Inside Helen's hermit cave

Where does she go? What happens in there? 

Come and have a wee peek inside Helen’s hermit cave with us.

BUT FIRST - is it true? Do you prefer a podcast when there's a video too? Katie's just been to Australia and chatted to some creatives and they all said that they *ONLY* listen to a podcast if there's a video to go with it. 

Whaaat!?

Let us know on Instagram if these rumours are true. You're allowed to slide into our DMs 😆 ❤️ We're @thegoodshipillustration.

Right, podcast stuff.

This episode is all about:
– Shutting the studio door and ignoring WhatsApp 
– Recreating rainy caravan holidays to get in the zone
– The magic drawer
– How long it takes to make a picture book (blimmin' ages)
– Boundaries

Timestamps, for people who like that sort of thing:
 00:00 – Welcome to Helen’s hermit cave
 01:00 – Dressing gowns, headphones and comfort telly
 02:00 – Childhood holidays
 03:00 – How long does it take to make a book?
 04:00 – The magic drawer of ideas
 05:00 – Making books in your 20s vs. making books now
 06:00 – Burnout, insomnia and terrible lighting
 07:00 – Early birds vs. night owls
 08:00 – Deadlines
 09:00 – Salty & Pals picture book sneak peek!
 10:00 – Bedtime!

Stuff wot we mentioned:
– The Picture Book Course
– Pencil Pals (Our Helen's Substack where there are some lovely sneaky peeks of the Salty Seadog artwork in case you're as excited as we aaaare.)

See ya next Friday,
 x The Good Ship Illustration (Helen, Katie & Tania)

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 🎙

Transcript

Inside Helen's Hermit Cave
===

~ it's,~ [00:00:00] I, this is my selfish podcast topic 'cause I want to know all about Helen's hermit cave.

What would you like to know about my hermit cave? I love, I love lots of things about you, Helen, but this one, when you're working on a deadline, yeah. You just say, right, I'm going in my cave now I do. And you do. You just, you're in the cave and we know you're in the cave and then you work.

'cause I ignore the WhatsApp group all day. Or I say, you do that 'cause I'm in my cave. But then you emerge in the glorious sunshine like I've been.

It's a nightmare in that cave. [00:01:00] Oh no. Just spoil the illusion. ~It's, ~it's, yeah,~ it's,~ it's lovely because I try and forget the outside world. I try not to do very much when there's a deadline for a book. So I think I go through periods of intense work where I just shut my studio door and I'm in there and I've got a book to make and I've got a deadline and I do it.

And I don't organize very much socially every day. Do you do any cooking? ~Um, ~no cook, no cleaning. ~Little, ~little bit. We just go half and half. Half and half. Me and Jerry on cooking, so he does most of it while I'm in my cave. Even have a bath, Ted, a dog out for a walk Sometimes, yeah, sometimes hygiene can get no priority.

Yeah. If it's winter dressing gown over clothes, hat on out there. Yeah, dog sits at my feet. Oh, and ~I, ~I really like earphones with ~like ~a wire that attaches me to my iPad because if I,~ well,~ number one, the iPad's great for just watching old reruns of programs I know inside out [00:02:00] because it makes lovely background noise and it makes me feel hibernated and I don't wanna go anywhere.

It's cozy, but also the wire literally attaches me to.

It's one less thing. It's one more thing just to keep me focused at the desk. Do you think you're ~trying, ~trying to create childhood again? Like you could have definitely a recording of a gas fire fluttering in the corner. Yeah. So you feel like you're a kid at home on the ~floor ~floor. Really? Like I've got avex window, so you hear the rain on that.

So a rainy day, the. Best work day because it's that lovely white noise coming back. It's like I've been on holiday in a caravan because when I was a kid my mom used to buy me a massive, ~you know, ~those big felt pen packs that are really big. And it was always raining on holiday. We always went on holiday just down the, we're British it. And I think I'm trying to recreate that. Yeah, I can I ask a really boring question, which is how long does it take to make a book? So [00:03:00] how long are you in the cave? Oh, ages.

Sometimes. It really depends on the book. So I think I did three months really intense before Bologna. And now I only have a bit of book left, and then I've done the children's book show for three days.

So I came out of my cave again. I don't, ideally, I don't like coming out of the cave because it takes me a couple of days to get back in to adjust. Just very shove you in the door.

Four.

No, since,~ uh, the, ~the roughs were approved. So how long did the take you in the, oh, not.

Yeah. So it's really about six months. Yeah. A bit of writing with Katie. Yeah. But sometimes an idea happens and it goes in the magic drawer. 'cause I dunno if it's good enough yet, and then I'll pull it out for the magic draw and some magic might have happened and ~now, ~now look at it and think, oh, that's good.[00:04:00] 

So that can add a year on your idea. ~You know, ~you have an idea and it might. Not come out the magic draw for six months. It's like fermenting, isn't it? That fermenting kimchi? Yeah. Or like you're just waiting for another little bit of the puzzle, another little bit of inspiration from somewhere to come along and add to the bit that's in the magic draw, and all of a sudden you're out of the drawer again and, oh, this could be something now.

Now I've got this extra bit. So yeah, I sometimes. Years just because the ideas bit took so long. Sometimes they're quite quick. But when you've got it all pieced together, now ~in your, ~in your dotage with all your wisdom and experience behind you, you can do something like. Six months. Yeah, probably ~when, ~when I was first, when I first started out, I would make four baby books and a picture book every year.

Probably like a mission. Yeah. And maybe some book covers, but it's all I did. It's all I did. I was in the cave all the time. I was gonna say, if you don't have an child, children, [00:05:00] yeah. You can just be in cave mode. Yeah. I don't work as quick as that anymore because I really love what we do for good ship ~and I, ~and I have a daughter and a.

I like garden. And you once in, I think, yeah, I want life. Yeah. You leave college and ~you know, ~you're working so hard looking for jobs that you put yourself in the cage automatically. I reckon you stay there for the first 15 years. Yeah, I'm always here. I won't be on holiday at any point this year, just in case you need me or any changes.

I'll be ready. And you work really long hours. Yeah, and ~uh, ~and I used to cut out little bits of paper and stick them down and they would get. Stuck all over the bottom of my feet, and then I'd get into bed and the bed was full of them and then get out and start working. Like the whole thing was all one.

My life, my work was all one thing. Whereas now I definitely have, ~you know, ~boundaries. There's a different boundaries around how much I work. So I try not to work weekends and I try not to work unless it's absolutely necessary.

Than it used to be. But I remember working on those kids go books and I'd work at night [00:06:00] on those, and I wondered why I had insomnia for three years because they were about, so we were doing six all at one. But I think the hours ~you spend, ~you spend looking at the screen after, say seven o'clock at night or in darkness.

So you spend three hours and you get to bed at 12, you won't sleep till three. It's exactly the same exchange.

Things out and saying I might be freelance, but I do actually have a life. I've never been that. I've never been an owl. I've always been a lark. I'm way more likely to get up at five and do a couple of hours before anybody else is awake because I can feel smug. Then It's worth it for a double smug. Yeah, exactly.

I just do it to be smug. Yeah, but then I never work. I get tired at about three o'clock, so I usually take the dog for a walk at three because if I didn't take her for a walk, I'd probably have a nap, which is fine. Sometimes I. But yeah,~ I,~ I get tired late afternoon, so I stop. I'll either stop completely or stop for an hour and do a [00:07:00] bit more.

If you're in the cave, you'd finish at a rational human time. Yeah. You're not working till 10 o'clock. No, very rarely. Not. Unless it was absolutely necessary. No, I think you get to know you. You get to know your own rhythms and how long things take you after a while, and I used to have this weekly slot in a mag, a monthly slot in a magazine, and I'd be like, oh, it's Friday and it's six o'clock.

I seem to have finished the artwork and it took two years till I could actually work to a reasonable human deadline instead of thinking, I better go back and work until 10 o'clock tonight a bit more. It's that thing you were talking about Katie sometimes where you have a deadline. You just keep going till the deadline?

Yeah, the work expands all the time. I definitely find if somebody tells two weeks to do it, then I'll spend the whole,~ well,~ actually I'll probably wait a week and six days and stop deadline. It's so hard to squash it into smaller space if you know you've got more time. That's why you do live illustration because you've got three hours.

Get this [00:08:00] done. There's no faffing around. Definitely. But I definitely prefer the waking up early thing because it gets to bedtime. I've just got no brain cells left. I think's no way. Trying. And Cameron will be like, oh,~ just,~ just, ~you know, ~you sit up and do now. I'm like, I cannot. Me too. I just can't. And it was the same when pie was little.

I would be, she would wake at the crack of dawn and I'd be up for it. Eyes awake. ~Right. ~Let's play fine. But bedtime, her bedtime, I was done. Really? I couldn't Opposite. Yeah. Don't get working until at about 10, 10 30 and could work till midnight. Wow. But I don't, ~I ~I won't do that anymore. Now since I worked out the very obvious key to screen insomnia.

Yeah. Maybe is like the only way to learn them is the. Against the wall.[00:09:00] 

Helen in or even good inster. We've been working out how our cover should look. It's been so much fun for Salt. It's salty and pals. Yeah, salty. So Salty Dog was a good ship. He is. He still is. Good ship. Salty. He's the dog on our picture book course. He ~kind of ~guides everybody through the course, but yeah, he's become some stories.

Katie and I have written the stories together and then I've been illustrating them and then I've been getting Tanya's. Design Eyes. Also, Tanya is one of the characters in the book. I'm so honored. I'm Party Kitty. You're, I love my character, but the book is so funny. We've done some readings, ~you know, ~some Wednesdays when we do podcasts, bits of the book have come round and Katie's read them out and they're just hilarious.

I can't wait to see it in publication. I can't wait. When can story. Bed story. Yeah. Okay. See you next week. Yes. Yes. Bye everybody. Bye-bye. Bye Bye.

​ [00:10:00]