heres the evaluation of my childrens book

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?
• Compare your planning/digital flat plans/ storyboards to your final product
• The majority of my digital flat plans are very similar to the finished book. Although the plans
themselves are more simplistic and they don’t include the colour, texture or visual styles, the only
include the actual outline of the page. On some pages I added new features like paintings. On page
1, I originally planned to have a rectangular cabinet, but when it came to creating the cabinet I
wanted to make the top curved as it allowed me to have an arched text saying what the cabinet is
and I thought it looked more visually appealing. I also added the texture of the brickwork on the
wall to make it look more like a brick wall. The rest of things on page 1 were done the same as the
original plan, I kept them the same because I thought it looked effective and the planning helped
me to create this image how id imagined it before I started production.
• On page 4 I had originally planned to use three ellipses with relevant text next to each one. I
followed through with this plan because it was a good idea. It allowed me to keep the book within
the page limit we were given, because without doing this technique, I would have had to use three
separate pages, using my plan allowed me to combine three pages into one, I added the texture of
the leaves after id planned it, because it looks pretty bland and boring without the texture.
• On pages 6 and 7, I didn’t originally plan to have a window, however when I was producing the
book , I thought it would be a good idea as I wanted to create a positive mood amongst the reader,
this was due to the bad weather and negativity before the princess went to bed, adding in the
window with the nice weather would subconsciously build the emotion up positively to suggest a
traditional happy ending like most fairy tales. I also think adding the window made the page look
more aesthetically pleasing and it filled the gap in the page well. I also added the brick texture to
the wall as this makes it look more realistic and it kept a visual style throughout different pages.

4. Page 1
Page 4
Page 6

5. How well have you constructed your
images?
• I am quite happy with the images I constructed. I made my characters simplistic and colourful as id seen examples of this in
various children’s books I have read in the past. I used minimal texture as I wanted there to be lots of bold colours with
strokes around them to make each part stand out and to prevent any confusion.
• I used a gradient on the castle to create a cylindrical/3D feel to the towers, I also used this to show the direction of sunlight.
I think this makes the book look more professional and visually appealing. I also added a drop shadow on the roof of the
towers to add a 3D feel to the building which would then suggest it having an inside also.
• When creating the characters themselves, I used a combination of shapes that I either left as they were or warped to fit the
style I wanted. I ensured I used typical/stereotypical colours so that it would be easy for a child to relate the text to the
photos. I also made sure that I used a stroke on my characters to make them look professional and keep in with the style of
the book.
• I kept my settings fairly simplistic because that’s the style I wanted to achieve, however I also included a few things to create
some texture within settings, this was because although I wanted to use minimal texture and keep it simplistic, using a small
amount of texture creates a professional, visually appealing effect without crowding the page.
• I intended on keeping the style fully the same throughout but then I realised I had to combine a few pages to ensure my
book wasn’t too long. To do this, I created pages that had 3 scenes on in one. This went out of the visual style of the book
but because I had to do this twice, I kept the visual style the same for both times, and I also tried to keep them with the style
of the book whilst trying to add something different and some texture at the same time, to do this I found a texture of some
leaves, but used a comic filter on the image to make it look more cartoon like, I also placed a white background behind it
and dropped the opacity of the image to ensure it wasn’t too ‘in your face’ and so that it didn’t distract you from the actual
images or text on the page.

6. How well have you used text to anchor
your images
• For most pages in my book, I wanted to leave the text separate on a white section, at the bottom of
the page. The reason I decided to do this was because I wanted readers to glance at the picture,
then read the text and then re-view the image so that the child can then link them together to
create a visual and narrative story.
• There’s two pages where the text isn’t at the bottom of the page, these are pages 4 and 8. these
pages included three scenes with the relevant text next to each scene. I did this because it allowed
me to combine three pages on one and the positioning of the text on these pages is positioned so
that its obvious which scene goes with each group of text.
• On page 5 I used thought bubbles on the page as well as placing the text on a white section at the
bottom, this was because I wanted to include some text that wasn’t in the story itself, but it’s text
that is hugely relevant to events which happen in the story. I used thought bubbles because the
princess was meant to be sleeping, so she wouldn’t have been able to speak and neither would the
pea because he had to be silent so he didn’t get heard by the princess. I chose the use of thought
bubbles over just normal dialogue or narrative because they helped me build a narrative story in
the best way.

7. Is your product suitable for your
audience?
• In my proposal my target audience of for young children ages 3-7. I chose
this age group because that’s around the age that children learn to read
and also at this age children tend to be read stories before bed and its an
age where literacy begins to be introduced to young children. I intend my
book to be sold to children of that age, from any ethnicity or background.
This is because I think a book should be available to anyone, no matter of
the background. The book is intended for children of any gender, I tried to
keep it as neutral as possible meaning that it would appeal to any child
within that age range.
• I think the book suits my target audience, as it has bright colours in it
which will catch a childs eye, I also used grey hair for the elderly
characters, this is to educate/help the children associate the grey hair with
age, whereas the younger characters had blonde and brown hair. This
would help the child build up a visual and narrative story whilst reading
the book. I used stereotypical male and female colours when creating the
characters so that it could be understood by a young child who is likely to
Associate blue with boys and pink with girls, I don’t mean this in a sexist
manner, its just a stereotype I thought would help tell the story visually.
• The simplicity of my images makes them easy to understand if youre only
a young child, the use of basic colours that are bright and stand out will
help them to link words to the images. I used stereotypical colours too so
that its easy for the child to make that connection for example a yellow
sun, blue sky, green grass

8. What do you like/dislike about the
techniques you have used?
• Reference specific tools you used with images
• Advantages of using shapes, pen tool, brush tool, gradient overlay (blending
modes)
• Disadvantages to the above. Do you feel a different tool could have helped? (pen
tool was confusing initially – taught self how to use)
• I liked the techniques I used. I mainly used shapes to create my images. I chose
this technique because it would be easy to repeat and also because I wanted to
achieve a simplistic feel to the book. The use of shapes was really effective
because they’re massively customizable, for example some custom shapes
weren’t what I was after, even after I tried warping them, so to get past this I
rasterized the shape and then used the lasso tool to change the shape of it, this is
just one example of how customizable using shapes is. The disadvantage of using
shapes however is they can be fairly restricting, I found it difficult to create most
facial features with shapes so I decided to use the brush tool and the pen tool
instead.
• I used the pen tool for character limbs and some facial features. One
disadvantage of using the pen tool is that its rather tricky and confusing at first.
However I taught myself how to use it by reading tutorials, and once I became
more confident with the tool I realised how good it was to use, I used it to create
paths which I would then stroke over the top of to create eyebrows, limbs and
mouths.
• In some situations I used the brush tool on a really large brush size to create
backgrounds, I did this because sometimes its confusing having background
shapes, its sometimes easier to just paint the background payer a certain colour
with the brush.
• One other tool I used was the gradient tool, one advantage of using this tool was
that it allowed me to create a depth to certain parts of the book for example on
page 6/7, I used a gradient to create a 3d effect in the corridor.
Page 7

9. What do you like/dislike about how
your final product looks?
• Do you like/dislike the colours, graphics, text, font choice, assets
created and the story as a whole?
• I like the way my book has come together and the final product I
have created. I think I have created what I had in mind, I kept it
simple like I intended. I used lots of bright colours that make it look
visually appealing as well as helping build a visual and narrative
story. I think all the characters go well together and all keep to the
visual style I intended on using throughout the book. I think I could
have spent more time choosing a text and positioning it more nicely
at the bottom of the page, but im happy with the font as its still
easy to read, I just think it could be improved to look more
aesthetically pleasing to the reader. Im happy with all the assets I
created as tthey all keep to the visual style I intended on using and I
like the changes I made to the story, they allowed me to create a
new character and slightly twist the storyline, this makes the book
more original and helps it to stand out from the rest on the market.

10. Why did you include the content you
used?
• I included the font I chose because I thought it was easy to
read, clear and it’s a traditional font. I wanted to include
some form of traditional styling to my book as its very
different to most versions I’ve seen of the book.
• I chose the colours I chose for two reasons, one is because
they’re bright and would look very appealing to a young
child, the other reason is because by using stereotypical
colours, this helps to educate the child as they will get used
to associating things with a relevant colour.
• All the images I created, I chose to use them because they
all kept to the visual style I wanted to achieve. The
characters are all of very similar size and proportion, they
all have strokes and contrasting colours so that the features
are all distinguishable.

11. 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.
• When creating my book, I decided to use a few cultural
stereotypes. I used these to help build a visual and
narrative story as well as to help the child distinguish
between characters age. I used many bright
stereotypical colours that children would know and
wopuld know what theyre associated with for example
green grass, blue sky, pink dress on the princess, the
prince wearing blue.

12. 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.
12Creative Media Production 2012

13. 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.
13Creative Media Production 2012

14. 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.
14Creative Media Production 2012

15. 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.
15Creative Media Production 2012

16. 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 book I have a 5 characters, one is a fictional pea, one king ,
one queen, one princess and a prince. I have fairly stereotypical
representations of these characters within my book for example:
The king and queen are elderly characters, to portray them this way,
I chose to give them grey hair as it’s a stereotypical representation
of older people and I thought it would help the child recignize the
difference between the older and younger characters. I also used
some gender representations in the way that the princess and the
queen wore pink and purple and then the king And prince wore red
and blue. I didn’t include this in a sexist way, I just thought that it’s a
simple stereotype which would be easy for the child to recognize
and understand.

17. 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?

18. 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

19. 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?

20. Peer Feedback
• Summarise peer feedback and discuss
– Responses you agree with
– Responses you disagree with