Category: events
10/17/23
We had a fabulous time at our 9th Annual Artists and VIPs Retreat, held virtually via Zoom.
LRS Agents and Artists met with VIPs from markets such as publishing, home décor, and stationery. Artists and VIPs then broke into pairs for ten minutes apiece to view and discuss the artists’ gorgeous work.
We call it Speed Art Dating, and it’s a wonderful way for the artists and VIPs to meet.
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| Left: LRS Agents and Artists Zoom with VIPs–art directors, publishers, and editors.
Later, the artists and the VIPs broke into pairs for ten minutes apiece to view and discuss the artists’ gorgeous work.
We call it Speed Art Dating, and it’s a wonderful way for the artists and VIPs to meet. |
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| Later, we held “LRS Artist Share Day,” where LRS artists could all be together, laugh, and share all the goss. Several artists also made small presentations on different subjects, such as recent creative trips, organizational tools, and arty toys that we all now need to go and buy. |
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| Artists showed their gorgeous art to the VIPs a screenshared PDF.Those PDFs are now available for viewing and download here!They each include a few brand-new-never-before-seen pieces of art. Here is a selection of new images that were unveiled: |
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| Available for license as of this writing. |
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Available for license as of this writing.
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Available for license as of this writing.
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| Available for license as of this writing. |
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| Available for license as of this writing. |
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5/16/23
Our annual LRS Residency started yesterday!
One of my most favorite things in the world is to help top artists make even more brilliant work, develop their unique gifts, and broaden their career opportunities. So, with that in mind, we are incredibly excited to offer our LRS Residency again in 2023 to our artists, focusing on illustrated non-fiction books, a.k.a. arty books.
Editors and art directors, we’ll be in touch when our artists’ brilliant pitches are ready, but as always, don’t hesitate to give us a shout should you like to see what we’ve been up to.
Last year, we focused on author/illustrated children’s picture books. Many of the pitches have been picked up by top publishers!
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2022 Author/Illustrator Residency Zoom
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Below is some of the work from previous Residencies for you to enjoy.
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Kendra’s tender and imaginative story of two children, one who is afraid of the ground, and one who is afraid of the sky. Through visually gorgeous illustrations of steampunk-style Rube Goldberg-type contraptions, they find a way to connect.
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Through nature and a new friendship with a caterpillar, a busy pony who thinks being alone is boring, learns how to enjoy her own company.
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A bat that’s afraid of the dark? Meet Fergus, a lovable scaredy-bat!
With compassionate help from three nocturnal friends, Fergus finds the confidence to fly at night, but will he be brave enough when confronted with the gloomiest, spookiest depths of the forest?
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This heartwarming story is a fresh take on anxiety. Frankie Fox present shops for her best friend’s birthday. She falls in love with each cool toy she picks, but then quickly questions each one and gets discouraged. She ultimately pivots to create her own toy that reflects their friendship.
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What I love about Mara’s pitch is her ability to tell a laugh-out-loud story about an insecure snail in a cool way that imparts lots of nutty snail factoids. This book celebrates mucous and other gross features such as the dung beetle’s poop.
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My Kid Book Pitch, my one-of-a-kind picture book writing course is specially designed for creative people just like you!
Magic Cards (pictured above) are my secret weapon for helping you to unlock your magic imagination and come up with unique characters and a dreamy story idea.
By the end of this incredible four week course, you could have your own children’s book pitch ready to send (along with suggestions on who to send it to).
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5/15/20
Join us at 12.30 PM ET TODAY for our Free WebinART #3
Our Artists’ Residency: Picture Book Pitches
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Above: Banner by Mara Penny
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Join me as I chat with five of my stellar artists when we take a break from the week-long virtual Residency to chat with you TODAY at 12:30 PM ET. I’ll ask them about their working process, how they magically dreamed up their ideas for their children’s picture book pitches, the hardest part and easiest part of making their pitch, PLUS they’ll possibly show a sneak peek of what they’re working on. It’s not to be missed!
Click here to join our free public WebinART on Zoom at 12:30 PM ET.
Password: Residency7
Art directors and editors tell us that they’re looking for author/illustrator book pitches (probs because artists are so cool and imaginative), so we dreamed up our latest caper–our Residency–which is an incredible incubator for five of my artists to work on their authored/illustrated picture book pitches.
I’m in the midst of working with them this entire week while they dive into my latest course (ahead of the public launch) called My Kid Book Pitch that I’ll be offering in October. My six artists will have brilliant and highly original pitches–including texts and sample spreads–finished by the end of the week or shortly thereafter.
Art Directors and Editors: Contact us or simply reply to this email to get your hands on what I promise will be pitches that will shine.
You don’t want to miss this. Can’t watch it live? We’ll send you the link for the replay next week in our newsletter or look for it on the Lilla Rogers home page this Friday.
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Here are the six in-demand Residency artists who will join me on today’s WebinART:
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Above: For The Washington Post
Local Living section
Left: Personal Work
Clients include Callisto Media, Crazy 8,
FabKids, Gap Factory, Gymboree,
Janie & Jack, Simply She, Tea Collection,
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Above: Personal Work
Clients include
Sterling Publishing, Workman Publishing, Running Press
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Above: Starting from Seneca Falls
(Random House)
Clients include
Quarto, The Washington Post,
Editions Auzou, Sellers/RSVP,
Studio Oh!
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Clients include Amber Lotus,
Hachette, Page Street Publishing,
Calypso Cards, American Greetings,
Design House Greetings, Oopsy Daisy,
Roger La Borde, Sterling Publishing
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Above and below, left: Like a Girl (Sterling Publishing)
Clients include Design House Greetings,
Galison/Mudpuppy, Moda,
Running Press, Biely & Shoaf,
Boston Globe, Chateau Ste Michelle, Sterling Publishing
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Left: Make Art Every Day (Quarto)
Above: Notebooks (Roger La Borde)
Clients include American Greetings, Anthropologie, BBDO Worlwide, Chronicle Books, Disney Hyperion, Hallmark, IKEA, Oopsy Daisy, Papyrus
Quarto Publishing Group, TAG, Ltd.
Up with Paper!, The Washington Post
Workman Publishing
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I hope you enjoyed the show! Check out
our site to see more.
Want great art for your project? Don’t hesitate to
contact us. We’d be delighted to assist you with any of your art needs.
xo
Lilla
Agent, Artist, Author
Founder, Lilla Rogers Studio
Co-Founder, Make Art That Sells
5/11/20
Above: Banner by Erica Root
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Join us this THURSDAY at 12.30 PM ET for our WebinART #3: The Residency
We have a very special (free) WebinART for you this Thursday. Six of my artists and I will have spent the week at our virtual Residency creating their children’s book pitches. We’ll chat live about what they’re working on and maybe they’ll even share a sneak peek.
What is our virtual Artists’ Residency?
Art directors and editors tell us that they’re looking for author/illustrator book pitches (probs because artists are so cool and imaginative), so we dreamed up our latest caper–our Residency–which is an incredible incubator for five of my artists to work on their authored/illustrated picture book pitches.
I get to mentor them daily for six days while they dive into my latest course ahead of the public launch called My Kid Book Pitch that I’ll be offering in October. How cool is that? We had originally planned to have the event at my home and garden, but we’ve Covid-ized it and now it’s virtual–6 days of Zooms with the gang. It’s my idea of an agent/educator dream. All this talent for a week!
What kind of stories will they write and illustrate?
Creating a special picture book comes from understanding what makes the author unique and then discovering the story they are excited to tell. They will share some of the goodness that they’re working on, their process, and other surprises.
The extraordinary artists in attendance for this Thursday’s Webinart are:
Tune in to the WebinART on Zoom here. Password: Residency7
I hope you’ll join us for this free special event.
Can’t watch it live? We’ll send you the link for the replay next week or look for it on the Lilla Rogers home page this Friday.
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Banner by Kelly Anne Dalton
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Lilla chats with top illustrator Katie Vernon
Did you miss the fascinating WebinART with Katie Vernon last week? Katie shared how her personal work brought in some stellar gigs plus showed some of her latest work. I know you’ll enjoy it.
Password: 3G#a#6n^
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We hope you had a wonderful Mother’s Day! Here’s to all the mothers who keep everything going while we’re at home together :)
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Clockwise from top left: Carolyn Gavin, Tara Lilly, Jon Cannell
Work available for license as of this writing.
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Thank You, Clothworks!
A big shout out to our lovely client Clothworks who supplied fabric from Helen Dardik’s collection (below, left) to our very own Financial Manager and seamstress, Julia Parker, and to Erin Hazlett (below, right) from The Violet Orange. Julia and Erin created face masks which were donated tolocal hospitals and a homeless shelter in downtown Boston, and tohospice and clinics in Rhode Island. Thank you all!
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Above: Buy Helen Dardik’s collection, Good Things Will Come (Clothworks) here.
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I hope you enjoyed the show! Check out
our site to see more.
Want great art for your project? Don’t hesitate to
contact us. We’d be delighted to assist you with any of your art needs.
xo
Lilla
Agent, Artist, Author
Founder, Lilla Rogers Studio
Co-Founder, Make Art That Sells
5/7/20
May 7, 2020 – WebinART #2 with illustrator Katie Vernon
Replay Link: Click here
Password: 3G#a#6n^
Lilla chats with Katie about her stellar career making art in her eccentric style, what she’s working on right now, her favorite illustration project, and her creative process. Katie also reveals how her previous work as a florist influenced her illustration!
Enjoy :)
4/23/20
April 23, 2020 – WebinART #1 with illustrator Mara Penny
Replay Link: Click here
Password: 4p^#178H
We chatted about Mara’s gorgeous illustration projects for books, cards, fabric collections, magnetic paper dolls, a zodiac embroidery kit, and even a series of wine labels.
Lucky for your FOMO, it was recorded! Watch to learn about Mara’s artmaking process, her thoughts on what makes an art director great to work with, and the fascinating way she does research for a project.
Enjoy!
10/10/19
We recently showed you highlights from our 3-Day Annual Retreat, and now I’d love to show you a few photos of the activities that the artists participated in, from our Sketch Scavenger Hunt to Vintage Bingo.
Thought you might like to see photos of the Studio and back patio set up and ready for the arrival of the artists, Day One.
Above: Breakfast on the patio.
Attending Artists, from front right, moving clockwise around the table:
After a Studio update to discuss all of our exciting new plans for the future, it was time for a vintage Bingo break.
Above: Vintage Bingo break!
Below: Our Snoop Groups. The artists broke into small groups to discuss a particular topic. Then, they reported back to the larger group with tips and thoughts.
Sarah Papworth, Anke Rega, Åsa Gilland, Jessica Allen
Erica Root, Mara Penny, Kendra Binney, Bambi Ramsey
We devote a load of time at the Retreat for the artists to do teach-ins, where they show something like an art supply that they love, share a tech hack, or anything else they want to share.
Above, artist Kendra Binney (Portland, OR) shows some of the ‘cheap’ art supplies she uses in her art, which was surprising to all of us, because her work is so elegant and fancy. For original art that she sells, she covers the work in light-fast resin.
Artist Anke Rega demonstrated how she incorporates digital work with her traditional media work.
The Sketch Scavenger Hunt was new for this year. I gave our artists a list of things to look for in my garden (like “Draw an unusual leaf” or “Draw something purple”) and then they were free to roam and sketch.
Anke Rega, left, and Sarah Papworth
Julia Christians
Thank you, artists! See you next year!
I hope you enjoyed the show! Want great art for your project? Don’t hesitate to
contact us. We’d be delighted to assist you with any of your art needs. Get to know us
here!
xo
Lilla
Founder, Lilla Rogers Studio
Co-Founder, Make Art That Sells courses
P. S. Read what our clients have to say about working with our agency
here!
10/8/19
I’m reflecting upon our magical 3-day Annual Artists and VIPs Retreat this past week, now in its 5th year. It began as an idea we had, sipping coffee and dreaming up cool ways to do business.
Ideas + plans = new reality.
This year’s Retreat was such fun, but also super great for business. It’s what I call a feminist model of business–embracing things like physical beauty–loads of fresh colorful bouquets in vintage vases; it’s about healthy and abundant buffets; it’s about cozy and plentiful spots for people to relax and chat in the sunshine. It’s about a 🎸guitarist and wine 🍷 in the early evening with golden light. But it’s also about a bit of wackiness like playing vintage bingo.
Mix up the ingredients: beauty, coziness, nature, and play. Next add giant helpings of some of the most brilliant illustrators working today plus some of the top art directors in the business.
We are already getting juicy commissions as a direct result. Business is kind of a dull word for simply putting people together and benefiting both parties in a lucrative way. And when it’s about art, then it’s about adding more beauty to the world. And right there you have my business philosophy. Have fun with business, enjoy business, play business like it’s a game.
I’d love to share some of the highlights with you.
In addition to eleven top artists, we were honored to host Frances Soo Ping Chow, Creative Director, Running Press; Carolyn Eckert, Art Director, Storey Publishing; Marissa Giambrone, Art Director, Quarto; Ashley Halsey, Art Director, Sellers | High Note; Jo Obarowski, Creative Director, Sterling Publishing; Melia Parsloe, Associate Designer, Page Street Publishing; Julie Philibert, Senior Design Stylist, Brewster Home Fashions; Gibbs Rainock, Art Director, Hasbro; J Walker, Designer, 2Communiqué.
Our artists made lovely portfolio magazines to give out to the art directors:
Above: Portfolios featuring the work of Åsa Gilland, Sarah Papworth, and Julia Christians.
Above: Click photo to see Sarah Papworth flipping through her amazing sketchbook. This video post got over 14,000 views on Instagram!
Giveaways from the artists: Kendra Binney, Jennifer M Potter, Kelly Anne Dalton, Bambi Ramsey, Asa Gilland, Julia Christians, Erica Root, Jessica Allen
Speed Art Dating
The highlight of the Retreat is Day 2: VIP Presentations and Speed Art Dating. This is the glorious opportunity for our artists and the VIP art directors to sit together for 10 minutes and chat about the artists’ work. Oh yeah, and vintage tablecloths.
Kendra Binney (top) with Jo Obarowski from Sterling Publishing
Carolyn Eckert, Storey Publishing (left) with Erica Root
Ashley Halsey, Sellers Publishing | High Note (left), with Mara Penny
Jessica Allen (left) and J Walker, 2Communiqué
Åsa Gilland (left) with Marissa Giambrone, Quarto
Wine and Cheese Gathering
After a rich and lively day, the artists, Studio ladies, and the VIPs unwind with wine, cheese and music in the golden early evening light.
Click on the video above to get a small taste of our wine and cheese event in my garden.
Thank you to all the ADs who attended!
Art directors: Interesting in participating next year? Reply to this email!
Watch for our next newsletter where we show the Artist days at the Retreat: Show and Tell, Snoop Groups, Sketch Scavenger Hunt, and more.
Blurb magazines
ADs at the Retreat loved the gorgeous magazines we gave them featuring Card and Decorative art (left) and Children’s Book art.
—> Art directors, please contact us to request your very own gorgeous copy! Please include your title and company name with your request.
I hope you enjoyed the show! Want great art for your project? Don’t hesitate to
contact us. We’d be delighted to assist you with any of your art needs. Get to know us
here!
xo
Lilla
Founder, Lilla Rogers Studio
Co-Founder, Make Art That Sells courses
P. S. Read what our clients have to say about working with our agency
here!
5/30/19
What happens when you set agent Susan McCabe loose in NYC to visit art directors? Watch and see some pix from her visit last week!
Animation by Natasha Dewitz
Intrepid agent Susan McCabe in Manhattan
The art directors loved getting these luscious magazines of our artists’ work for children’s books and for greeting cards.
AD’s: Contact us and we’d be happy to send you a copy!
Susan visited with folks from a number of publishing houses…
Here’s Liam Donnelly and Tracy Shaw of Jimmy Patterson Books. They’ve done a few books with our artist Hsinping Pan.
Sneak Peek! Susan shot this photo of the proofs of Hsinping Pan’s gorgeous new book with Jimmy Patterson entitled Bigger Words for Little Geniuses, due out September 2019. Speaking of language, Hsinping is fluent in English and Taiwanese, having lived in both Los Angeles and Taipei.
Helen Dardik & Carolyn Gavin’s watercolor workshop
Susan absolutely loved attending Helen’s and Carolyn’s fantastic watercolor workshop in Brooklyn on the same weekend.
Noted show
The hot new stationery show, Noted, in Brooklyn, was a success! Here, Susan visits with the lovely folks at Seedlings (with
Anne Bentley cards.)
Shanliegh Heelan (left) and Mary Catherine Heelan (right)
It’s always wonderful to see projects fully realized. Susan snapped this shot of these brand new card sets for Roger La Borde by Kendra Binney, which were revealed at the Noted show.
Anne Bentley and Katie Vernon for Roger La Borde
Some of Kendra Binney’s cards spotted at the Calypso booth.
Susan enjoyed visiting Creative Director Monica Brandrup of the lovely card company, Up With Paper.
Pop-up card by Rebecca Jones for Up With Paper.
I hope you enjoyed the show! Want great art for your project? Don’t hesitate to
contact us. We’d be delighted to assist you with any of your art needs. Get to know us
here!
xo
Lilla
Founder, Lilla Rogers Studio
Co-Founder, Make Art That Sells courses
P. S. Read what our clients have to say about working with our agency
here!
4/30/19
We love photographing our artists’ illustrated products as they come in. Hope you enjoy them!
Plus, our big news is…we have taken on a new artist! I scooped her up from seeing her work in my
MATS courses over the years. Her work has a fresh look and was often was selected to be in my MATS reviews. We’re getting her up on the site, and once that’s done, we’ll announce who she is.
ART DIRECTORS: Agent Susan McCabe will be in NYC May 16-19 showing the new artist’s work plus our brand-new collections of available card art and our children’s book portfolio of the very best work. Be sure to contact Susan to schedule a visit. Not in NYC? We’re happy to send you a magazine-style portfolio of the card art or the children’s book art to keep for reference. Just give us a shout.
Daniel Roode
Animation by Natasha Dewitz
Walter Foster Publishing
Rebecca Jones
Greeting Card for Sellers Publishing
Puzzle to Go for Mudpuppy
Asa Gilland
Greeting cards for Trader Joe’s
Flora Waycott
Greeting cards for Madison Park (left) and Sellers Publishing (right)
Anke Rega
Great spots in Better Homes & Gardens “Do It Yourself” Magazine
I hope you enjoyed the show! Want great art for your project? Don’t hesitate to
contact us. We’d be delighted to assist you with any of your art needs. Get to know us
here!
xo
Lilla
Founder, Lilla Rogers Studio
Co-Founder, Make Art That Sells courses
P. S. Read what our clients have to say about working with our agency
here!
