The Good Ship Illustration

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What publishers reeeeally want to see in your picture book pitch Nov 07, 2025

Show notes

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? 😅

Here’s what we cover:

Bologna Book Fair! ✈️
How to submit to the Bologna Illustrator Exhibition (deadline alert! They extended it to the 6th November! Sorry, we said the wrong date in this episode, but do let us know if you managed to submit something so we can high-five you.)
The Picture Book Pitching Masterclass with Helen and Jane Porter 🎓 https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/pbpm
How to pitch your book ideas
Overcoming the terror of sharing your work 😬
Building resilience to rejection
The “myth of being discovered”
Our excitin' Bologna Book Fair plans...

🕑 Timestamps
00:00 – Bologna excitement (and confusion)
01:00 – What really happens at the fair
02:00 – Snail mail sticker packs & upcoming Picture Book Masterclass
03:00 – Helen’s no-rules pitching philosophy
06:00 – Regional accent chaos: “masterclass” vs “plaster”
07:00 – Getting seen by publishers (and why Instagram still matters)
08:00 – Facing the fear of rejection
10:00 – Mindset hacks: why what others think is none of your business
12:00 – Myths about being “discovered”
13:00 – Good Ship’s Bologna stand & plans for 2026
15:00 – Why every illustrator should go at least once
16:00 – Global publishing inspiration 🌍
17:00 – Dreaming up a “Gone Fishing” Good Ship stall

Links we mentioned:

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 🎙

'If it looks awful, keep going. It’ll work out' - an interview with illustrator Catherine Rayner Oct 31, 2025

Show notes

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 babywear range, and can usually be found in her studio surrounded by ink, animals, and Post-it notes.

Phew.

In this chat, Katie asks Catherine about:

What an average week in the studio looks like
Planning everything using a wall calendar and Post-it notes
Working with Julia Donaldson
Short deadlines and thriving on a wee bit of panic
Being a mum and illustrator at the same time
Instagram, rejection, keeping your creative confidence alive
A pep talk for newer illustrators

Rough timestamps for our timestamp fans:
00:00 – Meet Catherine!
03:00 – Post-it notes, assistants, and studio life in Edinburgh
10:00 – Julia Donaldson, ear-cleaning(!?) + friendship
17:00 – Jason Donovan and creative boldness
20:00 – 100 rejections, persistence, and finding your people
23:00 – Instagram tips and why numbers don’t matter
29:00 – Motherhood, burnout, and how it really gets easier
36:00 – Catherine’s parting words

Links mentioned
Catherine Rayner’s website
Follow Catherine on Instagram

Byeeee for now!
x The Good Ship Illustration (Helen, Katie & Tania)

'If you keep showing up, you can't NOT get better' - an interview with Sandi Hester Oct 24, 2025

Show notes

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 blob” of negative self-talk that plagues so many creatives.

Nice.

💬 In this episode, we talk about:

The big move from America to England
How painting became Sandi’s release and restful place during years of illness
Building the “muscles of creativity” to keep making art no matter what’s going on
The “blobbity blob” of self-talk and why you can’t judge your art in the moment
Going back to her older, more figurative painting style after moving to the UK
Running a YouTube channel as a full-time job and how it replaced the gallery route
Why being messy and human built more trust with her audience than a polished version ever could
The unseen workload behind one 20-minute YouTube video (and why she can’t start a Patreon!)
How perfectionism stops us from creating and why “the best you can do today” is always enough
Why creatives should enjoy the journey instead of chasing the destination
Learning to separate your self-worth from likes, follows, and algorithm robots 🤖
Her advice to artists: stop stressing, stop comparing, and just enjoy the paint sliding across the page

🕰️ Episode Timestamps

00:00 – Introducing Sandi Hester and her big move
02:00 – Creating through renovation chaos and hard seasons
05:00 – The “blobbity blob” of mental chatter
07:00 – Letting go of perfection and learning to just play
09:00 – Returning to figurative painting (and why everyone thinks England “transformed” her work)
10:00 – Choosing YouTube over galleries and showing real life online
12:00 – Filming through health struggles and letting people see the messy truth
15:00 – The hidden full-time workload behind one short video
17:00 – Lowering the bar so you can actually make things
19:00 – Teaching thought process over technique
21:00 – How the YouTube algorithm punishes missed uploads (“Feed the beast!”)
24:00 – Doing good work without being salesy
27:00 – Staying the course even when you feel like bubblegum under a chair
29:00 – Why the journey is the fun part
33:00 – Re-training your inner critic
35:00 – Final encouragements and gratitude

🌈 Links mentioned

Byeeee for now!
x The Good Ship Illustration (Helen, Katie & Tania) 🚢🎨

A Bologna Book Fair special: 6 Good Shippers were finalists in the Illustrators Exhibition! Oct 17, 2025

Show notes

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, I thought it would be lovely to catch up with them and hear how it all went. In this episode, you’ll hear from Emma Simpson, Lisa Loffredo, Amber Au, Sam Jones and Kate Leiper.

A special mention to Charlotte Durrance, who was also a finalist but couldn’t make it to the recording.

Congratulations to all of you!

V Rough timestamps in case you like that sort of thing:

[00:00] Helen introduces the six Good Shippers who made it to Bologna 🎉
[00:02] Emma Simpson
[00:11] Lisa Loffredo
[00:18] Amber Au
[00:25] Sam Jones
[00:37] Kate Leiper

Other links mentioned

Find Your Creative Voice, Fly Your Freak Flag course

The Picture Book course

DPictus Showcase

Bologna Book Fair Illustrators Exhibition info on how to take part
– Entries usually open in July and close in November

Tiffany Leeson
– Creative Director at Farshore Books

Ken Max Wilson
– Writer, illustrator and publisher

Picture Hooks
– Helping illustrators access the world of children’s publishing (based in Edinburgh, open to all emerging illustrators)

🎉 If you’d like to apply for the Bologna Book Fair Illustrators Exhibition, the doors are usually open from July until November.

Get your work ready and go for it!

We're cheering you on.

Taraa!
x The Good Ship Illustration (Helen, Katie & Tania)

#WalkToSee is baaack! The hashtag responsible for over 120,000 drawings (join in!) Oct 10, 2025

Show notes

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 life, then join in!

In this episode:

The story behind #WalkToSee and why Helen's relaunched it
How to join this month’s prompt: #WalkToSeeWeather ☁️🌧️
Why drawing from life feels more “alive”
Sketching in public = good panic
Small sketchbooks or massive sketchbooks... which camp are you in?
Materials that make drawing fun again (paint sticks! Sharpies! toilet roll!)
The autumn urge to make something just for fun
Apple presses, lino cuts, carbon paper and whisky samples

Timestamps:
00:00 – Helen on starting #WalkToSee back in 2018
02:00 – Why hashtags stopped working and how she brought it back
04:00 – October’s prompt: #WalkToSeeWeather
06:00 – Drawing tiny and feeling rusty
08:00 – Sharpies, paint sticks and rediscovering fun materials
10:00 – Drawing in public (and how to avoid chatty strangers)
12:00 – The “panic” energy in real-life drawing
15:00 – Autumn creative urges and sneaky side projects
17:00 – The joy of carbon paper and slow stationery
19:00 – Studio updates, new neighbours and collaboration
20:00 – Katie’s apple obsession 🍎
21:00 – Tiny whisky bottles

Links & things mentioned:

Join in on Instagram: #WalkToSeeWeather
Helen’s Instagram: @helenstephenslion
and ours @thegoodshipillustration
The Good Ship Illustration: www.thegoodshipillustration.com

Byeeee for now!
x The Good Ship Illustration (Helen, Katie & Tania) 🚢

Remember drawing for...fun? 😅 what is that? Oct 03, 2025

Show notes

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 self-led projects
02:00 Fine art drive vs. illustration mindset
03:00 Projects we have managed to finish (and why)
05:00 Creativity that doesn’t look like ‘work’
07:00 You’re probably doing more than you realise
08:00 The power of art clubs + sketching friends
09:00 Big projects that turn into ‘scratch records’
10:00 Permission to make things simple (or stop entirely)
12:00 Sorting hat trick for choosing ideas
14:00 Productivity
16:00 Parking ideas and bullet journaling
18:00 Craft supplies, hoarding, and deferring projects
20:00 New paints, new studios, more art clubs
21:00 Psssst...you’re probably already doing more than you think

Byeeee for now!
x The Good Ship Illustration (Helen, Katie & Tania)

"Double your fee without drawing more" say whaaat!? Sep 26, 2025

Show notes

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 work in specific ways (where, how long, which media, exclusive or not).

Ok, lesson's over. Thanks for coming.

If you'd like to earn more without drawing more, then keep your copyright, license the usage, and price it properly.

It's juicy, not boring. We promise!

Timestamps, if you want to skip ahead to a certain bit

00:00 Why giving away copyright is a no-go
01:00 Licence basics you can actually use
02:30 Picture books: advances, royalties, reversions
04:30 Foreign rights & special sales (how the money flows)
06:30 Trust, statements, and chasing missing royalties
07:30 Licensing agents & exclusivity windows
09:00 Advertising uses: above/below the line (cost jumps)
10:30 Building a simple “menu” clients can pick from
12:00 Case study: the map that earned double via licensing
14:00 Live illustration: online use vs print/murals
16:30 Excluding branding/merch in your standard licence
18:00 Merch options: flat fee vs % royalty
20:00 Originals, ownership, and cautionary tales
22:00 Why this stuff makes your work pay better

The bit art school forgot to teach you 😅 Sep 19, 2025

Show notes

🌎✏️ 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 Business Club...

And the doors open tonight! (19th September 2025).

You don't need your shoulderpads. Just bring yourself and a bit of an open mind to learn how the money-and-business side of illustration works.

In this episode, we talk a bit about why we’re saying goodbye to the word “course” and what this shiny new Illustration Business Club is gonna look like. You're in for a treat - it’s eeeven better.

By the way, if you're already in the Business Course, you don't need to do anything. You'll be inside Illustration Business Club automagically.

Phew!

Lifetime access
Community perks: private Facebook group + co-working every 2 weeks
Nice open chats about pricing, clients, and fees

It'd be lovely to see you in there!

Timestamps, for our timestamp fans.

00:00 Big news: the Business Course has changed
01:00 Why “club” feels right (and way more fun)
02:00 All modules unlocked: learn at your pace
03:00 Community: private group + live calls
04:00 What art school didn’t teach you
05:00 Honest conversations about money + fees
06:00 Adding new income streams
07:00 Pricing insights: Katie & Helen’s two perspectives
08:00 Guest interviews + insider knowledge
08:30 Bonus: live Q&A with copyright lawyers
09:00 How to join the Illustration Business Club

Links mentioned

Join the Illustration Business Club HERE
Sign up for our free income workshop HERE
Come and be our Instagram pals HERE

Byeeee for now!
x The Good Ship Illustration (Helen, Katie & Tania)

Nice illustrator loneliness & working from home Sep 12, 2025

Show notes

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 deal with loneliness when working from home?'

Sometimes we love it, sometimes we do not 😅

In this episode we talk about:

Why lots of us illustrators prefer working solo… sometimes
Shared studios vs. doors-that-close
Headphones, boundaries, and avoiding “being watched” energy
Partner-as-studio-mates 👀 Can it work?
Using Zoom to humanise client relationships
Instagram as a “virtual kitchen”
Local micro-communities, Good Ship meet-ups, and regular check-ins
Assuming positive intent ❤️

Rough timestamps, for people who like that sort of thing

00:00 Anonymous listener Q: “How do I deal with loneliness working from home?”
01:00 Tania’s Hong Kong years: craving team vibes
02:30 Partners in the studio: the headphone solution
04:00 Open-plan offices, self-consciousness, and wiggly energy
05:30 The magic of a shut-the-door studio
06:30 Home distractions vs. helpful pottering
07:30 The dream setup: close to home, small, warm, tree view
09:00 Commit to the space: move the “big computer”
10:00 Cloud storage and keeping work in one place
10:30 Instagram as water cooler… or a brain sponge
11:30 Real-world chats that top up your social tank
12:30 Online threads that turn into real communities over time
13:30 Good Ship meet-ups: sketches groups and weekly Zooms
15:00 Why creativity needs privacy and no-one-is-watching energy
16:00 Lonely… but nice lonely (with planned people bits)
16:30 Zoom with clients to reduce email-anxiety and “they hate it” spirals
18:00 How to write and receive feedback without spiralling
19:00 The rule that saves sanity: assume positive intent
20:00 Quick answers: studios with doors, small communities, kinder stories

Byeee for now. Let us know if you're coming to the workshop. WE ARE SO EXCITED!! Here's the link again in case you missed it:

https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/atlas

Picture Book, Freak Flag, or Business… which one is calling yoooou? Sep 05, 2025

Show notes

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 word was exactly what motivated them to jump in and learn the nuts and bolts of building a creative career they love (and get paid for).

Hooray! 🎉

In this episode, we chat through how to know which course might be the best place for YOU to start, and how to avoid getting stuck in analysis-mode worrying about making the wrong choice.

Here’s what we cover:

How to know if you have found your creative voice yet
Consistency = a magic ingredient for picture book characters
When does it make sense to start with Fly Your Freak Flag?
...or dive straight into the Picture Book Course
Our creative car vs business car analogy 🚗 🤓
Why the Business Course tends to work best after Find Your Creative Voice, Fly Your Freak Flag
Freebies you can try if you're just not sure (Childhood Illustrated, the Colour Workshop, our Character Workshop and more)
The veeeery high-tech decision tree that makes the which-course-should-I-do choice for you 😆

Timestamps
00:00 – The big question: Which course first?
01:00 – Do you know your creative voice?
02:15 – Why consistency matters in picture books
03:00 – Picture Book vs Freak Flag (gut instinct wins)
04:30 – The Business Course (and why not to mix it in too soon)
05:30 – Creative car vs business car analogy
07:00 – What to do if you are not ready yet (hello freebies)
08:30 – The one-hour live illustration masterclass
09:00 – Our decision tree

Links and goodies mentioned

Find Your Creative Voice – Fly Your Freak Flag
The Picture Book Course
The Business Course
Freebies Page
(it's a long. Grab a cuppa.)
Live Illustration Masterclass
Art Club on Instagram - we're @thegoodshipillustration

Byeeee for now!

x The Good Ship Illustration

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