Evaluation of children's book

1. Graphic Narrative
Evaluation

2. Does your final product reflect your original intentions?
My final product has many of the same themes and ideas as my planning but as I have developed my
ideas it has drifted from the original planning stages. After scheduling each session in the planning
booklet, I then decided to go back to my test pages and try a few different styles, thus discovering that
using a graphics tablet would be much better suited to the style I was aiming for over the initial shape
idea.
First of all, I’d like to compare the stages of development from my initial planning and flat-planning
through to test pages and my final product.
My original mood board and flat planning focuses more on traditional oriental art, looking at a watercolour and
ink style on simplistic backgrounds. In my first test page I intended on sticking with the watercolour style for the
environment while adding a more geometric, origami style for the background and characters. When further
developing and first experimenting with a graphics tablet, I decided to revert back to the inky hand drawn style,
now cutting out the hand painted background features and instead exploring various brushes and tools available
within the paint feature on Photoshop to create a mystic yet simplistic background. I used a watercolour brush
to digitally colour in the dragons and eventually developed this to a took called the mixer brush which blends
colours and shades giving a smooth painted effect. I also decided to place text at the top and bottom of the
page rather than simply writing at the bottom and instead incorporating it into the background of each page.

3. In my original plans I didn’t intend on showing the people of the village, instead showing the village from above when
it is introduced and then the Emperor allowing the rains to fall. However, in production, I found it would make more
sense and be more visually appealing to the audience if I included some of the villagers and showed the impact of the
dragons’ actions (The crops beginning to grow again, the people being happy). However, this proved to be very difficult
as I needed to maintain the same art style as I’d used to draw the dragons and I had no planning to work from in order
to help structure my page.
Another feature of my book that I changed through the planning stages was the actual style of the dragons and how
they are presented. At first, I wanted to have a mixture of western and eastern style dragons to add variety and cultural
context to my work. However, I was restricted by my drawing ability when making test pages and decided to focus on
western style dragons instead. I also changed the style of the dragons several times throughout the planning and
through to the production stages of the book, first aiming for a bright, simplistic geometric style, then playing with
brush effects to create mystical, watercolour, messy style dragons. Ultimately I decided to maintain the inky style that I’d
looked at during the planning stages with books such as ‘Orange Pear Apple Bear’ but to fill the colour in with a much
cleaner effect instead of the watercolour seen in that book. I also decided to put the initial cartoon faces back on the
dragons to allow the audience to connect with them further.

4. I also changed my font styles multiple times since my original planning stages and have developed the style to be more
suited to the target audience. At first I wanted to keep the font large, bold and simple to make it as easy as possible for
children to read, however, as my planning progressed I decided that the book would look better if I used a font that
exaggerated its themes and was based from the oriental culture that the story came from. With this in mind, I spent a
while on DaFont.Com experimenting with various font styles until I found one I liked. However, when I put the font onto
the planning page I found it was too thin and would become lost on a coloured background. I found another font which I
discovered stood out well on the background but might be difficult for children to read, especially as there is quite a
substantial amount of text per page. Instead, I used a font that is bold and rounded, similar to that used in The Gruffalo
and personalized it by starting each small paragraph with a letter from the oriental style font. It should be easy for children
to read while also having some links to the culture from which the story came. For the final font I spent some time
experimenting with the leading and tracking of the text in order to make it clear and easy to read for children while also
being efficient in the amount of space it takes up on the page in comparison to the main image.

5. How well have you constructed your images?
The Four Dragons is set in three different locations, all of which have a different atmosphere and feel. I tried to represent
this change in environment with a mixture of colour and texture in order to allow the reader to differentiate between the
three places. The first page is set underwater so I used a soft aqua colour and a water-edged brush to fill the background,
going over it with slightly darker shades to create the discreet effect of water. I created the sea floor with a simple
rectangle shape to which I added of a stock image of sand and used a clipping mask and overlay tool to create a faded
effect. I also edited the hue and saturation of the sand image to give it a much brighter gold colour and then drew over this
layer using the graphics tablet to add a few small pebbles. I feel that this could use a little more detail and would like to
add more to this background such as small bubbles by the dragons and perhaps small shells in the sand where there is
empty space. For the outside by the mountains, I chose a solid blue background to run throughout with simple misty
clouds in each sky. I made the clouds using the mixer brush and blending a light grey with the blues of the background,
although this method wasn’t reliable as it was difficult to make the clouds look the same from page to page. I drew the
mountains on three separate layers and used a Gaussian blur tool to make the back layer seem more distant and add a
sense of depth to the page. For the inside of the Emperor’s castle I decided on a faded background and darker shades to
emphasise to the reader that the dragon is in another different environment. For the wallpaper I found a stock image and
edited it heavily with various filters, hue and saturation changes and a lower opacity to give it the soft, muted effect seen
in the page. I used the graphics tablet to draw in the curtain and shading to keep the page in a similar style to the others
but upon reflection I feel like the background is missing something.
Underwater Mountains Emperor’s Castle Mountains

6. Another point of interest is the way that my images developed throughout production. I became more
comfortable with the graphics tablet as my project progressed and there is a visual change in the quality of my
artwork and characters from the first pages in comparison to the last ones I did. I found it easier to create
smoother, neater lines and add a more detailed texture to the dragons yet found it difficult to maintain the
continuity of style in each drawing of the characters. I based each drawing off of a similar one of the same
character so that they resembled one another and could be identified as that particular character. However,
this meant that the yellow dragon, which I drew first, remained at a lower standard over the long dragon which
was the last one I drew. If I were to publish this work and had more time, I would like to go back and redraw the
yellow dragon as I feel it doesn’t match the texture and style of the other dragons.

7. I used a variety of colour, pattern and various brush tools to give texture to the dragons and make them seem more
realistic. I used the scatter brush initially to give the effect of scales and pattern to the dragons and later discovered
that using the scatter tool with the mixer brush created a much more subtle effect and allowed the light and dark
shades underneath the pattern to come through and give further sense of realism. This is most noticeable when
comparing the pearl dragon with the black dragon as the pearl dragon has the scatter tool without use of the mixer
brush whereas the colour on the black dragon is much softer and more blended into the black. Another effect that I
used to shade and highlight the dragons is simply the mixer brush on a lower hardness setting. This enables the lighter
or darker colour to blend with the base colour with a softer effect, making the merge between the colours less
noticeable.
Scattering without mixer tool Scattering with mixer tool Mixer tool – hard brush Mixer tool – soft brush + blending
When drawing people in the book, I used smaller brushes and
used a harder setting on the mixer tool brush than with the
dragons in order to create the effect of light and shadow on the
fabric. I wanted to maintain the simplistic style that I’d used when
drawing the dragons so chose to add small amounts of detail into
the clothes through shading and highlighting rather than
excessive use of the black ink tool. In the image on the far right,
David Hockney uses colour to give the effect of creases and light
areas on the man’s clothes. I chose to look at Hockney as the
majority of his work is done using a graphics tablet and find it an
interesting comparison to my own digital art work. However, this
style would be much too difficult to achieve with my very limited
skills using a graphics tablet and perhaps detract from the
simplicity of the children’s book.

8. How well have you used text to anchor your images
I decided to place text at the top and bottom of the page which should lead the children reading the book through the
story and see how the picture reflects that – for example, most of the text at the top of a page depicts what the
character is going to do / what is going to happen and the text at the bottom of the page reflects how it happened and
the outcome of that, with the image in-between showing the event happening. This is similar to how Dr Seuss books
present text as it is incorporated into the background of the page and directs the reader through the story. The text in
the published children’s book stands out from the page a lot more than mine does, further anchoring it to the images
and giving the text equal importance to the images on the page. It is important to present text this way as the story is
the most important aspect of the children’s book; no matter how detailed the images are, they are open to
interpretation and may not tell the story properly without the addition of the text.
I tried to make it so the image represents the most relevant and interesting part of the text as it is important for it to
be relevant when put alongside the text. I feel as though I did this fairly well, for example the center image above
shows the long dragon talking to the Emperor which is an important part of the story as the Emperor refuses her
request and causes the enigma of what the dragons could do. However, I felt restricted by my ability to create
scenarios that matched the text in the way I wanted to and spent a lot of time working out different ways to visually
represent the story.

9. Is your product suitable for your audience?
I think that my completed product is still suited towards the target audience described in my project proposal document as
the adaption of the story I have made is simplistic and easy to follow and the images are very bright and friendly for the
children to look at. I wanted the story to be engaging for children as young as toddlers but also interesting for older
children who have a more developed reading skill. I made an effort to make the text larger and bolder in order to make it
easier to read but it occasionally blends in with the background a little so parents/guardians may have to help younger
children to read it. My final product is still gender neutral and I think this book is suitable for any child as it has a good
moral encouraging children to help others. Despite the oriental origins of the story, I decided to make The Four Dragons
aimed towards English speaking readers as it would be marketed and sold in the UK and I think it would be good for
children to read and learn stories from other cultures and parts of the world. Children’s books have two target audiences
as the carer of the child will be reading aloud or helping the child read the book and it is important for adults to see the
book as something they want their children to read. Although children were the main focus when creating the product, it
would be the adults that purchase the book in order for children to read it. In my proposal I stated that my product would
be suitable for all social classes but regarding price range I would like it to be affordable for classes C2, D and E.
Target Audience (child)
Age: 3-6
Gender: Any
Social Class: C2 D & E
Average Reader (parent) –
based from YouGov Profile
research of children’s books)
Age: 25 – 39
Gender: Female
Social Class: A B C1

10. I tried to make the content of my children’s book engaging and aesthetically pleasing for the target audience, using
a variety of textures and colours to keep young children interested. I changed the design plans for the dragons to
make them appear more friendly and cute to allow young readers to connect with the characters. I think the colours
within a page are important as different tones attract different audiences and it’s commonly known that bright
colours appeal more to children over more subdued tones. I didn’t want to present the Emperor as a ‘villain’ style
character as younger readers are impressionable and may be scared of this character, I also decided to make him
good at the end of my adaptation of the story, opposing the original folktale in which he punishes the dragons to an
eternity trapped under some mountains as I felt this to be inappropriate for small children. Moreover, although the
original version of the story had a happy ending with the dragons becoming rivers and providing the people with
water forever, I resolved to shortening the story and giving it a lighter ending with perhaps a slightly different
meaning – The people showed their appreciation for what the dragons did and the dragons were able to go back
‘into the sunset’ in traditional children’s book fashion.
I added very simplistic features to my
dragons (just eyes and nostrils) which
intended on making the dragons more
friendly and cute to children. This is
similar to the character of Miffy who
has extremely simplistic facial features
and is considered lovable because of
her sweet, minimalist appearance.
A simple change in colour
scheme made the Emperor
more suitable for young
children.

11. What do you like/dislike about the techniques you have used?
• Reference specific tools you used with images
I used a variety of techniques and tools to make my children’s book including use of a
graphics tablet with various brush tools, shape, filters and effects. Using a wide range
of techniques allowed me to create texture and depth to each page and also enabled
me to create detail in various different ways.
Brush setting used for detail Brush setting used for outlines
These are the two main brush setting I used for drawing the
dragons and people in production of my children’s book, one for
the basic outline of the character and one for the smaller details
within each drawing. The outline brush is slightly thicker than
the other brush I used and had a slightly angled tip which made
outlines stand out more. I used a larger version of this brush to
fill the outlines with colour. The detail brush is smaller and more
rounded, allowing me to do slightly more intricate areas of
drawing. This brush was also useful when adding small amounts
of detail on the colour layer, for example on the close up of the
red dragon I drew small ridges into its horn. With both of these
brushes I also incorporated use of the ‘wet edges’ feature that
gives the pen a watercolour effect and allows you to layer colour
from translucent to a solid colour. I found this to be useful for
developing my drawings by playing with texture (amount of
water on the brush, load of brush, ect) . when I used this
alongside the graphics tablet which I enjoyed using as it allowed
me to add detail to my work and improve my digital art skills as
the project progressed, however, drawing with the graphics
tablet was time consuming and I struggled to meet my deadline
because I’d spent so much time creating characters.

12. What do you like/dislike about how your final product looks?
I really like the way that the characters and the backgrounds complement one another as this was an area of
my planning that I was struggling with when creating test pages. I feel that the bold, black outline of the
characters makes them stand out from the background while the colours are subdued enough for them to look
natural against the various backgrounds. I’m proud that I managed to closely maintain a specific character style
between the four dragons and continue a similar style when drawing human characters.
I disliked how the drawings often looked messy and if I were to edit the book now I would add more shading
and detail into my work. I also disliked the human characters as they look unprofessional and rushed in
comparison to the drawings of the dragons. I would also prefer all of the text to be lined up exactly and is the
same throughout all pages of the book as in my final product the text seems slightly sporadic as I forced it to fit
within the backgrounds and many pages don’t quite match.

13. Why did you include the content you used?
I experimented with several styles before deciding on one that I felt looked best. I chose to do hand-drawn
images as I felt they would help children to connect with the characters and give the book a softer overall
appearance. I enjoyed creating the images and felt they were appropriate for the story as it is a folktale – the
hand drawn style could represent the original storyteller and how the tale was passed down through everyday
people. I chose bright colours to attract the attention of young children and to highlight the positive aspects of
the story, for example, the colours inside the Emperor’s castle are more subdued then the colours used in the
ocean to represent the negativity of the Emperor. Similarly, the dragon is bright and stands out where the
Emperor is wearing more subtle colours. With the black dragon it was slightly harder to stick with this theme as
the colour of the dragon had to match the name yet the colour black is often associated with negativity. I got
around this by adding bright purple horns and skin detailing to the dragon which linked it back to the colourful,
positive symbolism that goes with the bright colours of the other dragons. I decided to make the pearl dragon a
mixture of purples as pearls are often known to be a very pale purple or blue colour and this is a bright,
attractive colour.

14. I used an assortment of textures and effects throughout my project to give my pages depth and a slight element of
realism. I used it most on the final page to create the dragon statue as I wanted to give the impression of stone and give
the podium a 3D nature. I used a simple shape tool to create the podium itself and then added an inner shadow to give
the impression of light on the shape. I used a simple metal texture for the plaque and added a gold hue/saturation
change to give it an ornate appearance. I had to warp the shape and the text to make the plaque appear to be attached
to the rounded podium. This was the most texture I used in one page as it made the statue seem more realistic.
I decided to use a mixture of two fonts to make the text easy to read for the younger audience while also
matching the Asian origins of the story. I chose LAO MN as it is a rounded, bold font that makes it easier for
learner readers to understand. This is because the slightly rounded edges of the font make it easier to follow as it
flows better. However, the first letter of each small paragraph is a font called Zenzai Itachi which is a traditionally
Chinese style font and looked nice when in context with the story.

15. 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.
• The majority of the story is set in a
mountain range which makes mountains a
key feature of the story. Throughout many
cultures, a mountain is a symbol of
constancy and firmness and is often
described as ‘ the point of contact
between heaven and earth’. This relates
to my story as the dragons on the
mountain tops are between the sky
palace of the Emperor and the valley
where the villagers live.
• The sea is the home of the four
dragons and the source of the water
that saves the village. The sea is a
symbol of life itself and represents the
soul, dreams and sub-consciousness.
This could be reflected in the sea
being a place of peace for the dragons
and how the water from the sea
caused the plants to grow again .

16. • The Long Dragon – The main body of this dragon is red
which is a colour that symbolises strength,
determination, passion and courage. These features
can be seen by the Long dragon as she goes to speak
to the Emperor and still wants to help the people even
after that has failed. The long dragon also has
features that are blue which is a colour that
symbolises loyalty and faith.
The dragon is a symbol of good fortune in Chinese mythology. Each character in my story is a different colour and
these colours also have underlying meanings which may reflect the personality of each dragon and change the way
it is seen by the audience.
• The Black Dragon – As indicated in the name, this
dragon is mostly coloured black which is regarded
as a prestigious colour and symbolises power and
mystery. The other colour seen on the black
dragon is purple. The black dragon first heard the
voices from the village and took the others to
investigate.
• The Pearl Dragon – A light purple dragon, colours
mostly associated with ambition, magic, creativity
and wisdom.
• The Yellow Dragon – Yellow is colour that
represents intellect, honour and joy. The Yellow
dragon comes up with the idea of using sea
water to water the crops in the village and
suggests how it could be done.

17. What representations can be found in your work?
My story has few actual human characters as the protagonists of the story are the four dragons. I based my
designs of the Emperor on traditional drawings of the mythical Jade Emperor found in multiple Chinese folk
tales. He is mostly shown with a very thin, long moustache and is wearing traditional robes and a hat. He is
represented as a figure of authority but abuses his power. The Emperor owns a castle suggesting he is of a
higher social standing (He is a god..) than the people of the village who I depicted wearing simple clothing and
tending to fields of crops. I was careful to draw all of the characters without a distinct ethnicity as I do not
mean for my work to be offensive towards any groups of people, however, as the story is based on a Chinese
folktale, one can presume the characters would be Chinese. All of my characters have the same complexion and
hair colour.
The simplistic style and
muted colour of the
woman’s clothing
indicates that she is in
a lower social class
than the Emperor. I
added a simplistic belt
to her dress that could
be interpreted as a
strip of leather or rope
wrapped around her
waist.
The Emperor is
wearing royal style
robes and headwear
that are a brighter,
richer colour than
those worn by the
villagers, indicating
that he is of a higher
social standing. His
stance also infers that
he is in a position of
authority.

18. What style have you employed in your products?
I was influenced by a variety of styles and existing products, including a book from my research called “If I had a
dragon” which was hand drawn and incorporated bright colours which stood out against the black outline of the
characters. I used a similar style in my final product, using a bold outline for my shapes and a bright colour fill.
However, the colours in the existing product have a watercolour effect whereas mine are smooth and blended
with various forms of shading. I took inspiration from various images online and developed the designs of my
dragons based on a range of drawing references.
I think my work has a relaxed, sketchy style which was developed from the illustration task of my planning. I started
by illustrating my characters on paper and then digitalized my work using a graphics tablet. I developed this by
drawing over my hand drawn work which I’d scanned into the computer until I felt comfortable drawing the
dragons without copying a hand illustrated version. The digital work looked better as it is brighter and stands out
more against the background’s I’d created and I could get more pigmented colours. I also discovered that, with a bit
of practice, digital drawing is tidier and smoother looking as opposed to hand drawn and coloured work.

19. What were the strengths and weaknesses of the pre-production and planning
I found that my main weakness with pre production and planning was time keeping, I found it difficult to remain
organised with my ideas and present them in a clear fashion as I kept changing my mind and redoing bits of work
which was time consuming. I also felt that I could’ve developed my test pages further and incorporated my
discoveries from those into my pre production pro forma. It took me too long to develop my initial ideas for the
story which prevented me from going further in my research before I got to the test page page of pre production.
As you can see from the images below, my initial ideas are differ significantly from my final work, which, although
not a bad thing, did use up a lot of time in pre production and in future I’d try to develop a singular idea and
improve it rather than switching between several throughout my planning.
Linking with the weaknesses mentioned above, I also found it difficult to keep the compositions of my book
pages closely matching with the flat plans I made previously. Some pages completely differ from the original flat
plan page and others have the same content but are laid out differently. Despite this, I found it extremely useful
to have the flat plans as a guide during production.

20. The research I did throughout the project gave me inspiration, especially the existing story book research that I did
towards the end of the pre-production stages – I found that simple ink drawings in the children’s books I
researched suited my style and this influenced the ultimate style of my work. Although it ultimately became time
consuming, I think that exploring many different styles and ideas within the planning stages of the project helped
me to develop my work and find a production method that worked best for me. It also enabled me to learn about a
variety of styles and methods which will be useful in future work.
The strongest part of my pre production and planning stage was the initial planning pages as I felt that my work
was organised and clearly laid out which allowed me to refer back to it later in the project. I was careful to pay
attention to small details that would help me as the project progressed and developed. I also created further mood
boards and planning as my ideas changed so that it would be evident why my work differed from my first ideas. I
felt that my proposal was detailed and informative and I made changes to it based on peer feedback.

21. Historical and cultural context
When doing research for my product I found
several other versions of the story portrayed
in the form of a book. I noticed that the
depiction of the dragons in both of these
books are based from eastern style dragons
which opposes my version in which the
dragons are more the western version. A
similarity between the currently existing
books and my own is the use of bright
colours, especially those on the cover of ‘The
Jade Emperor and the Four Dragons’ as they
are more blended, slightly softer ‘gem’
shades. My book is also more similar to this
book in art style as it appears to be drawn
rather than digitally constructed and has a
variety of detail, texture and colour in a small
space.
-How does your work compare to what has come before? What other similar products have existed in the past? What current products exist?
The ‘Chinese Mythology’ book appears to be more educating for young children rather than a fictional storybook and is
aiming to teach children about other cultures and their histories and mythology. I wanted to subtly implement this into my
own work as I feel it is important for children to learn about other cultures, however my product is more for entertainment
rather than being informative.
The original folktale of the four dragons is the story of how the four main rivers in china were formed. Each dragon
represents one of the rivers: the Heilongjian (Black Dragon), the Huanghe (Yellow River), the Changjiang (Yangtze, or Long
River) and the Zhujiang (Pearl).
In Chinese tradition, the dragon is a symbol of good fortune and this is reflected in the story – without the dragons helping
the people may have starved and the arrival of the good doing dragons meant they were saved. The shape of a traditional
eastern dragon is similar to the shape of DNA, again linking the dragons with life and longevity of the people.