My first process post. So it begins.

This is my first post for my working process in my Illustration Technology class. I’ve had blogs before and never been any good at keeping up with them on a regular basis. Maybe I don’t have the self motivation to actually write about what is going on in my life or the desire to rant and rave about likes and dislikes about design, illustration, or music. So I must say this part of the class is going to be a bit of a love hate relationship even though I spend a lot of time on the internet. Most of the stuff I do when I’m on the internet requires no mental processing what so ever. Just something to pass the time.

The first week I was asked by my instructor Marla Campbell to think about possible stories or topics I might like to illustrate and develop over the course of the semester and right after I received the assignment I began to write a story. But feeling a little reluctant about my story writing skills I thought about a few possible options.

1. Beginning the process of developing what I thought would be a great project for my thesis in my last semester. A children’s book that helped parents/adults understand the reality of childhood schizophrenia.

2. Revisiting Disney characters that had relationships (i.e. Mickey and Minnie or Aladdin and Jasmine) and what might their children look like.

3. Revealing the true meanings behind children nursery rhymes (i.e. ring around the rosy, rock-a-bye baby, etc.).

After verbalizing those options to Marla, I realized that I wasn’t really intrigued by any of those ideas. We decided that the very first idea I started to develop would be the best option and the one that I would be most excited about over the course of the semester. She reminded me that I didn’t have to be a professional story writer to deliver the concept of the story visually. That statement alone eased any other apprehensions I had about developing a believable story and the characters involved. 

So for this week I have a few things to tackle. Here is what I have to do.

1. Take pictures of places, objects, lighting, etc. that I’m inspired by and post them on the blog. Focus specifically on lighting and color. This will help generate a reference library to aid the development of the environments in the story I have written.

2. Develop the story more. I will post the summary of the story once I get it approved by Marla.

3. Sign up as a member at cghub and conceptart. Here are the direct links to my user profiles. 
http://jgirton.cghub.com/

http://conceptart.org/forums/member.php?u=205874

4. Start developing some loose concept drawings on environments and character ideas.

In the following weeks I will be posting more and more of my process. So please help me out in this process and submit your comments and critiques on what ever you would like. Thanks in advance.