PANIIIIC! (or don’t...) 😅 | Summer camp sketchbook week 5

Summary

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Podcast Summary: PANIIIIC! (or don’t...) — Summer Camp Sketchbook Week 5

The Good Ship Illustration
Hosts: Katie Chappell, Helen Stephens, Peggy (Tania Willis)
Date: August 29, 2025

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Overview

This episode wraps up The Good Ship Illustration’s Summer Camp Sketchbook mini-series, focusing on the critical theme of “No Panicking.” The trio addresses the common anxieties illustrators face—job insecurity, creative development, financial pressure, and client demands—and offers practical, compassionate advice on finding calm and confidence in the illustration journey. The tone is supportive, frank, and peppered with warm, funny anecdotes.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. No Panicking Allowed: The Core Principle

• Katie kicks off by declaring the episode’s theme: “No panicking ever” [00:25].
• The hosts all stress the folly of putting pressure on oneself to make it "immediately" or expecting success overnight, stressing that developing a creative practice is a gentle process.

Peggy:

“You’ve got to start feeding yourself with creativity and inspiration and all those things take time... It’s not really a panicking situation, is it?” [01:34]

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2. The Myth of the Sudden Illustrator Career

• Many aspiring illustrators believe quitting their day jobs and jumping in headfirst is necessary. The hosts counter this:

Peggy:

“You could get lucky and be pulling in a full time salary from the get go but that's not really very usual, is it? And there’s no source of shame to be working in a part time job...” [02:23]

• Both Peggy and Katie share how part-time jobs allowed them to pay the bills, avoid desperation, and maintain creative integrity.

Katie:

“That secret thread of power really helped in those early days because...I’m not desperate.” [03:01]

• They use a cat metaphor to explain why not being desperate is attractive (to both cats and illustration clients!).

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3. Avoiding Creative Contamination

• Taking on work just for the money can fill a portfolio with work you don’t love—and ultimately have no desire to show.

Peggy:

“You’re going to bin it. You’re not going to show it. You don’t want to put it on your social media. It's wasting your time and creating bad work..." [03:48]

• Better to work outside illustration to pay the bills than fill your creative life with unwanted projects.

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4. Reflection on the Mini-Series Lessons

Katie recaps earlier advice:

• Bask in your weirdness
• Draw, draw, draw
• Find creative confidence
• Play and have community [04:34]

These are all positioned as ways to support a calm, steady growth rather than panic.

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5. The Importance of Self-Kindness

• Helen compares learning under a kind teacher versus a harsh one, advocating gentleness with oneself.

Helen:

“If you had a really bossy teacher who was mean, I never learned anything. If I had one of those gorgeous teachers... you suddenly become brilliant at that subject.” [05:11]

• Calm and relaxation, not stress, are the best creative fertilizers.

Katie:

“The more you can calm your nervous system down, the more your creativity can come out.” [05:19]

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6. Coping with Client and Deadline Pressure

• Katie discusses the heightened stress of quick-turnaround corporate work but keeps perspective:

Katie:

“I’m an illustrator. Nobody’s going to die... It’s important because it’s my career, but it’s not that important.” [06:02]

• Helen and Peggy contrast the difference between project timeframes, emphasizing that while some deadlines are tight and intense, kindness to oneself is always the answer.

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7. Action Steps: Personalized Anti-Panic Tactics

• Two approaches to self-reassurance:
  • Write yourself a reassuring note — works for some personalities.
  • For rebels: Write a note that says "PANIC" and refuse to do it, channeling your inner contrarian as motivation. [08:02-08:16]

Helen:

“If you’re like Helen...you can write a big note that just says panic and then you’ll rebel against that. And you won.” [08:13]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Helen on self-kindness:
  “Be kind to yourself whilst doing. Have a word with yourself.” [00:43]
• Katie:
  “It’s like when you’re trying to talk to a cat—you know, when you’re desperate for the cat to love you... See, cats in this metaphor are illustration jobs.” [03:13]
• Helen:
  “Whenever I get stuck on something... I just grab Peggy’s lead and go for a big long walk on the beach... things solve themselves.” [05:40]
• Katie, summing up:
  “Shouting at yourself is not a fun way to get there.” [05:36]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:25 – Episode theme: No panicking
• 01:02–02:40 – Real talk on making the leap, part-time work, and finances
• 03:13–03:48 – Cats as metaphor; why desperation repels good jobs
• 04:22–04:51 – Dangers of taking any client work vs. working outside illustration
• 05:11–05:19 – Gentle teaching, self-kindness
• 06:02–06:26 – Perspective on deadlines, corporate client pressures
• 08:02–08:16 – Actionable anti-panic exercises

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Conclusion

The episode ends by encouraging listeners to find the anti-panic technique that fits their personality, to remember they’re not alone, and to keep their creative journey gentle and sustainable. The hosts reaffirm their community’s non-judgmental support, whether or not listeners join the course.

“No panicking allowed at all!” [08:45]

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Transcript

[Katie]

Welcome back to the final installation of our mini series. Find your creative voice today is number five. And the key ingredient which is no panicking allowed. And that sums up so much of what we're all about with the good ship illustration. No panicking ever.

[Helen]

No antsy materials. No panicking. Be kind to yourself whilst doing. Have a word with yourself.

[Katie]

Word with yourself. That's the thing, you know when you're working on something and you just overdoing it, you're spending ages on it. Sometimes you just need to have a word for yourself and get out of your own way.

[Helen]

Yeah, exactly.

[Peggy]

We say no panicking because you see a lot of people now saying I'm going to give up my day job, take a course and be an illustrator. And you kind of think, wow, that's not really how it works.

[Helen]

And pressure. Yeah, pressure's too much.

[Katie]

Can I say? Yeah.

[Peggy]

And I think most of us when we left college did other jobs. You know, there's no shortcuts on this. It's not going to be immediate. You don't suddenly get qualified to be an illustrator. Developing your work and finding your creative voice is quite a gentle process and if you put the squeeze on it, like holding the bar of soap too tight. Sorry Katie, I finished it. You're not going to get anywhere. So you've got to start feeding yourself with creativity and inspiration and all those things take time and it's not really a panicking situation, is it? And if you can get a part time job to help support you one do that, you're giving yourself a realistic amount of time to mature and to develop your own voice. I mean when I left college, most people taught at college. I left with an ma so that qualified you to teach on a BA and it was regarded as perfectly normal to spend maybe the next decade doing part time teaching at college. While that supported your illustration practice until you could bring in a full time salary. And I think you know, now more than ever you perhaps need that kind of thing. You could get lucky and be pulling in a full time salary from the get go but that's not really very usual, is it? And there's no source of shame to be working on in a part time job while you're working on your work and it takes the pressure off you so you don't panic.

[Katie]

Yeah. And I kept my part time job for as long as I possibly physically could. I was terrified to give it up because I knew it was like the ultimate anti panic thing because I knew if I have a part time job my bills are paid. I didn't have to worry about anything else. And any money I made from illustration was a bonus. And it also meant when people got in touch and the budget was crazy low or they were trying to haggle, I was just like, you know what? No, I'm fine. I don't need that. And I think that that secret thread of power really helped in those early days because I was sort of. I could stand my ground and be like, I don't need that work. I'm not desperate. It's like the opposite of panic is not being. No way. I think, yeah, don't be the panic and the desperation thing, if you can move away from that. And it's like when you're trying to talk to a cat, you know, when you're desperate for the cat to love you. I love cats.

[Helen]

I am massively allergic to cats and so allergic to them that I don't even like looking at a cat now. So cats love me because I don't want anything from them. They love me. They jump on my knee. Plus, sit down. It's a nightmare.

[Katie]

See, cats in this metaphor are illustration jobs. And you are an illustrator who is not panicking. Exactly.

[Peggy]

Because also, if you spend all that time doing jobs that you don't want for money that aren't appropriate to you, and they're going to result in really ghastly work that you don't want to put in your portfolio, you're wasting time getting 50% of your portfolio just for cash. But you're going to bin it. You're not going to show it. You don't want to put it on your social media. It's wasting your time and creating bad work. And you might get into that kind of habit and that mindset. So you'd be better off working for something that's nothing to do with illustration in the initial phase, just to bring in money that's unrelated to and doesn't contaminate your creative voice.

[Katie]

Yeah. And I think everything we've spoken about so far in this miniseries kind of feeds into not panicking, doesn't it? I can't remember what all that. So let me. Let me just revisit the notes. Yeah. Basking in your weirdness.

[Peggy]

Yep.

[Katie]

Drawing, drawing and drawing some more. Finding creative confidence and then playing and having community.

[Peggy]

All of those things should hopefully make you feel a bit more relaxed about your own progress and supported by community.

[Helen]

Be kind to yourself.

[Katie]

Yeah.

[Helen]

It's so important not to beat yourself up when you're not working as quickly or things are not Developing as quickly as you want to. Because I remember at school, if you had a really bossy teacher who was mean, I never learned anything. If I had one of those gorgeous teachers who just do their job so well, you suddenly become brilliant at that subject.

[Katie]

Yeah.

[Helen]

Because you feel relaxed and you can soak it all up. So. Yeah. Don't be mean to yourself.

[Katie]

Yeah. I think the more you can calm your nervous system down, the more your creativity can come out and you can create more work that you feel really good about and in turn, get work that you love doing and you can be confident enough to charge what you're worth. And maybe that just kind of blossoms into this lovely illustration career. But, yeah, shouting at yourself is not a fun way to get there.

[Helen]

Whenever I get stuck on something, if I'm really stuck on an illustration knot, you know, I want to draw a particular scene. But no matter how I draw it, it's just not working. I just grab Peggy's lead and go for a big long walk on the beach and stop thinking about it for a while. But by the time I get back, often I've got a new. Things have changed in my brain. Relaxed things solve themselves.

[Katie]

Yeah. Often have to remind myself, like, I'm an illustrator. Nobody's going to die. Especially when I'm working with big corporate clients that can be really like, we need this by end of day. Like, can you get these, like, revisions to us? And it gets really like, oh, my goodness. But then you have a word of myself and I'm like, it's not. It's important because it's my career, but it's not that important. I can go for a walk or have a break or just lie down and stare at the ceiling for a while.

[Peggy]

Actually, there's a lot of kind of panic built into your. Not panic, but you need a defense against it. But the way you work is way more intense than, say, Helen, where you've got book deadlines of six months.

[Helen]

Yeah. Sometimes.

[Peggy]

And you're working live and you've got deadlines of. It's a three hour live. Is that average an hour?

[Katie]

So it's been 20 minutes. Yeah, I think that's so I struggled so much with deadlines, and I still do. That's kind of why I work the way I do now. But it feels fun to me. So it's like. It's the play thing. If I'm like, I've got one hour and these people are going to say really important things and I've got to make it look nice. And.

[Peggy]

Yeah, it's fun, but it's a no choice situation. In a way it's great because the previous podcast we talked about people, not what someone sent in a question saying that they find it really hard to get started on a piece of work. We were saying the only way, if you're an actor, you'd just be shocked on stage and you've got to get on with it or someone starts shooting and that's it. It's the same as yours really, isn't it? There's no nerves. You just start drawing because, yeah, they start shooting.

[Katie]

And I wanted to be a war artist. Events. War artist without the danger of war. Exactly.

[Helen]

Yeah.

[Katie]

I didn't want to actually go into trenches and stuff. I was like, what's a more lower risk of death?

[Helen]

Business meeting.

[Katie]

Yeah, so it's meetings. Much less cool though. But yeah, see, the action step for this one is so there's two options depending on your personality. One step, one option, one sorry, is to write yourself a reassuring note. That's going to help you not panic.

[Helen]

But you know, Katie, I would rebel against it. I. I can't write like messages to myself about being kind and things because.

[Katie]

I just want to rip them down. Yeah, exactly. So if writing something like there's plenty of times, loads of work, if that makes sense.

[Helen]

You see yourself have deep no, I.

[Katie]

Will not be ganged. So if you're like Helen and you've been sucking your mouth, you can write a big note that just says panic and then you'll rebel against that. And you won. That one. Definitely won. Yes. So pick your own adventure, write a cheesy note, write one to rebel against. It's totally up to you. But yeah, if you've enjoyed this miniseries, we would love to see you inside the Find your creative voice, fly your feet. Flag course.

[Helen]

Rich has lifetime access, so there's no panicking.

[Katie]

No panicking allowed at all. The doors closed tonight, so if there.

[Helen]

Is some amount of panicking, there's a.

[Katie]

Total bit of panic. That's the only panicking that's allowed. But you know the doors will open again, so even then, if you don't join, it's totally fine. We'll still be friends. We still do these, we do the podcast, we've got art club. So you'll welcome wherever you are at your stage in your illustration career journey. Bye bye, bye.