Tara Tayyebi Fard on finding her creative voice (and illustration career) after 10 years of being an architect

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Feb 6, 2026

Tara Tayyebi Fard, a Persian illustrator, humorist and former architect now in Belgium, shares her pivot from 10 years in architecture to illustration. She talks about digging into childhood diaries, using annoyance to invent characters, weekly Substack practice, balancing commissions with playful personal work, and how authenticity and creative jealousy guide a satisfying career.

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ANECDOTE

Architecture To Illustration Pivot

Tara left architecture after struggling to find stable, fulfilling work and used travel time to draw and rethink her career.
Joining The Good Ship Illustration course and making sketchbooks helped her pivot into illustration full-time.

ANECDOTE

Childhood Diaries Became Character Fuel

Tara kept a diary as a child and harvested small annoyances and observations into character ideas for her drawings.
That habit later fed into strong character design and humour in her illustration work.

ADVICE

Build A Habit With Weekly Publishing

Do a regular publishing habit to improve fast; Tara made weekly Substack posts for about 60 weeks and saw clear growth.
Use consistent, committed output to learn what you enjoy and attract an audience and peers.

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Pssst, while you're here... On Tuesday 10th February 2026 we're running a live workshop! https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/aiworkshop

Standing out in a sea of robots: being an illustrator when AI is everywhere

This workshop's perfect for you if you:

Call yourself an illustrator, image-maker (or want to)
Feel a bit wobbly about AI and what it means for your style and creative work
Want to stand out in a sea of slop
Know you're brilliant, but struggle to articulate what makes you different
Are ready to stop worrying and start being more unapologetically YOU.

Let’s get weirder, eh? 🤖

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OK! On with the show(notes)!

"Unfortunately, I was good at maths."
-Tara Tayyebi Fard

Tara is a Persian illustrator, humorist, architect and violinist currently based in Belgium.
She grew up reading stories, playing music, keeping a stack of diaries, and offending people by drawing them all fat.
Tara spent most of her adult life studying and working in architecture, and has been whining about it ever since. She now holds a masters degree from Amsterdam School of Art, which she happily keeps in the depths of her wardrobe.
In 2023, Tara jumped aboard the Good Ship Illustration, rediscovered her love for drawing and gradually started her career as an illustrator. Two years later, she signed with her agent, Lucie at Luddington Creative; working on picture books, doing commissions, live event illustration and making personal work.

Tara pivoted to a career in illustration after 10 years of being an architect.

In this episode, we chat to Good Shipper Tara about finding her creative voice, why being properly herself is what led to her dream clients, why being unsuccessful can be weirdly freeing, aaaaand **deep breath** how consistency and creative jealousy can be big flashing neon signs to help you figure out what you DO want to do.

Rough timestamps for our timestamp-fans:

00:00 – Intro + free workshop mention
02:00 – Architecture → illustration pivot moment
05:00 – Childhood clues + diaries + sketchbooks
08:00 – Being annoyed = excellent character research
09:00 – 60 weeks of Substack and what that builds
10:00 – Illustration loneliness vs illustration community reality
12:00 – Making work when the world feels a bit bleak
14:00 – Commission hamster wheel vs personal work
15:00 – Dream clients happen when you show your actual personality
17:00 – The “what you love / what you’re good at / what pays” overlap
19:00 – Planning for creative brains (menus > rigid schedules)
23:00 – Creative jealousy = useful information, not failure
26:00 – The regret test (8-year-old you vs 80-year-old you)
27:00 – Can illustrators make money? Also: you can be bad at any career 😌

Stuff mentioned:

Tara's Substack: https://substack.com/@tarastimeout
Tara's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tara.tekentafel
Tara's website: https://www.taratayyebifard.com/

Good Ship Illustration Monthly Numbers Tracker (freebie)

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