The document provides a template for evaluating a graphic narrative project. It prompts the user to provide specific details about their work, including written and visual examples. It also prompts the user to identify areas of their work that are good or could be improved, and to be specific about why. The user is encouraged to add additional slides as needed and delete any blank slides before submission.

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
My final product does reflect my original intentions as the storyboard does reflect
my final story on most of the pages, however I did alter the 5th and 7th page from
the storyboard as they were too similar so I changed them to help add more
variety to the pages and make the pages look more interesting for younger
audiences. Also from the storyboard to when I actually created the pages I added
in more details to the 4th page around the castle, as I added in the clouds and
trees in the background. As well as this I changed the background in the 2nd page
to make the encounter between the snake and the monkey look more natural and
realistic. From the original Jack and the Beanstalk story I have changed the ending
as in the original the giant dies at the end but for my story I altered it so that the
monkey and the bear become friends so that it it is more suitable for younger
children. Another thing that I changed from the original story is that the
characters were jungle animals so that the book is more interesting to younger
children and as I had changed the setting it helped to incorporate brighter colours
which helps to make the pages look more appealing to young children, by
changing these features from the original I think it helped to create a more
modern story but still keeping a moral for the children to learn from. Also I
changed the layout of the 1st page so that the characters would fit better onto the
background as they were placed onto a rock so I changed the original idea to have
them in the centre, also by having the two monkeys to the side of the page it
makes a clearer area for the text to start the book. However I have kept the main
look of the pages the same as the digital flat plans as most of the pages have
stayed the same with only a few adjustments to make the pages flow better, and
look like more of a unit, for example with the 4th page I only added to the
background of the castle to make sure it fitted with the look of the other pages.

4. My final product does reflect my original intentions well as I aimed to created a children's
book based on the idea of jack and the beanstalk but to change it and make it a more
modernised version so by changing the characters and having a more children friendly
ending I think keeps the story up to date and makes it more unique. However from the
original plans I did change the idea of having all the backgrounds very brightly colours, I
changed this because the text wouldn’t show up on the backgrounds due to how brightly
coloured the jungle backgrounds would be, so by darkening the backgrounds It meant that i
could have a white font to stand out from the images.

5. 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.
• To make my images I built them up starting with the backgrounds to help give an idea of
where the characters should go on the page and how I should create them. To make the
backgrounds I used the cutout filter and altered the levels and simplicity to make the image
look more like a new background rather than the original photo, on top of this I added a
threshold and over laid the two layers to help and lights and dark to the image and fit with
the style of my book. From this I then created the bear and monkey using the rotoscoping
technique to help create more unique looking characters also by using the rotoscope
technique it makes it easier to change the characters faces for the different pages as you
already have the main portion of the body completed I only need to slightly adjust the face
to achieve the different pages. After creating the two main characters I could then place
them on the backgrounds that they were needed on and then create the other characters
around these and make them straight on top of the backgrounds so that they fit in more
accurately. To create the bananas and the seeds I made the bananas on a separate
Photoshop file so that they could be used more than once and to create them I used the
comic book style and used the cut out filter and threshold to make them look different from
the original also by doing this I think it made them look more realistic even when there was a
gold texture on top on the 6th page, but for the seeds I just created them on the page by
simply using the shape tool and then warping the shapes to make more of a seed shape, I
did the same as this for the golden seeds under the bed except for these I took a gold
texture and created a clipping mask to give the seeds a gold look and stand out from under
the bed. When creating the castle I only used shapes to create it and only used a reference
picture to help create the right shape, I then used different textures to overlay on the shapes
to help make the castle look more noticeable in the clouds for example I used a brick texture
on the walls and then a wood texture on the door, but for the flags and tops of the castle I
just used gradient overlays.

6. I used a moderate amount of bright colours throughout the pages but only on certain
things like the monkey, bananas and the final background so that the colours aren’t too
overpowering and help to just draw attention to the main character also by having the
last pages background brighter than the others it helps to show the happy ending because
of the bright colours. Also to create the bed I used the quick selection tool to select the
bed from the background, I then duplicated the layer and applied the cut out filter to one
of the layers and then on the other duplicated layer apply the threshold and overlay the
two layers to create a cartoon looking bed also to help make the bed look more realistic
on the background and duplicated the layers of the bed and flipped them to fit
underneath the actual bed and faded the opacity to make it look like a shadow and to fit
more with the background and give a more 3D look to the page, I also did this with the
bear to help make the page look more realistic with the shadows.

7. How well have you used text to anchor
your images
• You should talk about the combination of words, images and text.
• I think in most pages the text does fit the images for example with the 1st, 2nd, 3rd ,7th and 8th page all the text
corresponds with the images as they have smaller pieces of text on them, however with the 4th, 5th and 6th page
they have a lot more text and the image only represents one part of the text on the page, but because there is
quite a lot of text per page it means not all of the text is represented in the image, therefore I need to create some
extra pages to help break up the text so there isn't as many pages with large sections of text. When the text does
fit with the image like in the first few pages where the image directly represents the text, for example in the third
page where the monkey is throwing the seeds out of the window its directly represents what the text says. To
ensure that the text stood out from the backgrounds I gave the white text a black stroke to outline it and stand out
from the jungle backgrounds but still fit in with the style of the images and doesn’t overpower any of the images
because of the black outline the white text isn't too harsh. With the castle page I think there is too much text to
reflect the image, so it could've been split into two pages which would've made it simpler for children to
understand as there are sections in that piece of text like when the monkey is climbing the pal tree which could've
have a separate page which would've helped to break up the text and make it a lot clearer for younger readers. In
comparison with this the first two pages have a lot smaller amounts of text and therefore fit better on the page
and better suit the image, an example of this is in the second page where the text perfectly corresponds with the
image as it describes the deal between the snake and the monkey which is what the image shows.

8. With this page I think there is too much text in comparison to the image and only
shows a small amount of what is happening in the text. This image only shows the
part about the bear coming home, and doesn’t show when the monkey climbs the
palm tree or returns the bananas to his mother, therefore I could do to split this
page into two to make it easier for children to understand the bigger pieces of
text. As well as this because there is too much text on this page it covers the
window on the wall which the text should’ve ideally stopped by that point.
On this page I think there is the right amount of text to go with the image as the
text directly relates to the text as the text talks about the mother throwing away
the seeds and the this is what the image shows.

9. Is your product suitable for your
audience?
• Reference your proposal
• Give an audience profile and describe suitability in reference to content
In my proposal I said that the book wouldn’t be aimed at any child between the ages
of 1-6, and I think I achieved this as the book didn’t have an overall look which would
appeal more to a certain gender and the simplicity of the pages and images is also
suitable for anyone from the ages of 1-6, also the younger readers would still be able
to be involved in reading the book as there is lots to look at which helps represent
the text well on most of the pages. Also in my proposal I said that the audience
would need to be old enough to understand the moral of the story and i think that
the older end of my target audience will understand the moral of the story better
than the younger readers as they will be able to piece the image and text together
and understand it more. Also i think my product is suitable for my target audience as
it contains a lot of bright colours on the main characters which helps draw more
attention to them among the jungle backgrounds and helps make it more interesting
for children to look at. Also because I have fairly simplistic pages which contain basic
things for children to look at and understand what they are in relation to the text. To
make sure that my product was suitable for the audience I aimed to create
characters that would appeal to children from the ages 1-6 and to do this I made
sure the characters were very simple and easy for children to know who the good
and bad people were in the book. As well as this I used simple shapes to create the
castle to ensure it wasnt too complex and made sure that it fitted with the style of
the rest of the pages.
“I don’t think that my children's book would be aimed at any specific gender as it is
suitable for everyone, also the ages of the audience of this book would be fairly young
but old enough to read with guidance so that they can understand what’s happening
and old enough to understand that the moral is about sharing so that they can learn
the ideas of sharing so around 1-6. As well as this the colours in the book will be
bright so that all ages will be interested in the look of the book.”

11. What do you like/dislike about the
techniques you have used?
• Reference specific tools you used with images
• To create the pages in my book I have used a variety of different techniques to make the
images an example of this is that I rotoscoped my main characters but then used the comic
book style by duplicating a layer and adding filters to create the background which I think
helps to add variety in my pages and make sure there isn't any areas where the characters
and backgrounds look too similar. I liked rotoscoping my main animals as I think it added
more detail to the characters and helped make them look more unique whereas if I had just
applied filters to an image they wouldn’t look as cartoon like as I wanted them too.
However rotoscoping the characters was fairly time consuming to begin with as it does take
quite a lot of time to go around the details of the animals using the polygon lasso tool and
create all the shadows, highlights and facial features of the animals. Another technique I
used to create the images was the comic book style images to make the backgrounds I
think that by using this technique to create the backgrounds helps to make the characters
stand out from the backgrounds, as well as this by using this technique to create the pages
it meant that making the backgrounds was a lot less time consuming then making the
characters and helps to keep the detail in the backgrounds without being too overpowering
among the characters. When using the comic book style to create the backgrounds I had go
through a few different images to get the right one that didn’t look too dull once the cut
out filter, and threshold had been applied. Some things I did dislike about the way my
backgrounds look is that sometimes the darker patches in them looked too dark so to
correct this I had to use the clone stamp tool and spot healing tool to cover the dark areas
of the background, as well as this when using the comic book style backgrounds it meant
that I could change them if I needed too, for example in the page where the snake and
monkey are talking there was a tree where I wanted to place the snake so I was able to
used the clone stamping tool to remove the branch and put the snake and seeds there.

12. Also to create some things in the pages I only used simples shapes like to create
the seeds under the bed I used a rounded rectangle tool to make the basic shape
but then warped it to make the shape of a seeds but then over laid a gold texture, I
think that by doing this is was a quick and easy way too create the simple shape
instead of rotoscoping or using the filters and threshold on an already existing
image. However I do think that I could've made the seeds look more realistic as the
shape wasn’t very accurate or clear, to make it clearer I could've made the seeds
using rotoscoping technique which would've allowed me to add more detail. Also
to make the bananas different from the original bunch on the first page I used a
gold texture and created a clipping mask to cover the bananas and give them a
different look from the first page.

13. What do you like/dislike about how
your final product looks?
• There are various parts of my final work that I like and dislike, for example I like
the way that the bear turned out by rotoscoping an image as I think it helped
to achieve the right amount of detail and by using the image helped to show
were the shadows and highlights should be which made the bear look more
life like. However something that I didn’t like as much was the table on the 3rd
page that the monkey is stood on as I think that it would've been better if I
used the comic book style to create the table as it would've fitted more with
the background and looked more realistic as the background was created using
the comic book style so would've suited the page better. Another thing that I
liked about the way my final pages look is how well the jungle theme ran
throughout the pages that were based on the ground in the jungle, especially
in the last page where the jungle background looks very bright and vibrant
around the characters as it is the final page and a happy ending. One thing that
I dislike about the way the final product looks is how much text there is on
some of the pages as I think there should be less text on the page where the
window is covered by the text, so to improve this I would like to split this page
into two or change the layout of the image so that the text isn't covering any of
the parts of the page that make the text harder to read so that its easier for
younger children to read and follow. Another thing that I would change is the
way the flags look on the castle as I think they look quite flat and don't fit with
the overall look of that page so it may be better I was to us a photo of a flag
and then use the comic book style to make it fit better with the castle.

14. Another thing I like about how my book looks is how the text fits around the animals on
the first, second, third and seventh page as they have the right amount of text to fit the
image and the text works around the illustrations. Another thing I like about my book is
how the snake and monkey look on the second page as I think they fit well with the
background and the colours work well together. However I do dislike the window behind
the bear on the fifth page as I think it blocks where the text should be so I would like to
alter so that the window doesn't interfere with the texts layout.

15. Why did you include the content you
used?
• Images, fonts, effects, colours
• I included a variety of different colours within the pages of my book as I think that
by using the different colours help to keep the pages looking bright and children
interested as there is a lot to look at on one page, as well as this the colour scheme
of my book helps to show the setting of story. By using the different tones of
greens in the backgrounds it helps to give the look of different places in a jungle
rather than just using the same background in all the pages, it helps to show a
subtle change in setting. As well as this I like how the monkeys stand out from the
green backgrounds because of the brightly coloured fur I think it helps highlight
who the main characters are. I used a serif font throughout my book as it is
generally what the majority of children's books use and makes it easier for younger
children to read, but also fits with look of the pages and flows throughout without
blending in to the backgrounds also by having the font it white helps to ensure
that it stands out on all the backgrounds, another thing that I did to help make
sure it stands out was used a black outline around the white text to help the text
look clearer on the backgrounds. Another thing that I included in the pages of my
book is the comic book effect to create the backgrounds of the pages as I found it
was a way to achieve a busy but simplistic background as I used more than image
for the jungle backgrounds and by using the comic book effect and layering a
threshold on top off the cut out style it helped create a cartoon like jungle setting.

16. Also something else I used to help create some of the other
features of the pages is using the ‘create clipping mask’ tool to be
able to create the gold bananas and gold seeds i think that by
having them with gold layer over the original shape helps highlight
what they are.

17. 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.
• Throughout the pages of my book there are a variety of
animals used as the original story contains human
characters, so I changed these to different animals and
the selection of animals all have different meanings for
example I have a bear as the main antagonist as bears
are seen as being quite aggressive and intimidating
which I think is what was needed in the enemy in this
book. Another thing that I used in my book is the bright
colours throughout all the pages as it helps to keep the
book looking more interesting and ensures there is a
lot to interest the younger readers.

18. 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 there are no human characters so I feel like it doesn't wrongly represent
someone, I think that by having the characters as animals eliminates the chance of upsetting
anyone of a particular religions, races or social groups so by altering the original story to
change the human characters to animals helps to reduce the chance of offending anyone.
However my book does contain male and female characters as there is the mother, and Jack,
her son as well as there being a male antagonist. The two main protagonists are represented
by animals which look more friendly and loveable to children as they are two small monkeys
and I think that this helps to highlight that these two characters are positive characters in the
book whereas the bear represents the opposition of the two monkeys and shows a clear
difference between the protagonists and antagonists in the book, so I think that by using two
completely different animals helps to show the difference between the characters in the
book to children. Also I think that the snake helps to show how mysterious that character is
as you don't know a lot about the snakes characters as it only features in who page of the
book. I think by not including humans helps reduce the chances of offending specific
religions, races, social groups or ages and also avoids planting any thoughts about specific
people into a child's mind.

20. 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?
• I looked at a few different children’s books when creating the pages of my book
such as ‘The very hungry caterpillar’, as I liked the simplicity of the drawings from
that book as well as this I looked at the book ‘Where there's a bear, there's
trouble’ as I liked the bright colours that the illustrator had used throughout the
drawings and helped me to decide that is would like to have simple yet brightly
coloured main characters and some backgrounds fairly bright. Another thing that
influenced me was the idea of having the text fit well around the image like in
the first few pages of my book where the amount of text fit well with how much
room there’s was around the images to fit the few sentences that were needed
on that page. My book has quite a cartoon look to the characters because I used
the rotoscoping technique to create all the characters and I think this helped give
all my characters the same cartoon like look to them, however I think that
because I rotoscoped my characters it helped to give them a more realistic look
to them because I was using same colours that were in the image and using an
actual image of an animal helps to give them a life like look as the animals would
be in a similar position to how they were in the photo and therefore in real life.

22. 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 research that I did before creating my book helped to give me some ideas from other
already existing books such as ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ and ‘Where There’s a Bear,
There’s Trouble’ as the style of these books was very useful and helped influence the look of
the characters in my book. Planning out the book was also very helpful as it helped to give a
layout of what was going to happen on each page and how I was aiming for them to look,
however from the storyboard I did make some changes to the 5th and 7th page because when
I was actually making the pages I decided that those two pages would look too similar so I
changed the look of both pages to help show that they were different days and helped to fit
the text in those pages better so I had to go off my what I had already planned to do in each
lesson to create these two pages differently to how I had originally planned them. I think I
managed my time well as I managed to complete all the pages on time I think that the plan of
how I was going to use each lesson helped keep me on track of what I needed to get finished
each day as I made my characters separately from the backgrounds and so the plan helped
me not spend too much time creating small elements of the pages, however as I was trying
to work to that planned schedule was quite difficult at times because when I was making the
bear I didn't have enough time to complete in the time I had given myself to had to take time
out of the next lesson to able to complete it.

24. 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?
• I think my book is in a similar style to some of the books that I
researched in the planning stages of creating my book as it has the
text fitted around the images is a lot like many children's books that
already exist. I think that the style of my book is fairly similar to a
few books already available due to the rotoscope style it has a more
cartoon like look to the pages. The amount of text on each page is
more similar to the book “The Selfish Giant” as this book has a lot
more text per page whereas most other children's books have only
got a few lines per page. There are a lot of different styles in how
children’s books are illustrated at the moment so there is a lot of
variety of what is already available to people, however I think that
the style of the illustrations in my are quite unique because of the
techniques I used to create them.

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