The Good Ship Illustration

The Good Ship Illustration
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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) 🚢🚢🚢

  1. 15 hr ago

    No, you *don't* have imposter syndrome - an interview with Lauren Currie OBE

    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 🎙

    40 min

  2. 26 Jun

    Help, I’ve forgotten how to draw 🫠

    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 🎙

    41 min

  3. 19 Jun

    "I spent ages on the detailed stuff...but they liked the quick sketch." An interview with the brilliant Alice Bowsher

    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 🎙

    28 min

  4. 12 Jun

    And the award for Best Stand at Bologna Children's Book Fair goes to...

    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 🎙

    35 min

  5. 5 Jun

    "Help! I love my rough illustrations and panic on the final piece. How do I get out of my own way?"

    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 🎙

    34 min

  6. 29 May

    ⚠️ Illustration scams to watch out for

    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 🎙

    25 min

  7. 22 May

    'They keep asking me to tone it down.' Flying your freak flag in their faces 🚩

    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 🎙

    20 min

  8. 15 May

    "I used to cry in the toilets before every job (and then I'd go draw)" - a live illustration chat with Katie

    This week, our Katie's chatting with Helen and Tania about her favouritest thing and specialism/niche: live illustration.  What's it like to arrive at a fancy corporate event with an iPad (or a board and some paint), when someone says "ok, draw everything"? It's a proper deep-dive into the live illustration world, from the adrenalinny (new word) thrill of drawing in real time, including the crying-in-toilets. Is AI a threat to graphic recorders? Spoiler: being a human is, somehow, now a USP. 😂 There's also a crackin' question from Joanna about being asked to work for free for a live illustration agency, and we have Thoughts. Timestamps, for the timestamp fans: 00:00 – Intro and is live illustration under threat from AI? Katie's honest take 02:00 – Being a human = a selling point 04:00 – Hand-drawn work is more exciting to clients 05:00 – Infographics, AI, and the kinds of work that aren't worth worrying about 08:00 – Why Katie loves working live 09:00 – Helen on the same feeling during school visits and drawing on stage 11:00 – The different flavours of live illustration: corporate, fashion, wedding, events... 12:00 – Joanna's question: should I work for free for a live illustration agency? 14:00 – How to build your portfolio without getting trapped in the free-work loop 15:00 – SEO for live illustrators 17:00 – Helen's local museum project: well-paid, rooted in place, in the collection for 20 years 21:00 – What Katie teaches in her course: synthesising information, calming your brain, and knowing what to leave out 23:00 – How to turn corporate speak into images without just drawing a lightbulb 💡 25:00 – Katie's favourite technique: using the page as a visual timer 27:00 – The early fear vs the hard-won confidence (and yes, the toilet crying 😅) 31:00 – You'll never feel ready, so just start charging anyway 32:00 – The live illustration course opens on 15th May! Links mentioned: The Live Illustration Course: https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/lic Byeeee for now! x The Good Ship Illustration (Helen, Katie & Tania) p.s. Curious about live illustration but not 100% sure if it's for you? Come and join Katie for a free Live Illustration Masterclass, it's a good place to start! https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/LIM 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 🎙

    34 min
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About

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) 🚢🚢🚢

Information

  • Creator
    The Good Ship Illustration
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2026
  • Episodes
    118
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 The Good Ship Illustration
  • Show Website
    The Good Ship Illustration

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