Children's Book Illustration Course
Discover a natural way to illustrate a children's book,
from your first thumbnails to the final art
Give your pictures a push
with Marks & Splashes
Shorten your learning curve, boost your skills, and enjoy the fun on the way to mastery in this inspiring online art course.
Three Pillars
Video lessons zero in on three competencies children's book art directors and editors will look for in your art: Drawing, Composition and Color. They'll show you how to
- Draw with confidence
- Unlock beautiful color and design in your art
- Proceed knowingly and effectively with your picture book dummy/proposal or illustration assignment
Austin SCBWI friends admire the early page proofs for the picture book Grandfather Gandhi, by Bethany Hegedus and Arun Gandhi, illustrated by Evan Turk (Atheneum Books for Young Readers.) Pictured are authors and/or illustrators Greg Leitich Smith, Cynthia Leitich Smith, Bethany Hegedus, Jeff Crosby, Erik Niells, Julie Lake and Amy Farrier.
Dauntless Drawing
and Design
The Drawing module shows you how to put together the ideas for your illustration that will serve as your blueprint for the final art piece. You'll discover how to:
- Delight, hold and move your viewer's eye through the book pages
- Create compelling visual characters and portray them consistently, but interestingly and from a variety of points of view
- Fit your story's big round world into your small illustration so viewers feel they're in the story scene
Painting Pretty
The Painting module shares how to handle watercolor the professional (or easy) way. Discover how to
- Master watercolor 'grammar' with the simplest brush moves
- Paint with charm and assurance, maintaining your individual style
- Never again feel bored, confused or limited by your palette choices
- Orchestrate values and color in your picture so that all parts sing together
Steep Yourself in the Right Conversations
Watch video-replays of in-depth discussions with literary agents, art directors and pro illustrators (and their group reviews of student work) to challenge your assumptions about the current children’s publishing industry and market.
Illustrator Laura Logan shares the adventure of her debut as an author-illustrator with her picture book little butterfly (HarperCollins.)
You don't have to do it alone
Interactive Group
Homework Huddles
Award-winning children's author Mark Mitchell teaches watercolor and children's book illustration at the Contemporary Austin Art School.
Enrolling in the Make Your Marks & Splashes course gives you permanent access to the website and the opportunity to participate in two semesters of live group sessions with course creator Mark Mitchell.
Huddles are the live sessions where we get together as a group on Zoom to look over your exercises and illustrations-in-progress, troubleshoot issues and keep you on track with lessons.
We'll start the first of these in the fall, focusing on the drawing and composition module of the course. The huddles are set for Thursdays, 7 p.m. (CST). They'll run Sept 28 – Oct 26 with two additional Saturday afternoons to be scheduled.
The second 'live' semester, concentrating on the painting and color module, begins in January, 2024.
Some of the more than 50 creators you'll learn from
Denise Fleming is the Caldecott Honor award-winning author-illustrator of many beloved picture books for the very young including, In the Tall, Tall Grass and In the Small, Small Pond (Henry Holt.)
Patrice Barton is the illustrator of the award-winning picture books MINE!
by Shutta Crum (Knopf, 2011) and The Invisible Boy by Trudy Ludwig (Knopf, 2013) and Junior Library Guild selection chapter books.
Aiko Ikegami is the author-illustrator of Friends (Albert Whitman and Company); Seed Man (Sleeping Bear Press); Hello (Creston Books) and Why Worry? (West Margin Press), a reissue of the picture book by Eric Kimmel.
Larry Day is an award-winning illustrator of both fiction and non-fiction. His 2014 release: Lion Lion, by Miriam Busch (Balzer + Bray) was named to NPR’s Best Books For 2014, and a Junior Library Guild Selection.
Terry Widener has illustrated over 30 books. His first picture book, Lou Gehrig: The Luckiest Man by David A. Adler (Harcourt) was a Boston Globe – Horn Book Honor Book. Other books include The Streak by Barb Rosenstock, (Calkins Creek) and You Never Heard of Willie Mays?! by Jonah Winter (Schwartz & Wade/Random House)
Kelly Light is the author-illustrator of the Louise series (Harper Collins). Louise Loves Bake Sales and Louise and The Class Pet are the first readers in Harpercollins’ I Can Read program. Kelly has also illustrated Elvis and the Underdogs and other Elvis books by Jenny Lee (Balzer + Bray) and The Quirks series by Erin Soderberg (Bloomsbury).
Don Tate is the Ezra Jack Keats Award winning author and/or illustrator of more than fifty critically acclaimed books for youth. He's illustrated Whoosh! Lonnie Johnson’s Super-Soaking Stream of Inventions by Chris Barton (Charlesbridge, 2016); The Cart That Carried Martin by Eve Bunting, (Charlesbridge); Hope’s Gift by Kelly Sterling Lyons, (Penguin) and many others.
Janee Trasler has written and illustrated picture books and board books for HarperCollins, FSG, Scholastic, Sterling Publishing, Little Brown, Random House, Simon & Schuster, Houghton Mifflin, Harcourt, Zonderkidz, and Highlights for Children. Recent series include Bedtime for Chickees (HarperCollins) and Caveman, A.B.C. Story (Sterling)
Carolyn Dee Flores illustrated Canta Rana Canta/Sing Froggy Sing, and wrote and illustrated The Amazing Watercolor Fish, A Surprise for Teresita and Dale Dale Dale, all published by Arte Publico/Piñata Books.
Laura Logan is the author-illustrator of Little Butterfly (HarperCollins) and illustrated Two to Cuddle by Eileen Spinelli (Worthy Kids) and The Bill Martin Junior Big Book of Poetry (Simon & Schuster).
Mary Sullivan is the Theodor Seuss Geisel Award-winning author-illustrator of Ball, Frankie, Treat and Nobody's Duck, published by Houghton Mifflin and many other books.
Emma J. Virján is the author-illustrator of the popular Pig in a Wig picture book series, published by HarperCollins, and Nacho the Party Puppy, by Random House.
First impressions more than count...
The Find Your Fit module shows how to present your art to decision makers in enough workshop replays to fill a year of conferences. Children's book art directors and literary agents who represent illustrators as well as author-illustrators share how they evaluate your submissions, how to work with them and network sanely in the KidLit community.
Abigail Samoun, children's book agent, co-founder of the Red Fox Literary Agency talks with students on a Marks & Splashes livestream.
See how these agents and art directors think about illustration...
Nicole Tugeau, Tugeau 2
Merial Cornell, Cornell & Company
Rebecca Sherman, Writer's House
Kelly Sonnack, Andrea Brown Literary
Melissa Turk, The Artists' Network
Nick Balian, illustration manager
Disney Publishing Worldwide
Giuseppe Castellano, art director, Penguin Children's Books
Michelle McCann, editor/art director
West Margin Press
Kristen Nobles, art director Charlesbridge Publishing
Simon Stahl, art director
Creston Books
Loraine Joyner, fomer art director
Peachtree Publishers
Chris Schechner, art director
Schechner Graphic Design
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Enroll NOW for these extra bonuses...
Going Pro with
The Girllustrators
video series
The Girllustrators
video series
The Girllustrators are a group of smart, talented published women artists who years ago "united for sharing, support, and shop talk in the field of children’s illustration."
Watch as the Girllustrator team tackles:
-
- What to leave in vs. leave out of a scene?
- When should you stop, or push harder?
- When is a picture working?
- How to evaluate your own and others' work?
- How important is art school?
- How to navigate the world of projects, assignments, deadlines, agencies, and publishing houses?
Patrice Barton is the illustrator of the award-winning picture books MINE! by Shutta Crum (Knopf, 2011) and The Invisible Boy by Trudy Ludwig (Knopf, 2013), the Junior Library Guild selections The Year of the Three Sisters, by Andrea Cheng (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015) and The Naming of Tishkin Silk by Glenda Millard (FSG, 2009).
Illustration art from "I Like Old Clothes" by Patrice Barton and Mary Ann Hoberman (Knopf)
Marsha Riti has illustrated 12 books and all the covers for the popular The Critter Club series of picture books for Simon and Schuster Publishing.
Lalena Fisher has designed characters and backgrounds for TV’s Blue’s Clues and The Wonder Pets, and created graphics for The New York Times.
Luz Marie Iturbe, fine artist, graphic designer and a native of Mexico, is writing and illustrating a series of apps that helps children learn Spanish as well as picture books teaching children about craft and traditions.
Shelley Ann Jackson is an author-illustrator, former Austin SCBWI regional adviser, and the founder of the Girllustrators. Still a member of the group she created, she now heads the Children's Book Illustration Graduate Program at the Cambridge School of Art at Anglia Ruskin University.
Rivkah LaFille is an Illustrator, designer, and writer living in Manhattan and Austin, TX. Her graphic novel series, Steady Beat was nominated by the American Library Association for their Great Graphic Novels for Teens list. Her clients have included Harper Collins, St. Martin's Press, The Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators, Cricket Media Group, Vertigo/DC Comics, Tokyopop, and various fashion, tech, and publishing companies.
Vanessa Roeder, aka Nessa Dee, has illustrated seven picture books, including The Angel Guardian, Varla’s Gift, and Useless and for Highlights Magazine.
Emma J. Virján is the author-illustrator of the popular Pig in a Wig picture book series, published by HarperCollins.
Drawing Basics Intensive
Cindy Wider is the co-founder of DrawPj.com and the Cindy Wider Method with her husband, fellow artist, Stuart Wider.
Dive into this eight hour series of video trainings Cindy did for us on foundational drawing, including with colored pencils, using her groundbreaking approach.
Art (left) by Cindy Wider
Julie's Story Town
Our bonus module, Julie's Story Town, will tease out the writer in you. Julie Lake (author of Galveston: Summer of the Storm), elementary classroom teacher and school librarian, walks us through how picture books are used in schools.
Julie Lake, author and teacher
14 Day, 100% Money Back Guarantee
If you're anything less than pleased with the course, e-mail me within 14 days of signing up. I'll refund you with no questions asked and no hassles. My reputation as a teacher is based on your complete satisfaction. –Mark Mitchell
Student Testimonials...
"It's been an awesome class. This whole course has just been amazing for me. I've grown so much in 10 weeks. It's been nuts!" Amanda Wiklund
"I learned more from my classes with Mark than any other I've ever taken. I now consider such things as design and value and proportion as soon as I put pencil to paper. The weekly zoom sessions with assignments to upload have given me wonderful feedback, both from Mark and the other students, and they motivate me to keep working on illustration with a goal of publication. There is a wealth of videos to watch and links to many great resources as well." Ann Carter
I just had to let you be the first to know (well, after my husband)...I sold 5 illustrations!!!! I've joined SCBWI and will be working on my artist page. Thanks again, Mark. I'm off to do a happy dance. Laura Miller
I wanted to share something that happened at the SCBWI Northern Ohio conference.
We were sitting in the ballroom on Friday evening for the opening remarks from the keynote speaker who was Loraine Joyner, senior art director at Peachtree Publishers. She was giving everyone tips and pointers for our hopeful careers in the children's book world. She recommended taking on-line classes to work on our craft, and then she paused and asked if anyone in the audience had heard of Mark G. Mitchell. I, of course, raised my hand. So she looked at me and asked if I had taken your class, and I said, "yes." She then asked if it was worth it, and I replied, "Absolutely. It was the best money I have ever spent!"
(Fortunately, I didn't have to think about it, because it's so true). Tracy Molitors
Your videos are like gold treasures! Honestly, I believe you are God-sent in my life. Mary Martin
I must say that when I started your class I stepped into another world. I had taken a few art classes before but your lessons and all of the tremendous amount of information on illustrators, videos, interviews, critiques, techniques, ebooks etc. make me feel I've entered into a delightful world of interesting and gracious folks that do hard and worthwhile but also fun work. Jean
I wish all textbook illustrators could just go through your course once! Thank you for making color theory actually make sense!! I know I should be working on the assignments from the first few lessons first, but your course seems to read like a blockbuster that I just can't put down. So I peeked in to the other lessons and I was hooked on color theory! Pooja Srinivas, Hyderabad, India
Your session is so much more than I thought. I really love the spiritual aspect of your art lessons. I am electrified. I am grateful that I am being able to take your course. Just wanted to thank you. Aiko Ikegami
I’m so grateful that you’ve made this course available to someone like me. I’m really learning to pull my painting together with each lesson I do. I’ve been trying to incorporate each new exercise I learn into one painting, as you might tell from the photo I included in this email... Thanks again for offering such a wonderful course.
– Nancy Kennedy (See the Little Red Riding Hood illustration on her blog.)
When I took Mark's class, I was at best a doodler with a desire to draw well but without the background or drive to work really hard towards my goal. The class environment was very supportive, with students taking their cues from Mark's way of finding the good in your work and his gentle way of helping you see where you could improve. I'm still in touch with some of those students, and we look back at how far we've come. But I remember that class as my first real step towards taking my art seriously. Erik Niells, animator and web design consultant, Austin, TX
I'm contacted from time to time by illustrators who are starting out or need a jump start and want to know where to begin. If they are remotely local, I always highly recommend your AMOA class. I took it over 8 years ago (WOW) as my first introduction to children's book illustration and it's still the most helpful resource I've ever tried. I learned SO much. I have always felt like you taught me how to do a jigsaw puzzle--taking the mystery out of the pieces of the process and giving me the technical know-how so I could put it all together and focus on the creating. Laura Logan, illustrator, Austin, TX
If there is anything you want to learn about illustrating children's books, Mark Mitchell is the teacher for you. I took his course at Laguna Gloria Art School in Austin and it was fantastic. He taught us everything: laying out the book, making the drawings, creating and using a color wheel based on a four-color process, using water color techniques, getting published, and marketing your book. Mark appears to be very laid back, but he has a real knack for organizing and presenting information, and he gives excellent feedback to help his students build their skills. I am so looking forward to his online class. Linda Seder, artist, Austin, TX
In all of my research (on-line and in books) in the last several years, I have never come across a clearer, more work-able approach to color that can be applied practically to a painting...and I have looked far and wide for this information, recognizing that it was of major importance... The need for a sustainable, predictably successful approach to color, for illustration as well as fine art, became crystal clear to me when I switched from oil painting to watercolors...the old 'keep messing with it until it's right' approach just was NOT working with watercolor... (Is this the 'shadow' side of watercolor's wonderfulness...unforgiving??). As you predicted, the results are immediately recognizable. I heave a huge sigh of relief! Susan Sorrell Hill, Northern California
Mark Mitchell is a delightful teacher. Each class brings a wealth of practical information yet coupled with plenty of time for releasing your creativity to produce viable images. His sense of humor makes the time fly by and you quickly forget how bad your back hurts from sitting on those bar stools! Diane Carr, counselor and life coach, Austin, TX
Your course has given me a new burst of energy and excitement. I feel like a child again playing with the paint and my own imagination, but with a much firmer foundation. I can now actually understand why a painting I gave up on didn't work. It's amazing.
It's a sense of freedom I've never known before. Linda Bray
Excellent ! This is a great extension of your painting-behind exercise in the course. Discovering your website and signing up for your How To Be A Children’s Book Illustrator course has been a wonderful personal investment and commitment to rekindling the desire to once again scribble lines and splash paint with a purpose – namely, FUN. Really enjoy the online sharing opportunities with other students. Buddy Harrison
The material and resources were useful and plentiful, the exercises were challenging, and the Zoom meetings were filled with encouragement and comradery. Participants shared helpful suggestions, and you gave great tips. Laurie Edwards
Very nicely done, Mark…clear and precise instruction (even for the more ‘advanced’ watercolor painter)! Your instruction/class has been invaluable to me… Susan Clement Beveridge
The material and resources were useful and plentiful, the exercises were challenging, and the Zoom meetings were filled with encouragement and comradery. Participants shared helpful suggestions, and you gave great tips. Laurie Edwards
I wanted to let you know about a fabulous illustration class I took a few years ago. Make Your Marks and Splashes with Mark Mitchell is a great way to get started in Illustration.
In this course you will learn all of the basics for illustration along with lots of advanced techniques as well. No matter where you are in your illustration career you will benefit from Mark’s class!
I feel like explaining this course is a little strange, because it’s very intense and involved. Having said that it also was very laid back and fun. Yes, both at the exact same time! Probably because the course material is easy to get into even though there is a lot to learn. Plus the whole class is a low stress environment, which helps me out a lot!
There are a ton of videos to watch for class. Having taken university courses, I’d say this is like a whole degree’s worth of art classes in one course! If you missed out on university art courses, don’t worry! You’ll get caught up on it all here!
Probably the most exciting part of this class is meeting with Mark and your classmates online for the huddles! Mark is an excellent teacher who will help guide you every step of the way. Dani Duck
If you are looking for an uplifting and knowledgeable community of artists to grow with, why not try Marks and Splashes? You will learn gesture drawing, color theory, why value is more important than color and watercolor fundamentals taught by an award winning and highly supportive teacher. Other mediums like ink and digital painting are also welcome. The students and Mark Mitchell make an a very enjoyable learning experience. Thank you, Mark, for a great class! - Sylvia Howell