The Good Ship Illustration

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 🎙

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 🎙