Most of my work over the years deals with current events and is largely based in some sort of reality. Jobs that come from a fantasy and fictional point of view are sometimes a nice relief to that. It gives me the chance to get lost in a world or visual that can go anywhere—like for “At the Foot of the Lighthouse,” where I got to illustrate a girl sitting in a bathtub moments before she explodes the tub with her mind!
I loved the story, “At the Foot of the Lighthouse” written by author and game designer Erin Hoffman. It was written with such wonderful visuals so it was easy to pick a powerful and surprising moment in the story to illustrate. You can read the whole thing for free here.
Working with Irene Gallo was pretty much what I expected from a practiced art director—she picked one of my sketch idea and got out of the way. Her only art direction was to maybe take out the tower in the background unless I felt it needed to be in there. I took her advice.
The sketches to the left of the red line are what I actually sent. (As you can see, they ended up going with the piece that I very subtly indicated with a star.) I was originally going to send the ones on the right also but decided to crop that part off. There were just too many ideas really going nowhere. You have to cut out the fat and only give an art director what you actually want to paint.
Thank you Erin Hoffman for writing such a cool story!
This article originally appeared on Drawger.
Scott Bakal is a nationally recognized artist and illustrator. Check out a gallery of his work and credits right here.
