About the Book
This book was a passion project that started while Miguel and his wife, Brandi, were volunteer teachers abroad in Micronesia. Living on a tiny island with few distractions allowed them to spend more time on hobbies. While some were new, like surfing and spearfishing, others like running and drawing made a welcome resurgence. The project spanned many years and ended up becoming a memory book of sorts from their time living on a tropical island.
MY INSPIRATION
Although the two characters are named after Miguel’s two oldest kids, the bird character evolved from Matt – a close friend and mentor who took Miguel under his wing and taught him everything he knows about surfing – while Miguel saw himself in the goofier, less experienced furball character. The illustrations in the book were inspired by their lifestyle and experiences while living in Micronesia, and reflect the eclectic education Miguel received in surf culture; derived from his time spent with Matt, as well as from watching classic surf movies and reading through dozens of old editions of Surfer’s Journal magazines. Many of the illustrations in the book are based on some of Brandi and Miguel’s favorite photographs taken during their time on the island, as well as from Matt’s photo archive of his past surf trips.
For the first several years the book was illustrated in pencil on simple printer paper. It didn’t take long for Miguel to realize his lack of skills in watercolors and then colored pencils, but eventually he found some success in digital art – using an iPad Pro, the Procreate app and an Apple Pencil. After years of working on the book on and off he was able to complete the project and self-published it.
Photo Gallery
While the pictures in the previous section more clearly inspired many of the book’s illustrations, the spirit of the entire book was shaped by our lifestyle and experiences while living there. Sharing pictures was the best way we found to connect our friends and family – who were 6,000 miles away at the time – to our experiences, so it felt appropriate to share some of our favorites with you here.
Everything truly felt special, and we wanted to capture it all. It also kind of felt like we were collecting proof that what we were experiencing was real. Despite ending up with an enormous number of pictures, it still felt like so much was left out.
