The Good Ship Illustration

Jo Overend is in da house (ship?)
But first, Illustration Business Club is finally OPEN! It's been over a year since we last flung the doors open and we'd love to have you sailing with us! https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/business
Jo is an author-illustrator, an OG Good Shipper, and the author and illustrator of Megaduck (her debut picture book with Walker Books) 🐥
When Jo started out, she hadn't drawn for 21 years. She posted her drawings anyway, eeeeven the ones she didn't like, and sometimes three to five Instagram posts a day (!!!)
Timestamps:
00:00 – Hello Jo (and Megaduck, in giant cardboard cutout form)
 00:23 – Megaduck's final artwork is done and handed over to Walker Books
 01:03 – Getting final artwork finished alongside full-on childcare
 01:56 – Setting the goal of a full colour dummy for Bologna
 02:57 – Walking into shops with your prints (terrifying!) and taking the wholesale leap
 03:37 – Why rejection is almost never about you
 05:46 – Katie's human design corner: give people something to say yes or no to
 06:10 – Sending Walker seven more book ideas without waiting for a meeting
 07:01 – Posting real things to agents and publishers, and the "is it worth the stamp?" wobble
 09:13 – Why genuine, thoughtful post gets remembered
 10:10 – Agents and publishers actually WANT your follow-up email
 11:42 – Jo's Illustration Business Club experience
 12:23 – Getting stocked in her favourite shop, and growing into wholesale
 13:12 – Community, competitions, and winning the Picture Hooks mentorship (plus a book deal the same week!)
 14:34 – Tania's "friendly stalking" method for finding art directors
 15:50 – "Have we met?" How Jo's postcards got there before she did
 16:57 – Helen's broccoli theory of being seen
 17:25 – The anonymous egg problem, and why a face (or a logo) builds trust
 18:29 – Jo's advice for scared, shy, overwhelmed illustrators
 19:04 – Not drawing for 21 years, then posting 3 to 5 doodles a day
 22:02 – Megaduck news: US in February, UK in March, and Megaduck 2 on the way
 23:07 – Trying all the little things: kids' workshops, wholesale and more
 24:40 – Keep your radar open
 25:16 – Where to find Jo, plus her Substack and Patreon plans

Links mentioned:
• Jo's website: https://www.jooverendillustration.com/
• Jo on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joverendillustration/
• Jo's Substack: https://jooverendillustration.substack.com/
• Megaduck (US edition): https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/835922/megaduck-by-jo-overend-illustrated-by-jo-overend/
• Picture Hooks: https://www.picturehooks.org.uk/
Byeeee for now!
 x The Good Ship Illustration (Helen, Katie & Tania)
 p.s. Soooo much of what Jo talks about here ties in v well with what's inside Illustration Business Club. The doors are open right now and we'd love to have you in there with us! https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/business
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 🎙

Fancy getting into your business car for a bit? Illustration Business Club doors are open until 9th October 2026, and you get lifetime access, so you can go at your own pace (pudding first, broccoli later). We'd love to have you sailing with us https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/business
///
We recorded this podcast LIVE on Instagram on Friday! (So please excuse the audio if it doesn't sound 100%) Anyways, here's the replay. Katie and Helen had a nice 'n' friendly illustration business Q&A, answering your questions as they came flying in. If we missed your question, it's nothing personal! We're doing another live Q&A next Friday too over on our Instagram @thegoodshipillustration so do come along and ask your question again :)  https://www.instagram.com/thegoodshipillustration/
Half-arse is better than no-arse.
Timestamps, for the timestamp fans:
00:00 – Welcome to our live Q&A podcast
 01:50 – Should you keep your children's and grown-up work on separate Instagram accounts?
 03:15 – Illustration Business Club doors, early birds and payment plans
 04:30 – Organising your website when you've got lots of income streams
 05:30 – SEO, long-tail keywords and lying down in the middle of the road
 08:45 – What are publishers looking for in a portfolio?
 12:00 – Do you need a big social media following to get started?
 14:00 – Where to start with licensing
 17:30 – How to say no when friends want you to illustrate their book
 21:45 – Should you approach an agent or go straight to publishers?
 23:30 – Instagram is not your portfolio (and half-arse is better than no arse)
 25:30 – Does business stuff apply to fine art too?
 27:15 – Your creative car and your business car
 30:00 – Working for free, "exposure" and being paid in lobsters
 30:45 – How do you stay invested in a picture book idea all the way through?
 34:00 – Pricey website hosting vs the cheaper option
 35:45 – Dealing with the newbie beginner scaries
 38:00 – When getting paid makes you tighten up
 40:00 – Structuring your days, Helen's birthday card trick and not doing a Father Ted
 43:15 – Do the fun thing first (an idiot with momentum always wins)
Links mentioned:
Illustration Business Club: https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/business
Tania's Good Ship Illustration podcast episode with Margo Tantau on licensing from 2 weeks ago: https://pod.link/1526470404/episode/QnV6enNwcm91dC0xOTgxNTM1Nw
Anchoring Your Ideas So They Don't Fizzle Out (We looked into this and it's inside the Picture Book Course, not a freebie sorry!) https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/PB
Good Ship freebies for picture book makers and illustrators: https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/freebies
Louise Lockhart, The Printed Peanut: https://theprintedpeanut.co.uk/
Jonny Hannah: https://www.instagram.com/darktownresident/
Catherine Rayner: https://www.catherinerayner.co.uk/
Jessica Hische's "Should I Work For Free?" flowchart: https://www.creativebloq.com/news/should-you-work-for-free-jessica-hische
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 back at the kitchen table after the summer holidays, and the doors to Illustration Business Club are officially OPEN! Wahoooo 🎉
A quick catch-up first: Katie trying to not-work for six whole weeks, and Tania's summer spent changing her work on a big museum project. 
Then there's a nice big juicy question from a listener: can you market yourself without social media if you really hate filming yourself? 
Timestamps, for the timestamp fans:
00:00 – Doors are open! IBC, the new 10-pay option and the early bird pricing workshop
 01:15 – Back for autumn: summer holidays, Berlin playgrounds and trying not to work
 02:45 – Tania's summer project and changing her work
 04:15 – Keeping an eye on creative funding locally
 05:30 – Why the Business Course became Illustration Business Club
 06:45 – Key dates: early birds, the introvert-friendly marketing workshop and the 12th October kick-off
 08:00 – What's inside: licensing, rights, extra income streams and expert guests
 09:15 – "What even is live illustration?" and illustration as a business
 11:00 – Listener question: can you market yourself without social media?
 11:45 – Life before Instagram
 13:30 – Tweeting your work vs trudging round art directors
 15:00 – Physical mailers
 16:30 – Why niching down makes marketing (and SEO) soooo much easier
 17:45 – Social media is not a work-getter
 18:45 – Tania's maps: letting the work do the marketing
 20:30 – Good work first, then word of mouth
 22:30 – Speaking your clients' language
 23:30 – SEO for beginners, starring Tania
Links mentioned:
Illustration Business Club: https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/business
The Good Ship on Instagram (for Art Club): https://www.instagram.com/thegoodshipillustration/
Introvert-friendly marketing workshop: https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/shy
Byeeee for now!
x The Good Ship Illustration (Helen, Katie & Tania)
p.s. The Illustration Business Club doors are open now! Join by midday on Wednesday 30th September and you're an early bird, which means you get a seat at our live pricing workshop with all three of us at 1pm that day (it's recorded too). There's a new option to pay in 10 smaller instalments, and the doors close on Friday 9th October at 10pm UK time. 
We'd love to see you in there! 
https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/business
p.p.s. A few dates for your diary:
✏️ Monday 28th September, 12.30pm UK: Art Club, #walktoseeprepare (more page prep, then drawing over the top)
✏️ Monday 5th October, 12.30pm UK: Art Club, starting a brand new #walktosee challenge for October
💌 Wednesday 7th October, 1pm UK: free introvert-friendly marketing workshop, camera off allowed: [NEEDS SIGNUP LINK]
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 🎙

This week our Tania is speaking to the one and only Margo Tantau (the licensing whisperer).
Margo is a good ship Pal, founder of Tantau Studio and you might have heard her on her brilliant podcast Windowsill Chats. Here's a link: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/windowsill-chats/id1529045232 
In this chat, Tania and Margo talk about all the important stuff liiiike:
What is licensing? How do you get paid? Can you REALLY license work you've already made? Margo even shares her secret weapen for getting art directors to fall in love with your work.
Some very good bits too: AI slop is NOT getting in the way of artists with real human hands. Hoorayyyy. That's good news for all of us, eh?
Timestamps, for the timestamp fans:
00:00 – Intro to Margo Tantau and her 360-degree licensing career
 02:30 – Welcome back to the licensing whisperer
 04:00 – Artist, shop owner, buyer, product developer, agent: Margo's done it all
 06:00 – How Lilla Rogers passed the agency baton to Margo
 10:30 – Why relationships are the real gold in licensing
 12:00 – What licensing actually is (from spice labels to Nike)
 13:00 – How you get paid: advances, royalties and typical percentages
 16:00 – Can you licence work you've already made? Yes!
 17:00 – Margo's secret weapon: show your art ON the product
 20:30 – You don't need perfect mock-ups (a drawn teacup works too)
 21:00 – A creative challenge: turn one piece into a mini collection
 23:00 – Is AI hurting licensing? Why Margo's clients say no to AI art
 25:30 – Tania's shock at the AI souvenir flood in Hong Kong
 28:00 – The hand of the artist, texture, and quality signalling
 30:30 – The UK licensing landscape, life after Surtex
 32:30 – A London licensing expo
 36:00 – People buy what they see: Margo's plates, fabrics and jacket stand
 38:00 – The Licensing Lab at Spring Fair
 39:00 – A sneaky tip for finding which exhibitors licence art
 40:30 – Should licensing-curious illustrators go to Spring Fair?
 41:30 – What does a stand actually cost?
 44:30 – Why walking a trade fair beats a day of LinkedIn research
 45:30 – Fancy matchboxes, candles, and buying things just for the art
 46:30 – The big takeaway: people still want real art
 48:30 – Community, Bologna, and the gold at the bottom of the rainbow

Links mentioned:
Margo's website: https://margotantau.com/
Tantau Studio: https://www.tantaustudio.com/
Windowsill Chats podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/windowsill-chats/id1529045232
Windowsill Chats on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/windowsillchats
Spring Fair (NEC Birmingham, 7th to 10th February 2027): https://www.springfair.com

Byeeee for now!
x The Good Ship Illustration (Helen, Katie & Tania)
p.s. Want Margo's full licensing class? It's waiting for you inside Illustration Business Club, along with aaall the other money-and-business bits art school forgot to teach you. 
Doors open on 25th of September 2026! https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/business
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 Carly Kuhn, a US-based illustrator, artist and author who ended up in illustration kindofbyaccident. She grew up in New York wanting to do TV comedy, worked at a Hollywood talent agency, took improv classes at The Groundlings, and started drawing on printer paper nicked from the office, just as something creative to do after work. Then Sarah Jessica Parker reposted one of her drawings (!!) and - you'll have to listen to the episode to find out what happens next 🤪
Carly has had NO formal art or illustration training, which is exactly why we wanted to speak to her. We chat about finding your style by making loads of wonky work, why she wasn't ready for an agent for ages, and some pricing stuff about usage/contracts/licensing an' that.
There's also chat about wallpaper, multiple creative income streams, and how becoming a mum did not end her career (woohoo!) 
Timestamps, for the timestamp fans:
00:00 – Intro to Carly and her very wiggly path 
02:00 – TV comedy, improv, and how the drawing started 
06:30 – Improv 
08:00 – Sarah Jessica Parker reposts a drawing 
10:30 – Going full-time - pricing is completely made up 
14:30 – No art school
16:00 – Naivety as a superpower, and posting every day 
19:00 – Live illustration, fancy parties, and the first wallpaper job 
23:30 – Lockdown portraits, moving cities, becoming a mum 
26:00 – Getting an agent
31:00 – Pricing, usage, and being a people-pleaser who has to negotiate 
38:00 – Accidentally building lots of income streams 
42:00 – How motherhood focused her career 
49:00 – Character Study, and how bonkers publishing timelines are 
52:00 – You really don't have to go to art school!
Links mentioned:
• Carly's website: https://www.carlykuhn.com/
• Carly on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carlykuhn/
• Carly's Substack, The Cartelier: https://carlykuhn.substack.com/
• Carly's new book, Character Study: Observations from a Very Curious Artist: https://www.carlykuhn.com/books
Byeeee for now!
x The Good Ship Illustration (Helen, Katie & Tania)
p.s. If the pricing and usage chat made your ears prick up, we are planning a v exciting early-bird bonus for Illustration Business Club joiners. Doors open on Friday 25th September. Pop it on your calendar! 🥳
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 🎙