The Good Ship Illustration

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 🎙