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 flat plans reflect my final work to an extent, my flat plans show the overall storyline of each slide that I wanted to show. Although the graphical styles may be quite different. But I wanted to experiment with my graphics to then find my own style.

• Originally I wanted to create my characters in a different way than I did, I wanted to create them using only shapes and textures in Photoshop to make them stand out in a different way. But I decided to draw them by hand instead which changed their visual outcome. Drawing my characters my hand gave me more time to focus more on the environments in Photoshop as it was quicker to draw the characters by hand.

• Although i might of hoped for my work to be of a higher overall standard considering the quality of my work, as i don't feel that all of it was produced to a professional standard. As some of my work towards the end of the project was rushed, therefore i would have liked to of improved my work. And possibly added more content and scenery to my pages to make them more interesting for the viewer.

• Also originally i wanted to have my text on the same page as my graphics, but after creating my pages i felt if i was to put text over them then it might make the page look a lot worse, resulting is loss of quality. So i decided to have my text on a separate page.

How well have you constructed your images?

• How well have you constructed your images? You could talk about the overall visual appearance and well as the use of texture and colour.

• I think my images reflect a good standard for a children’s book, The style of my work is what I had hoped to create. I wanted to create a anti-realist visual style, with unique elements to my work which make it stand out. Elements considering different editing techniques, lighting, textures, and content in my images I focused on to try give a unique style.

• When creating my characters I tried made them as simple as possible, so when I went to recreate them in a different for another page it would be easy and not massively time consuming. Which allows me to focus on other parts of my graphics as well.

• I experimented with different textures in my work, to try and achieve different outcomes. For example for the tree’s in my woodland setting I tried to give a Woodish texture by experimenting with different brushes rather than just a bland colour. I also experimented with different filters like on my opening page, where there is a plastic wrap filter on the background. I wanted to make the image look abstract and fairly tale like.

• When constructing my images i would have liked to have drawn more of my environments by hand so i could make them exactly what i wanted, where as mostly i took images off the internet and edited them in photoshop making them my own.

• Overall, im fairly happy with how my work turned out, but i think there is room for improvement in some areas where i could of made my work look more to a professional standard.

How well have you used text to anchor your images

• I constructed my text by putting the text on a separate page to the visuals with the reasoning that i didn't want to ruin my visuals my putting text over it. Having the text on a separate page may be easier for the readers to interpret. My script goes nicely along side my images as it simply narrates what's happening in the image.

• My text is displayed a simple rounded square with a simple font. The combination of words ive used in my text are quite basic, meaning i have’nt used language that comes across to complex for children to understand.

• In my text i have used typical children's book language like my opening line “once upon a time” as i've tried to make the script as natural as possible.

Is your product suitable for your audience?

• Reference your proposal• Give an audience profile and describe suitability in reference to content• I feel that my final product is definitely suitable for my audience, and my work reflects the same audience that I had first

intended. My product is suitable for children of all ages, but as i said in my proposal my audience is children aged around 12 and below. the storyline is simple enough for all to understand. Also, the child can be accompanied by an adult to read it for them if they are aged 5 and below. The typical child who might read my story would be someone who enjoys reading simplistic, humorous, books.

• My product is suitable for my young audience as the storyline is simple, children will understand with ease through a suitable use of graphics and text to tell the story. The story itself is a very kindhearted, non violent storyline which will be enjoyable for children to read and a suitable choice for parents to pick.

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

•I like idea of drawing out my environments rather than creating them all on Photoshop. Drawing the images allows you to be as creative as you like and I found it easier to create exactly what I wanted, as I find it easier to draw by hand rather than on Photoshop.

•I also liked the use of the gradients to give a nice looking sky, they can give the effect of a nice night time looking scene, or a sunrise. Like in the picture below the use of gradient gives a nice night-time looking effect. An example is from the picture below where I've use a gradient to give a night time effect which I like. I also like the textures that I've used on the tree to give it a wood type effect.

•Also, I liked the use of different filters like the cut out effect which gives a comic book style effect. As well as using threshold to bring back detail from the original image.

In my opening image i also used the 3D effect in photoshop which i really liked, you can create something of your own or choose something from the presets. I created a wine bottle and once it was rendered i loved the quality that this technique produced as it gave a nice finished look.

In most of my environments, i've included a sky replacement which i like, as it adds character to an image depending on the colour. The colours in the sky of my images reflect the moods by the characters usually.

Although i dislike my overuse of the cutout filter gallery effect. I do like the effect itself but i feel once it's been overused it begins to look sloppy and looses quality.

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

•I like my finished product because it appears simple and contain traits and from typical children's books, and I like the idea of a simplistic style as it doesn't draw too much attention away from the actual story and makes it easy to understand.

Although i do like my individual pages because i feel like the visual style i've used is different to alot of childrens books that are already out there. Which gives my book a unique selling point.

Specifically i like the backgrounds and environments in my work, i like the vibrant and darker colours which character and mood to my pages. My work contains a number of different environments which i like because the same scenery in all the pages would be boring a repetitive. By using a range of environments it keeps the audience engaged visually.

Although one of the things i dislike about how my product looks is that i feel some of my pages are quite bland, i would have liked to have added more content to the pages. To make them look more professional and exciting.

Another thing i dislike about how my work ended up was the perspective of some of my pages came across confusing, like the image in the previous page. Although i like the image, the road i've tried to create looks out of place, this happened a few times with my pages.

Why did you include the content you used?

• Images, fonts,effects, colours• Most of the content i included was purely for good visual effect, i wanted my work to look as professional

as possible so i included various content to ensure this.• Considering the text in my work, i used a very basic font so it was easy for my audience to interpret, as well

as the actual page set up for my text. • In my pages i consistently used images from town locations to then edit them myself to turn into my own

abstract image. But i chose to use town images as this was where the majority of story was set. Town environments were quite easy to work from on photoshop but they were hard to draw by hand which was why i used pre existing images.

• The colour choice in my images was fairly self explanatory, i didn't many abstract colours as i wanted to a realistic colour choice in my environments. Although in the woodland pages i tried to make my work look a little more surreal with the use of brightly coloured mushrooms, winding tree’s etc. I wanted these pages to enforce the visual idea of fairytale.

• In these pages i used shapes, and brush tools. I used shapes as stars for example which i thought was a nice touch, especially for a children's book i thought it fitted well. And i used the brush tool to get a nice grass look on the floors, and also a wood look to the trees.

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

• Choices of colour, style, locations, character design and tone all give additional meaning to your work. • As i mentioned in a previous slide, the colour of the sky in my work usually depended on obviously the

time of day, but as well as that the mood of the characters and the narrative of that particular page. I did this because i feel asif colour closely determines the mood in images. If you're trying to potray something happy and you have a black background to it, it doesn't work as well and may look confusing to the audience.

• In all of my pages i don't feel like there was one set style for the whole book which i like, as it sets my book apart from others for it difference. As i began to create my graphics i didn't have one desired style to work from. Although all of the pages do have similarities in the techniques, textures, colours, and characters which my audience will see.

• The characters in my work are all fairly similar designs, but all of the characters are different and i was sure to make them like that. Different characters have different clothing, all of my characters looked fairly secretive and dark considering there style of clothing mainly, I wanted them to look this way because the characters trading with mr vinegar knew how stupid he was being, but they didn't say anything. Which was why i chose to create my characters in this certain way.

• My choice of locations in my work represented the storyline of my work, it followed mr vinegar on his travels as he travelled through various town and woodland scenes.

Audience ResponsesCultural competence:

Media texts require us to have a certain level of cultural understanding to be able to interpret them.

At a basic level, this could mean being able to read the language that a magazine is written in.

At a deeper level, it means being able to interpret signs and symbols that we use a visual shorthand to communicate ideas.

We recognise these signs in our own culture but find it harder to understand when looking at others.

We create and attach meaning to signs and symbols in many different forms.

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Audience ResponsesCultural competence:

What is this?

This is a Norwegian Pine tree, covered in snow and with a red ribbon on.

Our cultural understanding allows us to interpret its meaning.

To us, in British society, it means Christmas, presents and family.

This is because we share a cultural knowledge.

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Audience ResponsesCultural competence:

There are many other signs and symbols that we attach meaning to.

A leather jacket can imply rebellion.

A sports car can imply wealth and power.

A cross can represent religion.

13Creative Media Production 2012

Audience ResponsesCultural competence:

Visual representations of everyday objects are often the same the world over. A car appears as a car, no matter what country it appears in.

What that car means however, can be very different depending on your cultural background.

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What representations can be found in your work?

• How are men, women or children shown in your work? Does your work feature different ages, races, social groups or religions? Does a lack of any variety of character types create its own representation?

• In my work i have not intended to represent any specific gender or age, in any different way apart from the obvious ways of how they look. My work contains a variety of different characters who feature in the book for short periods of time. In my work i display representations of men, women, children and animals. All my characters are of a similar race and religion as i didn't take take these much into account. Therefore there is a lack of variety regarding my character's race and religion, if i was to redo my work i would include more of a variation is race and religion. I didn't make my work like this for any particular reason, but i wanted all of the characters to be relatively similar which made the work easier for me, and possibly not as confusing for my young audience.

• Ive represented people mainly through their clothing and style. For example the burglars at the start of my book. I have chosen to use a classic black and white style of clothing to accentuate the fact their burglars. As Well as when i portrayed the children in my book i gave them more youth like clothing. And Mr Vinegar was wearing a suit to show his older age and his personality.

What style have you employed in your products?

• Discuss influences/ existing products• What visual style does your work have and why did you choose it?• All of my pages were drawn, so my work had a general sketched style to it. The

style of my work is a relatively simple style. With a fairytale/anti realist feel to it. I took inspiration from children's books like the gruffalo when thinking of my works style as this was one of my favourite books as a child that i can remember.

What were the strengths and weaknesses of the pre-production and planning

• How did the planning and research help

• How well did you manage your time

• Reference specific examples

• The planning and research of this project helped me massively to conduct my book, as before i had little to no knowledge about how i would make my book. Considering page sizes, font styles, imagery etc… One main thing that i found to help my massively with my work was my digital flat plans. They helped me when creating all of my individual pages, as i could go back, look at my flat plans and then build my pages based on what i had put in my plan. They also helped me to create a good contingency in my pages.

• Also, research on other children's books helped me to get more of an idea about what visual style i might use in my work and how i might layout my pages.

• Although there were weaknesses in my planning when i think about my mood board, or idea generation. Both documents were un detailed and my mood board left me still slightly unsure of what visual style i was going for in my work.

• I could of managed my time a lot more efficiently, i underestimated how long the work would actually take which resulted in myself having to rush the work.

Historical and cultural context

• How does your work compare to what has come before? What other similar products have existed in the past? What current products exist?

A lot of the children's books that i looked at seemed to be very similar to each other, with similar layouts and visual styles. Most of the books contain a large image which is usually accompanied by text above or underneath the image. Like the image i've inserted below is a page from The Gruffalo which shows the typical layout which i found in my research.

Personally, i think my work compares to the standards of a professional children's book, but in a different visual style. The graphics in most previous children's books that i looked at seems to be fairly simple and not to technical. Because it doesn't really need to be for children. Most the previous books graphics are sketched by hand whereas children’s books being released today are often done through the use of technical equipment.

I think my book is similar to the buffalo considering the storyline and some of the graphics as there’s a lot of woodland scenery in both my book and The Gruffalo. What i mean by the storyline being similar is that both my story and The gruffalo is based around the encounters with different people/animals.

Peer Feedback

• Summarise peer feedback and discuss– Responses you agree with– Responses you disagree with