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This week it's just Helen and Katie here (helloo - Tania was off in Naples eating pizza for us. We were living vicariously through her.) Let's get stuck in and answer your excellent questions about marketing your illustration work.  "I just don't know where to begin!" and overcoming our arch nemesis: cringe.  Plus SLOTH FACTS. You're welcome. Timestamps, for the timestamp fans: 00:00 – Time off is good for you, and good for business  01:00 – Helen's short, intense work bursts on the latest Salty book  02:00 – Take the bus  03:00 – "Where do I start with marketing?"  04:00 – Trying on hats (and taking them back off)  04:45 – The creative car and the business car  06:00 – Brilliant work nobody sees vs brilliant marketing that needs more art car time  07:00 – Seven ways to get your work in front of picture book publishers  08:30 – Low-pressure Instagram and the overflowing camera roll  09:30 – If we were starting again: website, portfolio etc.  11:00 – Ditch the "aspiring", "wannabe" and "itty bitty" labels  11:30 – Cringe  12:45 – Caveman brains  15:00 – It's not meant to be easy  16:15 – "How do I get over myself?"  17:15 – Seeking validation vs showing up to share your goodies  18:00 – Illustration Business Club doors are open, plus the new 10-pay option  19:45 – Art Club, sloth ribs and a guinea pig Wild West village Links mentioned: Illustration Business Club: https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/businessThe Association of Illustrators: https://theaoi.comSCBWI British Isles: https://britishisles.scbwi.orgNorthumberland Zoo: https://www.northumberlandzoo.co.uk/Byeeee for now! x The Good Ship Illustration (Helen, Katie & Tania) p.s. Get your illustration business ducks in a row. 🐥 🐥 🐥 The Illustration Business Club doors are open now, with a new option to pay in 10 smaller instalments.  We'd love to have you sailing with us! https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/business Come and say hello! ✏️ @thegoodshipillustration 🌏 www.thegoodshipillustration.com p.s. We love answering your illustration questions. Click here to submit your question for The Good Ship Illustration Podcast 🎙

Jo Overend is in da house (ship?) But first, Illustration Business Club is finally OPEN! It's been over a year since we last flung the doors open and we'd love to have you sailing with us! https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/business Jo is an author-illustrator, an OG Good Shipper, and the author and illustrator of Megaduck (her debut picture book with Walker Books) 🐥 When Jo started out, she hadn't drawn for 21 years. She posted her drawings anyway, eeeeven the ones she didn't like, and sometimes three to five Instagram posts a day (!!!) Timestamps: 00:00 – Hello Jo (and Megaduck, in giant cardboard cutout form)  00:23 – Megaduck's final artwork is done and handed over to Walker Books  01:03 – Getting final artwork finished alongside full-on childcare  01:56 – Setting the goal of a full colour dummy for Bologna  02:57 – Walking into shops with your prints (terrifying!) and taking the wholesale leap  03:37 – Why rejection is almost never about you  05:46 – Katie's human design corner: give people something to say yes or no to  06:10 – Sending Walker seven more book ideas without waiting for a meeting  07:01 – Posting real things to agents and publishers, and the "is it worth the stamp?" wobble  09:13 – Why genuine, thoughtful post gets remembered  10:10 – Agents and publishers actually WANT your follow-up email  11:42 – Jo's Illustration Business Club experience  12:23 – Getting stocked in her favourite shop, and growing into wholesale  13:12 – Community, competitions, and winning the Picture Hooks mentorship (plus a book deal the same week!)  14:34 – Tania's "friendly stalking" method for finding art directors  15:50 – "Have we met?" How Jo's postcards got there before she did  16:57 – Helen's broccoli theory of being seen  17:25 – The anonymous egg problem, and why a face (or a logo) builds trust  18:29 – Jo's advice for scared, shy, overwhelmed illustrators  19:04 – Not drawing for 21 years, then posting 3 to 5 doodles a day  22:02 – Megaduck news: US in February, UK in March, and Megaduck 2 on the way  23:07 – Trying all the little things: kids' workshops, wholesale and more  24:40 – Keep your radar open  25:16 – Where to find Jo, plus her Substack and Patreon plans Links mentioned: • Jo's website: https://www.jooverendillustration.com/ • Jo on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joverendillustration/ • Jo's Substack: https://jooverendillustration.substack.com/ • Megaduck (US edition): https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/835922/megaduck-by-jo-overend-illustrated-by-jo-overend/ • Picture Hooks: https://www.picturehooks.org.uk/ Byeeee for now!  x The Good Ship Illustration (Helen, Katie & Tania)  p.s. Soooo much of what Jo talks about here ties in v well with what's inside Illustration Business Club. The doors are open right now and we'd love to have you in there with us! https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/business Come and say hello! ✏️ @thegoodshipillustration 🌏 www.thegoodshipillustration.com p.s. We love answering your illustration questions. Click here to submit your question for The Good Ship Illustration Podcast 🎙

Fancy getting into your business car for a bit? Illustration Business Club doors are open until 9th October 2026, and you get lifetime access, so you can go at your own pace (pudding first, broccoli later). We'd love to have you sailing with us https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/business /// We recorded this podcast LIVE on Instagram on Friday! (So please excuse the audio if it doesn't sound 100%) Anyways, here's the replay. Katie and Helen had a nice 'n' friendly illustration business Q&A, answering your questions as they came flying in. If we missed your question, it's nothing personal! We're doing another live Q&A next Friday too over on our Instagram @thegoodshipillustration so do come along and ask your question again :)  https://www.instagram.com/thegoodshipillustration/ Half-arse is better than no-arse. Timestamps, for the timestamp fans: 00:00 – Welcome to our live Q&A podcast  01:50 – Should you keep your children's and grown-up work on separate Instagram accounts?  03:15 – Illustration Business Club doors, early birds and payment plans  04:30 – Organising your website when you've got lots of income streams  05:30 – SEO, long-tail keywords and lying down in the middle of the road  08:45 – What are publishers looking for in a portfolio?  12:00 – Do you need a big social media following to get started?  14:00 – Where to start with licensing  17:30 – How to say no when friends want you to illustrate their book  21:45 – Should you approach an agent or go straight to publishers?  23:30 – Instagram is not your portfolio (and half-arse is better than no arse)  25:30 – Does business stuff apply to fine art too?  27:15 – Your creative car and your business car  30:00 – Working for free, "exposure" and being paid in lobsters  30:45 – How do you stay invested in a picture book idea all the way through?  34:00 – Pricey website hosting vs the cheaper option  35:45 – Dealing with the newbie beginner scaries  38:00 – When getting paid makes you tighten up  40:00 – Structuring your days, Helen's birthday card trick and not doing a Father Ted  43:15 – Do the fun thing first (an idiot with momentum always wins) Links mentioned: Illustration Business Club: https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/businessTania's Good Ship Illustration podcast episode with Margo Tantau on licensing from 2 weeks ago: https://pod.link/1526470404/episode/QnV6enNwcm91dC0xOTgxNTM1NwAnchoring Your Ideas So They Don't Fizzle Out (We looked into this and it's inside the Picture Book Course, not a freebie sorry!) https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/PBGood Ship freebies for picture book makers and illustrators: https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/freebiesLouise Lockhart, The Printed Peanut: https://theprintedpeanut.co.uk/Jonny Hannah: https://www.instagram.com/darktownresident/Catherine Rayner: https://www.catherinerayner.co.uk/Jessica Hische's "Should I Work For Free?" flowchart: https://www.creativebloq.com/news/should-you-work-for-free-jessica-hischeByeeee for now!  x The Good Ship Illustration (Helen, Katie & Tania) Come and say hello! ✏️ @thegoodshipillustration 🌏 www.thegoodshipillustration.com p.s. We love answering your illustration questions. Click here to submit your question for The Good Ship Illustration Podcast 🎙

This week, we're back at the kitchen table after the summer holidays, and the doors to Illustration Business Club are officially OPEN! Wahoooo 🎉 A quick catch-up first: Katie trying to not-work for six whole weeks, and Tania's summer spent changing her work on a big museum project.  Then there's a nice big juicy question from a listener: can you market yourself without social media if you really hate filming yourself?  Timestamps, for the timestamp fans: 00:00 – Doors are open! IBC, the new 10-pay option and the early bird pricing workshop  01:15 – Back for autumn: summer holidays, Berlin playgrounds and trying not to work  02:45 – Tania's summer project and changing her work  04:15 – Keeping an eye on creative funding locally  05:30 – Why the Business Course became Illustration Business Club  06:45 – Key dates: early birds, the introvert-friendly marketing workshop and the 12th October kick-off  08:00 – What's inside: licensing, rights, extra income streams and expert guests  09:15 – "What even is live illustration?" and illustration as a business  11:00 – Listener question: can you market yourself without social media?  11:45 – Life before Instagram  13:30 – Tweeting your work vs trudging round art directors  15:00 – Physical mailers  16:30 – Why niching down makes marketing (and SEO) soooo much easier  17:45 – Social media is not a work-getter  18:45 – Tania's maps: letting the work do the marketing  20:30 – Good work first, then word of mouth  22:30 – Speaking your clients' language  23:30 – SEO for beginners, starring Tania Links mentioned: Illustration Business Club: https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/businessThe Good Ship on Instagram (for Art Club): https://www.instagram.com/thegoodshipillustration/Introvert-friendly marketing workshop: https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/shyByeeee for now! x The Good Ship Illustration (Helen, Katie & Tania) p.s. The Illustration Business Club doors are open now! Join by midday on Wednesday 30th September and you're an early bird, which means you get a seat at our live pricing workshop with all three of us at 1pm that day (it's recorded too). There's a new option to pay in 10 smaller instalments, and the doors close on Friday 9th October at 10pm UK time.  We'd love to see you in there!  https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/business p.p.s. A few dates for your diary: ✏️ Monday 28th September, 12.30pm UK: Art Club, #walktoseeprepare (more page prep, then drawing over the top) ✏️ Monday 5th October, 12.30pm UK: Art Club, starting a brand new #walktosee challenge for October 💌 Wednesday 7th October, 1pm UK: free introvert-friendly marketing workshop, camera off allowed: [NEEDS SIGNUP LINK] https://www.instagram.com/thegoodshipillustration/ Come and say hello! ✏️ @thegoodshipillustration 🌏 www.thegoodshipillustration.com p.s. We love answering your illustration questions. Click here to submit your question for The Good Ship Illustration Podcast 🎙

This week our Tania is speaking to the one and only Margo Tantau (the licensing whisperer). Margo is a good ship Pal, founder of Tantau Studio and you might have heard her on her brilliant podcast Windowsill Chats. Here's a link: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/windowsill-chats/id1529045232  In this chat, Tania and Margo talk about all the important stuff liiiike: What is licensing? How do you get paid? Can you REALLY license work you've already made? Margo even shares her secret weapen for getting art directors to fall in love with your work. Some very good bits too: AI slop is NOT getting in the way of artists with real human hands. Hoorayyyy. That's good news for all of us, eh? Timestamps, for the timestamp fans: 00:00 – Intro to Margo Tantau and her 360-degree licensing career  02:30 – Welcome back to the licensing whisperer  04:00 – Artist, shop owner, buyer, product developer, agent: Margo's done it all  06:00 – How Lilla Rogers passed the agency baton to Margo  10:30 – Why relationships are the real gold in licensing  12:00 – What licensing actually is (from spice labels to Nike)  13:00 – How you get paid: advances, royalties and typical percentages  16:00 – Can you licence work you've already made? Yes!  17:00 – Margo's secret weapon: show your art ON the product  20:30 – You don't need perfect mock-ups (a drawn teacup works too)  21:00 – A creative challenge: turn one piece into a mini collection  23:00 – Is AI hurting licensing? Why Margo's clients say no to AI art  25:30 – Tania's shock at the AI souvenir flood in Hong Kong  28:00 – The hand of the artist, texture, and quality signalling  30:30 – The UK licensing landscape, life after Surtex  32:30 – A London licensing expo  36:00 – People buy what they see: Margo's plates, fabrics and jacket stand  38:00 – The Licensing Lab at Spring Fair  39:00 – A sneaky tip for finding which exhibitors licence art  40:30 – Should licensing-curious illustrators go to Spring Fair?  41:30 – What does a stand actually cost?  44:30 – Why walking a trade fair beats a day of LinkedIn research  45:30 – Fancy matchboxes, candles, and buying things just for the art  46:30 – The big takeaway: people still want real art  48:30 – Community, Bologna, and the gold at the bottom of the rainbow Links mentioned: Margo's website: https://margotantau.com/Tantau Studio: https://www.tantaustudio.com/Windowsill Chats podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/windowsill-chats/id1529045232Windowsill Chats on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/windowsillchatsSpring Fair (NEC Birmingham, 7th to 10th February 2027): https://www.springfair.com Byeeee for now! x The Good Ship Illustration (Helen, Katie & Tania) p.s. Want Margo's full licensing class? It's waiting for you inside Illustration Business Club, along with aaall the other money-and-business bits art school forgot to teach you.  Doors open on 25th of September 2026! https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/business Come and say hello! ✏️ @thegoodshipillustration 🌏 www.thegoodshipillustration.com p.s. We love answering your illustration questions. Click here to submit your question for The Good Ship Illustration Podcast 🎙

This week our Katie is chatting to Carly Kuhn, a US-based illustrator, artist and author who ended up in illustration kindofbyaccident. She grew up in New York wanting to do TV comedy, worked at a Hollywood talent agency, took improv classes at The Groundlings, and started drawing on printer paper nicked from the office, just as something creative to do after work. Then Sarah Jessica Parker reposted one of her drawings (!!) and - you'll have to listen to the episode to find out what happens next 🤪 Carly has had NO formal art or illustration training, which is exactly why we wanted to speak to her. We chat about finding your style by making loads of wonky work, why she wasn't ready for an agent for ages, and some pricing stuff about usage/contracts/licensing an' that. There's also chat about wallpaper, multiple creative income streams, and how becoming a mum did not end her career (woohoo!)  Timestamps, for the timestamp fans: 00:00 – Intro to Carly and her very wiggly path  02:00 – TV comedy, improv, and how the drawing started  06:30 – Improv  08:00 – Sarah Jessica Parker reposts a drawing  10:30 – Going full-time - pricing is completely made up  14:30 – No art school 16:00 – Naivety as a superpower, and posting every day  19:00 – Live illustration, fancy parties, and the first wallpaper job  23:30 – Lockdown portraits, moving cities, becoming a mum  26:00 – Getting an agent 31:00 – Pricing, usage, and being a people-pleaser who has to negotiate  38:00 – Accidentally building lots of income streams  42:00 – How motherhood focused her career  49:00 – Character Study, and how bonkers publishing timelines are  52:00 – You really don't have to go to art school! Links mentioned: • Carly's website: https://www.carlykuhn.com/ • Carly on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carlykuhn/ • Carly's Substack, The Cartelier: https://carlykuhn.substack.com/ • Carly's new book, Character Study: Observations from a Very Curious Artist: https://www.carlykuhn.com/books Byeeee for now! x The Good Ship Illustration (Helen, Katie & Tania) p.s. If the pricing and usage chat made your ears prick up, we are planning a v exciting early-bird bonus for Illustration Business Club joiners. Doors open on Friday 25th September. Pop it on your calendar! 🥳 Come and say hello! ✏️ @thegoodshipillustration 🌏 www.thegoodshipillustration.com p.s. We love answering your illustration questions. Click here to submit your question for The Good Ship Illustration Podcast 🎙

"Why does promoting my own work feel so cringe?" HIYA WELCOME BACK! We missed you! Summer holidays are all done here in the UK. Hope you had a good rest too.  This week our Katie's chatting to Mollie Balshaw, one half of Short Supply: Short Supply is an artist-led creative practice founded by Mollie and Rebekah Balshaw. Since 2019, they have helped artists navigate creative careers through exhibitions, publishing, workshops, mentoring and public conversations. Their work makes the hidden structures of the art world more visible, while encouraging artists to take their ideas seriously without waiting for perfect conditions. Their current projects include 100 Ideas and Step One, a series of conversations taking place at Edinburgh Fringe. Short Supply posed this cracker of a question over on Instagram: why is visibility treated like ego, when artists need it to survive?  There's chat about snobbery re; wanting to earn money from your work, the bits of being visible online that you're not warned about, aaaand the boundaries Mollie and Rebekah have built to keep themselves safe. Then there's the can-you-have-a-successful-creative-career-outside-London question, and why "it's local so it must be rubbish" can get into our heads. Unfortunately, the Edinburgh Fringe is finished now 😭 but Step One was Short Supply's project and you can read all about it here: https://www.shortsupply.org/step-one  Timestamps, for the timestamp fans: 00:00 – Intro to Mollie, Rebekah and Short Supply  01:20 – Why is visibility treated like ego?  02:30 – Being talented is admirable, wanting to be seen is embarrassing. Whyyy?  03:30 – Starting Short Supply out of frustration (and wanting an excuse to collaborate)  04:30 – Who the art world isn't built for  05:30 – Snobbery about "commercial", snobbery about social media  06:20 – "Do I have to show my face?"  07:30 – Algorithms, platform politics, visibility  09:20 – Energy and capacity  10:20 – The flip side of a post going big  11:20 – When visibility isn't safe: queer, disabled and racialised artists  12:30 – Boundaries  14:00 – Would you mind a stranger saving it?  15:20 – You don't *need* to be on social media to promote your creative work  16:00 – Edinburgh Fringe as the best word-of-mouth machine in the country  16:40 – Step One: the Fringe show  17:40 – "I'm not telling you my idea in case you nick it"  18:20 – You can't benefit from an idea that stays in your head  20:20 – Smooth peanut butter vs crunchy  21:00 – Manchester  23:00 – Building a creative career outside London.  24:20 – proximity to London still counts for a lot  25:40 – "Manchester's caught up" or has it?  28:40 – Contradicting yourself out loud is just thinking. Allowed.  30:40 – Who are the David Hockneys of Salford right now?  33:00 – Local snobbery, and galleries that don't invite their neighbours  35:00 – Growing up somewhere small and assuming everything local is rubbish  36:30 – You have more choices than you think (a story about Mollie's nan)  38:00 – The joy of a part-time job/everyone else's secret pile of money  39:20 – AI, and being glad it didn't exist at uni  40:40 – "They may have been rubbish, but they were mine" Links mentioned: Short Supply's website: https://www.shortsupply.orgShort Supply on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shortsupplymcrThe Scottish Storytelling Centre, home of Step One: https://www.scottishstorytellingcentre.comByeeee for now! x The Good Ship Illustration (Helen, Katie & Tania) p.s. If you'd like more options for being-visible-without-being-sick-in-your-mouth, that's exactly what we get stuck into in Illustration Business Club! Doors are opening in October and you can read up on it here: https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/business Come and say hello! ✏️ @thegoodshipillustration 🌏 www.thegoodshipillustration.com p.s. We love answering your illustration questions. Click here to submit your question for The Good Ship Illustration Podcast 🎙

What're you doing this summer? Are you having a little rest? This episode is all about taking breaks and we have a wee look at our plans: Helen is in her illustrator hermit cave for July to get the next Salty Dog book finished before the deadline, with a nice August off as her reward. Tania is working on a museum commission for a 'Gossip Wall' in Berwick Museum, with plans to experiment with texture and line for the first time in ages. (Phwoarrrrr.) And Katie's about to have her first proper 6-week term-time break now that E's in school full time. Whatever your plans are, have a good one! We'll be back in September. Rough Timestamps, for you timestamp enthusiasts: 00:00 – Recording remotely, wheee 01:00 – Camping memories in France (TVs in tents) 03:00 – What does everyone's idea of a summer break look like? 04:00 – Helen's July hermit cave  05:00 – Tania's loose-deadline project 06:00 – the Gossip Wall 09:00 – Working four-hour afternoons 10:00 – Berwick Open Studios, and the Pith Sketchbook Studios workshops on 3rd & 4th October 11:00 – Walk to See, Instagram's Add Yours feature 13:00 – Sketchbooking at the Alan Carr castle auction viewing day 14:00 – Katie's first proper term-time summer break now E's in school 15:00 – Freelance guilt, privilege, trying to "do it all" rarely works 17:00 – Trying and failing to switching your email off 20:00 – RIP David Hockney 24:00 – Planning a Hockney-themed summer party 27:00 – Good luck to Helen with the Salty Dog drawings, and a peek ahead Illustration Business Club returning this autumn! Links mentioned: Byeeee for now!  x The Good Ship Illustration (Helen, Katie & Tania) p.s. Illustration Business Club is coming back into the chat this autumn, join the waiting list here and keep an eye out. https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/business  Come and say hello! ✏️ @thegoodshipillustration 🌏 www.thegoodshipillustration.com p.s. We love answering your illustration questions. Click here to submit your question for The Good Ship Illustration Podcast 🎙

What's the point in making all this gorgeous work if you don't have the confidence to share it, eh? EH!? Who better to grill on this subject than Lauren Currie, OBE. Lets gooo: Timestamps, for the timestamp fans: 00:00 – Intro  01:00 – Confidence = the elephant in the room for creatives 02:00 – Lauren on why confidence matters so much, especially for women and marginalised people  05:00 – The shite UN statistic  07:00 – "What would a mediocre middle-aged man do?"  09:00 – Confidence is a team sport, not a solo endeavour  11:00 – Carrying responsibility for how everyone else feels  12:00 – 10 people whose opinions actually matter (and why it's not Jeanie from school's mum's dentist)  14:00 – Imposter syndrome 16:00 – The 1970s research that labelled women with a "syndrome" instead of looking at the system  19:00 – Why self-doubt is healthy 21:00 – Confidence is a muscle  22:00 – Lauren's art 25:00 – Old lady faces 27:00 – Should you have a separate art Instagram?  28:00 – The Barcelona art show story 32:00 – Why 'just' 20 people seeing your work is a LOT of people  33:00 – Lauren's advice for illustrators who are scared to share their work  36:00 – On hiding 38:00 – We need your art!! Links and books etc. mentioned: Lauren's website: https://www.laurencurrie.co/artUpfront: https://www.weareupfront.comBe Upfront by Lauren CurrieWe Need Your Art by Amy McNee https://www.amiemcnee.com/order-we-need-your-art-book-amie-mcneeThe Good Ship Illustration: https://www.thegoodshipillustration.comFind Your Creative Voice, Fly Your Freak Flag course: https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/freakflagCome and say hello! ✏️ @thegoodshipillustration 🌏 www.thegoodshipillustration.com p.s. We love answering your illustration questions. Click here to submit your question for The Good Ship Illustration Podcast 🎙

This week's podcast is a sneaky peek into the live Q&A calls we do for our Find Your Creative Voice; Fly Your Freak Flag students. (They happen monthly at the moment.) WHADDA CHAT. In this episode, we talk about: Pursuing boredom The Artists' WayWhy finding your style doesn’t always feel fun and easy and natural (Instagram's lying to yooou) What to do when you have hundreds of project ideas and no clue which one to choose How to handle agent/client feedback without immediately throwing your laptop into the sea Galleries are better when you don’t try to “eat all the paintings” Pens, colour, sketchbooks and abandoning black linework Quentin Blake, Mr Bingo and free flapjacks. Just a normal day, really.If you'd like to join us, go for it! Enrolment is open right now, and our next live call is happening on Thursday the 16th of July at 7pm UK time. Timestamps 00:00 Art block 00:55 Morning pages 02:00 Wide margins 04:30 Boredom 06:00 Creative sparks 08:15 Creative identity 10:20 Comparison 11:30 Constraints 13:30 Page layouts 15:15 Deadlines 17:15 Oblique Strategies 18:30 Slow looking 21:00 Drawing from home 22:30 Quentin Blake Centre 26:45 Too many ideas 31:10 Feedback 37:30 Coloured linework 39:45 Closing thoughts Stuff we mentioned & links (so many this week, woah) The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron Make Every Day Creative by Marion Deuchars David Hockney (RIP)Brian Eno’s Oblique StrategiesQuentin Blake Centre - Thank you for inviting us to the preview day, team QB!Derwent Pencil MuseumPicture Hooks https://www.picturehooks.org.uk/The Catchpole Agency http://www.thecatchpoleagency.co.uk/Muji fine linersEmma Carlisle / Sarah Dyer https://www.emmacarlisle.com/  https://www.sarahdyer.com/The Good Ship Illustration Art Club https://www.instagram.com/thegoodshipillustration/?hl=enFly Your Freak Flag https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/freakflagThe Good Ship Illustration colour workshop https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/colourCome and say hello! ✏️ @thegoodshipillustration 🌏 www.thegoodshipillustration.com p.s. We love answering your illustration questions. Click here to submit your question for The Good Ship Illustration Podcast 🎙

This week our Katie is chatting to Alice Bowsher, who's work she would like to bite (In a good way. The same way you want to bite very cute babies. Is it called cuteness aggression?) Anyways, there's chat about creative career paths, Glastonbury bags, cardboard bedrooms, Walker Books, baby board books, and the very very important role of biscuits. Mmmm. Timestamps, for the timestamp fans: 00:00 – Intro to Alice 02:00 – From fine art to graphics to illustration 04:00 – The YCN internship, signing with an agent, and learning how the industry works 06:00 – Grand Matter, how commissions work "I'm definitely an agent person" 09:00 – Pricing and getting over the guilt of making it look easy 11:00 – Social media, Instagram vs Substack - Substack feels like old school Tumblr 14:00 – What happens when a brief comes in? 17:00 – Alice's cardboard bedroom 19:00 – Sketchbooking 21:00 – The Glastonbury Guardian bags and seeing your work out in the world 22:30 – Hobbies, exercise, biscuits, and the new-parent juggle 24:30 – Baby board books for Walker Links mentioned: Alice's website: https://www.alicebowsher.co.uk/Alice on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alicebowsherAlice's Substack, Easypeeler: https://alicebowsher.substack.com/Grand Matter, Alice's illustration agency: https://grandmatter.com/Fold out guinea pig birthday cards for Wrap: https://wrapmagazine.com/products/guinea-pig-surprise-fold-out-cardWe briefly mentioned Find Your Creative Voice, Fly Your Freak Flag so here's the link to that too in case you want to bask in your weirdness and make your best work ever: https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/freakflagCome and say hello! ✏️ @thegoodshipillustration 🌏 www.thegoodshipillustration.com p.s. We love answering your illustration questions. Click here to submit your question for The Good Ship Illustration Podcast 🎙

This week, we're STIIIIIILL talking about Bologna Children's Book Fair (for the last time, we promise 😅)  - this episode was supposed to come out as soon as we got home, but the technology gremlins have been fighting with us every step of the way. BACK OFF, GREMLINS.  You'll hear at the very end that we went on talking for three whole blimmin' episodes before we realised the microphones had conked out. We chat about having a stand and exhibiting for the very first time, our Best-Stand award, given to us by the one and only Chloe Savage (sponsored by ham™️), meeting the most brilliant people, and...Mega Duck!  Timestamps, for the timestamp fans: 00:00 – Back from Bologna! The brain dump begins  01:00 – What it was like having a stand for the first time  02:30 – The Best Stand Award wot we won 04:00 – 1,500 stripy bags, tattoos, and the ham situation  06:30 – Meeting podcast listeners in real life  07:00 – A lovely chat with Steve Anthony (Mr. Panda!) and his route into illustration 09:00 – The Cambridge School of Art stand and Good Ship grads 10:00 – Katie interviewing people on the stand with mega microphones  11:30 – Holly's observation about illustrators  13:00 – Why picture book people are the best 15:00 – The Illustrators' Survival Corner 16:30 – Meeting new people and being mistaken for a publisher  18:00 – Jo Overend and the Mega Duck story / Walker Books 22:00 – Lisa Loffredo, the Nami Concours shortlist, and a very good group photo  24:00 – The Good Ship Illustration as a showcase for talent (a big idea brewing...)  26:00 – Our Bolognese Palace  28:00 – Tania on nonfiction illustration 31:00 – How to research publishers from home  33:30 – Whoops, the microphones weren't recording. Goodbye Bologna! Links & people mentioned: 🎨 Steve Antony (Mr. Panda author-illustrator): https://www.steveantony.com/ 🎨 Cambridge School of Art MA in Children's Book Illustration: https://www.aru.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/childrens-book-illustration 🎨 Jo Overend on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joverendillustration/ 🎨 Lisa Loffredo on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lisaloffredo_/ 🎨 The Bologna Children's Book Fair: https://www.bolognachildrensbookfair.com/ 🎨 The Bookseller (check out the April issue, useful for agents and publishers list): https://www.thebookseller.com/ Byeeee for now! x The Good Ship Illustration (Helen, Katie & Tania) p.s. Heard Jo's story and feelin' a bit inspired? Good! If you want to find your own creative voice and start putting yourself out there, come and fly your freak flag with us. https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/freakflag Come and say hello! ✏️ @thegoodshipillustration 🌏 www.thegoodshipillustration.com p.s. We love answering your illustration questions. Click here to submit your question for The Good Ship Illustration Podcast 🎙

It's all fun and games until someone mentions FINAL ARTWORK. (Arghhhh) Sound familiar? Thought so. So we get stuck into Inky's question: how do you get out of your own way and switch off the overthinking brains?  All three of us wrestle with this in different ways. Also mentioned: expensive paper + a shared fantasy about buying a tiny round Father Ted caravan to draw in. Pour yourself a decaf tea and get comfy. 🫖 Timestamps, for the timestamp fans: 00:00 – The question from "Inky"  02:00 – Why your best work happens when you're distracted  03:00 – Helen's voice coach revelation  05:00 – The "kiss of death" of the final piece  06:00 – First violin nerves and propranolol  07:00 – Why Katie does live illustration  08:00 – ADHD, body doubling and visual timers  09:00 – Tania's surprise panic attack  10:00 – The fear of expensive paper  11:00 – Cheap sketchbooks, and never stretching paper  12:00 – Working on five versions at once  13:00 – Pia Bramley's drawings in the New York Times  14:00 – The dim light box trick  15:00 – Gluing over mistakes  16:00 – Why scaling up kills a drawing  17:00 – The blobby technique, and INCUP  19:00 – Tania loses her portfolio on the bus  20:00 – Katie's secret competitive streak  22:00 – Are illustration competitions worth it?  24:00 – Getting into the zone  25:00 – Rain, gas fires and working audios  27:00 – The dream caravan studio  29:00 – Dressing gowns, woolly hats and working caves  31:00 – Working around kids, and burnout  33:00 – Larks vs owls Links mentioned: Pia Bramley on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/piabramley/Picture Hooks (mentoring and competitions for picture book makers): https://www.picturehooks.org.uk/The Blindboy Podcast: https://theblindboypodcast.ie/Byeeee for now! x The Good Ship Illustration (Helen, Katie & Tania) p.s. You're v welcome to make your best work ever and come and bask in your weirdness with us here: https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/freakflag Come and say hello! ✏️ @thegoodshipillustration 🌏 www.thegoodshipillustration.com p.s. We love answering your illustration questions. Click here to submit your question for The Good Ship Illustration Podcast 🎙

Ooft, this is a good one. This week we're discussing illustration scams We've all had them land in our inboxes, we see 'em in the Good Ship community (too) regularly, and TBH you need to know what to look out for. 👀 Plus: Salty Dog is in actual bookshops and the Waterstones staff read it and couldn't stop laughing. Weyyy! 🎉 Timestamps, if you like that sort of thing: 00:00 – Why we're talking about scams (community posts, industry warnings, and everyone's inbox) 01:30 – The Mr. Takeshi email - the famous one doing the rounds right now 03:00 – Copy and paste a paragraph into Google. Reddit will know. 04:00 – The overpayment scam 04:30 – "I'm deaf, so please only email me" 05:00 – Katie's hacked email story 06:00 – Tania's mysterious hotel chain job 08:30 – Vanity publishers 10:30 – Real publishers don't advertise for illustrators on their homepage 12:00 – Rebecca Green and legitimate self-publishing (not the same thing!) 14:00 – "Dear Helen, I've written a book, please illustrate it" ...not a scam, but still a no 16:00 – AI emails from Francis. Every single daaaay. Still can't unsubscribe. 18:00 – "I'd like to buy three pieces of your artwork". 20:00 – 🎉 Salty Dog is in Waterstones! And the staff loved it! 21:30 – The terrible/brilliant fake Photoshop of Helen and Katie in the bookshop 23:00 – Could Salty Dog become a Yoto card? (We think yes, and yes we are biased) Links mentioned: 📚 Salty Dog by Helen Stephens and Katie Chappell - find it in all good bookshops: https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/salty-dog-and-pals-the-storm-other-stories 🖼️ The AOI (Association of Illustrators) — good source of scam warnings: https://theaoi.com Byeeee for now! x The Good Ship Illustration (Helen, Katie & Tania) Come and say hello! ✏️ @thegoodshipillustration 🌏 www.thegoodshipillustration.com p.s. We love answering your illustration questions. Click here to submit your question for The Good Ship Illustration Podcast 🎙

This week we're answering a brilliant voice message from @shanaramadesigns. Shana asks about Russian illustrator Victoria Semikina: how does someone learn to draw in that gloriously exaggerated, expressive way? And why, when she does it, does everyone love it, but when Shana tries it, art directors ask her to tone it down? NO FAIR. Happy listening :) And hellooo to Victoria - we've been chatting this week and there *might* be a special video coming to the Freak Flag course from her. EEEE! Watch this space! https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/freakflag Timestamps, for the timestamp fans: 00:00 – Crying over Christian Robinson's new book 'Dad' (it needs a warning label) 01:30 – Shana Rama's question: how do you learn to draw in an exaggerated, expressive way? 03:30 – Victoria Semikina: fine art, printmaking, jazz parties, and accidentally becoming an illustrator 05:30 – Why drawing from life filters through your personality, and why that matters 07:30 – "Just be yourself even harder" 09:00 – Finding publishers who love you as you are 10:00 – British art education, the A-level folio problem, and Frieda's story 15:30 – The exam board vs actual creativity, and feeling for students without artist parents 17:00 – Victoria's sketchbooks the gap between rough and final is tiny (mmmm) 18:00 – Embodying a pose while you draw: Tania channeling Tudor barmaid energy  Links mentioned: 🎨 Victoria Semykina on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/victoria_semykina/ 📚 Christian Robinson's book 'Dad': https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/christian-robinson/dad/9781035088393 Byeeee for now! x The Good Ship Illustration (Helen, Katie & Tania) p.s. Doors to the Live Illustration Course are now open for enrolment! This live round kicks off on 1st June. See you in there :) https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/lic  Come and say hello! ✏️ @thegoodshipillustration 🌏 www.thegoodshipillustration.com p.s. We love answering your illustration questions. Click here to submit your question for The Good Ship Illustration Podcast 🎙