Starting a picture book course and saying yes to dreams

Hello there!

I just wanted to drop in for a brief moment today and say that I am really thrilled to be joining the Good Ship Illustration Picture Book Course starting next week!

I am beyond excited to attend the course and learn all about the world of picture books. I would highly recommend checking out this course and the other courses and free resources from the Good Ship Illustration. They are an amazing resource for illustrators and are such genuinely kind and helpful people. I’ve been listening to their podcast while I work, for the last few weeks, and it’s such a joy and wealth of knowledge and wisdom-I listen to so few podcasts, so this one comes highly recommended!

Here is my lovely badge that Good Ship has made for students to share!

My digital badge! How cool!

Lastly, this is a way for me to publicly say-yes, I am committing to my work and my dreams of making books. And I am beyond thrilled for what lies ahead!

For a while recently, I’ve been exploring so many directions in art and illustration but have also felt a pervasive sense of doubt, lostness, and at times hopelessness around illustration, work, and long-term dreaming and plans. There are no clear paths or steps in this industry-it’s very self-starter and self-directed which is absolutely amazing at times, and can at the same time be overwhelming and downright confusing.

I was going through another rough patch right as this course was announced, and talking with a friend, as well as a lot of time just in my head, and sometimes not in my head (doing other things too than thinking) helped me realize that maybe making picture books and telling visual stories through books was my dream in illustration and my primary goal. I felt clear about my visual style, interests, and techniques, but not my overall long-term dreams and direction.

I then remembered when I first realized that illustrators were real people and a real profession. I was about 15 of 16 and was pretty enamored not only by books and literature, but also equally by the images and visuals that told their stories. I remember specifically thinking that I wanted to make the visuals for these stories. I realized that I had always been a strong visual thinker and that so much of my world was imagery and sensations and a very visual way of communicating. Whenever I currently struggle with work, I’m going to try to go back to this earlier time and natural curiosity and desire to make images and tell stories-returning to it, helped me realize my direction in illustration.

So, here it goes. I can’t wait to learn new things and sort of be in school again (though way more fun than citations and research papers!) and I can’t wait to hopefully share my illustrated book one day soon. Here’s to saying yes to your dreams, and working hard and following them to see where they lead. Thank you so much to the lovely people at Good Ship Illustration, and also thank you to so many of the other creatives and people who may not know that sometimes their posts, words, illustrations, films, thoughts, and beautiful things they put out into the world help inspire others daily to keep going and pursue the projects and dreams that they hold dear.

Bye for now,

-Abbigail