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Bente Schlick’s path into fantasy illustration combined self-taught digital painting with art school, agency experience, early publishing work and years of freelance commissions. In a Creative Bloq interview published October 1, 2026, she describes how she learned, which artists shaped her work, and how she developed covers for Emily Rodda’s Landovel books.
How Schlick learned traditional and digital art
Schlick says she began as a traditional artist. At 17, she received her first graphics tablet and taught herself digital painting. After finishing school, she spent six months at an advertising agency, where she learned more about Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator.
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At about 20, she began a three-year course in illustration and design at art school. She says she was already receiving jobs from book publishers during her studies and was published by Ballistic Publishing. After graduating, she began freelancing.
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Reflecting on how she learned, 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-directed practice, formal study and workplace experience; it does not establish that one route is necessary or sufficient for a career in illustration.
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What shaped her fantasy illustrations
Schlick points to several painters for specific qualities she studies: William Turner for lighting, John William Waterhouse for figures and atmosphere, Caspar David Friedrich for landscapes, and Rembrandt for light. She also admires Alphonse Mucha’s combination of realistic faces and clothing with graphic style.
Her inspirations also include contemporary artists and visual media. She says she curates Instagram to follow smaller artists, wildlife and fantasy artists, book-cover artists, graphic designers and publishers. Earlier influences included the cinematography of The Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones.
For Schlick, fantasy offers room to invent creatures and landscapes that would not fit the ordinary world, and to put emotion into an image. As she put it: “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.” That describes her motivation, rather than a universal explanation for making fantasy art.
Which tools does Schlick use?
Schlick says her usual digital setup is Photoshop and a Wacom tablet, which she has used for a long time. She sometimes turns to a 3D program to check anatomy. The interview does not name a specific tablet model or 3D application, so her workflow is best understood as an example of a toolset, not a product recommendation.
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How she approached the Landovel book covers
For Emily Rodda’s Landovel books, published by Allen & Unwin, Schlick created three covers designed to feel as though they belonged to one world while using different colors. She also worked on a wraparound image spanning the front and back cover.
Developing the three covers
She began each cover with colored sketches and developed the composition around the characters. The books also needed small spine icons representing key elements: a tower, a tree and waves. The artwork had to work with the title typography, but its final placement had not been settled. Schlick prepared options with the type above, in the middle or at the bottom, then revised the work in response to publisher feedback.
Making a wide image work across the book
The wraparound presented a different constraint: the image had to be very wide and function across both the front and back, while leaving room for type. This meant planning the scene for the full format rather than treating the front cover as a standalone picture.
Schlick says briefs vary: some tightly constrain the outcome, while others leave more space for her style. She had considerable freedom on Landovel and appreciated concrete direction on color. She said, “I can work quicker with it. I really liked working on Landovel because I did have a lot of freedom.” Her example shows how composition, palette, typography, format and client feedback can interact on a book-cover commission; it does not mean every publisher follows the same process.
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How her work reached publishing and licensing
During art school, Schlick began getting publisher commissions; after graduating, she moved into freelancing. She says she was later discovered by MGL, a licensing agency in London, and had worked with the agency for 15 years as of the October 1, 2026 interview.
Licensing gave some of her personal work another outlet beyond commissioned illustration. Schlick mentions images licensed for products such as puzzles and calendars, including a Buffalo Games puzzle based on her personal work Forsythia. The interview provides this as an example; it does not establish whether the puzzle is currently available.
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