Hiya! I’m Marissa Valdez, your elected (or not so much) leader of The Illustrator’s Art Club.
What is The Illustrator’s Art Club?
During my first year being a full-time children’s book illustrator, I had the pleasure of creating a Children’s Book Portfolio class with the online learning platform, Domestika. To my surprise, it became a bestselling course! And then, people started reaching out to me, saying how much they had benefited from the class while also asking for help. I started getting emails from illustrators asking:
How could they get an agent?
How could they improve their portfolio?
What to do next?
And then, a lightbulb went off in my head. I realized that I, Marissa, had valuable information I could share with illustrators and artists who wanted to get their first book job. And I LOVE helping others navigate the long and winding path of publishing!
The Illustrator’s Art Club is my way of helping you, illustrators, become a better artist. It’s a place where I will share my learned experience as an artist, where we can grow as artists together (because I NEVER want to stop learning) with a community of like-minded creatives, and where we can all have a bit of fun with our art practice. Because the best part of making children’s books is… HAVING FUN!
(Some of the books I’ve worked on!)
More about Marissa (me!):
I’m an artist and I make books! For kids!
I’ve been working in the children’s book industry for almost 5 years now.
I used to be a graphic designer, preschool teacher and I have an animation degree that I never used (but it was still cool to get!).
Books that I’ve illustrated have been #1 on the New York Times Bestseller list twice, along with being indie bestsellers!
I’m a Latina from the Rio Grande Valley in the US.
🇺🇸 > 🇬🇧 I moved from the US to Birmingham, UK to live with my husband and my two cats (who are also expats!).
I love reading, drawing, sketching, gardening, paper making, sewing, quilting, watching tv and I would love to own chickens one day! I also love eating cookies and have recently learned to make corn tortillas by hand. My life is complete 💛
If you want to become a member of The Illustrator’s Art Club and get weekly thoughts, tips, and updates, please subscribe now. ✏️ Thank you for your support!
Interested in supporting The Illustrator’s Art Club in other ways?
✏️Preorder my author/illustrator debut, Hedgehogs Don’t Wear Underwear ✏️You can buy my books ✏️Sign up for Creating an Online Children’s Book Portfolio Domestika course ✏️ or share this newsletter for free!
