I was delighted to see our artists (Marco Marella and Ann Boyajian) GORGEOUS work at Trader Joe’s while shopping last week.
Check out their selection on your next trip! Merci beaucoup! – Jennifer

Check out this gorgeous video made by Antonija M, one of the talented students of Make Art That Sells Part A. In it Antonija shares what she learnt in the course, and creates a fabulous pattern with all her new ‘knowledge’!

If you can’t see this video properly click here to view it on Vimeo!

Excitement is building for Make Art That Sells Part B which starts on October 8 (registration is now open here). In this course we give you the inside scoop on the following hot markets:

PAPER 

BABY/CHILDREN’S APPAREL & DÉCOR

SCRAPBOOKING

EDITORIAL

PARTY PAPER

It works like a kit for each market – Lilla tells you what each market wants, and then walks you step-by-step through the process of creating a portfolio piece. Lilla teaches you how to break it down so you can respond to any brief, regardless of how daunting it may initially feel. With her help you can get that dream gig!

Each week includes:

• In depth market overview (what sells, who buys it, what they are looking for)
• Examples of real jobs
• Interview with a market expert, art director or flourishing artist known for selling work in that market – think Paperchase, EK Success, Real Simple Magazine and more!
• A professional-level assignment and step-by-step guidelines to respond with great art that sells
• Access to assignment critique from Lilla (a handful of pieces will be critiqued each week)
• Style development advice
• Hot trends & fresh inspiration
• Business and life advice from Lilla

You will also get access to a private community space where you can connect with other artists and designers, share your work and support each other.

The two parts of the course are designed to work together but you can just take one part if you prefer.

IF YOU WANT TO LEARN EXACTLY WHAT TO PUT IN YOUR ARTWORK TO MAKE KILLER PORTFOLIO PIECES WHILE STAYING TRUE TO YOUR STYLE AND TASTE, THIS IS FOR YOU.

If you join this course and fully take on board Lilla’s advice, YOU ARE GUARANTEED TO GROW AS AN ARTIST, BUILD YOUR PORTFOLIO AND GAIN MORE MARKET SAVVY so you can make great art that sells. But don’t just take our word for it – read our amazing testimonials from alumni of MATS here.

For those of you who wanted to sign up via our interest-free installment plan, please be aware the deadline for this is this FRIDAY (AUGUST 30). Find out more and secure your place here.

I was thrilled that Flow Magazine invited me to be a guest blogger for the month of August. Here’s the link!

Talking about my work and influences every week has been a great exercise for me, maybe it’s about time I started blogging. Thanks Flow!
– Amy

Hi Lilla, as you know I’ve been working on a video for your Make Art That Sells part B class this fall about my amazing water tower job! It’s been really fun to connect to the project again. I have been in contact with the marketing coordinator there in Albuquerque and she sent me some beautiful photos of the completed 175 foot tower. I also wanted to share a photo collage of the tower as it appeared in Breaking Bad. Last but not least, I found a great document from Sherwin Williams (this was the paint used in the tower) that has some stunning pictures in it. Fun to see! You can follow the development of Mesa Del Sol, NM on Facebook! – Lisa

I love coming home from vacation. I love my home, I really do. One ritual is going through the mail, catalogs included. What a delight this weekend to open the Crate and Barrel catalog to this charming Land of Nod insert. And EVEN BETTER, how fabulous to see both Suzy and Jillian’s great work featured on the very same page! – Jennifer

Susy Pilgrim Waters writes: “hi chaps..its exhilarating to be asked to play. well thats how i took the request from UPPERCASEs Janine Vangool to do a wee interview and illustrate my throw away comment about wanting to design shoes.
Its totally true..I do. I want to design a line of loafers.I jumped at this opportunity to make a mess and play in collage and paint like i used to…I feel like i want to sculpt my design, infact i would adore to take a shoemaking course.My shoe in words would be edge, sharp, mixed media, with a blocky heel..comfy.classic.Feminine but with a macho chic….my sketches started on the china town bus to NYC…bit jiggy…
SO i started with a large painting. working and drawing in my sketch books too…building the barely 2 dimentional shoe in linen , leather acrylic and gouache.frankly , its a bit daunting to bare your sole like this..but instead of being too self critical and thinking uppercase it so clean and minimalist i SHOULD draw one beautiful shoe i would have had to process this for MONTHs. (and taken the shoe course..so here it is .rustic, rough, bit nutty.)
thanks to Janine who bravely is publishing this in the
http://uppercasemagazine.com/worklife3/.I admit pininterest shoes for relaxation. – Susy

Take a look at Jenn’s groovy robot from Mudpuppy! Makes R2D2 look like he could use some sprucing up! – Jennifer

MATS Part A was simply amazing. Lilla’s first assignment – pure inspiration – resulted in fabulous artwork from more than 500 participants! Here are some samples from our own artists who found new inspiaration in the ecourse! Hope to see you in Part B (starting in October) – Jennifer

From John Coulter:

From Sarah Walsh:

From Allison Cole:

From Trina Dalziel:

From Rebecca Bradley:

Take a look at these lovely snugglies from Jennifer Judd-McGee! These are available here from Land of Nod. Sweet Dreams! – Jennifer

It’s time to reveal the 50 Semi-Finalists in the 2013 Global Talent Search!

We were flooded with entries in response to the exciting brief set in association with Paperchase, inviting entrants to design a journal cover with a playground theme. Here is what Lilla had to say about reviewing the submissions, and undertaking the difficult task of making the selection…

“What’s it like to review submissions from over 1,500 participants from over 30 countries around the globe? I’ll tell you what it’s like:  It’s exhilarating! I couldn’t wait to see what would turn up as a result of the assignment.  For starters, I was astounded by the quality of work and the calibre of the artists. Work was submitted in every medium: paint, watercolor, Adobe Illustrator, even 3-D pieces! My goal was to seek out the best of the best, and by a very careful process of elimination, I was able to narrow down the selection to 122 images. From there I began an even more studied (and challenging!) examination, and then finally I brought in my crack team, Susan McCabe and Jennifer Nelson, for their savvy input as seasoned agents to help narrow the work down to this group of AMAZING 50 semi-finalists.

(In alphabetical order by surname)

Kiran Ahmad

Kelly Angelovic

Jan Avellana

Emily Balsley

Elspeth Alix Batt

Wendy Bentley

Maria Bogade

Gaia Bordicchia

Miriam Bos

Rosie Martinez Dekker

Chantel de Sousa

Susan Driscoll

Noemi Gambini

Lien Geeroms

Julia Glukhoy

Lindsay Grime

Lyndy Hants

Kim Hawes

Tamara Henderson

Denise Holmes

Victoria Horner

Jill Howarth

Zoe Ingram

Josephine Kimberling

Anita Kingsley

Tara Lilly

Dawn Machell

Lizzie Mackay

Antonija Majstorovic

Julie Mclaughlin

Lucky Nielsen

Erin Paisley

Juliana Pedemonte

Clare Phillips

Fatinha Ramos

Daniel Roode

Angie Rozelaar

Marta Rusin

Aimee Sicuro

Cindy Silverstein

Natalie Singh

Vesper Stamper

Amy Sullivan

Irene Tan

Megan Thomas

Victoria Weiss

Kara White

Selena Wong

Louise Wright

Janet Zack