GRAPHIC NARRATIVE EVALUATION

By Lewis William Hill

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. Comic Sans MS

DOES YOUR FINAL PRODUCT REFLECT YOUR ORIGINAL INTENTIONS?

• (Compare your planning/digital flat plans/storyboards to your final product?)

• My finished product is quite different from my planning as when I was creating my pages I added more detail and ideas to them that weren’t originally on my plan. For example, I separated a page into two which created a better plot and made it so that the reader knows how Perry and Patty escape the pirate ship.

• My flat plans are very similar to my final product as they contain the same characters throughout, and the story doesn’t go off track and always stays with main storyline. Another similarity between my flat plans and my finished product is that they both keep to the same style of quite a cartoony look but with some slight shading and real life locations.

• Contrastingly, my final product has many changes done to the script as I have changed what some of it says, and altered it so that it looks and sounds better to fit to the story and what details are on the page.

• The big companies like Penguin Books would not have any differences from the flat plans and planning to their final product, as they know what they are doing and want the final product to look professional and top quality. So they would alter they plans to make it exactly the same to their final product.

HOW WELL HAVE YOU CONSTRUCTED YOUR IMAGES?

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

• To construct my pages I used Photoshop and the tools provided on it, to create all my assets, backgrounds and text. For my backgrounds I wanted them all to be bright and like its day time, because in the Arctic day time lasts 6 months and night time lasts the other 6 months. So I wanted to give the young readers the full experience of being in the Arctic. Additionally, I added cracks to the ground so the reader knows how rustic and dangerous the Arctic is, at any moment the ice could break. This also gives the older readers symbolism of the ice caps melting and reminds them that its real and that it will affect their child's future.

They style of my book is quite simple with some extra detail, like shading and shadows to make the cartoon style of my pages look more smooth and a not an eyesore to look at. My character models also received this shading to make them seem more memorable so the children like them more and so they will buy the next book.

The text in my book was created using the ‘Text’ tool on Photoshop, I kept with the same font throughout my book (marker felt) when it was just the narrating text. I changed the font depending on what it was about, if a character was talking then I used Comic Sans, and for the “Wham” I used Badaboom. I feel that this makes my book look more comic book like and more enjoyable to read as it has a variation within the pages. The position of the text varies between the pages, sometimes it was angled and on the mountains, whereas on other pages it is simply just at the bottom.

Contrastingly, The Gruffalo uses the same font throughout the entire book. This makes it consistent and exciting for the children to read as it also changes the position of the text around the images. I tried to do a similar thing with my text to make it more interesting for the children and adults to read.

HOW WELL HAVE YOU USED TEXT TO ANCHOR YOUR IMAGES• (You should talk about the combination of words, images and text.)• On the first page of my book the starting sentence is placed onto a scroll like text

box, because right from the start the reader knows that it is based on a fairy tail and due to the fact the opening words are “Once upon a time”. The rest of the text on this page is place on floating ice on the sea.

My least favourite page of text is page eleven, when Patty and Perry attempt to escape the ship. The text is placed on the floor of the room, which is a bit awkward to read as it doesn’t contrast well with the wooden floor boards. It also doesn’t fit with my style which makes me like it less.

• Another good example to well placed text is on page six, this is when Geoff the walrus tells Perry where the pirate ship is. I placed the text on the walls either side, and then positioned them above the cracks in the wall to make them stand out more on the page.

IS YOUR PRODUCT SUITABLE FOR YOUR AUDIENCE?

• (Reference your proposal.)• (Give an audience profile and describe suitability in reference to content.)• The target audience that I decided to aim for was children aged between

5 and 8 years old. This was due to the rivalry I created between the main protagonist and the bad guy, I knew that it would contain some slight violence (a penguin slapping a polar bear). So I raised my age range up from 4-7 year olds to 5-8 year olds.

• At first I decided to aim for 4-7 year olds because I thought that the younger audience would be able to learn from this book with all the text and images. Whereas the slightly older audience would like to read it and enjoy the action that I have placed into my book and also learn the morals of being physically small but over coming your enemies and beating them, even though they are much bigger and strong then you.

• I believe that my book is suitable for all ages because it may contain some slight violence but it still has some niceties, like the friendship between the good characters and also the walking away scene at the end of the book.

WHAT DO YOU LIKE/DISLIKE ABOUT THE TECHNIQUES YOU HAVE USED?• (Reference specific tools you used with images.)• To start with the main tool I used was the ‘Custom Shape Tool’

which allows the user to select a shape from the selection and then create that shape onto the canvas.

• I used this for most of my characters, then to manipulate that chosen shape I used the ‘Free Transform Tool’ (Ctrl-L) or you can select it in the ‘Edit’ tab. Then this gives you multiple ways to manipulate that shape, Scale, Rotate, Perspective and Warp. Selecting these will give you more control over the manipulation of your shape.

• The ‘Free Transform Tool’ has to be my favourite one because it can be so fun just to mess around with shapes till you get them perfect. You can change them in a whole manor of ways, but the best one to use in my opinion is the ‘Distort’ because you can either make the shape longer, smaller but then you can also change how slanted it is or make one side bigger then the other.

\/ Warp \/

Another great tool that I used was the ‘Paint Bucket Tool’ which allows the user to fill in any area of a similar colour with the selected colour of your choice.

To get the selected colour you need to use the ‘eyedropper Tool’ which you then can use to select any colour on the screen. If the colour is not on the screen then you can click the ‘Set Colour Tool’ in the top right of the screen. To bring up a pop up menu of every colour there is and then you can change the hue, saturation and brightness of the colour.

One of my least favourite tools to use on Photoshop is the ‘Polygonal Lasso Tool’ this tool helps you select a certain area. The aspect of this tool that I don’t like is that you have to select each individual point around what you want to select. For example, if you wanted to select your face in a photo then you would have to click around your head on every point. This can be resolved by using the ‘Magnetic Lasso Tool’ which automatically selects the points, but even this can be buggy and select an unwanted part of the image.

The line surrounding the car is what I have selected, they both have their errors. The Lasso tool (Left) is very clunky and you have to be very priciest to use it. Similarly, with the Magnetic Lasso tool (Right) then you have to be very careful not to go over the edge of what your selecting otherwise it will go wrong. Both of these images show them going wrong.

A tool that I did not use but is very handy for those moments where something in an image doesn’t look right and not natural, is the ‘Spot Healing Brush’.

This tool is great if you take a photo of yourself and there is a blemish on your face, you can easily get rid of it by using this tool. What this brush does is copies the area around the selected spot that you chose on your face, then it replaces that spot with what the surrounding area looks like.

Before After

WHAT DO YOU LIKE/DISLIKE ABOUT HOW YOUR FINAL PRODUCT LOOKS?

• Likes:• What I most like about my book is the style of it, because it is

quite cartoon like yet I have added shading which gives it more of a realistic look to the background and the setting of each page.

• Another strength to book is how long it is compared to its rivals, it being a shorter book means that it is easier to read for the children and it doesn’t get boring.

• Finally, one of my favourite features of my book is that my characters look very detailed and you know who and what they are by just looking at them. The detail I added to them is little things, like a bow, backpacks, clothes and even an eye patch.

• Dislikes:• In my opinion, what brings my book down is my story I think if I

had more time on it then I could get the story polished out and make more sense. The story is just a bit too quick and you really have to use you imagination to create it in your mind.

• Another dislike I have with my book is that penguins don’t actually live in the arctic, they are only found in the Antarctic and southern parts of the world, like South Africa. If I were to change anything it would be that it is set in the Antarctic.

• Finally, the last thing I don’t like about my project is Captain Claws design as I think it is too big compared to my penguins design and it looks like he ha small legs to hold up a giant body.

WHY DID YOU INCLUDE THE CONTENT YOU USED?• (Images, fonts, effects, colours)• The main font that I used in my project was ‘Marker Felt’ as it

had a cartoon look and fitted well with my style and theme of the book. I tried to use other fonts that were similar to this (like ‘Chalk duster’) but this made it look too rough. Whereas ‘Marker Felt’ made my book feel more suitable for children to read as they could clearly see each individual letter. For the characters talking I changed the font to ‘Comic Sans MS’ which is easy to read and makes my book feel more like a comic book so younger children will be more interested in it.

The colours that I used in my project were all very bright to give the feeling that the reader is in a very light but cold landscape in the Arctic. I use colours like blue and white with the odd grey crack in the Arctic floor, to show that it is a dangerous place to be. I found out what colours to use by my research and picking the most common colours that kept occurring. The sea I put as dark blue to give a contrast to the rest of the colours on the page, because it being a darker colour makes it stand out so the children know its not land.

The effects that I have added to my backgrounds, characters and assets are all to make it seem more realistic or easy on the eye, it makes it something that you want to look at. For example, adding an inner shadow to an iceberg makes it more three dimensional like its actually there.

Inner Shadow

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.)• My book is not discriminative in any way because I have not

added any mentions of different religions, races or any other ethical groups. There are advantages and disadvantages to mentioning any ethical groups, for example an advantage is that it won’t offend anyone by not mentioning it. But a disadvantage of this is the children not learning about other ethical origins. Even though I haven't placed any references in my project I still think it is important to learn about the world and that children need to know the right morals and not learn the wrong ones, like bullying and other issues.

• Whereas in other books symbolism is shown more through religion and belief. For example, crosses for Christianity or the star of David for Judaism. I did not include any of this in my book due to the fact it may be seen as offensive or pretentious.

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Audience Responses

Cultural 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 Responses

Cultural 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.

Creative Media Production 2016

Creative Media Production 2012 22

Audience Responses

Cultural 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.

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Audience Responses

Cultural competence:

Visual representations of everyday objects are often the same all over the world. 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.

Creative Media Production 2016

Symbolism that I have included in my book are pirates, through the polar bears design. Pirates are usually seen as the bad guys in films and generally the media.

Another stereotype I have included is the hero, Perry Pan the Penguin. Hero's in the media are either seen as strong people with some kind of power or they are the underdog and beat the big bad guy. Finally, I have included a damsel in destress, just like in old fairy tails. This is Patty the Penguin, who is put under some kind of sleeping curse and the hero has to save her from the evil polar bear.

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?)

• My story contains classic fairy tail stereotypes, the hero, the villain and the damsel in destress who is always saved by the hero and the villain is defeated by the hero.

• The hero in my book is male and so is the villain. Whereas the damsel in destress is a female character, this could be seen as quite sexist but I don’t think it does because it is the classic stereotype for an old story. Which I have just manipulated and changed the characters who were suppose to be human into animals. There are no children in my story, just penguins, a polar bear and a walrus. But you don’t know how old they are so in a child's mind they could be a young age, whereas an adult might see them as adults.

• Oddly, my book consists of a variety of different characters which creates its own representation of corruption, where the big powerful polar bear gets defeated by the underdog.

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?)• Throughout the whole of my project I used the same cartoonist

style, of just using the shapes provided in Photoshop, using custom shape tool for example. To this simple style I then added shading, like inner shadows and drop shadows to give it a pop out effect, effectively like it was three dimensional.

• The style of my book is not influenced by any other books or style of illustrators, it was all created by me and using my ideas and I think I have achieved the style that I wanted, this also adds a unique quirk to my entire project.

• On the pages where the sea can be seen I also added an additional effect of a reflection in the sea. I got this by duplicating the layer I wanted to have a reflection, e.g. the ship. Then I flipped the duplicated layer and placed it under the other layer and brought down its opacity to look like a reflection.

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.)• To start the research off I looked into other books that were of a similar

category as mine. The books I chose were, Where the Wild Things Are, Where There’s a Bear, There’s Trouble and finally The Selfish Crocodile, these books were very similar to mine. Researching these books really helped me narrow down on what I wanted to achieve with my book, like what size pages I wanted 26cm by 24cm. This was the average size page of the books that I researched. They also taught me that the book also needed a moral and a good ending.

• The next stage of planning consisted of me creating a mind map of ideas that I wanted to do, this took me not long because I knew I wanted to do a Peter Pan story but with a twist. So me wanting to do that narrowed it down, but it was to choose the characters and who was going to star in my book. I thought of penguins fighting an angry polar bear, who replaced Captain Hook, the penguins replaced Peter and Wendy.

• To complete the planning it took me a good few hours because it took me a while to research the books and then think of fresh new ideas that had not been done before.

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?)

• The main story of my book is based on two great historical fairy tails, Peter Pan and Sleeping Beauty but I have combined them and added a major twist, which is that the main characters are animals. This is the part where it is similar to something that has been done in the past. Everything else that I have created is brand new and I came up with in my head.

• A similar product to my book is possibly, Pingu, because that is a TV show which is based on a Penguins life and he goes adventuring in the snowy wasteland with his sister.

PEER FEEDBACK• (Summarise peer feedback and discuss.)

• (Responses you agree with.)• (Responses you disagree with.)• The feedback I got from my fellow students was very helpful as it

was constructive criticism, the main problem I had was getting the polar bear’s arms right because they looked spindly. They were the thing that took me the longest time, I eventually got feedback from a student who pointed me in the right the direction for creating the polar bear’s arms, the arms turned out buff.

• Other students commented on my text placement and font choice, for example someone said that ‘Big Caslon’ was too hard to read so they suggested ‘Comic Sans MS’ which I thought was a good idea. I used it on the speech bubbles when a character talks and I feel like it was the right decision. Another example would be when I placed my text on the base of the ship, it looked off and didn't’t fit there. Another person suggested putting it on the wooden planks and it worked a lot better.

• Finally more good feedback I got was for the reflections in the sea I thought they looked messy and made the page look more complex. But the people I asked liked them and said I should keep them in it because it makes it look dynamic, so I did.