Keep-fit cuppas

Podcast news

Oh hi! Yesterday I woke up with a bit of a sore throat, but being the absolute trooper that I am, I spent the morning scanning some rough drawings. I know, I am an inspiration.

What else is new old? We visited a reclamation yard to find some nice old kitchen chairs. We have noticed that as we are doing up this old house it is way too easy to buy new stuff. Quick online shop, done. Tick. We have always been thrifters and skip divers, but recently we have been seduced by how easy it is to search ‘bench 110cm’ and have Google throw some benches at our faces. But we are missing the mismatched-make-do-and-mend vibes. So we are putting in more effort to visit junk shops and reclamation yards. It takes longer to find just what we are looking for, but it will be worth the wait.

P.S. We didn’t find any nice old mismatched - but ‘hang together nicely’ dining chairs, the search goes on.

Hollyrood Salvage in Edinburgh

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SCBWI Conference (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators)

Last weekend I was Illustration keynote speaker at the SCBWI conference in London. What a treat to be asked. Thanks SCBWI. I met lots of Good Ship sailors, caught up with some old friends and made some new friendships. Happy sigh. What an inspiring day: food/fuel (arg grasping for the word) for the eyes and soul and brain. If you didn’t make it to the conference, don’t worry, I will do my talk again on a live Zoom before Christmas. Sign up for our Good Ship news here, we’ll keep you posted:

The Author keynote speaker was the brilliant Children’s Laureate: Joseph Coelho, which was very exciting because I illustrated one of his Ten Word Tiny Tales a couple of years ago and we had a quick chat about that. The tale was this: “Let me in’, she said outside my tenth story window.’ I based my illustration on a recurring childhood dream of wolves floating at my window. You can read more about that here.

Joseph, the Tiny Tale illustration, a sketch of the dream

I also ran the Character Workshop that we do at the Good Ship Art Club sometimes. It involves some quick fire drawing tasks against the clock that stop us overthinking and procrastinating. I explained that it’s a fun low pressure way to avoid annoying perfectionist tendencies and create a character quickly and easily. Bosh, bash, bosh, done! I didn’t realise that there were lots of authors in the crowd, authors who don’t usually draw. One man stopped me mid drawing prompt to say he had never been so terrified in all his life. Ha! Let’s hope it was the kind of scared that felt good afterwards. I’m sure it was.

If you’d like to do the Character Workshop, here is one Tania, Katie and I recorded together:

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A couple of Podcasts

The Good Ship Illustration podcast has a new intro jingley thing, and there’s big news: we are now a weekly podcast! Thursday’s episode got a whopping 600 downloads in the first 4 hours, that is mind blowing! In this episode, we talk about our daily routines as illustrators, what’s for dinner and keep-fit cups of tea.

I listened to this episode of Not For Everyone about setting boundaries with friends and family. I discovered this podcast after watching one of the presenters; Caroline Winkler on her sassy, bossy, hilarious interior design YouTube channel. Let me see, where should you start? How about Clean or be Slapped or Interior Design Tips for Hot Sexy Batchelors.

How has your week been? Seen any nice old dining chairs anywhere? Have you listened to any Good Ship podcasts recently, any favourites?

Love Helenx