The Good Ship Illustration

This week our Tania is speaking to the one and only Margo Tantau (the licensing whisperer).
Margo is a good ship Pal, founder of Tantau Studio and you might have heard her on her brilliant podcast Windowsill Chats. Here's a link: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/windowsill-chats/id1529045232 
In this chat, Tania and Margo talk about all the important stuff liiiike:
What is licensing? How do you get paid? Can you REALLY license work you've already made? Margo even shares her secret weapen for getting art directors to fall in love with your work.
Some very good bits too: AI slop is NOT getting in the way of artists with real human hands. Hoorayyyy. That's good news for all of us, eh?
Timestamps, for the timestamp fans:
00:00 – Intro to Margo Tantau and her 360-degree licensing career
 02:30 – Welcome back to the licensing whisperer
 04:00 – Artist, shop owner, buyer, product developer, agent: Margo's done it all
 06:00 – How Lilla Rogers passed the agency baton to Margo
 10:30 – Why relationships are the real gold in licensing
 12:00 – What licensing actually is (from spice labels to Nike)
 13:00 – How you get paid: advances, royalties and typical percentages
 16:00 – Can you licence work you've already made? Yes!
 17:00 – Margo's secret weapon: show your art ON the product
 20:30 – You don't need perfect mock-ups (a drawn teacup works too)
 21:00 – A creative challenge: turn one piece into a mini collection
 23:00 – Is AI hurting licensing? Why Margo's clients say no to AI art
 25:30 – Tania's shock at the AI souvenir flood in Hong Kong
 28:00 – The hand of the artist, texture, and quality signalling
 30:30 – The UK licensing landscape, life after Surtex
 32:30 – A London licensing expo
 36:00 – People buy what they see: Margo's plates, fabrics and jacket stand
 38:00 – The Licensing Lab at Spring Fair
 39:00 – A sneaky tip for finding which exhibitors licence art
 40:30 – Should licensing-curious illustrators go to Spring Fair?
 41:30 – What does a stand actually cost?
 44:30 – Why walking a trade fair beats a day of LinkedIn research
 45:30 – Fancy matchboxes, candles, and buying things just for the art
 46:30 – The big takeaway: people still want real art
 48:30 – Community, Bologna, and the gold at the bottom of the rainbow

Links mentioned:
Margo's website: https://margotantau.com/
Tantau Studio: https://www.tantaustudio.com/
Windowsill Chats podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/windowsill-chats/id1529045232
Windowsill Chats on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/windowsillchats
Spring Fair (NEC Birmingham, 7th to 10th February 2027): https://www.springfair.com

Byeeee for now!
x The Good Ship Illustration (Helen, Katie & Tania)
p.s. Want Margo's full licensing class? It's waiting for you inside Illustration Business Club, along with aaall the other money-and-business bits art school forgot to teach you. 
Doors open on 25th of September 2026! https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/business
Come and say hello!

✏️ @thegoodshipillustration
🌏 www.thegoodshipillustration.com

p.s. We love answering your illustration questions. Click here to submit your question for The Good Ship Illustration Podcast 🎙

This week our Katie is chatting to Carly Kuhn, a US-based illustrator, artist and author who ended up in illustration kindofbyaccident. She grew up in New York wanting to do TV comedy, worked at a Hollywood talent agency, took improv classes at The Groundlings, and started drawing on printer paper nicked from the office, just as something creative to do after work. Then Sarah Jessica Parker reposted one of her drawings (!!) and - you'll have to listen to the episode to find out what happens next 🤪
Carly has had NO formal art or illustration training, which is exactly why we wanted to speak to her. We chat about finding your style by making loads of wonky work, why she wasn't ready for an agent for ages, and some pricing stuff about usage/contracts/licensing an' that.
There's also chat about wallpaper, multiple creative income streams, and how becoming a mum did not end her career (woohoo!) 
Timestamps, for the timestamp fans:
00:00 – Intro to Carly and her very wiggly path 
02:00 – TV comedy, improv, and how the drawing started 
06:30 – Improv 
08:00 – Sarah Jessica Parker reposts a drawing 
10:30 – Going full-time - pricing is completely made up 
14:30 – No art school
16:00 – Naivety as a superpower, and posting every day 
19:00 – Live illustration, fancy parties, and the first wallpaper job 
23:30 – Lockdown portraits, moving cities, becoming a mum 
26:00 – Getting an agent
31:00 – Pricing, usage, and being a people-pleaser who has to negotiate 
38:00 – Accidentally building lots of income streams 
42:00 – How motherhood focused her career 
49:00 – Character Study, and how bonkers publishing timelines are 
52:00 – You really don't have to go to art school!
Links mentioned:
• Carly's website: https://www.carlykuhn.com/
• Carly on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carlykuhn/
• Carly's Substack, The Cartelier: https://carlykuhn.substack.com/
• Carly's new book, Character Study: Observations from a Very Curious Artist: https://www.carlykuhn.com/books
Byeeee for now!
x The Good Ship Illustration (Helen, Katie & Tania)
p.s. If the pricing and usage chat made your ears prick up, we are planning a v exciting early-bird bonus for Illustration Business Club joiners. Doors open on Friday 25th September. Pop it on your calendar! 🥳
Come and say hello!

✏️ @thegoodshipillustration
🌏 www.thegoodshipillustration.com

p.s. We love answering your illustration questions. Click here to submit your question for The Good Ship Illustration Podcast 🎙

"Why does promoting my own work feel so cringe?"
HIYA WELCOME BACK! We missed you!
Summer holidays are all done here in the UK. Hope you had a good rest too. 
This week our Katie's chatting to Mollie Balshaw, one half of Short Supply:
Short Supply is an artist-led creative practice founded by Mollie and Rebekah Balshaw. Since 2019, they have helped artists navigate creative careers through exhibitions, publishing, workshops, mentoring and public conversations. Their work makes the hidden structures of the art world more visible, while encouraging artists to take their ideas seriously without waiting for perfect conditions. Their current projects include 100 Ideas and Step One, a series of conversations taking place at Edinburgh Fringe.
Short Supply posed this cracker of a question over on Instagram: why is visibility treated like ego, when artists need it to survive? 
There's chat about snobbery re; wanting to earn money from your work, the bits of being visible online that you're not warned about, aaaand the boundaries Mollie and Rebekah have built to keep themselves safe.
Then there's the can-you-have-a-successful-creative-career-outside-London question, and why "it's local so it must be rubbish" can get into our heads.
Unfortunately, the Edinburgh Fringe is finished now 😭 but Step One was Short Supply's project and you can read all about it here: https://www.shortsupply.org/step-one 

Timestamps, for the timestamp fans:
00:00 – Intro to Mollie, Rebekah and Short Supply
 01:20 – Why is visibility treated like ego?
 02:30 – Being talented is admirable, wanting to be seen is embarrassing. Whyyy?
 03:30 – Starting Short Supply out of frustration (and wanting an excuse to collaborate)
 04:30 – Who the art world isn't built for
 05:30 – Snobbery about "commercial", snobbery about social media
 06:20 – "Do I have to show my face?"
 07:30 – Algorithms, platform politics, visibility
 09:20 – Energy and capacity
 10:20 – The flip side of a post going big
 11:20 – When visibility isn't safe: queer, disabled and racialised artists
 12:30 – Boundaries
 14:00 – Would you mind a stranger saving it?
 15:20 – You don't *need* to be on social media to promote your creative work
 16:00 – Edinburgh Fringe as the best word-of-mouth machine in the country
 16:40 – Step One: the Fringe show
 17:40 – "I'm not telling you my idea in case you nick it"
 18:20 – You can't benefit from an idea that stays in your head
 20:20 – Smooth peanut butter vs crunchy
 21:00 – Manchester
 23:00 – Building a creative career outside London.
 24:20 – proximity to London still counts for a lot
 25:40 – "Manchester's caught up" or has it?
 28:40 – Contradicting yourself out loud is just thinking. Allowed.
 30:40 – Who are the David Hockneys of Salford right now?
 33:00 – Local snobbery, and galleries that don't invite their neighbours
 35:00 – Growing up somewhere small and assuming everything local is rubbish
 36:30 – You have more choices than you think (a story about Mollie's nan)
 38:00 – The joy of a part-time job/everyone else's secret pile of money
 39:20 – AI, and being glad it didn't exist at uni
 40:40 – "They may have been rubbish, but they were mine"
Links mentioned:
Short Supply's website: https://www.shortsupply.org
Short Supply on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shortsupplymcr
The Scottish Storytelling Centre, home of Step One: https://www.scottishstorytellingcentre.com
Byeeee for now!
x The Good Ship Illustration (Helen, Katie & Tania)
p.s. If you'd like more options for being-visible-without-being-sick-in-your-mouth, that's exactly what we get stuck into in Illustration Business Club! Doors are opening in October and you can read up on it here: https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/business
Come and say hello!

✏️ @thegoodshipillustration
🌏 www.thegoodshipillustration.com

p.s. We love answering your illustration questions. Click here to submit your question for The Good Ship Illustration Podcast 🎙

What're you doing this summer? Are you having a little rest?
This episode is all about taking breaks and we have a wee look at our plans:
Helen is in her illustrator hermit cave for July to get the next Salty Dog book finished before the deadline, with a nice August off as her reward.
Tania is working on a museum commission for a 'Gossip Wall' in Berwick Museum, with plans to experiment with texture and line for the first time in ages. (Phwoarrrrr.)
And Katie's about to have her first proper 6-week term-time break now that E's in school full time.
Whatever your plans are, have a good one! We'll be back in September.
Rough Timestamps, for you timestamp enthusiasts:
00:00 – Recording remotely, wheee
01:00 – Camping memories in France (TVs in tents)
03:00 – What does everyone's idea of a summer break look like?
04:00 – Helen's July hermit cave 
05:00 – Tania's loose-deadline project
06:00 – the Gossip Wall
09:00 – Working four-hour afternoons
10:00 – Berwick Open Studios, and the Pith Sketchbook Studios workshops on 3rd & 4th October
11:00 – Walk to See, Instagram's Add Yours feature
13:00 – Sketchbooking at the Alan Carr castle auction viewing day
14:00 – Katie's first proper term-time summer break now E's in school
15:00 – Freelance guilt, privilege, trying to "do it all" rarely works
17:00 – Trying and failing to switching your email off
20:00 – RIP David Hockney
24:00 – Planning a Hockney-themed summer party
27:00 – Good luck to Helen with the Salty Dog drawings, and a peek ahead Illustration Business Club returning this autumn!
Links mentioned:
Byeeee for now! 
x The Good Ship Illustration (Helen, Katie & Tania)
p.s. Illustration Business Club is coming back into the chat this autumn, join the waiting list here and keep an eye out.
https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/business 
Come and say hello!

✏️ @thegoodshipillustration
🌏 www.thegoodshipillustration.com

p.s. We love answering your illustration questions. Click here to submit your question for The Good Ship Illustration Podcast 🎙

What's the point in making all this gorgeous work if you don't have the confidence to share it, eh? EH!?
Who better to grill on this subject than Lauren Currie, OBE.
Lets gooo:
Timestamps, for the timestamp fans:
00:00 – Intro 
01:00 – Confidence = the elephant in the room for creatives
02:00 – Lauren on why confidence matters so much, especially for women and marginalised people 
05:00 – The shite UN statistic 
07:00 – "What would a mediocre middle-aged man do?" 
09:00 – Confidence is a team sport, not a solo endeavour 
11:00 – Carrying responsibility for how everyone else feels 
12:00 – 10 people whose opinions actually matter (and why it's not Jeanie from school's mum's dentist) 
14:00 – Imposter syndrome
16:00 – The 1970s research that labelled women with a "syndrome" instead of looking at the system 
19:00 – Why self-doubt is healthy
21:00 – Confidence is a muscle 
22:00 – Lauren's art
25:00 – Old lady faces
27:00 – Should you have a separate art Instagram? 
28:00 – The Barcelona art show story
32:00 – Why 'just' 20 people seeing your work is a LOT of people 
33:00 – Lauren's advice for illustrators who are scared to share their work 
36:00 – On hiding
38:00 – We need your art!!
Links and books etc. mentioned:
Lauren's website: https://www.laurencurrie.co/art
Upfront: https://www.weareupfront.com
Be Upfront by Lauren Currie
We Need Your Art by Amy McNee https://www.amiemcnee.com/order-we-need-your-art-book-amie-mcnee
The Good Ship Illustration: https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com
Find Your Creative Voice, Fly Your Freak Flag course: https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/freakflag
Come and say hello!

✏️ @thegoodshipillustration
🌏 www.thegoodshipillustration.com

p.s. We love answering your illustration questions. Click here to submit your question for The Good Ship Illustration Podcast 🎙