RIP Hockney & (Art) school's out for summer 🤘 🌴 🍦🩲

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 🎙

Transcript

Summer Breaks and Artistic Ramblings
===

​

[00:00:00] Hello, welcome. We are trying out recording online, all three of us. It's very exciting

It's our first time we're not actually sitting in the same room together with our cups of tea and biscuits. We're all on a screen. I wonder if we'll sound different or come out differently at the other end of the machine

I wonder. Maybe we'll be less likely to talk over each other or more likely. I don't know. We'll see

Well, we're coming up to the summer, so we thought we'd do an episode all about taking breaks. 'Cause every summer we do take a little break, don't we?

Yeah, absolutely. I like to pretend that I'm French and I pack everything up and go [00:01:00] put my tent up in Brittany and just stay there for two months. When we were young, we'd go camping. My mom and dad would take us camping there, and I'd just look at the French with their televisions in their tents, in their caravan tent sections, and they'd spend two months there.

I couldn't believe it. It's like the Americans leave New York, don't they, for the whole summer?

This they would TVs in their tents when you... I missed it. When, what period in time? This must have been very high tech if you were a kid

It was very high tech. It was probably like 1978, early 1980s, and my f- our favorite people that we'd camp next to every year were this grandma and granddad, and they had their twin grandsons with them, and they had a ca- a caravan with a tent awning attached to it, which in and of itself I thought was pretty mind-blowing.

And inside there, next to her kitchen chopping table, she had a little TV with a circular aerial on the back, and she could watch TV all day. And I thought, "Well, if you're there for two months, it's probably worth it." But nevertheless, technically [00:02:00] it was mind-blowing to a 10-year-old

Yeah. Wow. High tech

So that's where,

that.

that's where we're going.

Yeah.

One time when I was a kid, this was in the '70s, I was probably about seven, and, uh, my dad decided he had this absolute genius brave wa- brainwave of an idea that we could have a cassette player in the car. So he got my little cassette player, like a li- the size of a shoebox, and took it out ... Well, he tried to take it out to the car with some wires to set it all up so that we could have music on our journey on holiday.

He was gonna wire it up to the battery of the car or something, but on the way out, I dropped the cassette and sma- the cassette player and smashed

it

uh, probably saved you from being electrocuted every time you press the start That sounds really dodgy.

I was thinking that you probably accidentally saved his life.

So what's your, what's [00:03:00] everyone's idea of taking a summer break? What, what,

what does it.

look 

I've always, taken the summer off since Frida was born because it was just such a nightmare trying to work with a little child around. It was impossible. It made all of us miserable. So I've been taking summer off for 18 years. Well, you know, taking it off, but I would look in on my emails every morning before she was out of bed and maybe do a little bit of admin-y stuff, maybe even a little bit of drawing, but not much.

But by the time she was out of bed, that was it. So yeah, I've been doing it for years, but weirdly this year I'm not.

Is she's passed her 18th birthday? What are you

doing 

past her 18th birthday, but it's not 'cause of that. I would've taken the summer off usually, but we suddenly reali- Katie and I have written the next Salty Dog stories, and it suddenly dawned on us all that if I don't hurry up and do the artwork now, we'll miss the publication date next year.

And because the first Salty Dog has done so well, we don't wanna lose the [00:04:00] momentum. So I decided that, that is fine. I am completely happy to go in my illustrator hermit cave and work really hard for the next month, and then I will have August off. But for July, I'm in my hermit cave. But I know there's an end to it, and we've been having a nice summer before now, and there's August and September, so it'll be good

So you, then you can have a bumper break in August and September

Yeah. We're going to Copenhagen at the beginning of August, so I, I'm in my hermit cave working like crazy, and then there's a lovely treat at the end

It's good to have that deadline, isn't it? 'Cause if you don't have the deadline on something, you could work forever.

Okay, what does your summer look like, Tanya?

Well, I decided, uh... Oh, yes, because we're do- I'm on this project with a s- with a slack deadline, and I've decided I want this project to be the one where I do all the things that I've wanted to do for ages, like use [00:05:00] texture, use line. You know, I've, I've been waiting for a project that would allow me to change my work a bit, and I'm trying to do it on this particular one.

So I've sl- slightly loaded it with too many wishes in a way, but it's-- so it's taking me ages. But that's not a bad thing because the deadline is really loose, so I'm using it to experiment. Um, I've got about 10 processes between the rough drawings and the f- and even the color roughs. I've never spent this long on it, and I was berating myself, and then I thought, "Actually, it's okay.

Just go in every day for half a day and work on each character one by one." And even if the, it's kind of glacially slow, if you're making developments in your work and the work is changing, then you're getting what you want. It doesn't all have to be breakneck speed. So I think my summer is a half day summer with some days out.

I'm going to have some artist dates with my partner as well. And so, you know, all the things you never do in the winter, 'cause the sun's here and you've gotta do Jupiter Artland and go [00:06:00] walking in the Cheviot Hills or see if you can stay on your bike longer than 10 minutes without falling off. So that's my summer, and I'm gonna carry it on for two months if it will work.

I'm very excited to see your new experiments with your work.

Oh, you'll not recognize me.

that.

Can't

wait. What

project

what is the project that, that you're doing this with?

This one is a project for my main client, Berwick, my muse. seem to work for Berwick. Um, that, uh, that's our hometown if, if anyone's listening. N- but we're not North Berwick, we're Berwick-upon-Tweed. And, uh, it's, it's really interesting, but for-- it's for the new museum, and there's a wall featuring all the characters.

The-- well, eight characters from Berwick, from different socioeconomic backgrounds during the time they built the wall around the town. So it was kind of paranoia and suspicion, and the military occupied the town, and the [00:07:00] locals were, were against it. So then you've got some locals in there, you've got some military officers, some poor kids who are just sort of barefoot, rag-ragged tail, raggedy kids, uh, a maid, um, an alderman, and a mayor.

So

I've got to c- and they show me things that I've b- that are in the collection that I have to integrate into the drawings. So basically, they're full-length portraits. Sorry, it took a long while to get to that point. But they're full-length portraits of different people with some of the items drawn into the illustration.

And I haven't done people for a while. I've done too many maps. So yeah, that's w- that's the difference.

Oh, I'm excited to see those. Are they big? How big are the people gonna be? Do you know?

Well, they're gonna be about A3 size. Oh, the other thing that's interesting is they want them cut into a diorama, into three points, that every image has to have a foreground, which is a, a bit of a device, and sometimes I have to put something in just for the sake of like, ooh, a table in front of them or a stone wall.

And then the character in the middle ground, and then a background. [00:08:00] So it's like a three-part diorama, and it'll be lit.

Ooh

Oh

it's gonna be cut out of some kind of rigid substrata thing that they're printed on. So I think it'd be-- it will look really nice when it's installed on this, it's called the Gossip Wall.

So it's all the gossip that was going around the town at a point of hysteria

Will there be an audio of the gossip or, or will that be

visual as well

Hmm

Oh, I don't know. Maybe. They might have it, you know, those kind of immersive museum design things. I, I really like working for heritage projects like this, but there's lots of research 'cause everything you draw, you think: would their hair really have looked like that? Is this costume right? And if-- once you start researching, I just go down a rabbit hole and spend days there.

That's

What about

you

Yeah. That's brilliant

Did, you say it's got, it's got no deadline or it's got a very loose deadline? Is that the problem?

Um, it's got a very loose movable deadline because it's one of those p- y- museum and history projects always [00:09:00] seem to move quite slowly. They're not like design and advertising at all. But I need to get a move on on this. But it does mean instead of a whole day, especially when I'm trying to work out change, it's too exhausting to do seven hours.

I think short four-hour afternoons. And I love working in my new studio because it's actually in the heart of-- Well, it's in, it's sort of in the museum as well, so you feel like you're creating in a place where it happened and where it's going to happen as well. So it's an interesting combination.

Oh, that's nice. Brilliant. I might have

a 

so good

by the end of summer.

Oh, really? Are you gonna, are you 

around

the are almost ready, so by the end of summer I might have a studio.

Exciting.

Yeah.

We're also doing open studios, aren't we? We're doing Berwick Open Studios, and we've got a couple of workshops each on the two days in the-- I think it's the 3rd of October. We're gonna put stuff up about that, and we're working out of the Pith [00:10:00] Sketchbook Studios. They've given us a really nice space to do drawing workshops in.

I'm so excited about that.

be good

drawing even

I always like it when we get to meet some of our good shippers in real life. When you face to a artwork that you've seen for ages or a name on Instagram, I'm excited about that

Yeah

if you're in Northumberland or you're near Berwick, or even if you're not and you're just here on holiday, plan it around October and then you can come to the pith workshops

Yeah, And then there's loads of other studios open as well all over Berwick. And it's nice just to be in Berwick. It's a really good place to come and draw and do some, um, walk to sees. We could have a special walk to see for that month, couldn't we,

for 

Oh, we, we could. Oh, yeah.

That links with it

Link it with the Pith sketchbooks. Ooh, yeah. We'll have to get our

Actually, I'm so excited about the Walk to See thing 'cause now on Instagram, if you go on Helen's Walk to See posts, you can see people's photos of their sketchbook in the comments. It's so cool

You can add pictures to the comments. [00:11:00] It's so great because with the hashtags going a bit wonky with the new algorithms and stuff, it's, it's, it's always okay for me. When I click on Walk to See, I do see sketchbooks, but I think Instagram knows that that's what I'm looking for all the time. But if you don't look at sketchbooks most of the time, when you click on Walk to See, they, they're, they're not searching for the hashtag, they're just searching for the words walk, see, and so you get a load of random stuff of people walking.

Really?

So And also they don't show anything in chronological order anymore, so I can never see what people have done recently. But anyway, um, yeah, it's brilliant

cause you can 

But why did it take, why did it take so long though? 'Cause Facebook can do that. They've always done it, haven't they? Comments. You put photos in comments and if it-- Facebook own Inst- do Facebook own Instagram? They do, don't they?

Mm-hmm.

Or Meta owns Instagram.

it's good. people are, sticking their photo, their, um, pictures underneath the Walk to Sea post now, so it's brilliant. Definitely [00:12:00] see them all.

Then the, the posts will get really long, won't they? 'Cause, you know, the, the walk to sea hashtag would generate loads of, um, joiners, wouldn't it

Yeah, it's a-- people are doing a bit of everything. So you can either post your drawing and use the hashtag but link me so that I definitely see it 'cause I don't wanna miss them. Or you can join in the, um, a- what, what's it called? Add on stories, the feature where there's a template and you add yours. I think it might be called Add Yours on stories.

I don't know why I'm having a brain blank

about it?

But I've started an Add Yours template on stories, um, and you can add your sketchbooks in there. And that's like a kind of chain letter. If your friend does it, you see it, and then you can join in, and then their friends will see it and they can join in.

So you can do that, or you can add your picture in the comments underneath. So I'm seeing them in loads of ways now. And actually I started it as a chat on Substack as well because on a [00:13:00] normal Substack post you can't add a picture, but if you start a chat you can. So I've done that on Substack too.

Oh, that's cool

Hmm.

That ad yours sounds right up my street. A no-brainer. You've done the work for me. You've got the... 'cause I don't understand templates. They're too complicated. But if you put one up there. And I'm going to see Alan Carr this afternoon. He doesn't know I'm coming, but I'm taking my sketchbook. I'm going to this auction at Ayton Castle 'cause he, Alan Carr's

bought the castle in a little village near Katie and Helen and I, and they're selling off a load of the stuff. So it's a viewing day today, and I thought this would be a really good day to do some drawing while people stand and wonder if that wardrobe would get through their front door type thing. So,

Is this the day where they're selling the concrete jungle?

Yeah, they're selling the Branxton Menagerie, which is all-- It's such beautiful folk

art 

Oh, it's gorgeous. Um, I didn't know viewing day was today. My mom and dad are coming tomorrow, so I was thinking of taking my mom and dad tomorrow. Um,

It's all [00:14:00] sold out. I had to

sold out

Eventbrite ticket. Yeah. B- I think it's because they haven't got car parking space, so it's hard to get in. But I will post loads of pictures see if I can get Alan Carr with a, a cement giraffe or something like that.

Be so good

what's your summer gonna look like, Katie?

We didn't ask you

well, yeah, so the reason, uh, like my idea of a break is not having deadlines or client-y work to do. And this is the first summer where E has been in school, like the only as term time, 'cause last year she was in nursery, so it just carried on, so it was kinda hard to take time off. So it's almost like term times are enforcing a break, which I'm happy about.

So the next Fri- oh, no, she's got like two weeks left, and then it's six weeks off, and, um, I've blocked out the whole six weeks. Yes

It's gonna be the first time for ages, isn't it, that you're able to do that? And it's good that you've been given permission because like Helen said, it's, it's a mug's game. There's absolutely no way you could, as freelancers, you can work [00:15:00] when children are around. And also the guilt is so overwhelming and your personal need to have fun with them and enjoy being with them

I always feel like if I try and juggle, I just end up doing everything badly. Like I'm not a nice mom and I do a rubbish job of whatever it was I was trying to achieve. So it's like, why, why am I trying to do both? This is not possible

Yeah. Yeah, I think the the sooner one accepts that, life suddenly gets easier and in a way it's, it's a privilege and good fortune that we can all make decisions about our working life. So many people don't have that. So I hope we're not making anyone grumpy talking about free will here.

We are very lucky, but I ha- it wasn't like this at the beginning of my career. The beginning career whe- whe- before Frida was born and, you know, trying to get into publishing, I just worked all the time. It felt like a big gamble, and in the end it's, it's rewarded. Um, but yeah, at the beginning, [00:16:00] driven by ambition and passion and whatever else.

But that is really true. But I think the freelance gig can be just life-consuming. You never say yes to anything 'cause-- Well, you say yes to a few things knowing you'll never go, 'cause you'll probably get a job in, and that's working evenings, it's working... You just work all the time. Remember in the summer holidays when we lived in Hong Kong, as it approached the time to, to leave, to fly back to see my family, which is what we did most summers, that last two weeks was just awful.

It would just be like near anxiety attacks, trying to squeeze everything in, knowing then you've got to pack for the kids, pack for everyone for six weeks, and make sure you get on the plane. And I'd just be fizzing and vibrating by the time I climbed the steps to the plane because I'd just about finished.

And it was working with newspapers, so it was one-week turnarounds, and everything was really intense, and it would just reach fever pitch. It was always completely exhausting. So yeah, [00:17:00] it's like you say, it's a-- Though it may be a privilege now, it's something you work really hard for and sacrifice a lot earlier in your career.

Hmm.

I feel like nowadays it's really hard to take an actual break 'cause we're so connected to everything all the time. And I find, like, even so I'll try really hard to, like, put boundaries in. I'm like, "I'm gonna delete the email app off my phone." But then, I don't know, I'll buy something from Argos and it's like, "We've emailed you the code."

And I'm like, "Oh, I don't have that app. Like, I have to reinstall the app." And then you get the app back on your phone, and then you're like, "Well, I can't delete it again 'cause I'm probably gonna need it for something like that" or... So yeah, like, no, I feel like no matter how hard I try to, like, disconnect, it'll last, like, a day, and then I'll miss something important.

I'm like, "Oh, well, I missed that important thing, so I can't do that again." So it's, yeah, it's really annoying.

Yeah, by the third time it probably comes, becomes pointless. I'm just in awe that you ever tried to delete your email app. I've kind of given up. I feel shackled completely and utterly[00:18:00] 

I mean, I've tried so many things. I've got, like, a brick thing for my phone. Last year I tried getting a dumb phone, and that was really annoying, and I missed loads of stuff. Just like, just like, it feels like there's a sacrifice. I can either miss everything and be offline or be annoyingly connected and not really ever switch off.

But, like, I'm good at, like, nighttime putting my phone away and stuff, but in the day, oh, it's annoying

Can you, can you just close down your business email and keep your personal email that will have all your Argos things going and your plane tickets or whatever it is that you

suppose I could do, yeah. I'm, I'm a really annoying-- Like, I don't have a very good separation of, like, personal and business email. Like, there's a lot of overlap, especially with ancient things. Like, new things, I'm always putting them on the personal email, but old things from the olden days, I just have one email

I thought that today actually, how I couldn't even-- I didn't even have separate bank accounts for years. Everything was blended into the same thing, and I thought it was like, "I am this business. What do people mean a business account or a business [00:19:00] email? I am just this." But actually, it's much later on I've realized, wow, it does work.

You keep them completely separate. Maybe that's the way, but I've just got FOMO, so I couldn't do any of that.

Okay. Well, enjoy your summers.

So shall we go and have, let's go and have our break.

I can't wait

I said, yeah, we forgot to say, so there's gonna be... 'Cause last year when, when we had a summer break, we re-released old episodes. But this year we thought we don't even need to do that, do we? We can just have a proper rest

Yeah, it might annoy people who have been faithful listeners. I saw someone the other day post on Instagram saying, "I've listened to all the, um, 'Good Ship' podcasts. Now, has anyone got anything else to recommend?" I couldn't believe it. They'd listened all of it and run

them?

Yeah, so someone would know if we put an old one

I'm not sure I want people listening to those early ones. Don't to those early ones. We had no idea what we were doing. We're barely managing now. What are

you[00:20:00] 

Yeah, back off. 

That's not the point.

do you know what we were gonna sign off with? We were gonna sign off with our, our sadness about David Hockney

Ah, mm-hmm.

it just seemed to be something that was inevitable, and it was... When it came, no one really knew what to say because he was so amazing, and now he's gone. The illustrator's painter, everyone's painter.

I think we all loved him, didn't we?

Oh, loved him. It was really sad news. Really sad news.

But was a nice excuse to look at all the pictures of him in his natty clothes, wasn't

it his

paintings

Oh, his clothes are so fun, aren't they? They're so brilliant. I love him. all the quotes going around Instagram, I enjoyed all that

We could have a David dress, come as your favorite period Hockney

Oh, 

so

good. Can we actually do

that

Let's have a summer barbecue where we all dress as David Hockney

Please can we do I really want to do that.

But we've got to [00:21:00] bleach her hair, this is the issue, or find wigs

yeah, wigs.

A job lot of blonde wigs all wear the same wig?

Yeah. Do you know my dad looks a bit like David Hockney, so we'll have to invite my dad

Your dad does have lovely blonde

Yeah. Oh, he likes to now, yeah, now that he has dementia, my dad loves to touch his hair and tell us that everybody knows him for his lovely blonde hair. It's, it's gorgeous. It's so lovely.

He looks like Alan Bennett. He's between Alan Bennett and David

I know Alan Bennett, David Hockney, and my dad are kind of one person

I'll talk to him like that next time I see him. It will be the best way to picture him in my head

Also, my dad has a little bit of Ken Barlow going on as well.

Ken Barlow, if anybody doesn't know, is from a British soap opera called "Coronation Street" that's been going on since about the war, I think. And I think Ken Barlow's in the whole time. And I've not watched it in decades, but I think he's still in it.

I keep

getting videos from [00:22:00] that where they say, "I'm going to London."

London

"London. So like anybody, anytime anyone says London, I say, "London."

Brilliant. Do you know what I think was so gorgeous about David Hockney was how he didn't talk about art with any pretension whatsoever. really love that. He had that proper Yorkshireman down to earth and art is for everybody. And the art he made was very unpretentious as well, and he got excited about iPads and made work on iPads.

He was brilliant in that way.

I was reading the other day, he said, you know when he does that photographic work and he put like 200 photographs, yeah, the tiny pictures of the large thing. He was saying that he, he realized that the looking had stopped because he wasn't drawing as an art form or painting. That kind of work didn't really work for him anymore because the camera looking through the lens, what-- although it seemed like active [00:23:00] looking, it wasn't the active looking you get when you're sitting and drawing,

That is

so

true. You see so much more when you're drawing than when you're just wandering around looking or, or using your phone to take a photo. Yesterday I was drawing in Newcastle Station, and at the end of a drawing looked at it and had this revelation that the whole of the floor in Newcastle Station is so shiny that everybody is reflected as if they're standing on water.

You see them underneath themselves, and I'd drawn it, and at the end of the drawing I thought, oh, uh, they look like they're stood on like a sea because the sh- floor is shiny. And I have been to that station throughout my life and never really noticed that before.

God, that's proof, isn't it?

yeah.

That the drawing teaches you

I made that sound like a huge philosophical statement.

It's not all. station has a shiny but I never noticed until I drew it.

I'm thinking about the party again. [00:24:00] I might like to come as the woman who's looking into the swimming pool.

Oh yeah, she was in, I watched a documentary the other night and she was in it. the, is she called like Hollywood Housewife or something, or Beverly Hills Housewife?

Yeah, that's it.

Where did you

we have

options 

Katie? I'd like to watch that

Uh, it was on BBC iPlayer and there's a Imagine one and another one, and it was the other one. And it was really good to have as, like, background noise while I was just floating around the house

I love those Imagine documentaries. Sometimes when I go and watch TV and I can't find anything, and I do that trawl and then it feel like, well, it's too early to go to bed, I really want to watch something, that's where I end up is on BBC Arts watching documentaries about painters from the '70s. And I always think, "That's all I need.

Actually, this is way better than any of the rubbish I

They're brilliant. I often end up on BBC on the Storyville, Storyville stuff, the documentaries. They're fantastic. They're so random. They're about all sorts of different things. They're amazing. I love them. [00:25:00] BBC Archive is fab.

It is so

Yeah, it is definitely. Okay, so there's a Hockney party planned for the summer at some point, 'cause I do-- my garden's looking lovely, so I want to invite you both round. That could be the

party 

dig a pool though? 'Cause if it's a Hockney party, we need a pool. Yeah, and cigarettes

Yeah.

I, well, I'll just get some blue plastic

down

Okay.

put that where the lawn is, I'll do-- We

can all paint some

wiggly stripes on

it

start smoking now in practice so that I'm ready

I'll learn too. Yeah, we'll learn, Katie, shall we? We might be sick first. We need to get that out way before the party.

push

through that.

Oh, and that giant suit that he wore, those last photos of him in that like David Byrne-esque suit where, 'cause he was so tiny and old and he'd become very thin, and he was in that giant checked suit surrounded by his family. Did you see those photos?

No, I, I know suit. I've seen it in other [00:26:00] pictures, but I haven't seen with his family

The suit looked about 50 million times too big for him, and you just thought that was the picture. I thought, "We'll be saying goodbye very soon." I'd thought that. Everyone had thought it for a long while, hadn't they? But, oh, it is sad to see him go.

Hmm.

But there's all those beaut- y- you know, he inspired so many people, I think on both sides, fine artists, graphic designers, illustrators.

It was a-- The work was just so thrilling, so it's just nice to go and look, go back and look at those and plan our costumes.

I'm immediately going to look at wigs now we hang up

Order a job lot, Katie. We get-- we're all gonna need one

Okay, three when I find them.

and send your availability and we'll party

Okay. I'm free all summer.

Oh, okay. Yeah, of course. We're all free

August? 'Cause Helen's in that cave

Yeah, August. August.

Good luck with the salty drawings, Helen

Thank you. I'm really looking forward to doing them because, because I know [00:27:00] the characters inside out now 'cause we've done one book already. I know where they live, I know their backgrounds, I know everything about them. I feel as if this one is gonna be easier, and because of the deadline, I'm gonna use it like art club and, you know, m- m- make the drawings as spontaneous as possible.

'Cause I don't need to learn anything. I don't need to spend ages drawing their bunk beds 20 times to work out where, where they sleep. It's all there already, so I'm gonna be able to just enjoy it, just put my timer on like it's art club and make them quick. It's gonna be good

That's a good attitude. Yeah. It's like you've done your world-building, haven't

you 

It's all

Linda's fun world building is done.

Mm-hmm

Well, I'm off to speak to Victoria Semikina now. I'm so

excited

Ooh, have 

And

we're gonna do an i- do an interview with her for Freak Flag course about bridging the gap between your, your roughs and your final artwork.

So that's what I wanted to chat about, and I'm really looking forward to meeting

[00:28:00] her 

It's gonna be brilliant. I was gonna say as well, when we come back from our break, it'll be time to talk about Illustration Business Club, 'cause in the autumn is when we start talking business-y stuff, when you're all in the back to school zone, so you can plant that seed. You can start getting excited about that now

Exactly. Time to stop the holiday, earn some money to pay for the break you just had

Yeah, but after ice lollies and lying down,

definitely 

Have a good summer, everyone

Bon voyage

Bye