Graphic Narrative Evaluation

Use this template to help you evaluate your project.

You should give specific details about your work.

You should provide both written and visual examples to explain your project.

You should find areas to praise in your work. Be specific about why you think they are good or why you are proud of them.

You should also find areas that could be improved. Look for areas that you could make better if you went back to them. Be specific about what you would improve.

Add additional slides as you need to. Don’t be restricted by what is here.

Any blank slides should be deleted before submission.

Does your final product reflect your original intentions?

My final product in many ways reflects my original intentions, and also in many ways does not. It is natural that along the stages of production of anything, there are always going to be changes made, and my product is no exception. When compared to both my storyboard and digital flat plan, the actual narrative remains almost exactly the same, with each page of the final product composed as set out in my plans. The only exception to this was the fact that half way through production, after experimenting on Photoshop I came to the conclusion that creating a space crater was simply too difficult to achieve within the art style I’d gone for. For this reason I adapted the narrative so that the ball falls from a cliff, rather than into a crater. Despite my narrative remaining almost untouched in terms of the original plan, the actual composition of the shots, and the positioning of each character on stage was something which I did adapt quite significantly from the flat plan. This was due to the fact that I wanted to be able to experiment as I progressed through the production, and didn’t want to be limited to the angles and perspectives in which I had originally chosen on. By doing this I was able to create more diverse images, with characters being shown from the side, front and back, which admittedly was something I hadn’t considered doing originally. Another point worth mentioning is the fact that I orignally intended my book to be composed of mostly shapes rather than rotoscopes. When it came to it, I decided that using the polygonic lasso tool to create image would allow me to create a more unique style, but I did so in a way which was more original, and rather than simply cutting around images from the internet, I created my own images. So despite this going against my original intentions, It did allow me to create something more unique, which justifies the choice. One other way in which my final product slightly differentiated from the original plan was the fact that I had to adjust some minor amounts of the narrative in order to make the text amount balanced on each page. I did so by taking out certain words within some sentences to shorten them, and this didn’t really have a negative effect on how my product reflects on my original intentions. Even though I didn’t religiously stick to the composition proposed in my digital flat plan, or copy my original ‘final script’ word for word, I feel that my overall product really reflects on my original intentions, keeping the same general narrative, moral, location and characters which I had planned on using from the beginning. The general theme of the book was kept as intended, with the fairytale inspired narrative and ‘Happily ever after’ style literature, so really there isn’t much to complain about in terms of how well it reflects on my original intentions.

:Demonstration of how the character composition sometimes differentiated between my digital flat plan and my final page.

How well have you constructed your images?

My images have been constructed in a way which I was very pleased with, and admittedly, at the start of the production, I wasn’t expecting it to all run as smoothly as it did. My images were all aesthetically pleasing, and utilised lines and shapes in order to create a 3D looking image, which allowed me to create an image style which was very unique to me. By using long lines I was able to create jagged looking edges, which further added to the computer generated feeling the images gave off, which matched up to the sci-fi theme I had intended on creating. A sense of texture was created in my images through the use of pattern overlays, which gave certain parts of my image a material feel rather than just being a solid colour. An example of how this worked well within my image construction was how I was able to create a metal texture for the wall, which added depth to that page. Consistency played a key part in my book, as it should in any. I had to make sure the composition of my images remained similar in each page, by not only ensuring that the art style was kept the same, but also that the colours remained consistent. The grey sci-fi theme meant that I kept most of my colour palette in a fairly dull range, and despite some scenes being moon-based, I was able to replicate this washed out palette throughout the book in order to ensure image consistency. The ting that I really enjoyed was the fact that my image style was so original, and like no other children’s book, and for this reason, there isn’t any need for me to reference other children’s books in terms of a comparison. Due to all this, I feel I was fairly successful in terms of how well I constructed my images, however there were one or two setbacks along the way. Some of my images originally were lacking in detail, and felt slightly empty, whilst others felt too crowded. I was able to deal with this however, by adding more background objects to some of the pages, whilst removing some unnecessary detail from the other pages. I feel that by utilizing multiple techniques which I’ve learnt throughout the production process, I’ve been able to go back and optimize the construction of all my images, and due to the steep learning curve, it was something which was necessary to tweak towards the end rather than just trying to get the images to look perfect from the beginning.

Demonstration of artwork consistency in terms of texture, colors and detail amount

How well have you used text to anchor your images

Text was an element of production which at first didn’t go as smoothly as I might have planned. Originally due to having some pages with far more text than others, I had the text in different sizes to compensate for the amount of or lack of text per page. This didn’t work well, and ended up making my pages look slightly uneven and disconnected from one another, which in turn took it’s effect on the text’s overall ability to anchor my images. Despite this, I managed to sort the problem out by cutting up certain parts of the narrative very slightly, which is something I’ve mentioned in the first question. This in turn allowed for a much more orderly appearance for the images. I felt that my original font actually deducted from the images due to the fact that It stood out so much on the page, it was very artistic looking, and in a very much san serif style. I had to handle this problem too, in order to optimize the text’s ability to anchor the images. I went and chose ‘Times New Roman’, which was not only far less distracting, but also much clearer to read. These are two good examples of how I’ve shown the ability to go back and improve on mistakes I’ve made in order to create a more smooth text/image relationship within the book. I feel that each image on each page matches up perfectly to what the text says, and by using very animated images I’ve been able to match up the emotion of each image with the narrative, rather than just having cut-out characters which wouldn’t contribute to the narrative in any way. Mostly I managed to achieve this first time, but on page 10, it originally lacked image/text relation until I went back and made the princess more animated. Generally I think despite originally having a few flaws and lacking in this way, I’ve managed to make the text anchor my images as necessary.

Example of how I have managed to match up the emotion shown in the text (folded her arms in a strop), with the emotion shown in the image.

This example demonstrates how ‘The Gruffallo’, which is a book I’ve researched, uses similar techniques to my book in terms of how the image adds a lot to the what the text gives, by using a hungry looking Gruffallo to accentuate the narrative.

Is your product suitable for your audience?

In my pre-production I planned that my book would be aimed at 3-6 year olds. I’d agree that my book is appropriate for this age range due to a multitude of different factors. One of which is the amount of text I’ve used per page, as well as the level of language used and the size of the text. These factors all cater for the young audience in which I had planned on making the book for. I’ve also mentioned in my pre-production stages, the fact that the book will be aimed at both boys and girls, but primarily towards boys. I managed to achieve a book which is suitable for this primarily male audience through the usage of a space theme, which of course will appeal to boys more than girls. However, when thinking about the actual narrative, one might say that it is slightly more girl orientated due to the princess falling in love. Although this could potentially be a problem when marketing my book primarily at boys, I think it is compensated for by the space-themed setting and alien character. I specified that the geodemographic of my book would be English speaking countries, and due to the fact that the book’s written in English, it’s suitable for this geodemographic. The dull colour scheme, which mainly consisted of grey, blue and brown, was one which helped me to further aid me in making my book suitable to boys due to the nature of the colours and the fact that they are often associated with boys. I had to consider my audience at all times in order to ensure that I wouldn’t end up with a product which wouldn’t appeal to my chosen audience, and one way of doing so was to compare my product to similar products on the market. The Gruffallo proved useful in this instance, as it has a largely similar age range and target gender to my book. It utilizes a protagonist character (The Gruffallo) which is boyish and masculine in order to appeal to the audience, but at the same time also manages to remain appealing to a girl audience. This was something I feel influenced the way in which I aimed to optimise my book for the audience.

An example of how the Gruffalo’s largely masculine appearance allows the book to cater for a male audience.

An example of how the masculine colors used in my book allow me to cater for a male audience.

What do you like/dislike about the techniques you have used?

As mentioned earlier, I went for a very computer-looking, 3D and unnatural look with my images. The main way I did so was by using the polygonic lasso tool, and creating ‘layer copies’. I really liked the way this turned out, and this technique alone was responsible for providing me with the unique artwork style which I managed to achieve in the end. Despite primarily using the polygonic lasso tool, I also utilized the shape ‘warp’ tool to create features such as the eyes. I liked the fact that this added some diversity to my artwork, rather than everything being completely straight edged, and the curves allowed me to add more character to facial features. The ‘Guassian Blur’ tool in Photoshop was also great, and allowed me to create a feathered look to shadows and various other background features such as stars. This added further depth to my final images, and in my opinion helped to bring the images alive. After composing the structure of my images, everything looked fairly good, but I knew that by adding some texture and gradients I could help to make images feel more busy and alive. For this reason, I really enjoyed using both the ‘gradient overlay’ tool and the ‘pattern overlay’ tool. When using the ‘polygonic lasso’ tool, the fact that I made lines to long deducted from the difficulty of creating certain shapes, which is one dislike I have for the technique. Perhaps using longer lines might have provided more of a challenge for me, but having said this, the fact that the characters and environments weren’t simply traced from other images meant that despite using lots of straight lines, there was a lot of creativity involved in the process. Overall, I really felt that I utilized various different techniques in a way which helped me to create the final book I intended, and given the chance to make the book again, I’d adopt very much the same techniques. To add to this, I can’t expect my book to be at the same level of detail as well known children’s books which are currently on to the market due to the fact that I made it with little starting experience, and over a very small period of time.

This slide is aimed at demonstrating some of the Photoshop tools that I utilized.

A handful of the many tools I used in order to benefit my product…

This example within my book, shows how the long lines with few edges (achieved with the polygonic lasso tool) were fairly easy compared to If I had chosen to use more complex shapes, which meant that creating some of the environments was at times less challenging than I might have liked it to be when compared to the much more textured environment used in ‘The Gruffallo’.

What do you like/dislike about how your final product looks?

There’s lots that I like within my book in terms of how the final thing looks, but also lots that I don’t like perhaps quite as much. One element which I felt helped my book to really feel polished and completed it was the inclusion of a front cover. I feel that this further demonstrates my ability in graphic design, and sets my book apart from others. To add to this, after viewing the final books of other members of the class, I can say that the way my book looks differentiates massively from the others, which goes back to my previous point about it’s uniqueness and aesthetic quality. I feel that the way my book looks is a reflection of my own style, which is something I really value in it. I enjoy the general layout of my book, and think that it’s really a layout which is suitable for the young age I’ve aimed for, with a nice balance between text amount and image size, and consistent page layouts. This brings me onto my point about image size, which in my opinion is something very important in a children’s book. The images are large and clear, and the setting is established clearly on each page due to this. High quality export sizes has assured that pages of the book don’t look pixelated in any way, further aiding the book’s clarity. Having said all this, there are elements which of course I’m less happy with than I might have wanted to be, in terms of aesthetic quality and how it all looks. The level of detail within the images (as mentioned previously) at some points lack slightly, for example the frog which given the the chance to go back and change, I might have attempted to further animate. Not only this, but when compared to the other children’s book which I researched before making mine, the diversity in terms of how different each page looks, is slightly lacking. This is especially apparent when compared to ‘The Gruffalo’ for example, which has a multitude of diverse page layouts in order to captivate the young audience. Similarly, ‘The Grouchy Ladybird’ utilizes a more diverse and interactive layout than that used in my book. Despite all this, I enjoy the basic look of my final product, and prize it on it’s simplicity and consistency.

Examples of more diverse and interactive looking page layouts which have been used in similar children’s books which I’ve researched in comparison to mine. The usage of scattered images for example, help to add aesthetic value to the books.

Why did you include the content you used?

Much of the content which I included in my book was largely inspired by that of well known children’s books that I had researched before starting production. I focused my influence on books which were aimed at a similar demographic. By doing so I was aided in deciding what types of images were appropriate for my audience, as well as the fonts. When choosing the font, I came to the conclusion that choosing a serif font would allow me to make my book easier for young children to read, and this factor played an important role in the decision on what font to used. A quick Google search also showed me that basic serif fonts such as ‘Times New Roman’ are much more child friendly, thus further influencing my decision. By observing other books, I could clearly see that this was the standard choice. Similarly, I learnt something about the amount of detail appropriate for my audience by observing other children’s books, which was responsive for influencing my artwork style. I could gauge what is and isn’t seen as appropriate for children’s books, for example not over-complicating my illustrations with unnecessary amounts of background detail. An example of a book which influenced me on this, was ‘The Bad-Tempered Ladybird’, with it’s basic style and lack of detail. Despite my decisions on what content I should include being largely influenced by other books, I wanted to bring my own style to the book. For this reason, much of the content choices I made were influenced by myself. In terms of the colours I used, as mentioned previously, I wanted to give my book a more masculine feel due to the more male based target audience. This is an example of how I allowed and gender stereotypes to effect the choices I made in terms of the content I used. To conclude, there were a multitude of different factors which effected the content I included in my book. By researching into children’s books, and understanding what would make my book appeal to my audience, I was able to measure out every detail in terms of what I should include, but at the same time I wanted the contents of my book to possess originality. By balancing these factors I was able to come to the decisions which I made.

These are good examples of how a bit of background researched influenced the decisions I made in regards to the contents of my book, and what I should or shouldn't include. By understanding what is beneficial for my audience I was able to do so.

This example demonstrates that despite my content being largely influenced by other children’s books, I still allowed myself to make the content original and unlike other children's books in terms of images, text etc.

What signs, symbols or codes have your used in your work?

As mentioned previously, colour played a big role in enabling my book to appeal to the male audience which my book was aimed at despite it’s feminine narrative. Essentially, the way my mind has been programmed due to society means that I will associate various different colours, objects and themes with different genders, and different types of people. Due to this, many of the symbols and signs which I have used were probably done subliminally without me researching into them. The usage of a blue alien helps my audience to establish the fact that this character is likely to be a male one, and similarly, the fact that the princess is wearing pink, helps my audience to establish the fact that she is female (aside from the fact that she’s a princess). I’ve given the king a cape, in order to symbolize that fact that this character has some degree of power, due to the fact that capes are often associated with power (superheroes etc.). There are a few signs and symbols which might seem overly obvious, but have been used in my book in order to establish certain facts to do with the setting and location of the story. To give some examples, the fact that one some pages, I’ve chosen to include the earth in the background. This may seem blatantly obvious, but it helps my audience to understand that the story is set on another planet, thus being a symbol. The stars work in a similar way, and establish the book as being anti-realism. Similarly to all of this, the actual design of my characters (which is slightly futuristic and very computer-generated aesthetically) helps to symbolise the the fact that the book is set in the future. Despite the fact this symbolism seems obvious when you think about it, they are essential in order to establish the facts about a story, and this is especially relevant in a children's book due to the fact that children of this age will rely much more on signs and symbols in order to paint a picture in their head. Paying homage to previous traditional literature was something which I aimed to achieve from the beginning, and by using the traditional fairytale characters I was able to symbolise this traditional theme. A Princess and King are often used in this style of literature, so by using these characters, my audience are able to associate my book with others they have read in this style, which in turn means that they are more likely to feel in their comfort zone when reading the book. To add to all this, I felt it was important to convey a message within my book, and one of the ways I did so was by creating a ‘never judge a book by it’s cover’ type moral. As soon as the princess shows kindness towards the alien, his true appearance is revealed. This might also seem obvious, but it’s actually a way to encode meaning into the children who read my book, and build on their moral values subconsciously. This is a technique that many books aimed at children use, for example ‘The Gruffalo’, which teaches children a very similar lesson about how the way we perceive things isn’t always reality. The book doesn’t specifically explain this, but instead symbolises it. To conclude, signs and symbolism have played a key part in establishing various elements of my book, and whilst some were included subconsciously, they have contributed to the overall structure and allowed my audience to further understand various elements of the book.

This image demonstrates my point about the subconscious message which ‘The Gruffalo’ conveys. The mouse appears to be dangerous, thus scaring the other animals, but in reality, he’s just a mouse.

Similarly, These images demonstrate how the alien appears to be one thing, but then turns out to be something completely different. Important values can be implanted in children’s minds subconsciously.

What representations can be found in your work?

Forming representations of certain groups was not something I was focused on achieving when producing my book. This however, does not mean that there are not representations within the book. The point I’ve mentioned numerously throughout my evaluation is that I’ve used colours in order to signify gender. This in itself is a form of representation, I’m portraying females (the princess) as being pink, and males (the frog) as being blue. I know I’ve mentioned this point a number of times, but I feel it is very relevant to this section of the slide due to the fact that I’m essentially reinforcing the already apparent gender/colour assignments. Gender representations and rolls play a key role in my book, as they do in many fairytales, and one other example of where I’ve chosen to apply gender roles is the fact that I’ve chosen the King to possess the most power and knowledge. He’s a male character, so essentially I’ve represented males as being more authoritative and knowledgeable than females are. He dictates decisions that the princess makes, as demonstrated on page 9, when he reminds her that she must keep her promise. He’s also shown as being sacred and wealthy, when he gifts the princess with a magical golden ball. These are two examples of when I have assigned the male character a role in which he is more valued than the female. Although I think there was an element of choice in this gender assignment, I think there was an element of subconscious decision making. I think that my previous knowledge of fairytales, and the significance that gender roles often play in their narratives, influenced the way in which I constructed these roles within my book. An example of another fairytale which I researched during pre-production, which could’ve been partially responsible for this, is ‘Rapunzel’. This story essentially suggests to it’s audience, that women are a prize or object, and that the male has the power to change things. The casual sexism in books like these largely lies in their cultural history, as the books where written in a time where society was much more male dominant. Although I don’t agree with this unfair sexism, I think it’s now become almost compulsory in any story tale, which backs up why I might have subconsciously used the stereotypes. Aside from gender, there are also a few, less noticeable representations within my book. The absence of any characters who aren’t Caucasian essentially creates a representation in itself. It is essentially representing the importance of white people, especially in fairytale literature, and although I am in no way racially discriminative, this lack of ethnic diversity basically is a subconscious racial representation. On the other hand of the argument however, one could argue that due to the fact that there are only 3 characters, the fact that there is no ethnic diversity isn’t really relevant, as opposed to if there had been 15 characters and all of them had been white. Another important representation within my book, which is worth discussing, is the fact that all the characters are of royal blood. This one is similar to discussion on race, and goes back to the point about how the lack of character diversity creates a representation within itself. To conclude, all of these representations stem from what I’ve read in other pieces of traditional literature. Although they in no way are a reflection of my own views or beliefs, they are still largely apparent within my work. Though subtle, they still play a significant role within both the images I’ve created and the text of the book.

This image demonstrates how the gender roles are somewhat reversed within my book, with the prince acting as the ‘prize/princess’, and the princess acting as the ‘hero’.

These images demonstrate the lack of ethnic diversity that is apparent in my book, which could be down to subconscious race representation.

What style have you employed in your products?

I’ve discussed the style of my book a lot in other questions, but essentially my aim was to create something which possessed originality, but also took qualities from various other children’s books in order to benefit mine. By finding out which children’s books were most successful, and then analysing the different styles used, and the visual codes within them, I was able to form a solid opinion on what I wanted the book to look like. A lot of what I will talk about within this question will be essentially repeated information from other questions, due to style playing an important role in every decision I made. Despite this, there’s still some extra information about the style of my book which I can discuss, most of which in regards to influence and similarities between my book and others. When researching children’s books, I decided it might be a good idea to search for some obscure art styles, and one of which I found was a book called ‘The Story of Little Suck-a-Thumb’. Whilst fairly terrifying, the originality of this artwork was one which fascinated me and compelled me to take a more experimental approach to the style in which I chose to employ. I felt that if I was able to make something that looked good whilst also not just looking the same as other children’s books, I’d be able to catch the attention of my audience. On top of this however, due to the theme of the book (space themed), I wanted to modernise my artwork style as much as possible. By using the long jagged edges with very little shading and texture, I think I was able to achieve this ultra-contemporary feel.

Examples of how both my artwork style and the artwork style of ‘The Story Of a Little Suck-A Thumb’ both differentiate massively from what someone might expect to see in an average children’s book, and also both differentiate massively from one another with their unique qualities. The textured wall is unique to my style, whereas the vibrant and unnatural looking colors are unique to the style of ‘The Story Of a Little Suck-A Thumb’.

What were the strengths and weaknesses of the pre-

production and planning The pre production was an extremely important factor in creating my book. This was because it allowed to develop a good understanding about what would be involved in production, thus making me more prepared for it. Because of this, I had to make sure my pre-production went well. The planning and research essentially allowed me to understand the market which I was about to enter, and also understand the level of detail that went into similar children’s books. The first piece of planning I did was a page in which I explored a few different styles of traditional literature. This came in particularly useful, as I’d previously had little knowledge on the topic. This then allowed me to progress in terms of focusing my thoughts on ‘fairytale’ literature and essentially speed up the process of me deciding on what sort of narrative I might use. Although this particular page was lacking in detail, I feel it served a definite purpose. In contrast, the next page I made, which was a mind map, was detailed and allowed to place all my creative ideas in one place. This came in particularly useful to me due to my slight lack of organizational skills, so I find having all my ideas in one place to be beneficial. The mood board was another element of pre-production which I felt was a strength, and worked particularly well for me. It not only allowed me to summarise the general composition of my book and it’s content, but also allowed me to start to visualise everything together, and start to paint a picture in my head. Due to being a visually aided learner, this was something which greatly aided me and allowed me to progress with more confidence. There were however, some weaknesses within my pre-production. One of which was the fact that my storyboard lacked in detail, and does not really resemble what I’ve created (in terms of how it looks, not in terms of storyline). Although this probably didn’t have much of a negative effect on the strength of the production, it’s still relevant, and demonstrates lack of detail. I have to consider the fact that I was fairly pushed for time throughout this section of my pre-production though, so didn’t have hours upon hours to complete the storyboard or digital flat plan. This then brings me onto my next point, time management. I think that considering the pace we were working at, and that we were constantly being pushed to finish each section of the project as quickly as possible, I managed to handle my time fairly adequately. I can put this down to pre production massively aiding me in terms of preparation for time management. If I hadn’t been prepared due to planning and research, I simply wouldn’t have been able to meet the deadlines, and this of course was a key strength in my pre production.

This is an example of when my storyboard and digital flat plan pages are fairly dissimilar to that of my final book, which potentially could be seen as a flaw in my pre-production.

This example shows how the high level of detail used within my mind map allowed me to store all the creativity and ideas in one place.

Historical and cultural context

My work was essentially based on a fairytale story. For that reason alone, it has a lot of Historical relevance. The book which I chose to adapt (The Frog Prince/The Princess And The Frog) doesn’t itself have any Historical value due to the fact that it was written only a handful of years ago, but this doesn’t mean to say that it doesn’t take a lot from other fairytales. Essentially, the storyline, morals, values and characters which I used in the book were largely influenced by traditional fairytale literature. The basic structure of the story involves romance, a ‘happily ever after’ style ending’, a prince and of course a princess. These are all elements which have significance in History, and can be seen in almost every fairytale one reads. To back this point up, other historical books such as Cinderella and Rapunzel uphold very similar values. All of this helps me to come to the conclusion that my book is very much integrated with history, and upholds many of the traditional values. Despite all of this, whilst having this historical relevance, my book also manages to remain relevant in terms of modern day culture, and integrates within the growing world of children’s literature. The main reason in which my book manages to achieve this cultural relevance is due to the use of a modern setting. By taking a twist on the story, and placing it in an setting in which children of our culture often take an interest in, I’m essentially allowing it to integrate into modern society. Another point to make is the fact that my book is aimed at helping young children to read. Everything in the book is essentially aimed towards achieving this. Due to the constant influx of new children learning to read, this type of book will always be culturally relevant within modern society. Basically, I’ve managed to combine historical relevance and cultural relevance into an entirely unique book. It’s hard to come by any books like this, but Catherine M Valentine’s ‘Six Gun Snow White’ is one which springs to mind slightly. This book twists the story of the ‘Snow White’ fairytale, and bases it in America. Although in terms of content this book is dissimilar to mine, the way in which it achieves relevance within modern society whilst also upholding the Historical narrative, could be compared to my book in many ways.

Example of how my book has managed to have historical context by upholding the traditional fairytale ‘happily ever after’ ending.

Example of how my book has managed to remain relevant and contemporary in modern culture, through it’s sci-fi theme.

Example of how ‘Six Gun Snow White’ manages to remain culturally relevant in modern society through the usage of modern points of discussion and themes, despite being based on a historical piece of literature.

Peer Feedback

Summarise peer feedback and discussResponses you agree with

Responses you disagree with