Children’s Book: The Fish Who Wouldn’t Swim

One of my regular clients is Goldfish Swim Schools. Several years ago I designed a mascot for them, Bubbles the Goldfish. Earlier this year they asked me to write and illustrate a board book featuring Bubbles that they could sell in their retail locations. They wanted a story that would both encourage kids to swim also promote the school. This project was a couple of “firsts” for me:

1. While I’ve illustrated books in the past, this was the first time I was also the author.

2. This was also my first time doing the bulk of a client project on a tablet. The sketches and final art were all done on an iPad Pro using Procreate. I only had to use Photoshop to lay out the text and do some final touch-ups.

I’m told the book is only available at their physical locations and can’t be ordered online, but the client has given me permission to show a few pages: