My Daddy Tells Fish Tales

Project Overview

My Daddy Tells Fish Tales by Steve Delgado celebrates the particular magic of fishing stories — the kind that grow a little taller every time they’re told, and that bind a parent and child together in ways that outlast the catch. A father and daughter relive their most exciting moments on the water together, from the thrill of the tug to the laughter of the retelling, making every adventure feel larger than life. The warmth of the story lives as much in the relationship as in the fish.

The illustration challenge was capturing both the beauty of the ocean environment and the intimacy of that father-daughter bond simultaneously — wide open water and close, laughing faces needed to feel equally present, so that the story read as both a nature adventure and a portrait of a relationship.

Role

The illustration challenge was capturing the beauty of the ocean environment and the intimacy of the father-daughter bond simultaneously. Wide open water and close, laughing faces needed to feel equally present, so the story read as both a nature adventure and a portrait of a relationship, with neither ever crowding out the other.

Full illustration across the book covered character design for the father and daughter, ocean and fishing environment illustration, intimate parent-child relationship portraiture, and print-ready file preparation for Mascot Books.

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.