Author, Illustrator, Picturebook Maker

“My favourite book is How to Hide a Lion because you make books less boring. You put exclamation marks in and by the way you are the best author in the world. I’m six, I forgot to say that. Oh well.”

Maya, age 6

Helen Stephens Drawing How To Hide A Lion

I am probably best known for How to Hide a Lion

“Funny and warm-hearted”

AXEL SCHEFFLER,
ILLUSTRATOR OF THE GRUFFALO

“I read How to Hide a Lion with my son. We love it together.”

DAVID WALLIAMS

Photo of Helen Stephens smiling on a boat beside a lighthouse.
Photo of Helen and her friends from The Good Ship Illustration sitting on deck chairs on a rainy beach.

I am one third of The Good Ship Illustration
(that’s me on the left staring at Katie’s chips)

Creative work should FEEL good, make you a decent living and leave you feeling confident.

Smelly Peggy

…based on my real life smelly dog, Peggy (don’t tell her she’s in a book, it’ll go to her head) is out in June!

I would be your pal forever if you would place a pre-order, it gives book sellers confidence to buy a big stack for their front table, every author’s dream.

#walktosee

Drawing from life gives our drawing brains a nice workout. So I started #walktosee to celebrate drawings made from life in a sketchbook.

How to join in:
Take a photo of your drawing and post it on Instagram using the hashtag
#walktosee.
Easy peasy!

I sprinkle lots of my favourites on my Insta Stories.

Helen Stephens HELLO illustration orange and black.

By the way, are we pals on Instagram yet?
I love chatting over there.

Every Friday since the start of lock down we have been going live on Instagram for an hour of fun, low pressure drawing. Our daft tasks against a timer leave no room for perfectionism! The perfect way to spend an hour on a Friday night.

We now do special pop-up Art Clubs and the BEST way to find out when the next Art Club is happening is to subscribe to our emails or check the recent posts on our Instagram profile @thegoodshipillustration).

Good Ship Illustration

Art Club

Katie Chappell and Helen at Good Ship Art Club

Good Ship Illustration Picture Book Course

Salty just slipped us a note over the breakfast table to say,
‘Don’t forget Helen made you a picture book course.’

Our shop will open again this Winter

My partner Gerry Turley and I have an online shop…

#childhoodillustrated

A spooky, eerie illustration of a Childhood dream of a Wolf floating in the air at night, a girl watching from her window. Drawing by illustrator Helen stephens

When you’re illustrating picture books it’s really helpful to be able to remember how it felt and how we saw the world as a child.

#childhoodIllustrated is a really easy and useful way to access those memories!

BEHOOOLD - my gift to you!

I made this amazin’ in-depth video guide to #childhoodillustrated, as well as a printable page of prompts to get you started.

Clickety-clack, ping!

(THAT’S ME AT THE TYPEWRITER)

Don’t forget to sign up for my Pencil Pals newsletter. It’s like a juicy chat between illustrator pals. I’ll be sharing stuff about making picture books that you might feel daft asking. When you sign up you’ll get the Illustrators Freebies.