Ever worried your work looks a bit too much like somebody else’s? 😬 This one’s for youuuu.

In this episode, our Helen chats with the brilliant Martin Salisbury about plagiarism. The temptation to borrow a bit too heavily when you’re surrounded by endless beautiful work online is real. Hopefully this conversation helps you fly your own freak flag :)

Timestamps:

00:00 Hello Martin Salisbury
01:00 Instagram has changed creative influence
03:00 Art school before the internet
04:00 Drawing from life and finding your voice
06:00 Start with drawing
07:00 Materials, experimentation and “botching it”
09:00 How publishers and agents fuel sameness
10:00 Confidence, privilege and access
12:00 Competitions rewarding over-influenced work
14:00 Imitation and lack of awareness
16:00 Copycat styles
18:00 Learning from artists without copying
19:00 Taste, culture and creative voice
20:00 Everyday life and visual language
21:00 Sketchbooks and what’s behind polished work
23:00 School art and loss of originality
26:00 Finding your voice matters
29:00 Awkward work feels more alive
30:00 Writing and drawing from your own ideas
31:00 Trends and short-lived careers
33:00 What publishers want
35:00 Ambition
38:00 Helen’s journey and taking time out
43:00 Place and lived experience in your work
44:00 Moving on from imitation
45:00 Martin’s upcoming book

Martin Salisbury is Professor of Illustration at the Cambridge School of Art, where he leads the renowned MA Children's Book Illustration Programme. He has previously chaired the International Jury at the Bologna Children's Book Fair, and been a member of the jury at the Global Illustration Awards in China. Mr Salisbury is the author of a number of books on the practice and theory of illustration, which have been published in numerous languages around the world.

Links mentioned in this episode:

Martin Salisbury on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/profmartinsalisbury/

Cambridge School of Art MA in Children’s Book Illustration

Martin’s book Illustrator Sketchbooks

Martin’s books Children’s Picturebooks and Play Pen

Find Your Creative Voice: Fly Your Freak Flag with The Good Ship Illustration

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 🎙

Absolutely knackered just thinking about Bologna? Same 😅

Here are our Bologna Children’s Book Fair survival tips. Whether it's your first time or you're a seasoned Bologna Book Fair-er.

Exciting news: The Good Ship Illustration is exhibiting this year in Hall 25, and we’d love to see you there!

This episode:

• What even IS the Bologna Children’s Book Fair?
• Whether you reeeally need to go
• The biggest benefits of visiting
• What to pack, what samples to take, and how to prepare well
• How to manage your expectations / social battery / overwhelm
• The best bits beyond the fair itself, including food, bookshops and wandering round Bologna
• Following up afterwards and making the most of the contacts you make

Timestamps:

• 00:00 Intro, replay announcement, and come find us in Hall 25!
• 01:00 What is the Bologna Children’s Book Fair?
• 03:00 Should you go?
• 05:00 Benefits of visiting the fair
• 06:00 Talks, workshops and folio reviews
• 07:00 Bologna itself, food, sunshine and bookshops
• 08:00 The illustrator’s wall and what to stick on it
• 09:00 Accommodation tips and booking early
• 11:00 Tickets, discounts and Good Ship lanyards
• 12:00 Managing expectations and not turning it into a military operation
• 16:00 What to prepare and what samples to take
• 19:00 Dummy books, sketchbooks and standing out
• 20:00 The Bologna Illustrators Exhibition
• 22:00 Feeling overwhelmed, comparitis and pacing yourself
• 25:00 Practical survival tips, from snacks to spare batteries
• 28:00 Why the last day can be surprisingly good
• 29:00 Rest, museums, gelato and giving yourself permission not to do it all
• 30:00 Following up after the fair
• 31:00 Final tips, meetups and lanyard spotting

Links mentioned in this episode:

• Download and print your Bologna lanyard here!!
• Bologna Children’s Book Fair website
• Illustrator Survival Corner
• Inuit bookshop, Bologna

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, our Katie is chatting to Carys Wright - a London-based writer and illustrator, hardcore Good Shipper, and all-round excellent example of what can happen when you follow the creative thread, even if your path looks a bit wiggly.

Carys went from acting and theatre into illustration, and we chat about how sketchbooking helped her find her creative voice, and what it’s looked like to keep building an illustration career alongside marketing work and baby. (No mean feat!)

There’s chat about markets, picture books, digital vs traditional materials and finding your way back to your own weirdness. Mmmm.

Timestamps, for the timestamp fans:

00:00 – Intro to Carys Wright and her creative journey so far
02:00 – Sketchbooks, childhood drawing, and getting back into a regular practice
04:30 – From acting and theatre to illustration
07:30 – Lockdown, Fly Your Freak Flag, and following the drawing thread properly
09:00 – Early illustration jobs, theatre clients, and picture book ambitions
10:30 – Mentoring, competitions, and building confidence through deadlines
11:30 – Illustrating her first book for the Lord Mayor of London
12:30 – Motherhood, maternity leave, and drawing with a baby in the background
16:00 – Portfolios, perfectionism, and letting things evolve
18:00 – Staying connected to your weirdness while doing client work
19:30 – Digital tools, Procreate, and not panicking about how you make the work
23:00 – Opening an online shop, doing markets, and live portraits
26:00 – Other ways illustrators can work, from events to corporate projects
28:00 – AI, humanity, and why weird human imagination still matters
30:30 – Wearing lots of creative hats and letting your interests overlap
33:00 – Coming to illustration later can actually be a strength
35:00 – It’s not too late, you’re not behind, and yes, you should still start

Links mentioned:

• Carys’ website: https://www.caryswright.com/
• Carys on Instagram: @carys_adventures_with_a_pen
• Carys’ Substack, Adventures with a Pen: https://adventureswithapen.substack.com/

Byeeee for now!

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

p.s. Want to find your creative voice too? Come and fly your freak flag with Good Ship. We'd love to have you sailing with us!

Read all about the course 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 🎙

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 in
• Why pitching can feel so scary
• The real reason people don’t hear back. (And nooo, it’s not because they hate you)
• Why one email is basically just saying hello
• How 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/m0elc4qip7
• The 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 🎙

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 🎙

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 🎙

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 🎙

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 is
• The “apple test” 🍎
• Emotional memory vs visual memory
• Why some creatives need reference and others work 100% from imagination
• Whether Google has made our “mind palace” lazy
• Not being able to picture things can be a creative advantage. We promise.
• Smells, textures, music and sensory imagination
• Synesthesia (colours for days of the week?)
• Why your wobbly memory-bike drawing might be better than a perfect diagram
• How imagination changes from childhood to adulthood
• Blind drawing experiments we neeeeed to try at Art Club

Timestamps 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 🎙