Identity - Project Proposal Mk 2

The title of my project is Identity. A lot of artists turn to their own identity for inspiration and in turn express themselves through their art. I would love to be able to do this for this project, but in a slightly more specific way. I’m all for a passion project, I feel that this is a good place to do it – I would like to turn to the roots of my artistic identity; personify what made me fall in love with art and then in turn made me follow that passion. The ‘Fire Emblem’ game series is where that passion started for me. It was a Fire Emblem game that inspired me to truly start drawing properly many years ago, then another Fire Emblem game that got me thinking about artistic careers for myself. I’m going to take my personal specialty of doll customisation and cross it over with the beautiful designs and aesthetic of the games to personify my artistic identity and shoot a video to showcase my process and final piece. I would like to clearly show my creative process and methods with this video, as well as show off all of the details that I can include in my work. It will take the majority of what I have learnt at UCA this year to pull this project off – a perfect project to sum up the year in that respect.

My influences for this project come from all over the place. Fire Emblem as I have already mentioned will play a big role when it comes to the design and feel of my character. When it comes to my methods and video style however, I will turn to my other main artistic inspiration – Dollightful. She is an American artist based in South Korea that also makes custom dolls and creates videos to show them off on YouTube. I also watch Moonlight Jewel’s, Doll Mill’s, Morgsdolls’ and Charlottes.Repaints’ videos for inspiration. Dollightful was the one that inspired me to start customising dolls in the first place, as well as the one that made me want to create videos like the one I’m planning. Moonlight Jewel has a certain way of explaining her process that I really like and want to try and take inspiration from that to film my video. Doll Mill’s videos always had such nice music that I really liked – when I looked in her video descriptions, I found a website that lets you use all sorts of fantastic music for free with credit, I would love to use this music to give off a similar vibe with my video. At the beginning of lockdown, before coming to UCA, I wanted to finally start a YouTube channel like them, but I just didn’t have the software or knowledge to do it. (I do now!) Instead, I started posting shorter videos on TikTok. While creating my videos for that platform, I discovered more and more people within the community that I became online friends with, two of these people being Morgsdolls and Charlottes.Repaints. I adore their art style and their video style – they typically don’t speak in their videos unlike the other creators I have mentioned, they tend to tailor their videos to music. I would love to create my video to be more like that since I can’t speak confidently into a microphone yet. Hopefully with all of these different influences I can come up with my own personal video style.

In order to make my video, I will sketch out a thumbnail storyboard so I can lay out every shot I need to film and the order in which I should film them for the sake of continuity. At the beginning I will show my creative process with mood boards and mind maps. After that I will show my concept art for my character by using a screen recording time-lapse and a still at the end for visual clarity. As I begin to show my process, I am going to make sure I show the doll I customise before I start as well as after it’s fully prepared for me to work on it. When I sketch out my storyboard, I will decide on the order for showing my process for the doll’s clothes, face, hair and props. I will make sure to include a section after this in my storyboard for any last details I’ll add to it. After this I will show off my work with a showcase of glamour shots I take afterwards. My main documentation of the video’s process will be in the form of videos I will post on TikTok and my Wix blog. When I finish editing the video, I will also be posting it on YouTube so that I can finally dip my toe into the water of being a YouTube content creator – just like I have been dreaming of doing for the past 4 years.

When I review my final piece, I will show the video to my family, friends, peers and of course my TikTok (and hopefully soon to be YouTube too) following for their opinions on it. I’m going to compare my doll to my concept and my video to my storyboard to see how well I pulled off my original plan or not. I will be sure to take any constructive criticism I get on board, as well as looking over my own work with an analytical mindset so that I can self-evaluate. If I get positive responses to my work, then I will deem my project successful. Bonus points if it does well on YouTube as well.

Harvard References

Dollightful (2021) Repaint! Charley the Lolita Fashion Doll #OOAK Art Doll. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0r5J4EjL5XY&t=191s [Accessed 26/04/2021]

Moonlight Jewel (2018) ☽ Moonlight Jewel ☾ Anime Swap Repaint Kuzunoha the Kitsune Girl. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRRfcedEAyo [Accessed 26/04/2021]

Doll Mill (2018) Lyra Datchery – {Monster High Repaint} – STEAMPUNK COLLABORATION. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axDRYheMyQE [Accessed 26/04/2021]

morgsdolls (2021) Available at: https://www.tiktok.com/@morgsdolls/video/6914708557162155270?lang=en&is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1 [Accessed 26/04/2021]

charlottes.repaints (2021) Available at: https://www.tiktok.com/@charlottes.repaints/video/6950318350786497797?lang=en&is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1 [Accessed 26/04/2021]

Campbell, H.C. 1980. Designing Patterns a fresh approach to pattern cutting. United Kingdom: Stanley Thornes.

INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS (2015) Fire Emblem Fates. [3DS Cartridge] Nintendo 3DS. Japan: Nintendo.

INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS (2012) Fire Emblem Awakening. [3DS Cartridge] Nintendo 3DS. Japan: Nintendo.

INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS (2017) Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia. [3DS Cartridge] Nintendo 3DS. Japan: Nintendo.

INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS (2019) Fire Emblem: Three Houses. [Nintendo Switch Cartridge] Nintendo Switch. Japan: Nintendo.