I’ll Be with You Wherever You Are

by Michael Finn

Picture Book · Ages 3–8 · Emotional / Grief / Family

A gentle journey through love and imagination — where lyrical storytelling and the weight of grief meet comforting, expressive art.

IBPA Book Award
SILVER WINNER
Children’s Picture Book (4–7 Years) · 2026

Purple Dragonfly Book Award
HONORABLE MENTION
2025

Cover of I'll Be with You Wherever You Are children's book.

Project Overview

I’ll Be with You Wherever You Are is a tender and lyrical picture book that answers life’s most heartfelt question: “Daddy, will you live forever?” Through gentle verses and vibrant illustrations, the story takes readers on a comforting adventure—from moonlit skies to cozy firesides—reminding us that love between parent and child transcends time and space.

I worked closely with the author to translate lyrical text into warm, expressive illustrations, ensuring visual consistency across all pages and preparing the final artwork for print production. The central creative challenge was letting the illustrations carry emotional weight without over-explaining the story — the art needed to comfort without spelling out what the text only gently implied.

Role

Michael came with a deeply personal manuscript and a clear emotional vision. My role was to translate his lyrical text into illustrations that carried the weight of the story without over-explaining what the words only gently implied — every scene, expression, and lighting choice had to earn its place.

From the first character sketches through to print-ready files, I worked across 38 pages and two rounds of revision with the author, making sure the final book felt exactly like the story he set out to tell.

Selected Double-Page Spreads (Final Book Layout)

A father and son spending quality time together, engaging in different activities

How the spread sits across both pages in the printed book — the composition was designed to read as one unified scene, not two separate halves.

A boy walking on a forest path with a red cardinal flying overhead — Warmth and loss held in the same image — the cardinal overhead is a quiet symbol of presence, designed to comfort without explanation.

A boy observing the metamorphosis of a chrysalis transforming into a butterfly — The metamorphosis spread — chosen to carry the book’s central idea visually: that transformation is not an ending, but a continuation.

A boy reading a book by a window, with a full moon and starry night sky visible outside — A closing image of stillness and wonder — the moon outside the window echoing the father’s presence, vast and constant.

Character Design

Before a single page is illustrated, I develop the main characters in full — defining their proportions, expressions, and personality. This is the foundation that keeps your characters recognizable and consistent across every scene, every lighting condition, and every emotional moment in the project.

Before a single page was illustrated, the main characters were fully developed — with defined proportions, expressions, and personality that would carry consistently across all pages.

The same characters, across different scenes, lighting conditions, and emotional moments — consistency you can see from the first page to the last.

Process

Every project follows this same structured path, so you always know where we are and what comes next. You review and approve at the sketch stage and the line art stage — nothing moves to color until you’re happy. By the time the final spread is rendered, there are no surprises.

The rough sketch stage — where composition, character placement, and emotional tone are worked out before anything is committed to line.

Clean line art shared with the author for approval — this is the stage where both of us could see the scene clearly and agree on direction before color began.

The finished spread — color, light, and mood all resolved into the version that went to print.

From the Author

I was fortunate enough to have Agus illustrate my children’s picture book “I’ll Be With You Wherever You Are”. This story was extremely personal to me. Agus was able to bring the vision in my mind’s eye to life, seamlessly navigating the line between whimsy and realism, creating a world that warms my heart each time I visit it. Thank you for giving your time and incredible talent to this project, the result is magnificent and I’m forever grateful.

Michael Finn – Author of I’ll Be With You Wherever You Are

Book Details

ISBN-13

979-8891383470

Publisher

Mascot Kids

Publish Date

October 7, 2025

Age Range

3 – 8 years

Page Count

38 pages

Format

8″ x 10″ Hardcover

Available at:

Amazon

Publisher’s Website

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