The Good Ship Illustration

#WalkToSee is baaack! The hashtag responsible for over 120,000 drawings (join in!)

• The Good Ship Illustration • Season 12 • Episode 5

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Our Helen’s #WalkToSee hashtag on Instagram is baaaack with a new monthly prompt. After seven years of #walktosee there are now over 120,000 drawings on there and counting!

In this episode, we chat about Helen’s relaunch of #WalkToSee (with new monthly prompts), drawing from life vs. photos, why small sketchbooks are weirdly hard, aaand rediscovering messy materials and carbon paper.

Special guest: an enormous chunk of charcoal.

If you'd like a gentle kick up the butt to do some drawing from life, then join in! 

In this episode:

  • The story behind #WalkToSee and why Helen's relaunched it
  • How to join this month’s prompt: #WalkToSeeWeather ☁️🌧️
  • Why drawing from life feels more “alive”
  • Sketching in public = good panic
  • Small sketchbooks or massive sketchbooks... which camp are you in?
  • Materials that make drawing fun again (paint sticks! Sharpies! toilet roll!)
  • The autumn urge to make something just for fun
  • Apple presses, lino cuts, carbon paper and whisky samples

Timestamps:
00:00 – Helen on starting #WalkToSee back in 2018
02:00 – Why hashtags stopped working and how she brought it back
04:00 – October’s prompt: #WalkToSeeWeather
06:00 – Drawing tiny and feeling rusty
08:00 – Sharpies, paint sticks and rediscovering fun materials
10:00 – Drawing in public (and how to avoid chatty strangers)
12:00 – The “panic” energy in real-life drawing
15:00 – Autumn creative urges and sneaky side projects
17:00 – The joy of carbon paper and slow stationery
19:00 – Studio updates, new neighbours and collaboration
20:00 – Katie’s apple obsession 🍎
21:00 – Tiny whisky bottles

Links & things mentioned:

Byeeee for now!
 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 🎙


[00:00:00] Hello? Hello. Hello. Right, Helen? Yeah. I wanna hear about walk to see what's this exciting stuff. Okay, so walk to see. It's a hashtag that I launched on Instagram. It turns out in 2018 what

it took me a good hour of looking three things, trying to work out when I launched it. 2018, that's seven years ago. Seven years worth of drawings on Instagram. 120,000 contributions so far. Wow, isn't that amazing? That's mad. So I started what to see to celebrate drawings made from life in a [00:01:00] sketchbook.

And at the time I remember looking at all the drawing hashtags and seeing loads of drawings of cities. You know, like the sit, what are they called? Urban, some of the urban sketches and things. They're full of brilliant drones, but they're all cities. And I wanted to see what people were doing indoors. The domestic stuff, like the everyday stuff, like when you go on your walk, what do you see on your walk?

What might you draw on your walk? So I started it off, that's why it's called Walk to See. 'cause it started off as let's draw what we see on our daily walks. Like at the time I was dropping my daughter off at little school and doing drawings on that little walk to school and back every day. But then it felt too restrictive and walk to see has just become big celebration of everything drawn in a sketchbook.

And, um, yeah, that went swimmingly for a few years. Every weekend I would choose all of my favorite walk to see sketches from Instagram, share them on my stories. People would go and find each other and it built up this amazing [00:02:00] community of everybody chatting about sketchbooks, but then. Maybe a year, two years ago, Instagram stopped showing the hashtags in date order.

So if I click on walk to see now, I'll get stuff from a couple of years ago and from today, and just jumps about all over the place. So I couldn't share them on my feed on a weekend anymore. Oh, that's why it stops. So disappointing. So annoying. If I did, it would just have to be a random selection from any date going back to 2018.

So for a little while, I just stopped sharing completely. And then was it you Tanya, or was it my niece Holly? One of you said, Helen, why don't you relaunch Walk to See? And then I was thinking about it and thought if it, if every month it was a slightly different hashtag like walk to see on the move, walk to see black and white line or whatever.

Then every month all I've got is the work of that month and then I can share it and celebrate what's been done recently. So that solved the whole problem. So [00:03:00] now. Last month was the first month I started the new prompts. So every month beginning at the first of every month, I'll launch a new prompt.

This month, October is walk to see weather because we are gonna get some good skies in the autumn, aren't we? Yes. Lots of weather in October. Lots of weather. Yeah. Perfect. And that makes it really easy to draw, whether you're in a city or in the countryside or whether you're stuck at home looking at it out the window, weather, draw the rain, falling down your window, whatever.

Whatever, however you interpret it. And will it be a whole month? Yeah, so we've got a month, each one is a month, and then I'm not expecting everybody to draw every day because there's no way I would manage that. You can interpret it any, any way you want. You can draw once, you can draw every day, whatever you like.

And how will you look every weekend? When are you gonna post a look? Yeah, I'm, I'm actually so excited about it that I'm also looking during the week. I'm looking at it all the time. 'cause it's really exciting. Yeah, there's loads of good stuff on there. So share it whenever you want. And you just use the hashtag this month is [00:04:00] walk to see whether.

Did you say you were, you were trying to work on sketchbooks, small sketchbooks as well? Yeah, so last month, walked to see on the move. I thought, brilliant. I'll get my little sketchbook out. I'm gonna, every time that I go out, I'm gonna go and sit in a cafe or something and draw my little sketchbook.

Turns out I am so out of practice in a little sketchbook. I'm so at home in a massive sketchbook, like an A three one that folds out to a two. I love that size and I like putting it on the ground, putting my pants and things round around me, taking up loads of space with it, setting myself in for the afternoon and just filling up a big sketchbook.

But I used to be able to draw in a little sketchbook somehow. That skill has, has gone. I don't know why. I think even I'll probably have massive paper as well. I always choose big paper. I just really like it. Freedom. Yeah. But I wonder what it is technically in the brain, whether [00:05:00] scaling down, hand eye coordination in the physical space, or is it that a small sketchbook means you've gotta bet your entire drawing on one thing.

You can't really draw a scene in a small sketchbook. You can draw things. Been, so my sketchbook is about a five, half an a four sheet. Yeah. You know what I mean? And when I open it out, it's two sheets of a five landscape. Oh, that's quite big. Aren't so It is actually. There's quite a bit of space in there, but for some reason I just, I've just can't get that knack.

And when I'm in a cafe or something, I'm looking at the whole cafe, the ceiling, all the stuff behind. I have to, if somebody sat near me, I feel like I'm having to shrink them down too small as I've gone every week and I've been doing it for four weeks, and the drawings are getting gradually better.

And I will share that. I'm gonna share them all to show the progress, like how disappointing and how frustrating it was at the beginning. [00:06:00] Like, how can I be running this hashtag when this is my drawing? You've got to see them. They're so bad. But yeah, every time I'm doing it, they're getting to see Slightly better.

Slightly better. Yeah. Stick with it. I'm excited to see these drawing. Is it because what? What are you using to draw with? Is it that's thing you're drawing with or is it the picture in your head? I think it might have been might the things I was drawing with. I was just taking a pointy implement like a pen or a pencil.

'cause it's a small sketchbook. Yeah. And my breakthrough last week was when I decided to take paint sticks and sharpies. 'cause the sharpies will draw over the paints sticks. So my paint sticks will fill in like a huge area in the background and the sun coming through the window. And shadows and, and I really like all that stuff.

So that, that has really helped. I think I was taking the wrong materials. It's the wrong 'cause we always talk about this. What is it the best kit to take out when you're sketching? And I'm gonna try and put this kit together. 'cause I think a thin black line, one of those brushes that you've, you [00:07:00] fill yourself Oh yeah.

With like a little bit of sludgy gray. Yeah. You could fill it with tea or just water down ink and toilet roll because you need to dry that quickly. And you can get a texture with your toilet. But I take all of that sort of stuff when I go out and draw in my big sketchbook, I'm not frightened of taking wet materials with me, but on a tiny sketchbook in the corner of a cafe on a train, I thought dry materials are easier, aren't they?

Yeah. Is it 'cause they're, they're uninspiring. I, 'cause I can't draw with just drawing things anymore, but I wanted to get some painting. I used to be able, so I used to be able to, but I think I'm out of practice. I used to take a tiny a six sketchbook on a train and. Easily draw just with a bi and have nice drawings.

I couldn't do that now. A bi and a sketchbook. Yeah, I'd be really uninspired. I dunno why I couldn't a a six in a viral was like my nanny sketchbook. 'cause you could put it in a pocket. Yeah. And just whip it out and be tiny used. Put it away. That's also, I like the rebellious of a bi because it's rubbish, isn't it?

And it smells got that spiral smell. And I really like that. Like [00:08:00] it's hardcore bad, isn't it? And I'm really like, that inspires me hardcore bad material. It's a trigger for Helen. I really like that. These are not for drawing. Give it, I do not want WinDor and Newton selling me something. I want a borrow free from the hotel.

I bet you like lined paper to draw on as well, don't you? Yeah. An old exercise book. Yeah, I like that. I think I'm just out practice, don't you? It's a skill and you've gotta that blobby thing though to begin with. Yeah. I like to have the blobby mess on the page to mess it up and to give you some guidance.

Like, you know, you like the blobby drawings, don't you love a good blob? I was just thinking about that. Like blobbing the shapes in and the colors. Mm-hmm. And it stops your brain doing that thing where it thinks it knows what size stuff is. And then you find your drawing off the edge of the paper because you got it wrong and it's much bigger than your brain thought.

Yeah, I think the materials really, it's, you've gotta get the ones that you're happy with. And because of art club, you've used so many amazing materials. When you think of art club, I always draw quite big as well, don't I? Yeah, massive. My natural [00:09:00] habitat now is a big sketchbook, I think. And the IT noticed until I tried to shrink it and yeah, well, along with the biggest stick of charcoal I have ever seen, oh, that stick of charcoal hot club.

Isn't that amazing? It's like a kind of Coke made a charcoal. I did not know this was in our house. I, why, how? Jerry has kept this from me for, he said he's had it ages, years and he just brought, he just walked into the kitchen casually and put it on the table. I was like, what the heck? It was so good to draw with.

Jerry's had five years to blow your mind with his secret fat charcoal. No. The Friday night was the time. How big is it? How can we describe how big it is? It's like if think, if you think of a kind of hairspray. Yes. Yeah. That sort of size thought. Yeah it is. Think you should take that to the cafe one day with your A five sketchbook.

Maybe I should just take a massive sketchbook in the cafe. 'cause I'm not frightened of people seeing me, so why am I, do people taking the time? Do people look at you? Do they? No, I've never noticed that. People in a, [00:10:00] especially if it's in a city, people are too busy, aren't they? Yeah. Yeah. I've never had anybody, that's something people say a lot to us and say, yeah, exactly.

Actually everywhere online, I feel like people are like, I'm so shy about drawing in public, people are gonna see me. Mm-hmm. But I don't think I've ever, maybe I'm a show off secretly. 'cause I don't really ever, I don't really mind. There are times I think when I think I really wanna get on with this and I could do without anybody speaking to me, but then I have my rude body language that defends me.

Invisible body language where you just hunch your shoulders over and look really unfriendly. Like growl if you're getting Yeah. Or put my earphones in even if there's nothing playing. Yeah. Because then people think you're in your own world and you're not gonna answer anyway. Yeah. If you've got a big set of.

Proper headphones padded. Yeah. Yeah. No one's going. That's a really good idea. Yeah. It's better than making that high-vis jacket that says, go away. 'cause I was thinking about that. Yeah. I am an idiot. Do not talk to me. You'll regret talking to me. Yeah you've gotta put these. Sketch is up now.

Everyone's gonna wanna see the bad drawings. I'm gonna share, I'm gonna share them. They're really, [00:11:00] really, really bad. And it might give people who are really rusty some more, but it'll only give them hope if I get better. So I need to stick at it. You need to finish this journey before you share it, or just admit I am no longer any good in a little sketchbook and start taking a massive one.

Into a cafe. This is might be your massive sketchbook season. I think it might be. Yeah. The trials of the finding the right sketchbook is, yeah. It's a real trial, isn't it? Mm-hmm. What do you need for that day? Also, what, what sketchbooks, when you go on holiday, they weigh so much. You can't squeeze three different types, like the thin paper, the painting paper, the landscape format, the bigger vertical format, and a mini sketchbook you've already exceeded Ryans.

Baggage allowance by that time, even for a day out if they don't fit in your tote bag. Yeah, it's hard. Have it and because I love a massive sketchbook, it's not handy carrying that around with me everywhere, is it? Yeah. You spend the whole day out thinking I didn't use anything. I just [00:12:00] used a tiny sketchbook with my bi.

The really nice thing on work to see is people draw. The most inconsequential things. I really love that. Just ordinary bits of the day, like the family sitting around the table or watching TV or drawing what's on the tele. Some people though naughty people, try and pretend it's drawn from life.

But you can tell, can't you? If something's drawn from a photo, it's too rendered and you can definitely tell.

So when I'm sharing all my stories, I am a bit a walk to see police. I am. But you're not gonna make exhibitions of people, are you? I am. This was drawn from a phone. Don't test her. Tanya She'll example. They've got all the time in the world, haven't they? And it you can see. Yeah. It's too comfortable. You need to see that panic in a drawing where the weather's moving too fast.

The panic in a drawing really does something, doesn't it? There's something about, we're like at art club, when we set the timer, there's [00:13:00] something about a bit of panic that stops what's it like gets between you and your head. And I think sometimes escaping yourself in a drawing is really handy, isn't it?

Anything that makes you feel a bit uncomfortable. Stops you overthinking? Like often when I go, do you know what? I might have just thought why these drawings are no good? Because when I go drawing from life with my massive sketchbook, because it's big, I plan a few hours out and I'm so excited when I get there and I draw a drawing, all the drawings are rubbish and then I give up and then they get good.

'cause I know I'm there for hours. And I'm like I can't go home yet. I've planned the whole afternoon. All the drawings, rubbish. It's a write off. I'll just do any old rubbish now and then they get good. Whereas it in a cafe, I've only got the length of my cup of tea. This might be it. Yeah, think this might be it.

You need bored him or you need to give up. Exasperated I either have to give up before I get in there or sit there longer. Building in failure, what might 20 minutes, you're not really gonna get into zone. It's not long enough is to get in the zone. [00:14:00] You need 36 minutes, I think. That's what Arc Club exactly.

Yeah. 36 minute into Arc Club. We always go quiet, don't we? And we start concentrating. Yeah, yeah, exactly. That's when the zone descends upon you both. And don't put a timer on. 'cause if you're alerted at the 36 minute mode, that'll snap you out. Oh my goodness. Oh, it's so complicated. This is making me want to draw more.

So hopefully if you're listening to this, you can join in with Walk to see. Yeah, be really nice to see all the winter skies, autumn, weather skies does it Weather. Walk to see weather. If you've been looking for a reason to get to do some drawing, this is it. I, I really fancy doing some play drawing this.

Autumn, what do you, we were talking about autumn new starts, weren't we? And what you want to do with your work or with your creativity generally. It doesn't have to be work. I mean, if you've got enough time, if you've got enough of a gap between your work, what would you do that makes you feel revived and, and more creative?

It's always nice to. Do something that [00:15:00] feels sneaky and nothing to do with your other creative work, isn't it? Yeah. Naughty. Yeah. Yeah. So Pi is getting her foli together to apply to art school. And so I said, let's do some lino cutting one night. Let's do a bit of lino cutting when you get in from school.

And, um, usually I'm not mad about printmaking. I find the process so long and then if the results are rubbish, I feel really disappointed it took me that long. I'm quite an instant. I want an instant. What's the word? Gratification. Gratification, yeah. But yeah, this time, this time I'm absolutely loving it.

It's so nice. We sit at the kitchen table chatting while we're chiseling out the line. Know it's been really nice. It looks nice. Yeah. I'm peeking at it on stories. Yeah, I had a look. I thought, how have you got the patient? I think it's 'cause pie's just chatting with me, and she's a teenager and she's been to some good parties with good gossip, and that's been so, uh, exciting here in all the gossip.

Yeah. Was it mono? Is it monoprint? When you like [00:16:00] splat the paint or the ink on the page, put the paper on top and then draw on the back of the paper. Yeah. That's nice. Instant. I used to love that kind of. Yeah, because it's drawing basically, isn't it? That reminds me of carbon paper. Yeah, carbon paper's. So lovely, isn't it for doing a drawing and having your carbon paper between your drawing and the next sheet of paper.

Yeah, and whatever your drawing is, even if it looks bad on the top piece, the piece of carbon paper turns it into something really interesting, doesn't it? Like little mottled texturey bits as well. Yeah. It wasn't that how Andy Warhol did his drawing. Is that right? Yeah, that's how got that. Maybe someone's gonna call in and say, no, actually it's not.

It's a special fountain pen that went a bit. S crunchy. Perhaps I've got this wrong, but as someone said, it was through carbon paper. Can you still get carbon paper? Yeah. Well, grieves down the road in Barrick. Yes, you can buy, and he sells one sheet at a time for something like two P. 'cause I've heard somebody come in and ask and he went round the back and took out one sheet of carbon paper and sold it for a couple of peas.

So that's pretty, that's where the bingo dubs came from. Yes. Really miss. Degrees [00:17:00] is not benefiting from the trends that have been created through art Club with Bingo D and possibly now carbon paper. If you want. We, we'll make up a special Grieves bear condition and sell it in packs. That's reminded me of a quota saw and it's about like dilly ding and enjoying yourself on purpose.

And it was, I can't remember who said the quota, who it was about or anything useful, but there was. Mandy did an envelope and his wife was like, oh, you're really rich. Why don't you just buy like a big pack of envelopes online? And he was like, no, I want to go to the shop and buy one envelope because I will tell a lady that her baby looks nice and I will stroke a dog and I will go into the shop.

And I was like that's the kind of autumn feeling. Yeah. Real vibes. Yeah. Yeah. Visitor station, stationers. Buy one slice of carbon paper. Yeah. I've just moved into my studio. Um, in the barracks and it's, it looks a bit techy, like there's lots of computer screens and printers and ring lights, but I'm like, that is all gonna be put aside next week.

And I'll get that big wad of paper out and [00:18:00] all the paints and all the color and. I'm putting off starting the color course because I can't work out how to begin, so I thought if I just play with color, and do the things that I like, it will, I'm thinking it will magically become the color course. Can we come and see your studio please? Yeah. We havent had a visit yet. We're waiting for an invite. Okay, well then you're invited.

I'm gonna go there this afternoon. I'll be there all this week. And it's really nice because there's four other people. In the studios with me, one is a filmmaker, Catherine. The woman on the other side is a forager and kind of plants person. Mm-hmm. Joe, who makes pigment from plants and is a general all around creative person.

And then we've got someone who's a horticulturalist and a land art performance artist. Mm-hmm. Wow. Who else is in there? It's a really interesting mix of people. So I can go and ask Catherine next door, is this the best way to film the color course? So all this interaction is happening. Joe came round and said, can I ask you about paper?

Why is this rag paper all kind of buckling up when I put lots of [00:19:00] watercolor on it? All those things that just don't happen in real life anymore. Having someone nearby to have a chat with about things. Does not happen in my studio because I'm in a very corporate businessy, officey place. I heard you introduce yourself to the neighbor the other day.

Oh yeah. In the corridor. How did I introduce, I don't even know what I said, but I think I was just Yeah, they do. Environmental consultancy. Yeah they nearly cool. Yeah. Say I just draw pictures live. Yeah. They get, that's what you did. You said something like that. Very, very short and sweet and then said, nice to meet you.

Bye. And I thought that was very well done. I don't want 'em to be like, oh God, my, it's gonna talk my ear off. What do you do for autumn, Katie? What's your autumn so far? Lots of apples because it's been apple centric. We've had many, many, many apple crumbles and our freezer's full of chopped up apples. I just ordered an apple press, so it's really exciting though.

I've been doing a bit of juicing as well, but my poor little juicer. Yeah, your [00:20:00] camera. And asked if I could juice two trees worth of now the engine would burn out on that. That's, I was like, Tanya's machine is a precious, delicate instrument. Yeah. I got one of those wooden barrels where you like just chop the apples and then smoosh them in and then it goes through a net and I've even ordered some vitamin C powder to stop it going brown.

I've just done the classic thing of becoming obsessed with something. Yeah, absolutely. But I feel like this is an investment in my future of having apples every year. Are you gonna make cider? Can we have a good ship cider club? I don't like cider. You don't taste of, we taste of what I might think we make taste like.

Yeah. I nearly, I just sat down and nearly talking of alcohol, took a swig of one of Tanya's bottles behind me. Why? Why are they in tiny bottles, Tanya? Because. Graham works at a whiskey distillery called a Gaffin in Walla, and sometimes they get, they develop a new product, so he just brings back basic.

Are these little samples though? Yeah, the little samples. They, that is basically [00:21:00] Bailey's, but it's the a Gaffin version. It's in a teeny, teeny little bottle like that. You would get a tiny, like a perfume bottle, a tiny one. Doesn't it smell good? Have a smell? I held it up to the microphone. Can you smell that?

The other day we had friends over and Graham had gone to bed and we were finishing off the Arin whiskey. I said, I'll open this bottle. 'cause it sat here. It turned out the next morning that it was a special edition of Whiskey that had his birthdate number on it, and it was a higher volume of alcohol, which is why it tasted like.

Asked Regal. It was beautiful and we had laid waste to a third of this whiskey. I'm so glad that I just didn't take the top off that and swig it because Graham could have been very cross. It could of all the things to pick, and he did agree that he shouldn't have left it out there. He should have hidden it away if it was like it's his fault.

See you next week. Bye bye.