The Good Ship Illustration

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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119 episodes
Updated July 10

Episodes119

Newest first

Sep 13, 2023 · 21 min
Finding Creative Confidence 🚢 | Find Your Creative Voice Mini-Series #3
How do you stop the niggly voice 'my work isn't good enough' from interfering with your creative confidence? WELCOME to our 5-part mini-series, all about finding your creative voice. This week we're dropping one episode a day, where we tackle that ol' chestnut: how to find your creative voice. We've answered questions and created actionable steps for each episode. Want a fillable workbook? YOU'RE IN LUCK! We've made one for you to download here. https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/workbook p.s. The doors to our 8-week online course Find Your Creative Voice: Fly Your Freak Flag are now open. We'd love to have you sailing with us. Read all about it here. Doors close for this live round on the 15th of September 2023 and we are STRICT. Don't miss the boat! 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 🎙
Sep 12, 2023 · 9 min
Draw draw draw! 🚢 | Find Your Creative Voice Mini-Series #2
Draw draw draw, then draw some more. PLUS we answer the brilliant question: "...my schedule is not allowing me the time I would like. Can I really find my style if my time is limited? WELCOME to part 2 of our 5-part mini-series, all about finding your creative voice. This week we're dropping one episode a day, where we tackle that ol' chestnut: how to find your creative voice. We've answered questions and created actionable steps for each episode. ✨ Want a fillable workbook? YOU'RE IN LUCK! We've made one for you to download here.✨ https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/workbook p.s. The doors to our 8-week online course Find Your Creative Voice: Fly Your Freak Flag are now open. We'd love to have you sailing with us. Read all about it here. Doors close for this live round on the 15th of September 2023 and we are STRICT. Don't miss the boat! 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 🎙
Sep 11, 2023 · 10 min
Bask in your weirdness! 🚢 | Find Your Creative Voice Mini-Series #1
Bask in your weirdness. What to do if the voice that’s emerging isn’t the one you like? WELCOME to our 5-part mini-series, all about finding your creative voice. This week we're dropping one episode a day, where we tackle that ol' chestnut: how to find your creative voice. We've answered questions, and created actionable steps for each episode. Want a fillable workbook? YOU'RE IN LUCK! We've made one for you to download here. https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/workbook p.s. The doors to our 8-week online course Find Your Creative Voice: Fly Your Freak Flag are now open. We'd love to have you sailing with us. Read all about it here. Doors close for this live round on the 15th of September 2023 and we are STRICT. Don't miss the boat! 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 🎙
Jun 21, 2023 · 15 min
HELP! I don't think I have a style - Message in a bottle
We’re here to offer no-nonsense advice for illustrators and image-makers navigating a creative career Here are 3 things you need to know: At The Good Ship, our big mission is to help illustrators and image-makers navigate a creative career. There are 3 of us - Tania, Helen and Katie - and we are the Goldilocks (3 bears!) of illustration, covering 3 areas and eras of the industry. We believe your creative work should feel good, make you money, and leave you feeling confident to fly your freak flag! Stuff we talk about in this episode: Style is like the zodiac How to find out who you are Finding your uniqueness Hiding away from social media. Creating a stronger identity and finding your creative voice. p.s. if you like this episode, you might love our course "Find Your Creative Voice, Fly Your Freak Flag". You can read all about it 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 🎙
Jun 21, 2023 · 10 min
Art qualifications... do you need 'em? - Message in a Bottle
We’re here to offer no-nonsense advice for illustrators and image-makers navigating a creative career Here are 3 things you need to know: At The Good Ship, our big mission is to help illustrators and image-makers navigate a creative career. There are 3 of us - Tania, Helen and Katie - and we are the Goldilocks (3 bears!) of illustration, covering 3 areas and eras of the industry. We believe your creative work should feel good, make you money, and leave you feeling confident to fly your freak flag! In this episode, we talk about: The (un)importance of qualifications in art The importance of having a masters Stamps of approval Choosing yourself Gatekeepers Be a punk Did you like this? You might love Art Club too! Come on over to Instagram and be our internet pal. We host pop-up art clubs every now and again and our entire back catalog is on there too. We're @thegoodshipillustration https://www.instagram.com/thegoodshipillustration/ 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 🎙
Jun 21, 2023 · 19 min
Substack for Illustrators! Message in a Bottle
We’re here to offer no-nonsense advice for illustrators and image-makers navigating a creative career Here are 3 things you need to know: At The Good Ship, our big mission is to help illustrators and image-makers navigate a creative career. There are 3 of us - Tania, Helen and Katie - and we are the Goldilocks (3 bears!) of illustration, covering 3 areas and eras of the industry. We believe your creative work should feel good, make you money, and leave you feeling confident to fly your freak flag! -------------------- In this episode we let Helen get REALLY excited about Substack. She shares all of her top tips to get you excited to start writing, sharing and hitting publish tooo. We're on Substack! Come and say hello Helen's Substack, Pencil Pals Katie's Substack, Katiedraws (and writes) (Tania doesn't have one yet, but don't worry... we'll keep peer-pressuring her until she starts one too.) 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 🎙
Jun 21, 2023 · 12 min
Our most weird and wonderful illustration jobs ft. sausages
We’re here to offer no-nonsense advice for illustrators and image-makers navigating a creative career Here are 3 things you need to know: At The Good Ship, our big mission is to help illustrators and image-makers navigate a creative career. There are 3 of us - Tania, Helen and Katie - and we are the Goldilocks (3 bears!) of illustration, covering 3 areas and eras of the industry. We believe your creative work should feel good, make you money, and leave you feeling confident to fly your freak flag! --------------------- In this episode we talk about: Katie somehow stumbling her way from local beer sketching jobs to Google HQ How Helen (almost) became the face of sausages Tania's magical jobs in Hong Kong (feat. Bryan Ferry) 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 🎙
May 6, 2023 · 19 min
Using kids as inspiration for picture book illustration - is it a good idea? - Message in a Bottle
Wahooo, another picture book podcast! The Picture Book Course If you're listening to this and you're interested in making picture books, you've listened at a brilliant time... The Picture Book Course doors are now open!! CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE! It's an eight week course and the cover creating your own picture book. Making your best picture book work ever. We'd love to have you on board :) Read all about the course here. 🚢 🚢 🚢 For this episode we've got three brilliant questions sent for our Message in a Bottle series. This episode's messages in bottles: Is it a good idea to use your own children as inspiration for a picture book? -from Katherine Steel Development work: how do you tackle it? -from Adam Ming Which way should your picture book character face? -from Sandy Thanks for listening! Lots o' love -Good Ship p.s. If you're listening to this later, when the doors are closed, you can join the waiting list and we'd love to have your sailing with us. p.p.s We are doing some extra special pop up Art Clubs this week on Friday! Come along and join in on Instagram. We're @thegoodshipillustration. 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 🎙
Oct 3, 2022 · 55 min
Picture Books, drawing and storytelling: Emma Carlisle chats to The Good Ship Illustration
We had a brilliant chat with Good Ship pal, Emma Carlisle on aaall of the things: The importance of bad drawings Tackling social media as an illustrator Studying an MA in illustration Finding out what you're interested in PICTURE BOOKS! Mental health and creativity Drawing from life and filling sketchbooks Getting discovered ...aaand lots more Meet Emma and learn more about her work here https://www.emmacarlisle.com/ p.s. DOORS ARE OPEN RIGHT NOW to our big juicy Picture Book Course! If you are ready to get your picture book made and out into the world, now's your time! But be quick - doors close on Friday 7th October 2022. Read all about it and join here: https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/PB We'd love to have you sailing with us! x Helen Stephens, Tania Willis & Katie Chappell 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 🎙
Aug 19, 2022 · 28 min
Goal setting for illustrators - Message in a Bottle
In this episode we answer the questions: How do I set goals as an illustrator? Am I allowed to illustrate existing book covers? What makes a "good" illustration? Contracts!? The business side of illustration and design. 🚢🚢🚢 Right now we have two courses, and the doors open again very soon... The Picture Book Course Find out more about The Picture Book Course here! Find Your Creative Voice: Fly Your Freak Flag Find out more about Find Your Creative Voice: Fly Your Freak Flag here! p.s. Got a question for the podcast? You can send your questions to goodshipillo@gmail.com and title it 'message in a bottle' so we know what it's about. 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 🎙
Aug 19, 2022 · 28 min
Analogue vs. digital illustration - Message in a Bottle
In this episode we answer the questions: Analogue vs digital drawing - how to deal with feeling torn between the two How to store your artwork (ahhh that old chestnut) Do I HAVE to work digitally to be a picture book illustrator nowadays? 🚢🚢🚢 Right now we have two courses, and the doors open again very soon... The Picture Book Course Find out more about The Picture Book Course here! Find Your Creative Voice: Fly Your Freak Flag Find out more about Find Your Creative Voice: Fly Your Freak Flag here! p.s. Got a question for the podcast? You can send your questions to goodshipillo@gmail.com and title it 'message in a bottle' so we know what it's about. 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 🎙
Aug 19, 2022 · 50 min
Nightmare clients, good snacks, illustrator fashion and lots more - Message in a Bottle
In this quick fire interview-style episode we answer the questions: What was your most horrific client experience? What's your favourite subject to draw? Favourite snack + subject combo... Most unusual client request? Life drawing: the good, the bad and the ugly. Have you ever gone against some advice and it worked out well? What outfit makes you feel most illustrator-y? PLUS Tania talks about pitching work to clients map work and living in Hong Kong Katie talks about Introvert working / knowing yourself and designing a career you love The joys of SEO (search engine optimisation) Helen talks about Whether there's room for you in the picture book world How to draw out and about #walktosee without being interrupted by well-meaning people 🚢🚢🚢 Right now we have two courses, and the doors open again very soon... The Picture Book Course Find out more about The Picture Book Course here! Find Your Creative Voice: Fly Your Freak Flag Find out more about Find Your Creative Voice: Fly Your Freak Flag here! p.s. Got a question for the podcast? You can send your questions to goodshipillo@gmail.com and title it 'message in a bottle' so we know what it's about. 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 🎙
Aug 19, 2022 · 24 min
Preppin' your illustration portfolio - Message in a Bottle
In this episode we answer all of your portfolio questions: Do I need one!? What to put in your illustration portfolio. How to reach out to potential illustration clients. Should I follow the current illustration trends in my portfolio? 🚢🚢🚢 Right now we have two courses, and the doors open again very soon... The Picture Book Course Find out more about The Picture Book Course here! Find Your Creative Voice: Fly Your Freak Flag Find out more about Find Your Creative Voice: Fly Your Freak Flag here! p.s. Got a question for the podcast? You can send your questions to goodshipillo@gmail.com and title it 'message in a bottle' so we know what it's about. 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 🎙
Aug 19, 2022 · 37 min
Getting started as an illustrator - Message in a Bottle
In this episode we answer the questions: How do I get started as an illustrator (even if you're not a young thing fresh outta art school.) How to get your first big break as an illustrator. Do I need an illustration agent to be successful? 🚢🚢🚢 Right now we have two courses, and the doors open again very soon... The Picture Book Course Find out more about The Picture Book Course here! Find Your Creative Voice: Fly Your Freak Flag Find out more about Find Your Creative Voice: Fly Your Freak Flag here! p.s. Got a question for the podcast? You can send your questions to goodshipillo@gmail.com and title it 'message in a bottle' so we know what it's about. 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 🎙
Aug 19, 2022 · 31 min
Figuring out where YOUR illustration work fits - Message in a Bottle
In this episode we answer the questions: How do I know if I'm an illustrator or not? How to navigate "The Gap" (see quote below!) How to keep the magic and energy in your finished work The Gap “Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.” ― Ira Glass 🚢🚢🚢 Right now we have two courses, and the doors open again very soon... The Picture Book Course Find out more about The Picture Book Course here! Find Your Creative Voice: Fly Your Freak Flag Find out more about Find Your Creative Voice: Fly Your Freak Flag here! p.s. Got a question for the podcast? You can send your questions to goodshipillo@gmail.com and title it 'message in a bottle' so we know what it's about. 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 🎙
Oct 26, 2020 · 19 min
What's Stopping You? Overcoming Imposter Syndrome to Find Your Creative Voice.
In this episode, we talk about imposter syndrome, authenticity, getting excited about your own work, and how to be consistent. Bonus: how to eat an elephant 🚢🚢🚢 Want to be part of an online community, full of fellow creatives? Build your illustration career and make your best creative work ever? It's time to discover how good it feels to truly be yourself in your work! Bask in your weirdness and follow your creative dreams - our course doors open on 30th October for FIND YOUR CREATIVE VOICE: FLY YOUR FREAK FLAG. Find out more and join the waiting list: https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/freakflag Doors open on Friday 30th, and close on the 6th of November, OR when we reach capacity! 🚢🚢🚢 p.s. See you at The Good Ship Art club. Friday 8pm UK time on Instagram. We'll open the doors to the course live. We’re @thegoodshipillustration. 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 🎙
Oct 26, 2020 · 19 min
The Essential Drawing Materials Every Illustrator Needs
Our top tips for choosing the best drawing materials. (Don’t let materials trip you up - they're a distraction) Start where you are, use what you have. Fancy materials can freeze you up / feel like too much pressure Your choice of drawing materials can help you blast through a pesky creative block. Rough and ready! Cheap! Easy to grab! The free audio drawing guide we mention, ‘The Sketchbooker’s Friend’ is here: https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/sketchbookers-friend 🚢🚢🚢 Want to be part of an online community, full of fellow creatives? Build your illustration career and make your best creative work ever? It's time to discover how good it feels to truly be yourself in your work! Bask in your weirdness and follow your creative dreams - our course doors open on 30th October for FIND YOUR CREATIVE VOICE: FLY YOUR FREAK FLAG. Find out more and join the waiting list: https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/freakflag Doors open on Friday 30th, and close on the 6th of November, OR when we reach capacity! 🚢🚢🚢 p.s. See you at The Good Ship Art club. Friday 8pm UK time on Instagram. We'll open the doors to the course live. We’re @thegoodshipillustration. 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 🎙
Oct 26, 2020 · 20 min
Creative Inspiration and Where to Find It
Avoiding the comparison trap In this episode we answer the questions: Is there room for me in the illustration industry? How can I find time to create my work!? 🚢🚢🚢 Want to be part of an online community, full of fellow creatives? Build your illustration career and make your best creative work ever? It's time to discover how good it feels to truly be yourself in your work! Bask in your weirdness and follow your creative dreams - our course doors open on 30th October for FIND YOUR CREATIVE VOICE: FLY YOUR FREAK FLAG. Find out more and join the waiting list: https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/freakflag Doors open on Friday 30th, and close on the 6th of November, OR when we reach capacity! 🚢🚢🚢 p.s. See you at The Good Ship Art club. Friday 8pm UK time on Instagram. We'll open the doors to the course live. We’re @thegoodshipillustration. 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 🎙
Aug 5, 2020 · 38 min
Finding Your Creative Voice with The Good Ship Illustration
This is the first episode of our podcast! Helen Stephens, Tania Willis, and Katie Chappell are the crew at The Good Ship illustration, and this episode is all about getting to know us. Learn more about The Good Ship Illustration and how we each found our creative voices. Grab a cuppa, listen while you draw, and let us know what you think. (Instagram is our favourite place to hang out. We're @thegoodshipillustration) p.s. Our course Find Your Creative Voice: Fly Your Freak Flag is now open for enrollment! Show Notes: Finding your creative voice, standing out from the crowd, building career-longevity, and being yourself. 1. Helen's story Taking a year out from picture book illustration to get back to her own creative voice. 2. Tania's story From fine art to illustration via Hong Kong. 80s corporate imagery, MA at the Royal College. The value of being in a creative community. 3. Katie's story Why getting fired from being an in-house graphic designer/illustrator was the best thing ever. Read more about us all here: https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/About-the-good-ship-illustration Learn More About the FIND YOUR CREATIVE VOICE: FLY YOUR FREAK FLAG course. https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/freakflag (Doors close again on the 7th of August, 10pm UK time) 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 🎙