My Mom Is a Cutterman

Project Overview

My Mom Is a Cutterman celebrates the brave women of the US Coast Guard through the most compelling lens possible — the eyes of their kids. Claire Davenport’s storytelling moves between the high-seas heroism of Coast Guard missions and the tender domestic moments when those moms come home with sea stories to share. The result is a picture book that is both genuinely exciting and deeply heartfelt.

The illustration challenge was striking the right visual balance between action and warmth — rescue helicopters and leaking tankers needed the same emotional authenticity as a mother and child sitting together on the couch. Switching between these registers without losing the book’s unified tone required careful attention to light, color palette, and character expression across every spread.

Role

Claire came with a story that needed to hold two completely different emotional registers at once — the adrenaline of helicopter rescues and oil spill response, and the quiet tenderness of a child waiting for their mom to come home. Getting those two worlds to feel part of the same book, rather than jarring against each other, was the central illustration challenge.

From developing the ensemble cast of mothers, children, and crew through to print-ready files, I handled the complete 38-page illustration scope — including the kind of atmospheric sea and sky work that this story’s action sequences demanded, always anchored by the warmth of the family scenes.

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.