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Bente Schlick’s route to fantasy illustration combined self-taught digital painting with art-school training, workplace experience and early publishing commissions. She began drawing traditionally, got her first graphics tablet at 17, and taught herself to paint digitally. Later, she spent six months at an advertising agency, completed a three-year illustration and design course, and began freelancing after graduation. Her story is one artist’s account—not proof that any single route guarantees a successful career.
In an interview published by Creative Bloq on October 1, 2026, Schlick described the influences, tools and commission decisions behind her work. A Landovel book-cover project shows how those elements came together in practice.
How Schlick learned digital painting and entered illustration
Schlick says she started as a traditional artist. At 17, she received her first graphics tablet and began teaching herself digital painting. After finishing school, she worked for six months at an advertising agency, where she learned more about Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator. At about 20, she began a three-year course in illustration and design at art school.
She started freelancing immediately after graduating. She had already begun receiving work from book publishers during her studies, and her work was published by Ballistic Publishing. Later, she says, she was discovered by London licensing agency MGL. She had worked with the agency for 15 years as of the October 2026 interview.
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Reflecting on the balance between independent learning and formal education, Schlick said: “Most things I taught myself, actually. I don’t know if I really needed that school, but I guess when I was younger I thought, ‘I need to study something in this direction to get into the field’.” Her account includes self-teaching, structured study, workplace experience and paid work; it does not establish that school is unnecessary or that self-teaching by itself leads to a career.
What inspires her fantasy illustrations
Schlick draws on both historical art and contemporary visual culture. She names William Turner for lighting, John William Waterhouse for figures and atmosphere, Caspar David Friedrich for landscapes, and Rembrandt for light. She is also interested in Alphonse Mucha’s blend of realistic faces and clothing with graphic style.
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She says she curates her Instagram feed to find work by smaller artists as well as wildlife and fantasy artists, book-cover artists, graphic designers and publishers. Earlier inspirations included the cinematography of The Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones.
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For Schlick, fantasy offers room to make images that could not belong to the ordinary world and to express emotion through imagined settings and creatures. “The escape is most important for me: you can imagine any creature that you want to create, or a landscape that is maybe not real,” she said.
The digital tools in Schlick’s workflow
Schlick says her usual setup is Photoshop and a Wacom tablet, a combination she has used for a long time. She sometimes turns to a 3D program to check anatomy. The interview does not identify a specific tablet model or software version, so her setup is best understood as a description of her own practice rather than a product recommendation.
How the Landovel covers balanced art and design
For Emily Rodda’s three-book Landovel series, published by Allen & Unwin, Schlick created three covers designed to feel as though they belonged to the same world while using different colors. She also made a wraparound image spanning the front and back of a book.
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Developing the three covers
Schlick began each cover with colored sketches, then developed compositions around the characters. She made small spine icons to represent key elements in the books: a tower, a tree and waves. The artwork also had to work alongside the title typography. Because the publisher had not yet settled on where the type would go, she prepared options with the placement above, in the middle or at the bottom. She revised the work in response to feedback.
Solving the wraparound format
The wraparound presented a different problem: the image had to be very wide, carry across both covers and leave room for type. That meant the composition had to work across the full spread rather than as a single front-cover image.
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Schlick says client briefs vary: some tightly constrain the result, while others leave more room for an artist’s style. She had considerable freedom on Landovel and found concrete color direction useful. “I can work quicker with it. I really liked working on Landovel because I did have a lot of freedom.” Her example shows how format, palette, lettering space and client feedback can shape a commission, though it does not describe a universal publishing workflow.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How personal artwork can reach physical products
Schlick says artwork she makes for herself can later be licensed for products such as puzzles and calendars. She cites a Buffalo Games puzzle based on Forsythia, one of her personal works. The interview identifies this as an example of licensing, but does not establish whether the puzzle is still available.
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