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. 6D AGO

    The 7 email rule: Pitching your work to illustration clients - Kira Matthews

    Nobody is born knowing how to pitch. (Katie here) I've been known to pitch once, hear nothing, and decide 'Oh well. Never mind.' Then never reach out ever again. 😅 So you can imagine my SHOCK and INCREDULITY (is that a word?) when Kira told me that she will reach out 7 times to a brand before giving up. Whaaaaaat!? Kira Matthews (aka Kira the Bold), is like confidence in a bottle. She's mastered pitching and landing work with names like Squarespace, Ganni, and lots more.  If contacting publishers and/or potential clients makes you do a little bit of sick in your mouth, this episode will definitely help! At the very least you'll feel inspired to send more than one follow up email. In this episode, we chat about: What to do when the work… just stops coming inWhy pitching can feel so scaryThe real reason people don’t hear back. (And nooo, it’s not because they hate you)Why one email is basically just saying helloHow to follow up without being annoying (or feeling like you are)Timestamps: 00:00 Meet Kira (Queen of Pitching 👑) 01:00 From fashion styling to building a business 02:00 When the work disappeared… and what she did next 03:00 Learning to pitch (while still being terrified) 05:00 Fear doesn’t go away. You just get used to it 06:00 The 3-year journey to landing Squarespace 08:00 Why most people give up after one email 09:00 The stories we tell ourselves about rejection 10:00 Why you need to follow up (a lot more than you think) 11:00 How to make each email actually count 12:00 Applying this to illustration and getting your work seen 13:00 Inside Kira’s talent agency experiment 15:00 Why smaller creatives need to pitch more, not less 17:00 Agents, money, and what’s really going on behind the scenes 19:00 Why agents aren’t a magic solution 20:00 Sales: the bit everyone wants to avoid 23:00 Why follow-up feels rude (but isn’t) 24:00 Rejection challenges and building resilience 26:00 Rejection = start of the conversation 28:00 Momentum, energy, and creating your own opportunities 30:00 The actions that actually lead to results 31:00 Telling people what you do (important!!) 32:00 Katie’s rejection challenge story 34:00 Auditing your time and what’s worth it 35:00 Kira’s final pep talk Links & stuff wot we mentioned Kira’s website: https://www.kiramatthews.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kirathebold/Weekly pitch tips newsletter: https://kirathebold.myflodesk.com/m0elc4qip7The Good Ship Illustration https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/freebies 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 🎙

    38 min

  2. MAR 20

    How Salty (our Picture Book mascot) became a 2-book deal

    This week we're pulling up a chair at Helen's kitchen table to finally spill the beans on Salty. Salty Dog and Pals is the book that started as The Picture Book Course branding and somehow ended up as a 2-book deal with Walker Books. The big question: How do you write a zillion short stories with your pal in 10 sessions flat? We chat about the origins of Salty (and which printmaker Bernard the duck is named after), the brilliant questions from the editors at Walker Books, why Kitty is basically Tania 😆, and the Nissen Hut story that didn't make it into the final draft no matter how hard we trieeed! p.s. Salty Dog & Pals (Helen & Katie's new picture book) is now available to pre-order and will be in shops from May. To say thank you, all pre-orders get access to a picture book MASTERCLASS.  You can sign up for your free picture book masterclass here:  https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/salty-dog-and-pals-the-storm-other-stories It's instant access, so no need to wait. (And if you've already pre-ordered, thank you!) Rough timestamps for our timestamp-fans: 00:00 – Where did Salty Dog come from?  01:00 – From course mascot to Walker Books character  03:00 – Bernard the duck, and colour palette chat  05:00 – The thumbnail template that started it all  07:00 – The Jarvis format: not a picture book, not a chapter book  09:00 – Writing at the kitchen table: how it worked  11:00 – The Walker Books character questionnaire (we read it out)  13:00 – Who is Bernard, really? (William Hanson + Cameron)  15:00 – Kitty is Tania (reckless, chaotic, beloved)  17:00 – Lindisfarne, upturned boats + Helen's grandparents' Nissan Hut  20:00 – The story that was too violent to make it in  22:00 – Titles first, stories second  24:00 – What the editors actually did (magic, basically)  26:00 – Procreate vs paper + the cover saga  28:00 – Pre-order Salty Dog and Pals + free masterclass! (You can sign up for your free picture book masterclass here.) 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 🎙

    29 min

  3. MAR 13

    Identity + rejection: when your illustration work *is* you 🥲

    This week we're dragging ourselves away from our hypothetical gardens and custom urn businesses (lol) to have a proper sofa-chat about the big question: what would you do if you weren't an illustrator? Specifically: Is your identity too wrapped up in your work? What happens when things go quiet on the work front? COMMUNITY IS MAGIC.  That is all.  Happy listening. p.s. Salty Dog & Pals (Helen & Katie's new picture book) is now available to pre-order and will be in shops from May. To say thank you, all pre-orders get access to a picture book MASTERCLASS.  You can sign up for your free picture book masterclass here:  https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/salty-dog-and-pals-the-storm-other-stories It's instant access, so no need to wait. (And if you've already pre-ordered, thank you!) Rough timestamps for our timestamp-fans: 00:00 – What would you do if you weren't an illustrator?  01:00 – Tania's custom urn business plan (trademark pending)  03:00 – Katie's nanny agency pivot  05:00 – The famine panic spiral ("day three with no enquiries: my life is over")  06:00 – Identity and rejection: when your work IS you  08:00 – Service illustration vs the author-illustrator beast  10:00 – Picture book advances, royalties + why multiple income streams matter  12:00 – Artist dates and keeping your ideas fed  15:00 – The real deal: what makes author-illustration different  16:00 – Katie & Helen's picture book Salty Dog & Pals (!!!) + the Walker Books Irish jig  18:00 – Live illustration: when the job you loved becomes just a job  20:00 – Community as salvation  22:00 – Good Ship origin story + the Christmas fair era  24:00 – Isolation is corrosive (and what to do about it)  25:00 – Finding your people: local groups, Instagram communities + Pencils on Toast 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 🎙

    26 min

  4. MAR 6

    Instagram Is Not Your Portfolio (PHEW!)

    This week we’re wrapped up in some blankets havin' a proper sofa-chat about Instagram. Specificallyyyy: Should your Instagram be your portfolio? What's the difference between a snazzy website folio and the mad addictive world of social media?  We also get into showing your human face, illustrators following illustrators, AI-era credibility, and why you absolutely do not owe the algorithm/tech bros your nervous system. Rough timestamps for our timestamp-fans:  00:00 – Blankets  01:00 – Instagram as a folio: should it be?  03:00 – The golden algorithm years (remember those?)  05:00 – You don’t own Instagram  06:30 – Portfolio pressure vs social sharing  08:00 – The 360° artist: personality, process + presence  10:00 – AI, visibility + being human  12:00 – Showing your face. Do it!  14:00 – Content creator burnout (no fanks)  16:00 – “Held hostage by consistency” rebellion  18:00 – Who is Instagram actually for?  20:00 – Community vs clients  22:00 – Annuals, competitions + the old-school ways  24:00 – Bologna Book Fair chat  26:00 – Books as permanent portfolios  28:00 – Sales pages vs old-school static folios  30:00 – Final takeaway: use Instagram, don’t let it use you 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 🎙

    21 min

  5. FEB 27

    🍎 Elephantasia (aphantasia) - can you see an apple in your mind?

    This week we roll headfirst into the interestin' world of aphantasia. It all started with conversations inside Find Your Creative Voice and The Picture Book Course - when Good Shippers were telling us, “I can’t see ANYTHING in my head.” Which sent us down a rabbit hole of aphantasia, imagination. And does everyone experience it the same way? Nope. In this episode, we chat about: What aphantasia isThe “apple test” 🍎Emotional memory vs visual memoryWhy some creatives need reference and others work 100% from imaginationWhether Google has made our “mind palace” lazyNot being able to picture things can be a creative advantage. We promise.Smells, textures, music and sensory imaginationSynesthesia (colours for days of the week?)Why your wobbly memory-bike drawing might be better than a perfect diagramHow imagination changes from childhood to adulthoodBlind drawing experiments we neeeeed to try at Art ClubTimestamps for our timestamp fans 00:00 – Elephantasia? Aphantasia? However you say it… 02:00 – The apple spectrum and vivid vs blank imagery 03:00 – Reading fiction without mental pictures 05:00 – Emotional memory and creepy seaside steps 07:00 – Mental collage vs drawing from scratch 10:00 – Drawing bikes from memory 11:00 – Why aphantasia might make you a better designer 14:00 – Idioms, haystacks and giant bears 16:00 – Smells, lemons and sensory imagination 17:30 – Synesthesia and coloured weekdays 20:00 – Wolves, dreams and Google as reference 23:00 – Teenage bedrooms and peak memory moments 25:00 – Is creativity in your head or your hands? 28:00 – Blind Art Club challenge incoming 👀 What about you? Can you see the shiny apple? Or is it more of a murky apple-shaped idea? We’d genuinely love to know. Come over to Instagram and tell us how your brain works. We're nosy. 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 🎙

    30 min

  6. FEB 20

    Anna Mac on finding her creative voice (after years designing for retail)

    Permission to play can change EVERYTHING! This week we’re chatting to Anna Mac - artist, printmaker, illustrator, product designer, sleep counsellor, mum of twins, and hardcore Good Shipper who's been sailing with us since 2020. In this episode, we talk about scenic creative routes, why permission to play can change everything, creative voice vs paying the bills, and why sometimes felting a jumper is juuuust what your brain needs. Rough timestamps for our timestamp-fans: 00:00 – Intro + course news 01:00 – Anna’s background: fine art, printmaking + retail product design 03:00 – Social work → creative rediscovery 05:00 – Sweden influence + graphic print inspiration 06:00 – Lockdown pivot + 100 day project energy 07:00 – Finding creative voice even when you’re already “successful” 09:00 – Taste is everywhere (home, clothes, environment) 11:00 – Confidence, feedback and trusting your own eye 13:00 – Agent life + picture book submissions 14:00 – Balancing creativity, family life and part-time sleep counselling 16:00 – Creative hobbies that are just for you 17:00 – Creativity as a way of being (Rick Rubin chat) 19:00 – Personal manifestos vs New Year’s resolutions 21:00 – Listening to your gut when making work 23:00 – Journalling + morning pages (ish, not perfectly) 25:00 – Visual diaries and recording life through drawing 27:00 – Stories we tell ourselves about who gets to be creative 28:00 – Rejection collections + persistence mindset 30:00 – Rejection rituals (tea, brownie, gallery trip recommended) 31:00 – Creative voice is never “finished” 32:00 – Lifetime access + coming back to learning later in life Stuff mentioned: Anna's website - www.annamacstudio.com  Anna's Instagram - @annamacstudio Find Your Creative Voice: Fly Your Freak Flag course The Artist’s Way – Julia Cameron The Creative Act – Rick Rubin Good Ship Illustration Monthly Numbers Tracker (freebie) - To help you keep on top of your monthly numbers and track progress in your creative career. Byeeee for now! x The Good Ship Illustration (Helen, Katie & Tania) Anna is an illustrator who works from her home studio in Perthshire, Scotland. She has a background in fine art and printmaking and spent several years creating design-led product collections for the retail market.  Client commissions included heritage retailers and international buyers, and her work has sold in shops and galleries in the UK and abroad. Anna combines printmaking techniques, drawing and collage to produce her work, with a focus on children’s illustration.  Anna also loves to work with lino, and she uses this approach to create prints and book covers. 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

  7. FEB 13

    Are illustrators doomed… or is this our time to shiiiiiine? [AI workshop replay]

    Here's the audio replay from our AI workshop last week. There are slides too - the full replay with slides is available to watch HERE (but it goes away today. We're putting the workshop inside Find Your Creative Voice: Fly Your Freak Flag.) There's a PDF handout to download there too. Go grab it before it disappears! https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/aiworkshop  The audio isn't perfect, but neither are we 😅 🚢 In this episode we cover: Why brands are craving human-made work more than everThe weird, wonky human stuff AI can’t copyCopyright, licensing, and why clients still need real illustratorsHow your life experiences = your creative advantagePrompts to help you find your “brain treasure” ideasWhat you *can* controlTimestamps 00:00 Workshop intro + why everyone is panicking about AI 01:00 The good news 04:00 Why companies still need human illustrators 07:00 The “AI ick” and why audiences can feel it too 10:00 The power of personal voice and life experience 12:00 Human prompts to help you mine your own ideas 15:00 Anti-AI backlash in branding and marketing 17:00 Obsessions, hobbies, and niche interests = creative gold 20:00 Why we don’t teach “house style” illustration 23:00 Copyright, campaigns, and protecting creators 26:00 How AI is (and isn’t) affecting different illustration fields 29:00 Advice for grads and early career illustrators 32:00 Radical incrementalism and not fixing everything at once 35:00 Finding community without spending loads Links & things mentioned Justice for Creators campaign (their AI report is on there too)Association of Illustrators resourcesCreative Lives in ProgressGood Ship Art Club + freebiesOur full AI workshop replayAaand last but not least... Find your creative voice! Find Your Creative Voice, Fly Your Freak Flag - a shiny new live round begins on Monday the 16th Feb. When you join on or before Valentine's Day, our gift to you = an instant download of our mock briefs PDF so you can start your portfolio building straight away, no faffing about and waiting. Read all about it 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 🎙

    37 min

  8. FEB 6

    Tara Tayyebi Fard on finding her creative voice (and illustration career) after 10 years of being an architect

    Pssst, while you're here... On Tuesday 10th February 2026 we're running a live workshop! https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/aiworkshop  Standing out in a sea of robots: being an illustrator when AI is everywhere This workshop's perfect for you if you: Call yourself an illustrator, image-maker (or want to)Feel a bit wobbly about AI and what it means for your style and creative workWant to stand out in a sea of slop Know you're brilliant, but struggle to articulate what makes you differentAre ready to stop worrying and start being more unapologetically YOU.Let’s get weirder, eh? 🤖 ------------------------------------ OK! On with the show(notes)! "Unfortunately, I was good at maths." -Tara Tayyebi Fard Tara is a Persian illustrator, humorist, architect and violinist currently based in Belgium. She grew up reading stories, playing music, keeping a stack of diaries, and offending people by drawing them all fat. Tara spent most of her adult life studying and working in architecture, and has been whining about it ever since. She now holds a masters degree from Amsterdam School of Art, which she happily keeps in the depths of her wardrobe. In 2023, Tara jumped aboard the Good Ship Illustration, rediscovered her love for drawing and gradually started her career as an illustrator. Two years later, she signed with her agent, Lucie at Luddington Creative; working on picture books, doing commissions, live event illustration and making personal work. Tara pivoted to a career in illustration after 10 years of being an architect. In this episode, we chat to Good Shipper Tara about finding her creative voice, why being properly herself is what led to her dream clients, why being unsuccessful can be weirdly freeing, aaaaand **deep breath** how consistency and creative jealousy can be big flashing neon signs to help you figure out what you DO want to do. Rough timestamps for our timestamp-fans: 00:00 – Intro + free workshop mention 02:00 – Architecture → illustration pivot moment 05:00 – Childhood clues + diaries + sketchbooks 08:00 – Being annoyed = excellent character research 09:00 – 60 weeks of Substack and what that builds 10:00 – Illustration loneliness vs illustration community reality 12:00 – Making work when the world feels a bit bleak 14:00 – Commission hamster wheel vs personal work 15:00 – Dream clients happen when you show your actual personality 17:00 – The “what you love / what you’re good at / what pays” overlap 19:00 – Planning for creative brains (menus > rigid schedules) 23:00 – Creative jealousy = useful information, not failure 26:00 – The regret test (8-year-old you vs 80-year-old you) 27:00 – Can illustrators make money? Also: you can be bad at any career 😌 Stuff mentioned: Tara's Substack: https://substack.com/@tarastimeout Tara's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tara.tekentafel Tara's website: https://www.taratayyebifard.com/ Good Ship Illustration Monthly Numbers Tracker (freebie) 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 🎙

    31 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
    104
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 The Good Ship Illustration
  • Show Website
    The Good Ship Illustration

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