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Welcome to The Good Ship Illustration - the podcast for illustrators who are quietly working away in their sketchbooks thinking… “is it just me?”
…it’s not just you!
We’re Helen Stephens, Katie Chappell and Tania Willis - three full-time illustrators from three different corners of the industry (and three different age brackets ). We live in the same seaside town in the UK and started having cuppas and chats… and accidentally became illustration agony aunts.
Now we record those chats for you! We answer your questions about confidence, tricky clients, pricing your work, creative block, picture books, publishing, and everything in between.
✨ New episodes every Friday. ✨
Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, and do send us your questions!
P.s. Fancy some freebies? Head to thegoodshipillustration.com for colour workshops, picture book templates, and other treats.
Byeeee for now!
x The Good Ship Illustration (Helen, Katie & Tania)
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92 Episodes
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What a treat of an episode! Today we’re chatting with Good Shipper and picture book author–illustrator Amber Au. Amber talks about how drawing became part of her recovery from an eating disorder and how her therapist encouraged her to send her illustration work to her first ever client. Aaand how - in two whirlwind months - she was suddenly winning awards, signing a three-book deal, and being invited to meet editors at Bologna. Whaaa!? What a blimmin' brilliant reminder to do the things. Even...
If you're an illustrator with access to the internet and you have eyeballs, you might've seen Lisa Congdon's work. Lisa started blogging her collections and illustrations back in the good ol' days, and even remembers Instagram back when it was good. (Remember that? It was nice, wasn't it?) In this episode, Katie asks Lisa about consistency and how to keep on keepin' on when the world is the way it is. We also meander through topics like ADHD, collections, comparison, agents - whether or not s...
In this episode, our Tania chats with multi award-winning illustrator Jill Calder about 30+ years of illustration, and how she’s explored pretty much the entire “illustration atlas” without losing herself along the way. Stuff we cover: Staying recognisably Jill across 30+ years of illustrationMoving from editorial to corporate to heritage workBuilding a career with both illustration and hand letteringBig, bonkers corporate jobs (including handwriting as other people!)Making the leap into chil...
Y'know when you feel like your work is neeearly there… but it's missing a lil something-something? This podcast episode is all about that. Overcoming that. How the heck do you put more humanness into your work? 🧠 What we talk about in this one“Accomplished” isn’t the same as “alive”How generic styles can creep in without us noticingThe danger of trying to look like “a picture book illustrator”Why you need to make work that freaks you out a tiny bit 🤪The power of real memories and emotionsId...
This week on The Good Ship Illustration Podcast, we’re chatting all things experiments - we get particularly excited about FAILED experiments. In the words of that there Bob Ross, "we don't make mistakes, we just have happy accidents". 😆 Behind the scenes, Helen gave Tania a haircut just before we recorded this episode. Can you hear Tania's new hair? Timestamps for our timestamp fans: 00:00 – Mmmm new ideas 01:00 – Katie’s “scaling the business” experiment that didn’t work 02:0...
First, before we jump into the show notes, here's the link to sign up to the Picture Book Pitching Masterclass we've got happening soon! 🗓️ When: 17th of November at 1 pm UK time 💰 Cost: Freeeee 🚢 RSVP here: https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/pbpm How do illustrators actually get their picture books published? And what really goes on at Bologna Children’s Book Fair? This episode is all about pitching, portfolios, publishers, and… how we each pronounce the word plaster? ...
This week we’re interviewing another creative for the podcast. Hooray! Catherine Rayner is an award-winning author and illustrator based in Edinburgh, whose books have sold over two million copies and been translated into 35 languages. She’s written and illustrated 25 picture books and collaborated with legends like Julia Donaldson, Michael Morpurgo, and Michael Bond. Winner of the Kate Greenaway Medal (and shortlisted six more times!), Catherine also paints, runs a greetings card and b...
We've decided to play around a bit and do some INTERVIEWS. Ooooh. First up is artist and YouTuber Sandi Hester, who recently moved from the US into a 100-year-old fixer-upper house in the UK. Katie (gently) grills Sandi about what it’s been like moving country and keeping her creative practice alive through chaos, health challenges, and renovation dust. Sandi shares how painting has become her lifeline, why perfectionism is joy’s worst enemy, and how she’s learned to quiet the “blobbity...
Hi there, Helen here. This is a special episode of the podcast because we had six of our Good Shippers - that’s people who’ve done our courses - selected as finalists in the Bologna Book Fair Illustrators Exhibition! Which is pretty amazing news. It’s really difficult to be a finalist because the competition is so high. Last year there were 4,374 people who entered, and only 324 were selected to be finalists. So for six of them to be Good Shippers is SO exciting. Now that the fair’s finished,...
Our Helen’s #WalkToSee hashtag on Instagram is baaaack with a new monthly prompt. After seven years of #walktosee there are now over 120,000 drawings on there and counting! In this episode, we chat about Helen’s relaunch of #WalkToSee (with new monthly prompts), drawing from life vs. photos, why small sketchbooks are weirdly hard, aaand rediscovering messy materials and carbon paper. Special guest: an enormous chunk of charcoal. If you'd like a gentle kick up the butt to do some drawing from ...
Deadlines... yeah yeah yeahhh, but what about doing illustration stuff just for YOU!? This week we chat about squishing in personal projects when client work always feels much more urgent. We are gathering ourselves after a very exciting Illustration Business Club launch. Phew! Definitely time for fun non-worky projects around here. (Rough) Timestamps if you want to skip to a certain bit 00:00 Question: “How do you make time for personal artwork?”01:00 Why deadlines are easier than sel...
First things first, DOORS CLOSE TONIGHT! We start on Monday. https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/business Be lovely to see you in there. Psssst, this is the lowest the price will ever be, and we're not opening the doors again until September 2026. 🚢🚢🚢 Right. Podcast shownotes. Yes. Where were we? Here's a very quick lesson on copyright and licensing before you listen to this episode 🤓 Copyright = you own the work. Licence = permission your client buys to use the w...
🌎✏️ The Illustrator’s Income Atlas - exciting free workshop announcement! 🗓️ 24th Sept | ⏰ 1pm UK | 📍 Online Let's sit down together and map out your illustration income. You'll leave with a plan (a map, woohooo) you can stick on your wall and use. Save your spot and SIGN UP HERE! https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/atlas Ok, on with the shownotes 🤓 We’ve taken our Business Course, given it a fresh lick of paint, and made it eeeeven more fun. It's now called Illustration Busines...
🌎✏️ The Illustrator’s Income Atlas - exciting free workshop announcement! 🗓️ 24th Sept | ⏰ 1pm UK | 📍 Online Let's sit down together and map out your illustration income. You'll leave with a plan (a map, woohooo) you can stick on your wall and use. Save your spot and SIGN UP HERE! https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/atlas Ok, on with the shownotes 🤓 Why we secretly love working alone (almost all the time) This week we got a good question from an anonymous listener 'how do I dea...
Which course should I do? 🎨📚 We get asked this aaall the time: “Do I start with the Picture Book Course, Fly Your Freak Flag, or the Business Course?” There is no wrong order. Right now the Business Course isn’t open, but… ✨ The Illustration Business Club (our shiny new name for it) opens for enrolment on the 19th of September! We almost dropped the word “business” because we thought it might put illustrators off. When we asked our students though, the answer was a big NO. That wor...
Pssst, this episode was originally published in 2023 and we’re sharing it again as part of our Good Ship Summer Camp series. It’s one of five episodes to help you fly your freak flag this summer. If you’d like to join in properly, there’s a free workbook an' everything! You can download the workbook here: https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/workbook Riiiight, pack up your art supplies. It’s the final week of our pretend Good Ship Summer Camp. This week's topic is panic. Mmmm...
Pssst, this episode was originally published in 2023 and we’re sharing it again as part of our Good Ship Summer Camp series. It’s one of five episodes to help you fly your freak flag this summer. If you’d like to join in properly, there’s a free workbook an' everything! You can download the workbook here: https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/workbook Feeling stuck? Procrastinating wildly? Hiyaaa this week's episode is for you. PLAY!! It’s not optional. It can trick you into making ...
Pssst, this episode was originally published in 2023 and we’re sharing it again as part of our Good Ship Summer Camp series. It’s one of five episodes to help you fly your freak flag this summer. If you’d like to join in properly, there’s a free workbook an' everything! You can download the workbook here: https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/workbook Feeling a bit wobbly about your work? You’re not alone. In fact, you’re very much in the club. In today’s episode, we’re talking abou...
Pssst, this episode was originally published in 2023 and we’re sharing it again as part of our Good Ship Summer Camp series. It’s one of five episodes to help you fly your freak flag this summer. If you’d like to join in properly, there’s a free workbook an' everything! You can download the workbook here: https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/workbook Got limited time to draw? Children hanging off your leg? Perfect. You’re in exactly the right place. 😆 This week's episode is all abo...
Pssst, this episode was originally published in 2023 and we’re sharing it again as part of our Good Ship Summer Camp series. It’s one of 5 episodes to help you fly your freak flag this summer. If you’d like to join in properly, there’s a free workbook an' everything! You can download the workbook here: https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/workbook 🚢🚢🚢 What if your creative voice isn't one you actually like? 😬 In today’s episode, we’re chatting about that awkward bit of figuring out y...
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