Digital graphic narrative evaluation print media production

1. Graphic Narrative
Evaluation

2. 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.

3. Does your final product reflect your
original intentions?
I think that my final product turned out very similar to my planning and flat
plans, as I tried to closely follow what I had planned to avoid mistakes. In my
planning I created an ideas board that featured different illustrations and
images on it to help give me an idea of what I would like
my product to look like, and I feel that this helped me to create the product in
a consistent style. When I created my flat plans I mainly planned the
positioning for my characters and their environment, but I also planned the
basic colour I would use in my product so I wouldn’t have to spend extra time
figuring out what would work best. Below I have shown an example of my
finished first page of my book alongside the flat plan for the page design. Due
to the plan being quite basic and simple it was very easy to follow

4. How well have you constructed your
images?
I feel that my images were constructed in quite a basic
way, making the finished product look more
unprofessional than I’d like. To create my images I
rotoscoped simple body templates so I have the basic
pose for a character and then add to it using the paint
brush and pencil tools. This could be quite time
consuming as some of my characters required more detail
than others, and due to the fact that I am not a strong
artist it was very difficult to try and make the images look
good, but I feel that doing it this way meant that I could
create images exactly how I planned for them to look
rather than compromising.

5. How well have you constructed your
images?
The first few pages were
constructed quite well. I tried to
make the images look high
quality and in depth by using
shading and adding as much
detail as I had time for. For
example, I used several different
tones for the sky, and used
different brush sizes and
textures for the stars so they’d
all look different. I also used
different tones for shading the
skin and clothes.

6. How well have you constructed your
images?
However, as the pages go on I feel
that you can see the quality dip
as I was trying to get everything
finished in time. For example, on
later pages there is no shading
added and lines look much more
wobbly and messy. I used the
same techniques as I had before
to keep the styles consistent, yet
due to having less time than I
planned the pages still ended up
looking more rushed and untidy.

7. How well have you used text to anchor
your images
I used text in a very basic way by just placing it in
empty spaces of a page. Each page has a different
ratio of image to text depending on the scene. Most
pages just include a white bubble that fades into
the image that I can use to place the text over so
it’ll be easily visible to the readers. I only include
text that links to the page it is on to keep the text
and image linked together. On one page I tried to
use text more creatively, matching the texts layout
with the images on the page.

8. Is your product suitable for your
audience?
I think that my product is suitable for my audience. My
target audience is mostly children between the ages of 5
and 7, of a variety of backgrounds and genders. Originally
in my proposal I intended to have a younger target
audience, however I feel that there is too much text at
too high a difficulty for them to understand. Children ages
5-7, whilst mostly have a little bit of reading skills, are
typically still at a low reading level. To make sure the text
is understandable I tried not to use overly developed
sentences or vocabulary. However, I didn’t want to make
it so simple that it wouldn’t be at all challenging, as
children need to be pushed when trying to improve their
reading skills.

9. What do you like/dislike about the
techniques you have used?
The technique I used most to create the
basics for an image was rotoscoping. To do
this I used the polygonal lasso tool which was
effective at making sure I could include lots of
detail in the shapes I wanted to create.
However, this technique can be very time
consuming which is very unhelpful in
situations like these where my time is limited.
I also used the technique of warping shapes
to create a more specific shape. This
technique is very quick and easy to use for
basic shapes, but can become more difficult
when trying to create more complex shapes

10. What do you like/dislike about how
your final product looks?
I like the look of the sky and backgrounds I created, as I
think they are quite detailed and and good quality. I spent
a lot of time adding detail to the stars and blending in
different colours to give the sky more realism and depth,
and I think this style contrasts heavily with the rest of the
pages.
I don’t like the characters I’ve drawn as I feel they look
quite rough and out of proportion. It took me a long time
to try and draw each character and make each of them all
look unique and different whilst making sure they also
look neat.

11. Why did you include the content you
used?
• Images, fonts, effects, colours
I took a lot of inspiration from existing children's books and
work from illustrators. I made sure to use these as a reference
when designing my pages as I wanted my finished product to
follow a similar style. I used a more cartoonish style as I
thought it would be more appealing to children than a more
realistic style would. I used quite a simple basic text that
would be clear and easy to read for anyone. However, this
means that the pages look quite boring and less professional.
The colours I used were all quite varied depending on what
they were for. Most of the colours I used are quite vibrant and
deep. I used a mix of different kinds of colours for the
characters to give them each their own kind of personality.
For the

12. What signs, symbols or codes have
your used in your work?
In my product I didn’t use lots of symbols or codes as I was
keeping everything quite simple. To portray the children as
younger I made them a lot smaller, and drew the heads quite
large as this makes the illustration appear more childlike.
Whereas for the pilot in my story I made him a lot bigger in
comparison to the other characters as he is meant to be
portrayed as an adult. I also used different proportions for his
character design.
As far as colours are concerned I used a variety of blues, reds
and greens as I wanted to avoid overusing typically
“gendered” colours such as lots of blues or pinks. This use of
neutral colours means that the product will still appeal to a
wide audience.

13. 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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14. 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.
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15. 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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16. Audience Responses
Cultural 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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17. What representations can be found in
your work?
I wanted to make sure that there was equal and varied
representation in my product. To do this I included
characters representing both genders and different races
and cultures, as a way to introduce children to diversity
early on. I didn’t include much representation of any
religions as I want the product to be available to a very
wide audience rather than only Christians or only
Muslims. The original story is a Christian story and has an
emphasis on God rewarding generous and kind people. I
thought that the moral story was important but I wanted
to remove the heavy religious implications so it could be
enjoyed by a wider audience.

18. What style have you employed in your
products?
I looked at several different existing
products to try and get inspiration for
visual styles and influences. I really liked
the hand-drawn, watercolour style of
most images, which is why I looked at an
illustrator and animator named Louie
Zong who specialises in children’s books
and cartoons. I found his style really
inspiring, however I couldn’t seem to
replicate it. Though I still took inspiration
from the cartoon style he drew his
characters in. His characters are all quite
small and childlike, with large heads and
eyes and small limbs. He also uses quite
detailed backgrounds behind his
simplistic characters

19. What were the strengths and weaknesses
of the pre-production and planning
I think that at first the planning and pre-production
work I’d done was extremely helpful, as it kept me
up to date with knowing what needed completing
when. However, as time went on it was harder to
follow the planning schedule as I had some pieces
unfinished even though I was scheduled to move on
to the next. Because of this some of my work has
gone unfinished. When doing my work I wasn’t the
best at time management, which is why my work
has suffered for it. It can be visibly seen in my work
where it starts to lose it’s quality due to being
rushed. For example, the top image shows the main
character on the first page. I used shading and tried
to make the illustration look smooth and
professional. However, the bottom image shows the
same character on page 5, which is not shaded and
looks more rushed.

20. Historical and cultural context
The story I based my work off is a very old Grimm
Brothers story that hasn’t had many renditions
made of it. The original story has a lot more
religious contexts, as at the end of the story god
gives the young girl new clothes and money falls
down from the sky. Due to the fact that a lot less
people are religious these days I decided to alter
the narrative so it was more neutral and relevant to
present day families, whilst making sure it still
portrays the same moral lessons.

21. Feedback 1
• What do you like about the graphics?
– The backgrounds are really beautiful and immersive.
– The idea of using realistic grass is also an interesting idea.
– Your character feel very effectively drawn and I love the
cartoon feel to it
– The idea behind the story I can already feel just with two
pages.
• What would you do to develop the graphics?
– I feel the idea of calling stars “little dots” is sort of limiting
on the reader’s intelligence.
– Instead of black text on white faded blocks, maybe use
white text without blocks. I feel it would look nicer and
more graphic would be shown.

22. Feedback 2
• What do you like about the graphics?
The graphics of the background is really well done, I
really like the clouds and stars.
I also like how you put a bubble around the text, It
feels like reading a real story book.
The texture of the grass is really well made.
• What would you do to develop the graphics?
You could develop the character by adding some
shade effects or texture like you did for the
background.

23. Feedback 3
• What do you like about the graphics?
The sky looks really nice and beautiful as well as
naturalistic. Its well detailed and looks like a real sky.
• What would you do to develop the graphics?
I would ad a little more detail to the character
design such as the hands and the eyes to make it
look more human.

24. Peer Feedback
• Summarise peer feedback and discuss
– Responses you agree with
I agree that some parts of the script will need altering,
as some of the wording may be put too simply. I also
agree that maybe more detail could be added to the
characters to give them more depth.
– Responses you disagree with
One piece of feedback said I should try to make the
characters look more detailed and human, however I
would rather stick with the current, more cartoonish
style I have used as I feel it contrasts against the detailed
background giving it a more surreal feeling.