“Do I Have to Pick One Style Forever?! (Part 1)” with Chris Haughton
How do you make picture books if you secretly hate writing? Can you REALLY just punch holes in a bit of paper and call it a finished illustration?! 👀This week we’ve got a proper treat for you. This is part 1 of our chat with illustrator and picture book maker Chris Haughton! (Katie wasn’t there, but Helen and Tania held the fort and asked him all the juicy questions.)Chris shares his brilliantly wonky career path from graphic design to editorial, picture books and his latest deep dive into the History of Information. A total freak-flag project that he's been obsessed with for nearly 20 years.Chris tells Good Ship:How he ended up with a wildly colourful, unmistakable illustration style, even though he "couldn't do colour"How 10 years of editorial work shaped his picture book voiceWhat hiding Mummy Owl in a picture taught him about storytellingWhy your first sketch is usually the best oneDrawing peas and chopsticks with hole-punch confetti (amazin')🚨 This is just Part 1! Subscribe so you don’t miss Part 2. Part 2 will be released next week (on Friday 25th July.)Timestamps:00:00 - Intro from Katie, Helen & Tania01:00 - Chris introduces himself and how his style evolved05:30 - The origin of A Bit Lost and hiding things in the background08:00 - How a greetings card turned into a picture book idea10:00 - Chris' obsession with the History of Information14:00 - Drawing as a form of information technology 17:00 - Chris’s brief stint as a live scribe (!!)21:00 - Publishing headaches when your audience is "everyone"24:00 - Finding your style vs getting stuck in a style27:00 - Undo button = illustrator superpower31:00 - Hole-punched peasLinks an' stuff we mentioned:Chris Haughton's website: https://chrishaughton.comThe History of Information, Chris Haughton's bookHistory of Information lectures from UC Berkeley shared here via InfocoBuildFind Your Creative Voice, Fly Your Freak Flag course from The Good Ship IllustrationKatie’s Live Illustration courseByeeee for now!x The Good Ship Illustration (Helen, Katie & Tania)Come and say hello! ✏️ @thegoodshipillustration🌏 www.thegoodshipillustration.comp.s. We love answering your illustration questions. Click here to submit your question for The Good Ship Illustration Podcast 🎙
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START HERE - Welcome to The Good Ship Illustration Podcast! (Here's our trailer) 🚢🚢🚢
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)🚢🚢🚢Come and say hello! ✏️ @thegoodshipillustration🌏 www.thegoodshipillustration.comp.s. We love answering your illustration questions. Click here to submit your question for The Good Ship Illustration Podcast 🎙
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You don’t have to draw everything (even in picture books)
Emily asked us why backgrounds can be so overwhelming. So in this episode, we share lots of low-pressure ideas to make them doable (maybeee even fun).Please enjoy Tania nearly falling asleep under a weighted blanket 🤣Podcast Episode Highlights:How to stop overthinking itColour tips and some good stuff Chris Haughton taught us NO ZOOMING IN ALLOWED 😠 John BurninghamOld Lady Baby(rough) Timestamps: 00:00 – Emily’s question: “Backgrounds scare me – help!” 01:00 – The Chris Haughton breakthrough about colour03:00 – Tonal tips: how to make your characters stand out 04:00 – Thin lines, wobbly pens, and keeping backgrounds soft 06:00 – The menace of digital zoom 😬 07:00 – Backgrounds = hints, not homework 08:00 – John Burningham, cut-out characters and painterly skies 10:00 – Embracing imperfection and storytelling over polish 11:00 – Blindboy’s advice: fail on purpose 13:00 – Art Club, recycled drawings, and happy accidents 14:00 – Upcoming Art Club news & picture book course teaser 15:00 – Weighted blankets, fancy deodorant, and Aesop air freshener 😌Links & stuff:The Picture book course details: www.thegoodshipillustration.com/pbMake sure you're getting our emails for Art Club invites: Scroll to the bottom hereBye bye bye x The Good Ship Illustration (Helen, Katie & Tania) Come and say hello! ✏️ @thegoodshipillustration🌏 www.thegoodshipillustration.comp.s. We love answering your illustration questions. Click here to submit your question for The Good Ship Illustration Podcast 🎙
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💰 How to protect your time, energy and income as an illustrator
“Can you just do it for free?” NO. In this week’s episode, we’re talking about working for free, how to say no without guilt, and why having nice strong boundaries won't ruin your career (we promise). Tania shares a BRILLIANT script for saying no to unpaid work. Thank you Taniasan, we luv ya.Other good bits of note:How to stop feeling bad about saying no to cheeky requestsHow charity auctions can be a smarter way to give backFree pitching: where to draw the lineThat time Katie backtracked on a call (and the world didn't end)What to say when a client demands an answer right nowwwwThe biggest myth of all: “If you say no, they’ll never ask again”Timestamps: 00:00 – Biscuits first. We have our priorities in order 🤣 01:00 – “How do I say no to free work… nicely?” 02:30 – Quotas, boundaries, and rude assumptions 04:00 – Saying no to friends and students 06:00 – Turning FAQs into blog content 07:00 – A better way to support charities (without giving away your time) 08:00 – “I used to worry people wouldn’t like me if I said no…” 10:00 – Paid development work in picture books: what’s normal? 12:00 – The pitch trap and how to avoid it 13:00 – Katie’s mural pricing wobble (and recovery!) 14:00 – The power of taking your time to decide 15:00 – You’re not being too picky. You’re just not people-pleasing anymore! 16:00 – On "playing": why your language mattersOh! While you're here...You can join the Picture Book course here: https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/PBTaraaa, x Good ShipCome and say hello! ✏️ @thegoodshipillustration🌏 www.thegoodshipillustration.comp.s. We love answering your illustration questions. Click here to submit your question for The Good Ship Illustration Podcast 🎙
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Is this normal in publishing… or am I being taken for a mug?
When your project goes a bit pear-shaped you might wonder if that’s just how the illustration industry is.Well, this week we’re talking all about what's good, bad, and normal... and whether there are red flags you should look out for in your illustrator-publisher relationship.Highlights:Why it's never okay to get feedback on a Friday and be asked for a full redraw by Monday 🙃What’s typical in the picture book process (roughs, colour roughs, final art, etc)When changes are fine… and when they’re totally out of orderHow to set better boundaries (and how to stick to them)Our own early-illustration-career experiences, and what we'd do differently nowTimestamps: 00:00 – Is this normal? A horror story from an illustrator 02:00 – Unrealistic deadlines & being pressured to work weekends 05:00 – When publishers ignore your roughs completely 06:30 – What a healthy picture book workflow looks like 09:00 – Final artwork and why changing it is a big deal 12:00 – Bologna book fair: what gets shown 14:30 – When you can trust your publisher/designer (and when you really can’t) 16:00 – Agents behaving badly 20:00 – Why this doesn’t mean all of publishing is bad! #NotAllPublishersLinks an' thatOur picture book course doors are opening SOON! Keep yer eyes peeled and grab the freeebies here: https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/PBGot a question? Send it our way and we might answer it in a future episode!Bye for now! x The Good Ship Illustration (Helen, Katie & Tania) Come and say hello! ✏️ @thegoodshipillustration🌏 www.thegoodshipillustration.comp.s. We love answering your illustration questions. Click here to submit your question for The Good Ship Illustration Podcast 🎙
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)🚢🚢🚢
Netherlands