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:

No one serves up summer like Helen! Take a look at this gorgeous new piece just in from Ms. Dardik! Sure makes me feel SUPER! – Jennifer

Trina writes in her newsletter:

“I love to draw! It should have been very obvious to me after seventeen years as a freelance illustrator. But several projects in the last six months have really brought it home to me.

A book for US publishers Quarry involving 900 drawings! It comes out next year and is called “20 Ways to Draw a Butterfly and 44 Other Things with Wings”. Also being asked by design studio Cobalt ID to produce tiny drawings “as if from a sketchbook” for a RSPB campaign. At first I didn’t believe they really wanted my untidied up, usually for my eyes only sketches – but they did!

Plus my agent (for commissions in the USA – I’m based in the UK) Lilla Rogers has been running an amazing online course called “Make Art That Sells” aimed at professional illustrators and designers worldwide. We were encouraged to draw some of our own collections – above some kitchen things and my childhood stamp collection. Once I started it was hard to stop.

Do you need any drawing? If so please contact the agents at Lilla Rogers Studio!”

We just took on the fabulous artist, Sarah Walsh. Here are a few questions Sarah answered in her bio and a sample of her artwork. Now you can see why we fell in love with her too. If you want to be represented by Lilla Rogers Studio, check out our Global Talent Search where you can win representation with Lilla Rogers Studio for 2 years! – Julia

Whom would you like to meet?

Wes Anderson, Marina Abramovic, Maurice Sendak…I know he’s gone now :(
My grandfather met Billy Holiday when he snuck into a bar as a teenager. I always thought that was cool!

What question would you most like to be asked?

Would you like a free hour long body massage?

What was your favorite illustration assignment?

A pop up card for Hallmark featuring a slew of sea creatures. I also love painting on wood.

See more of Helen’s work here.

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Amy writes:

“Hi Lilla, Here are some new bits and bobs that I have been working on.”

Trina writes:

“This was for Rhode Island Magazine to illustrate a piece by Ann Hood. It’s was a very reflective and poignant piece of writing about Spring from early childhood memories of Easter celebrations with snow still on the ground surrounded by her extended Italian family through to the loss of family members and how it affected her ability to notice or appreciate seasonal changes through to the springtime adoption of one of her children.
I’ve also included how the illustrations looked in the magazine layout – I really like how the designer laid out the pages, the text and the flowers against the clean white pages.”

A little while ago, Helen sent these images to melt the snow. It worked :) – Julia

Silvia writes:

“Hi Lilla,

These patterns were inspired by your fabulous trend report! Many thanks!”

Trina writes:

A friend’s husband asked me to produce a picture of his wife and dog.
This is the type of request that I’d normally politely decline and that I’ve managed to avoid through out my career. But I know Mercedes likes my style and has bought several prints of my work as gifts for friends plus I also LOVE drawing dogs. And Mark made it very clear he didn’t want a portrait just a “sense” of his wife and dog in my style.

I submitted three ideas – and by chance they were each in different seasons – Mark then asked me to do a set of four through the seasons so the scale of the job quadrupled making it a much more interesting project.

It gave me the opportunity to play around more with scale and composition and viewpoints.
They spend a lot of time in Norfolk and so the summer image is set on the beach there.

The only downside of the project was while I was working on it I had to avoid meeting up with Mercedes and Stanley, for our occasional walk and a coffee, as I hated the idea of having a secret even if it was a nice one!