The Vast Community [Case Studies #2

After a feedback class this week, I'm looking far more positive at my approach to this project. Let's go to business.

Here's how I want to do it. I'm grabbing a list of streamers I watch myself, and my friends, along side DeviantARTists, youtubers, and some students from various courses. I'm going to create a short interview question scenario, text format and sound format primarily, and compile all the research I get. If I can, I want to look for online interviews to add to my research pack. I'm gonna send this out to the list above with a proposal of my project, and see what I can get back. I'm going to ask them in live chat and using on screen notifications (via donation to support the streamer directly) and hopefully get some positive responses.

As of right now, I have a list compiled of the following (that will be updated as I find more candidates):

Streamers:
SodaPoppin
DyrusLoL
TheOddOne
LegendaryLea
aDrive
NightBlue3
DerpTyme
Okolnir
LoLGeranimo
Summit1g
zLadyLuthien
ffSade
Domadness

DeviantART:
Naschi (notes)
DerpTyme
Okolnir
ffSade
Sakimichan
Zeronis
Keinan Lafferty
Noah Bradley
NanFe
Loish
MagicnaAnavi (notes
MagiSapphire (notes)
viccolatte

Youtubers:
aDrive
Keinan Lafferty
Sycra
EgoRaptor
Vycal
Scott Duncan

University Students/Other:
Jennifer Lynch
Finley McNally
Patrick McCallion
Clare Melvin
Shauna O'Connor

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These lists could be endless.. But here's to positive results! <3
I've looked into this sort of asking for answers responses before, I did it as a personal research idea to try and get answers to questions that were getting me down. Hopefully I can reach these people (and more!) to get a response that will make an impact.

I'll get back to you on the questions and any responses I can gather. 

Time to take that chance!

Check out my Shadow on Social Media:

My DeviantART | My Twitter | My Behance | My Tumblr

Who ARE You? [Initial Case Studies #1]

"Self confidence is the first requisite to great understanding"- Samuel Johnson

[Doing a bit of a post purge today, after being sick for the past wee while, apologies!]

Gotta love some Alice in Wonderland. I prefer to work with background noise, whether it's music or a live stream, I don't like the silence. Over the past year or two I've held onto some really interesting streamers. From artists, to professional gamers, hobbyists and alike.

I have a vast library to work from.

Those who are unaware of Twitch TV - an online streaming service - I want to know where you've been hiding.. Twitch is a way for the average person to show the world their world. Their game skills, or entertainment skills. Some people get hits of 20k viewers everytime they stream. Living on a daily schedule of going for 6+ hours a day. These people can stream as a living. They quit their jobs and take a chance of making it on Twitch. So, what the hell is that all about? How did they do it? Starting at nothing and making it 'big' online. And of course, surely they had some self confidence issues. Time for me to poke!

I'm going to ask some of the streamers I'm more comfortable with about their experience, some convention interviews answer my questions so I'll poke for those and check it out that way. 

What I Know

Based on my experience with streamers on Twitch, a lot of it is about Luck. The right place at the right time and doing something that stands out from everybody else. Don't follow the crowd and just be YOU. A lot of the more high end streamers are asked how they did it, how did they started off and any tips they could give. I hear the same sort of response: Keep a schedule, interact and entertain, don't do it just because, Do it because you want to and ENJOY IT.

Consistently being active is a hard stretch but is shows dedication, reliability. Look at the amount of the younger generation is coming home and would sit in front of a computer all day watching Minecraft videos. Shocking isn't it? But it's like TV, it's entertainment on a new platform. With actual viewer interaction. If you speak in the chat, you have a chance of being 'noticed'. It makes you feel better.

The 'high end' streamers give up their full time jobs because they want to keep the consistency of streaming. Their passions drive them. This is awfully interesting. Do those truly passionate about it have more motivation/confidence to keep going then those who seek to do it as a full time job from the start?

Final Outcome Concerns.

Regarding an actual FINAL outcome for this project. I'm awfully worried. I have no idea what I'm going to do in regards to my topic, and my area of interest [Character Design and 3D.] I could do 'scenario' styles but right now, I really don't have much of a clue.. I'll get back to this point HOPEFULLY after class next week.

Still got some work to do.

Check out my Shadow on Social Media:

My DeviantART | My Twitter | My Behance | My Tumblr

Igniting Your Passions [Presentation]

"If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced."

- Van Gogh, Artist

[Doing a bit of a post purge today, after being sick for the past wee while, apologies!]

It's Presentation time! The day we showed the class what area we would focus on, and what we had found out so far. I went over the THREE I'S in my previous post (which ended up being my main slides, go me!) so I'll look more at what I'm going to do after today. Where will this go? What is the outcome?

Well first, The Three I's: The Impact, The Importance, The Internal Struggle. These guys are the core of what I'm looking at. The crippling factor of low self esteem, the importance of high self esteem to us as creative beings, and the self conflict we fight against in times of low self esteem. The bottle doesn't always stay full, not for everyone!

"I didn't want to be an Artist"
In my presentation I used the example of Noah Bradley, who does the MAGIC! The Gathering Card designs. There's a full Album of Noah's 'story' of how he got where he is. I often look back through it when I'm down in the dumps. So, I felt it should be shared here. Basically, Noah didn't want to be an artist. It's something he did as a hobby that developed into a passion. He was told to do things he didn't particularly enjoy. After starting down his own path, he got approached and appreciated for his work. All from a paint set at the age of 19. 

It's a truly moving story, it shows a lot about his mindset and what he went through getting where he is. I'll link it below.

Moving Forward
Case Studies. I want to get as many as I possibly can. Different experiences make for different stories. However, they will all share a similar aspect. All of the people I have in mind must have had to over come some self confidence issues in their time. Ranging from Artists, students in my class, online streamers, professional gamers. It's a shot in the dark to contact these people but no risk, no reward!

Using the information I plan to gather, I want to look at how we can possibly break this habit. How can what I'm gathering help out other people. My plan is to help out others in the process of helping myself. Everyone has their own path, their own opinion and experience with the likes of self confidence. How can I pull us all together? Can we make a permanent change in mindset for creative people especially?

No Resolution for you (yet)

How I became an Artist - Noah Bradley

Check out my Shadow on Social Media:

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Looking Deeper [Research part 1]

What do you MEAN, don't look at any conclusion yet?!

[Doing a bit of a post purge today, after being sick for the past wee while, apologies!]

Well okay, research time! Part 1

Let's tackle the first problem here, what exactly IS Self Esteem?
Google informed me of a few websites with useful information. Self Esteem is your worth, your confidence in abilities and your general self and well being. Your mind set, your outlook on life. It's all about YOU.

Taking that, I'll personalize my project. I'll help myself in the process. Get myself to a better level.

Unfortunately, I found that a lot of the websites on self esteem were about tackling it. How to deal with it and progress through self esteem issues. I'm not doing that yet, I want an understanding of the actual problem and the impact of it. How important Self Esteem is, not just for artists but for everyone. 

To keep going with my research, I wanted to plan out the presentation first. What was the flow of my research into presentation format. I struggled to think about this. How do I break down Self Esteem, prior to the solution?

Below you can see my comparison table, the clash of high self esteem and low self esteem. From this I can break down the next 3 sections a bit easier.

I eventually decided to look at the impact it can have on a person, and their life. Looking at the table above, there's a fair few different comparisons between the two different sides.  POSITIVE Self Confidence is important, especially in Creative people, as it allows them to keep pushing forward. They need to grow as a talented person and believe in their abilities. A positive mindset will drive and inspire them. Allow them to respect others, and more so THEMSELVES. Nothing is more important. It allows growth.

NEGATIVE self confidence, however, is the complete opposite. As you could imagine. One bad choice, leads to a possible bad experience, leading to more bad choices and it's an endless cycle. A break in the chain is needed as a first step. Low self esteem limits the abilities of a creative person, they feel worthless and that their talents/skills aren't worth anything in comparison to others. It can become seriously unhealthy and possibly ruin someones future if they don't learn to overstep this hurdle. The negative mindset will rub off onto those around you as well.

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Leading into the importance of having confidence in one's own abilities. Looking into that will allow me to develop a proper solution to build on the self confidence of others, and more so - myself. Self Confidence is about valuing yourself as a person, seeing the benefits from your skills and abilities. It's a source of motivation in it's own right, only you can see your full potential! Confidence is yourself allows you to respect yourself, if you don't respect yourself then you won't accept others trying to respect you.

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Finally, a deeper look into what I call "The War Within" which defines the internal struggle that becomes of low self confidence. It's all about having faith in yourself. Similar to a mental illness, a low self esteem will trigger the likes of anxiety, depression, and often cause people to sit inside a hole. You won't get anywhere down there! This internal struggle makes us focus on the weak parts of our being, we pick everything apart. What we do has no 'depth' or it's not 'good enough', standing up to that little nagging self inside you is damn difficult.


Remembering right now, we're just looking into what Self Esteem actually IS, how important it is. There's no solutions or 'how i did this' just yet. After my presentation I'll be looking into some cases using people I connect with online.

This is only the beginning

Check out my Shadow on Social Media:

My DeviantART | My Twitter | My Behance | My Tumblr

My problem is YOUR problem.

Progression is key.
Just keep swimming.

Looking deeper into my problem, I did a diagram based on the problem, the impact of the problem, the importance of the problem. A rough-Class copy can be seen above. I wasn't entirely sure how to break my topic down, or what I specifically want to focus on. A start is a start.


Self esteem is a heavy, important topic. It's quite a long shot, but it's something I want to address personally. Below is a more refined version of my class notes from above. I look at the area of Self-Confidence of specifically, questions I asked myself, the possible causes and possible resolves. Just for an idea.

Over the past 6 month, I've been dealing with self-confidence issues myself. Wondering what's going to happen, I I'm going to get anywhere. It's crippling, low self confidence is very limiting. It holds us back. It stops us achieving the goals we want to achieve.


Low Self Esteem -> What's going to happen after University? Am I good enough? What route do I take?


I want to talk to Artists about their experience, how they got where they are. Was it luck? Was it hard work? This issue of self confidence is something I want to tackle and hopefully help some people along the way.

Focusing more on how hard self-esteem issues can be on certain individuals, and working on an understanding of the importance and effect of self-esteem as a whole specifically on Artists/Designers in a competitive field.

Next week I need to have a presentation prepped, I'll pop another post on my research and references. This is just my initial thoughts for now. Slight update.

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Check out my Shadow on Social Media:

My DeviantART | My Twitter | My Behance | My Tumblr