off on July 1st, 2019. You can browse all of our upcoming courses and sign up for our waiting list to get notifications here.
Student work from a previous Illustrating Children’s Books course by Annie Bowler. This was from week 1, which is all about creating memorable characters.
2. Show your work
Make a website that you love and that art directors will respond to. Think of your website as a home base to which all roads lead.
Previous student work from MATS MBA (Money BadAss). Here’s Sam Rudd vibing her fabulous creative career!
Need help? Sign up for the next round of MATS MBA (Money BadAss), which will give you tons of actionable strategies to build a thriving creative career. Find out more here.
If you need a little help developing your USP (unique selling point) (and if it helps you to know even successful art directors feel nervous about sharing their work sometimes!), we’re delighted to share this superb piece of content from week 3 of our raved-about ecourse Illustrating Children’s Books, which starts on July 1st 2019. The worksheet is written by art director Zoë Tucker, who is one of the brilliant co-teachers of the course. Check it out here.
Being able to draw faces can help you get great gigs like these products from Lilla’s artists!
And if you can’t wait to get started, sign up now for Lilla’s Art Recipes: Drawing Faces, because being able to draw faces will always help you get more work!
See you in class!
Love
The MATS team xxx
P.S. For more beautiful art from MATS students, news, offers, updates and more, don’t forget to follow us on Instagram!