The business knowledge and skills you need to succeed in the illustration industry.
*Shoulder pads optional*
What to expect from the Business Course
It's time for you to thrive as an Illustrator!
The Good Ship Business Course is here by popular demand.
We've poured all of our business brains into this course so that you can be armed with the knowledge and skills to succeed in the illustration industry.
How Good Ship is Different
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We actually DO the stuff we talk about in the course. All three of us (Helen, Katie & Tania) are full-time illustrators, supporting our families with our creative work. Illustration isn't a cute hobby for us. It's a profitable, professional & respectable career.
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Lifetime access means you can keep coming back to the course when you need us, and there's no such thing as behind.
- We genuinely want you to succeed! Nothing gets us more excited than seeing you smash your freelance illustration goals. When we say we're cheering you on, we mean it!
Business, but make it fun & easy
We're bringing you the exclusive, behind-the-scenes business advice that we *WISH* we'd learned about sooner.
And we've packaged it up in a way that works for smart creative brains like yours.
For some of the more niche business expertise, we called on some of our most trusted, award-winning & expert Good Ship pals to give you the most in-depth, encouraging and valuable experience possible.
*announcing*
Exclusive Interviews with International Award-Winning Creative Industry & Business Professionals
EMMA CARLISLE
Artist, illustrator & picture book maker. Emma also lectures in illustration and is a self-confessed sketchbook enthusiast.
GEORGIA NORTON (aka GeorgiaDrawsaHouse)
Graphic design agency owner & illustrator who started her business from her Mum's living room. Georgia's clients include Amazon Prime, Google & lots more.
HADLEY PAPER GOODS
A thriving UK-based stationery brand creating unique eco-friendly greeting cards and other paper products.
EMMA BLOCK
Illustrator and best-selling author, working across publishing, editorial illustration, licensing, packaging and branding.
TAARYN BRENCH
A one-woman creative studio and independent designer with a flair for branding, marketing and selling illustrated products at fairs.
LAWRENCE ZEEGEN
Professor and lecturer in illustration and design, Lawrence is the author of many books, including The Fundamentals of Illustration and Digital Illustration
SARAH ARCHARD
Founder of Essay Studio, providing design and consultancy. (We picked her brains about website design for illustrators.)
LIZ MOSLEY
Liz is a branding expert & podcast host who helps small businesses feel way more confident promoting what they do.
CLARE YUILLE - INDIE RETAIL ACADEMY
Helping creatives and makers learn to sell their work to independent stores.
ALICE BENHAM
Business strategist here to help you build a strategy, get clarity and take action. Alice is also a speaker and podcast host.
MENEKSE STEWART
An award-winning AI & marketing specialist, with an incredible knack for making SEO totally doable (and maybe even fun 👀)
PICTURE BOOK AGENT - JESSICA HARE
An agent representing established and emerging children’s book authors and illustrators, Jessica runs the Children's Books department at The Agency.
MARLOES DE VRIES
Illustrator, writer and artist. Marloes works with book publishers and magazines, and creates landscape paintings.
SARA TASKER
One of the UK's leading online business and Instagram experts. Sara is a photographer, writer & creative business coach (& Substack nerd <-- her words, not ours!)
SARAH DYER
Award-winning picture book maker and illustrator. Sarah also runs a Patreon, lectures in illustration and does school visits.
& MORE!
We're always adding new bits to the course, and lifetime access means that you'll get that good stuff TOO!
Life as a freelance illustrator & creative business owner can be A LOT.
We're here to demystify the mysterious bits, translate the what-does-that-even-MEAN business words and turn mountains of thick, so-boring-you-can't-read-them books into practical, fun stuff you can get excited about and actually use!
This course is for you if you'd like to make more money from your creative work, no matter what stage you're at in your creative career.
Let's go! 🚢
Right, Good Ship.
What's the Plan?
Joining a course is a BIG DEAL. It's an investment in yourself and your future creative career so you want to make a good choice.
We get it.
You want to know what you're getting yourself into - so here it is!
This course will cover:
- Figuring out where you are right now, and where you want to go.
- How to get more clients, (especially more of the work you love doing) and aaall things marketing, minus the gross salesy stuff - no-cheesey-self-promotion here, nope nope nope.
Just illustration work that feels authentic to you, *and* encourages your dream-clients to hop into your inbox shouting
'TAKE MY MONEY, HOW CAN I WORK WITH YOU!?'.
- Money 💸💸💸
Knowing what to charge, quoting confidently, dealing with the potential 'ick-factor of sales, money mindset and putting the starving artist stuff where it belongs (in the bin, of course). - Organisation and admin
Everything you need to know to make sure you're doing an amazin' job of the admin bits so that all of your clients are over-the-moon clients. Disorganised chaos? We don't know her. **pushes glasses up nose** - Looking after yourself
Your body, your mind, the most important thing!
YOU are the golden goose, my friend. No you = no illustration business. - Additional revenue streams. Let's layer in some more money-making bits and pieces to smooth out the curves, and protect future-you from whatever life throws at you.
Anna Simmons
"It's amazing to be able to talk to other illustrators off the record while navigating client stuff."
Johanna Gousset
"I was worried that the course was going to be targeting beginners and Art School graduates...
but I was wrong!"
Fi McCurdy
"I feel like I have the Good Ship in my corner to back me up now. I definitely recommend the course."
Here's what you get inside the course
Practical Tools
📃 Printables,
🎬 Videos,
🔈 Audio-only files so you can listen while you draw
(all with closed captions for accessibility)
Plus, templates & swipe files to help you rapidly supercharge your illustration business skills.
Community & Accountability
You don't need to go it alone!
Mastermind with other ambitious illustrators and get support with your big goals. It's a Good Ship boost of energy and confidence.
**NEW** we now have an accountability buddy system. Work through the course with a Good Ship pal.
Live Q&A Calls
You'll also get three 45-minute live calls in weeks one, four and eight. 🤩
Bring your questions and we'll get 'em answered.
All of our live calls are recorded and replays are available.
Lifetime access means that you'll get invited to ALL future live calls too.
Is the Business Course right for picture book makers?
If you’re a picture book person and you’re making plenty of money 💰💰💰, you probably don’t need this course.
But... if your advances aren’t earning you enough, and/or you want to expand or move into other areas, we talk about lots of other sidelines like...
🚢 Cards & prints
🚢 Wholesale
🚢 Licensing
🚢 Websites
🚢 SEO (search engine optimisation)
🚢 Substack and lots more
We also delve into finding picture book agents, what agents do, if you can manage without an agent (yes, you can), how to find a publisher, and all that juicy stuff.
If you are a picture book maker and have an agent, remember no one is as ambitious for you as you are. There’s still lots you can do to increase your income.
Are these freelance illustration gremlins keeping you awake at night?
- Marketing and self-promotion feels gross, and pointless! I’m shouting into the void, here.
- I'm starting to feel like it's not even *possible* to make decent money from my illustration work.
- I'm getting work, but AGH, HELP, I AM WORKING TOO MUCH. How do I carry on earning enough money without burning myself out?
- I'm not cut out for this feast or famine thing. How do I smooth out my income and get off this financial rollercoaster?
- I know my portfolio needs updated but it always ends up last on my list…And don’t talk to me about my website 👀
- I see other illustrators getting consistent work with dreamy clients...how do they do it?
What am I doing wrong? - This illustration business stuff feels like a dark and mysterious art they forgot to teach me about.
- …when I DO get a job enquiry, I freak out and have no idea what to charge. I don’t want to undercharge, but then again I don’t want to OVERcharge and scare away the potential client. And what if that was my last ever enquiry!? I don't want to blow it.
- How on earth am I supposed to get everything done, stay organised, keep my clients happy and have a life all at the same time?
- I'm totally and utterly overwhelmed with all of the things I should be doing, so I end up doing nothing.
You're not alone!
WARNING:
The Business Course has serious side effects...
⚡️ Confidence
In your abilities, in your pricing, in your creative business PROWESS.
Business knowledge + confidence = unstoppable creative career goodness.
With a clear roadmap and an online community of creative business pals you'll feel more confident than you have in years.
🧠 Illustration business know-how
The business of illustration can seem mysterious and secretive. Not anymore! With handy templates, printables, examples and videos we are here to demystify and jazz up the boring bits.
Knowing your worth 💰
It's about time you made more money doing what you love.
Knowing your value is one thing, learning to communicate your value to your clients is gold dust!
And we'll help you do just that.
Make more money from your illustration work, feel organised, and enjoy a nice steady stream of dream clients and projects.
Pay in Full
£495
Business course goodness, Good Ship stylee
5-pay
£99 x 5
Spread the cost over 5 monthly payments
Ellie G
Despite being in my mid Forties, I'm so excited for what’s to come. And it really is all thanks to your fabulous courses, words of encouragement and myth busting advice that I made it to this point. Thank you!
May god bless the Good Ship, and all who sail in her!
Lauriane N
The quality of your courses has blown my socks off!
The three of you hold the space so well and your individual strengths and support comes through so clearly.
Louise B
I've never felt like I belong in a course until now. With other courses, I've always given up part way through.
But I can see that won't happen this time because you are so real.
Thank you!
You CAN be successful as an illustrator.
It's all learnable stuff.
It's not just luck and good vibes.
(Although those are nice too.)
We'll teach you the stuff they forgot to mention about, y'know...actually making some money from your work 😅
You’re a smart creative brain so you already KNOW that there are two sides to this thriving-as-an-illustrator thing
We’ve been thinking of it as two cars.
Bear with us and buckle in for our creative-business cars analogy… it’s good, we promise 😂
🚘 Car 1: This is your CREATIVE car - when you’re driving this one, you’re making your best creative work. Flying your freak flag! Basking in your weirdness! Drawing drawing drawing, then drawing some more. Flexing your art muscles.
And then there’s…
🚖Car 2: Your BUSINESS car. (Ooooh). Driving this car = getting your work out into the world, attracting dream illustration clients/publishers, having your head screwed on for the contracts, invoices etc. working on your mindset stuff, setting goals and being an organised illustrator making good money from your work.
Let’s imagine you have been driving car #1, that creative car of yours for a while now, maybe you’ve been filling sketchbooks and you feel like your artwork is looking A-MAZ-ING.
“Umm, hello? MY WORK LOOKS GREAT, WHY IS NOBODY HIRING ME?”
You’ve just been spending a lot of time in car #1. It’s ok.
Come with us **un-plugging your seatbelt**
It’s time to get out of the creative car, and rev up your business car.
Anyways, back to the cars.
Jump out of your creative car, drive your business car forward, hop back in the other car and move that forward, then back to the other car again. Art, business, art, business. You get the idea.
OK, the car analogy is rubbish. We need a better analogy 🤪
As creatives who sell their work, we need to keep each skill set shiny and new.
There’s more to it than just being great at what you do.
You can be the BEST illustrator in the world, but if your business car is in the garage, chances are you’re not making as much money from your creative work as you’d like.
- What if that dream client comes along, but you don’t know what to charge?
- How do you even get your dream clients?
- Who would your dream clients be?
There will be 3 live Q&A calls for this live round. We've popped the call schedule at the very bottom of this page if you want to mark your calendar now.
And now you can join from £99 because we’ve just introduced our most affordable spread-the-cost-option ever.
[The Business Course] is like a present to yourself to help you get where you want to go.
"If you're considering joining, just do it!"
- Jo Overend
@jooverendillustration
Accountability, structure, & no-nonsense advice to help you build your illustration career
Join over 400 other students who've loved the business course.
Doors now closed - join the waiting list here!
The Business Course Manifesto
At The Good Ship Illustration, nothing makes us happier than seeing illustrators growing in confidence, feeling proud of their work, and earning a decent living from what they do (while still enjoying their life and having freedom, time off and fun).
We're all about
- Earning a decent income
- Understanding contracts and licensing stuff
- Confidently negotiating and quoting prices that reflect the value of your work
- Seeing yourself as a business owner, not just a freelancer
- Taking your creative work, and your illustration career seriously and investing in yourself
and most importantly... - Looking after yourself along the way. YOU are your illustration career's most important asset
Enjoy being an illustrator again!
The Good Ship Illustration offers no-nonsense advice for illustrators and image makers navigating a creative career.
At The Good Ship Illustration we believe your creative work should...
- Feel good
- Make you a decent living
- And leave you feeling confident to fly your (well-paid) freak flag 💸
And you don't need to do it alone. Our online community is one of the friendliest, most supportive bits of the internet. It's FULL of illustrators at all stages of their creative careers.
Between us we've clocked up over 60 year of illustration industry experience and we're here to share is as generously as we can.
Over 4000 students have trusted us to help them find their creative voice and create their best ever picture books. Not to mention the tens of thousands of people who’ve come along to our free Art Club sessions, and downloaded our helpful freebies.
Students from our courses go on to:
- Get publishing deals
- Make their best work
- Win fancy awards
- Take part in exhibitions
- Feel confident in their creative work
- Enjoy being an illustrator again
Let's put the starving artist myth where it belongs
(in the bin)
OK, so who's teaching this Business Course, anyway?
Katie Chappell
"I'm a live event illustration specialist, but our Tania recently also called me a 'new media expert.' So we'll go with that - it sounds fancier.
I've live illustrated for companies like Adobe, Google, Meta, Netflix, and Apple.
After a few false starts, I've grown my illustration freelancing into an agency. Now, I work as part of a brilliant team, and I still pinch myself every day that it's not just me anymore!
Learning everything the hard way is my style, and I hope that emptying my brain into this Business Course means fewer illustrators will have to figure it out the way I did - chronically undercharging and trying to please everyone! (I don't recommend it. 😅)
Before we started The Good Ship Illustration, I lectured in illustration up to Masters level for a couple of years, and I'm also a creative business mentor for The British Library.
Fun facts:
🚢 I’m an accidental TedX speaker.
🚢 As a child I spent a LOT of time writing backwards, so I'm now a backwards mirror writing expert.
🚢 In 2022, I had a daughter - so if you need me, I’m probably at the park or examining small rocks with her."
Tania Willis
"As the oldest and grizzliest of the Three Bears, I've been illustrating for 35 years, 25 of them in Hong Kong. I have built a global client list and won some awards.
I've lectured in illustration at the BA level in the UK (where I met Helen at Glasgow School of Art), Hong Kong, and at the BFA level in American colleges.
To my surprise, I realised I loved teaching the business of illustration and empowering young illustrators to know their value—just as much as I enjoy teaching the creative side.
I learned on the job by saying yes to almost every type of illustration commission in every area: editorial, design, advertising, event illustration, murals, licensing, branding… even banknote design! Now, I've found my comfy place in illustrated mapmaking, which means I still get to work with lots of different types of clients.
Fun Facts:
🚢 I'm compelled to straighten wonky pictures. I can't help myself. I do it everywhere; in restaurants, mid-meal, etc. I'd even do it if you took me to your mum's house.
🚢 I'd outlaw a particular shade of purple (you know the one).
🚢 I like nerding out on contracts and licences”
Helen Stephens
“Hi, Helen here! I’ve been writing and illustrating picture books for over 25 years and am probably best known for my How to Hide a Lion series, which has become known as "an international bestselling classic" (so that’s nice).
My books have been published in about 30 languages, and clients include Walker Books, Random House, Scholastic, Macmillan, Penguin and many more.
I taught at the acclaimed Cambridge School of Art MA in Illustrating for Children and mentored graduate illustrators on the Picture Hooks Scheme.
I write on Substack as Pencil Pals, which was picked up and featured by Substack and won the best-seller badge.
I started the #walktosee hashtag on Instagram to celebrate drawings made in a sketchbook. It has 100K+ contributions so far. Join in!
I have had two agents in my career, and for a long time, I represented myself, which made me an expert at negotiating publishing deals and reading contracts.
Fun facts:
🚢 Good Ship Tania was my tutor at Glasgow School of Art.
🚢 Being a freelancer is the best, all those afternoon naps!
🚢 My favourite book review came from Maya, age 6: “You make books less boring... by the way, you are the best author in the world. I’m six, I forgot to say that.”
Kind words from happy sailors 🥳
FAQs
(Excellent questions we've been asked so far)
When are the live sessions?
Will you cover legal stuff like contracts?
Can you tell me what to charge for this specific illustration comission I've got?
What does the course cover?
How much 1:1 tuition and feedback is there?
I'm a newbie, is this course for me?
Not a beginner: I've been illustrating for YEARS, is this course for me?
I'm not based in the UK 🌎 - how relevant is The Business Course for me?
How much time will I need to dedicate to the course?
Will there be a chance to meet my Business Course pals?
Is the business course right for picture book makers?
My question isn't here!
This is for you if:
- You can afford the course and joining won't put you into financial hardship
- You honour and respect boundaries
- You're 100% committed to doing the work and taking full responsibility for your own success 🥳
This is NOT for you if:
- You need 1:1 help, advice and feedback - there will not be any one-to-one teaching, as this is a group course. We do encourage you to join the live Q&A calls where you can ask your questions! If lots of people send in similar questions, we answer them as one general theme.
Here's when the live calls are happening:
If you joined a previous round of The Business Course, you're invited to these Q&A calls too!
HOORAY for lifetime access.
p.s. All call times listed are in UK time.
Join the Business Course
There's never been a better time! Except now 😅 'cos the doors are closed. Click below to join the waiting list for next time - we'd love to have you sailing with us.
Click here to sign up