Picture Book, Freak Flag, or Business… which one is calling yoooou?

Summary

The Good Ship Illustration

Episode: Picture Book, Freak Flag, or Business… which one is calling yoooou?
Date: September 5, 2025
Hosts: Helen Stephens, Katie Chappell, and Tania Willis

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Episode Overview

In this episode, the Good Ship Illustration crew—Helen, Katie, and Tania—discuss one of their most common questions: “Which course should I do first?” The hosts guide listeners through the process of choosing between their key courses: Picture Book, Find Your Creative Voice/Freak Flag, and Business. They emphasize that there is no “right” order and encourage listeners to trust their excitement and instincts. The episode is a supportive, comforting discussion for illustrators at any stage—whether you’re aiming to create a picture book, developing your style, seeking business skills, or just playing with creative exploration.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Choosing a Course: There’s No Single Right Path

• The hosts acknowledge that many are unsure where to start, and while they attempted to create a “flowchart,” their advice boils down to: follow your excitement and gut feeling.
• Jo explains that if you “really want to make a picture book but you don't know your visual language yet, you're probably best doing the Find Your Creative Voice course first.” (00:49)
• If you know your voice and are ready, jump into Picture Book: “If you sleep on it and in the morning you're still really excited, it's a good sign that it's the right choice.” – Sarah (02:16)
• Liz shares a story about someone who started the Picture Book course, realized they needed to work on Freak Flag first, but found value in bouncing between both thanks to lifetime access (02:43).

2. Understanding “Visual Voice” and Consistency

• Maintaining character consistency in picture books requires a clear creative voice or style, even though “style” is a word the hosts try to avoid but sometimes can’t (01:29).
• Jo: “If you're going to look at a character that you can recreate across a picture book, you need to know how to do that consistently so that they stay the same, basically, and you don't lose control of your character.” (01:29)

3. Course “Repeaters” and Paths Beyond Picture Books

• Some students remain in the creative exploration phase—doing “Find Your Creative Voice” multiple times, deepening consistency and understanding of their own style (03:08).
• Jo: “Lots of people... appear saying, oh, I'm doing it for the fourth time. It's so nice to jump back in. ...it intensifies your sense of consistency and your creative voice.” (03:08)
• This course can also be a springboard to editorial, live, or design illustration.

4. The Business Course: Timing Matters

• Hosts caution against jumping into business before developing one’s creative foundations:
  Jo: “If you're doing that kind of vulnerable creative work of finding your own voice, don't think about the audience and the business and the client before that, because it will compromise your work...” (04:20)
• There’s a metaphor of the “creative car” and “business car”—you switch between periods of creative focus and business focus.
• Some participants, especially career-changers, explore the Business course early to understand the industry, but might find themselves unprepared without a portfolio (05:39).

5. Free Resources and “No-Wrong-Choice” Reassurance

• The website is “absolutely packed with freebies”—mini versions of each course, workshops, and open days so that potential students can taste-test before committing (06:29).
• Freebies include:
  • Thumbnail sketches for picture books
  • “Childhood Illustrated” exercise
  • Character and color workshops (06:57)
  • Live illustration masterclass (07:50)
  • Art Club sessions on Instagram (08:07)
• Sarah: “A lot of people are worried about wasting...they’re going to make the wrong choice. And basically this video is like, there’s no wrong option. Whatever feels most exciting is the right choice.” (07:12)

6. The High-Tech “Decision Tree”

• The hosts humorously reference their “very high tech” decision tree:
  • Sarah: “Do you want to do the picture book course? Yes. ...do the picture book course. And if it's not, do the freak flag course. Okay. The end.” (08:30)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Jo (01:29): “If you're going to look at a character that you can recreate across a picture book, you need to know how to do that consistently so that they stay the same, basically, and you don't lose control of your character.”
• Sarah (02:16): “If you sleep on it and in the morning you’re still really excited, it’s a good sign that it’s the right choice.”
• Liz (02:43): “We’re telling you that there’s a correct order, but there’s not really. It’s whatever is exciting you most of the time, isn’t it?”
• Jo (03:08): “Lots of people... appear saying, oh, I'm doing it for the fourth time. It's so nice to jump back in. ...it intensifies your sense of consistency and your creative voice.”
• Jo (04:20): “If you're doing that kind of vulnerable creative work of finding your own voice, don't think about the audience and the business and the client before that, because it will compromise your work...”
• Liz (04:47): “We always think of it as being in your business car for a little while and then you get out and you're in your creative car... hiding in your studio, not looking on your website or anything.”
• Sarah (07:12): “There’s no wrong option. Whatever feels most exciting is the right choice. And it might be that it’s just freebies and they’ll still be your friend. We don’t care, really.”
• Sarah (08:30): “Do you want to do the picture book course? Yes. ...do the picture book course. And if it’s not, do the freak flag course. Okay. The end.”

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:49 — Which Course to Take First & Knowing Your Creative Voice
• 01:29 — Consistency in Style/Voice in Picture Books
• 02:16 — Trusting Your Gut on Course Choice
• 02:43 — Story of a Student Using Both Courses
• 03:08 — Repeat Students & Course Iteration
• 03:55 — When to Move to Business
• 04:20 — Separating Creative and Business Mindsets
• 05:20 — Business Car / Creative Car Metaphor
• 06:29 — Freebies and Tasters
• 07:12 — Reassurance about Making the Right Choice
• 08:30 — High-Tech Decision Tree

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Summary Takeaways

• There’s truly no wrong place to start on The Good Ship—follow what lights you up, and you’ll find your way.
• The creative journey is not linear; revisit courses, explore new areas, and make use of the wide array of free resources.
• The hosts are warm, understanding, and encourage creative risk and fun above all, with a strong message: “Whatever feels most exciting is the right choice.” (Sarah, 07:12)

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For more resources and to access freebies, visit thegoodshipillustration.com.

Transcript

[Jo]

Sa.

[Sarah]

Hello, welcome. This is a question we get quite a lot. People get really excited about the courses, but don't know which one to do first. And this morning we tried to make like a diagram of, like, do you know what your creative voice is? Have you found your style? If so, you should do this course. But basically the advice we dish out is. What is the advice we dish out?

[Liz]

The advice we dish out is if you really want to make a picture book but you don't know your visual language yet, you're probably best doing the find your creative voice course first. But if you want to make a picture book and you do kind of know your own voice so you can, you know what your voice is enough that whatever you want to draw, you're kind of comfortable and you find your way to do it. Is that a good way of explaining knowing your visual voice already? When do you know your visual voice? You're drawing loads. Your work always looks like you. You feel comfortable with it. You probably know your visual voice already. And then picture books, you're just ready to go.

[Jo]

Because you need to be consistent, don't you? Yeah, you need to be consistent in your voice or style. We always try not to say style, but there's no way of avoiding it sometimes. So if you're going to look at a character that you can recreate across a picture book, you need to know how to do that consistently so that they stay the same, basically, and you don't lose control of your character. So, yeah, find your creative voice is a good one to do first. But if you are unsure about doing that, you can try us out on some freebies.

[Liz]

Yeah.

[Jo]

Like Childhood Illustrated.

[Sarah]

And sometimes we tell people, yeah, Freak Flag's a good choice for you. Like, do the find your creative voice. Fly your Freak flag course. Brilliant. And you can see them going, oh, I wanted you to tell me I could do the picture because. And if that's your reaction, the best bet is probably just do the picture book course. Because we have a lot of people. There's no right or wrong order, is there? A lot of people do the picture book course get halfway through and they're like, I should have done the Freak flag course. But then you're really motivated and excited and I think listening to your gut, listen to what you're really excited about. If you sleep on it and in the morning you're still really excited, it's a good sign that it's the right choice.

[Liz]

And I just had a chat with somebody this week who was very excited about Picture Book Course, so signed up for it. Exactly the scenario. She got into the picture book course and realized, I should have done Freak Flag first. So she signed up for that. And because she had lifetime access, she's just dipping in and out of both at the same time now. And she's very happy. So we're telling you that there's a correct order, but there's not really. It's whatever is exciting you most of the time, isn't it?

[Jo]

And also there are some people who might not want to do picture books. They want to be an illustrator of a different kind. So they just do find your creative voice and stay in there and hone it and hone it. And lots of people do it more than once. There's lots of people. When we start the course or restart the course and launch it and invite all the new members on, lots of people appear saying, oh, I'm doing it for the fourth time. It's so nice to jump back in. So I guess they do it and it intensifies your sense of consistency and your creative voice. So you might do just stay there and then go on to editorial illustration or live illustration or illustration for design. But for those who know they want to do picture books, if you haven't done lots of creative voice work first, you might find yourself all at sea in maintaining consistency.

[Sarah]

Something else we see quite a lot is people do the Freak Flag course, find your creative voice, they get halfway and they're like, tell me how to make money from this. Now I need to make money from this. And that is why we made the business course. And we haven't really talked about the business course because I feel like people know when they want it and they're ready to kind of monetize things or go in that direction. But we do see people have a better time when they've done the Freak flag course and then do the business course.

[Jo]

Don't mix them up. Because that's what we were talking about in the beginning was if you're doing that kind of vulnerable creative work of finding your own voice, don't think about the audience and the business and the client before that, because it will compromise your work and you won't be able to take risks and you won't push yourself creatively as much because you'll be looking at a pre existing market. So we separated them.

[Liz]

Yeah. We always think of it as being in your business car for a little while and then you get out and you're in your creative car. I think for all of us in our careers, there's times where we are really in a creative space and you're pushing your work forward and you're having nice adventures with your actual artwork, hiding in your studio, not looking on your website or anything. And then there's times where you feel like, okay, I've got a folio together, I really like it now. I want to show the world. And we get out of our creative car and into our business car, start working on our website, update our folios, work on our SEO, if that's what.

[Sarah]

You want to do.

[Liz]

So, yeah, I think you know when you're ready for the business bit. And we have seen a few people who haven't really got their folio together jump into the business course and then realize, hang on a minute, I can't tell the world about something that is not there yet. It's not ready, it's not out the oven. I need to go back, get in my creative car again.

[Jo]

The people who often do that are people who might be jumping from other careers and thinking, well, what is the illustration business like? From the outside, I can't see how it works or how people make money. So even though they're not visually ready, they might be brave enough to say, I'm going to take the course and find out about the industry and see how I could work, make it work for me before I invest in drawing and creating a visual voice for myself. That's what I've always thought for the people who say, yeah, I haven't got a portfolio as such. And we would think, are you mad? Why are you on this course if you haven't got a portfolio? And then I reasoned that maybe they're just doing a lot of research, trying to find out.

[Liz]

So we're back to, there's no actual right order.

[Jo]

Again, it all depends what people's plan is and the way they're seeing their strategy or their kind of five year plan.

[Liz]

And if you're not ready for. If you're not ready for any of it yet, the website is absolutely packed with freebies. We've got freebies that are a taster of each course as well. So if you're into picture books, we've got thumbnail sketches and the childhood illustrated task, which is diving into your own childhood so you can revisit how it felt to be a child. And it's like your memory is like a treasure trove of amazing possible starts of story ideas.

[Jo]

We've got character workshop, I've got a colour workshop. If you're not sure about how colour Works for you. You can just take that. And you need an hour. And people love it, don't they? If you just want to play and play with color and don't worry about drawing, do the color workshop for an hour.

[Sarah]

We've also got an open day on there, so you can see like, what is it like to study with us and all that. But I think a lot of people are worried about wasting. They're worried about they're going to waste their time, they're going to waste their money, they're going to make the wrong choice. And basically this video is like, there's no wrong option. Whatever feels most exciting is the right choice. And it might be that it's just freebies and they'll still be your friend. We don't care, really.

[Jo]

Just run the freebies over and over again. I mean, how many have we got up there now?

[Liz]

I can't say how many, but it scrolls down and down and down the page.

[Jo]

We haven't done a business one yet, but we will.

[Liz]

And there's a live illustration one.

[Sarah]

Yeah, there's a masterclass. So if you. I haven't talked about live illustration because I feel like if you want to do it, you just do the course. But there's a one hour live illustration masterclass where I basically give you a high speed, high adrenaline crash course on how to do it. It's good fun, some very biased.

[Jo]

And also there's art club. Yeah, art club. On our Instagram. You can scroll down when you can see mad grinning faces and the screen cut in half. That's an art club video on Instagram. So if you'd like to just draw along with us and do some freestyle painting and drawing, join art club. That's another freebie. There's lots of stuff you can do without actually buying a course.

[Sarah]

Oh, wait, we made a thing. This was our decision tree. It's very high tech. Which course should I do? Do you want to do the picture book course? Yes. I forgot to say, if the answer is yes, do the picture book course. And if it's not, do the freak flag course. Okay. The end.

[Jo]

It.