Digital graphics evaluation pro forma

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
In my planning booklet I created a mind map where I planned idea for the Thumbelina children's book which I made. I thought about
the storylines and image style of all aspects of the book. I think that most of the aspects of my finished children's book match what I
had thought about in the mind map. I mentioned in my mind map that I was going to use neutral
colours, I think that most of the colours that I used in the book are neutral. I used light blues and
greens for the sky and plants. However I did use darker and bolder colours for the characters and
some of the flowers. I found that this made them stand out from the other colours which made
the page more vibrant. On my mind map I also talked about the locations that I wanted to set
the story in. I did use locations which are traditional for the storyline that I those to use but
interoperated the locations in my own rather than using existing books as reference when creating
the locations. I had originally planned to have five different locations but when putting together
my book I used six different locations, this was because I didn’t want to repeat the pages which
were set in a garden environment because I wanted to show the adventure and movement of the character which was easier done by
showing different perspective and areas of location.
On the mood board pages I look a visual styles which already existing, I looked at colourful
and modern designs and traditional old fashioned designs. On these pages I talked about how
I wanted to create a book which was old fashioned and traditional which I still think I have
achieved this because of the colour palettes that I have used and the layout of the pages, the
font that I have also chosen is slightly old fashioned. However I do think some of the aspects
of my mood are modern such as the characters and the way that the story is written. For
example the prince character I wanted to design isn't the same as what I ended up making, I
think this may be due to the amount of detail that I was able to add.

4. The storyline that I had planned in the Proposal documents were similar to the original story
but I have summed it up so that the important bits were the only bits involved. My finished
book is the same storyline that I had planned and the same storyline that I had planned in
the flat plans, I haven't adjusted the story at all throughout the production. I noticed
throughout the planning that the images that I had designed maybe weren't going to give
enough information to back up the text that I as going to use, therefore I planned to add
some smaller images on the opposite page to give the readers more information and maybe
show some different angles and perspective on the scene. So for example of this page the
bigger image show Thumbelina the character coming out the flower, because this page was
an introduction to the character I chose to add another image which gave a close up of the
characters because that was important.
Throughout the whole project from the planning to the production the page plans and designed stayed very similar but the quality
improved. The colours and shapes have changed throughout the designs but the layout has stayed the same and I also think that all of the
pages have improved and not just this one.
These pages however have changed slightly through the planning process, I have changed the amount of characters that was going to be
involved in this scene which I thought would save me some time. I also added more plants and trees so that it would be better quality and
more detailed.

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.
I think that one of the best things that I have included in my images is the textures, I created
textures using the clipping mask methods to create details in the grass and wallpaper. I think that
doing this made the finished images look stronger and more detailed which was the design that I
was aiming for. For example on this page I have used a floral pattern to create details in the
wallpaper which I found was better than leave the wall a plain colour. I think it makes the page
more interesting and realistic. I also think that the way I have laid out the pages makes the visual
appearance better. So for instants I have placed the flower and character in the centre of the
page because they are an important part of this page. I think that if I had changed the position of
them the page wouldn’t look as good as there would be no sense of order or organization.
I think that the colours that I chose to use made the visual appearance more traditional. I have
found another children's book that already exists that is also a traditional design similar to mine.
The colours are similar but the traditional children's book have illustrations which look like
drawings. For example they could be paintings, water paints or sketches. I think that the difference
between my own work and the one that already exists is the textures that I have used. The lines
and colour contrasts on the existing book isn't as bold as mine.

6. I noticed that the colour palettes changed throughout the book as I didn’t
copy over the colours that I had originally chosen on the first page. I think
that maybe it would have been a good idea to choose the colours out
before starting the pages so that I could assure that the same colour
scheme would be repeated throughout the whole book. I looked at some
colour palettes in the planning document but didn’t continue to use those
colours in the book. I think that if I had used similar colours throughout the
whole of the book the visual, appearance of the finished piece would have
been better. For example the second page is brighter and more vibrant than
the first page and this is because of the differences in colours.
Another issue that I noticed with the visual appearance is
that the characters are the same on each page. It would
have been better if I had designed the characters so that
there was other angle and positions I could place them in.
For example I could create another version of Thumbelina
but so that she is on her side. This would make it more
obvious when she is talking to someone and will show the
reader a different view of the scenes. Another thing is that
the angle I have used throughout the book is always a long
view, I haven't shown many close up of what is happening
which doesn’t separate all the pages as different.
The overall visual appearance of my finished children's book regarding the textures and colours is
similar to a lot of children's books which already exist. I think that the way I have chosen to use colour
in my book has made the pages more child friendly, the use of bright colours is more likely to draw in
the audience I was aiming my book towards. I also think that using textures is a good way to add
more detail. The children book “Brown Bear Brown Bear, What Do You See?” is an existing children's
book with a very simple layout but the use of textures on the characters are very obvious, they way
that they textures have been used make the more unique and maybe isn't a traditional design. I have
used similar textures in my own book but only for parts of the book which need it such as walls and
trees, whereas the ‘Brown Bear’ book uses textures throughout the whole story.

7. How well have you used text to anchor
your images
• You should talk about the combination of
words, images and text.
Each page that I have designed includes a lot of detail in the text. I wasn’t able to show every
part of the text in the images, however each image does relate to what the text is describing on
the other page. I have also added some more smaller images at the bottom of the pages to
back up what the texting is describing more. I found that this made the pages more detailed
anyway and brought the pages together more. For example on the first page of the book I
introduce the characters and how the story starts. The text talks about how the woman lives
alone and all she wants is a daughter, it also talks about how the woman meets a witch who
gives her a seed. The image for this page shows only the second part of the text. However I
have used another image at the bottom of the page to show the flower as this is an important
part of the beginning of the story and the flower represents the seed that the witch has given
the woman.
A similar thing has also happened on this page. This page is meant to show how the frog
kidnaps Thumbelina's. In the text it talks about how Thumbelina is sleeping and the frog
comes into the room through the window. I have shown this in the image. However I have
also talked about how the frog takes Thumbelina with them back out the window which
isn’t show in the images. I have also used Dialog in this page of the book which is shown in
the text but hasn’t been included in the image. I have also used another image at the
bottom of the page which shows a close up of the frog in the garden. This doesn’t relate to
the text directly but shows the new character which has just been introduced but I think
will encourage readers to draw their attention more to that character as its important.

8. These existing book by Beatrix Potter have a slightly similar connection between the images and the text to what I have done for my
finished book. For example the image on the left relates to every part of the text, we can see in detail what the text is describing. The
text talks about the characters and specific parts of the surrounding scene which is all shown in the image. Beatrix Potter does this for all
of the pages she has created which I think is a better idea for the demographics. The right hand side image however includes some
dialog which does relate to the scene but speech isn’t shown in the image. I have also done this, where I have used dialog but on
mentioned that in the text on the page. Whereas I could have used speech bubbles which may have added more information and detail
into the image and made the text shorter.

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 document I talked about the audience that I was going to focus my children's book on. The demographics that I chose to
use were children aged 3-6, mostly females, high class, British and English speakers. I think after finishing my book the audience that I
chose still stays the same. The text that I have used for the children's book may be for older children but that doesn’t mean that the story
can be followed by the images and parents can read the book to their children. I have looked at already existing children's book which are
aimed at the age range of 3-6 and my own finished children's book is on a similar scale of detail and text. I mentioned in my proposal that
my book may also appeal to a male audience because of some of the characters I was planning on making. I have stuck to the plans I had
made but I think that the finished book would be more appealing for females, this is because my main protagonist is a female.
I found a children's book
on amazon which
appealed to an age range
of 2-5 years. I think that
the design of the book is
very similar to my own
work. This children's book
is appealing for all
genders unlike my which
would be better for
females.

10. What do you like/dislike about the
techniques you have used?
• Reference specific tools you used with images
For a lot of my children's book I used the rotoscoping method, I did this my using the lasso tool and drawing
out the shapes and characters. However for some of the book that had specific shapes I used the shape tool
and warped it until appropriate. For example the shape that I used to surround the image I used by creating
a square using the shape tool and I warp the corners and side so that they were smooth. I then repeated
the shape for every page. I also used the custom shape tool to create the clouds. I then used the Lasso Tool
to create everything else of the page. I found that using the rotoscope method meant I would adjust the
shape easier and create things which were more unusual. I was able to draw out the shapes for the
characters clothing which made it easier compared to using the shape tool for everything. I also used
textures on this page to add more detail to clothing, I did this by creating a clipping mask and changing the
opacity so that both layers were visible. The grass was also created using the shape tool and the flowers
and trees were created using the Lasso Tool
When I had finished the big images I put the pages together and added the text. I used
the same method to create to smaller images but this was easier as I could copy over
parts from the larger image so create different views. I then used the text tool to
create the text and changed the size and font and added a stroke around the edges so
that the text was thicker. I think that overall the techniques that I used to create my
children's book made the finished piece look okay, I would have been more
professional if my lines were smoother when I did the rotoscoping, I could have done
this by change the select and mask settings and made smoothing out the edges.

11. What do you like/dislike about how
your final product looks?
I am overall happy with my finished product, I think my favourite part about it is the
colour scheme I chose to use. I think the darker and neutral colours make the pages look
more traditional which is the type of look that I was going for. I also like the scenes and
background, I think that using the layers of grass, plants, trees, sky, clouds and building
them all up behind each other helped to bring the page together as more detail and
more advanced that if the pages seemed flat. In other words I found that I gave the
scene more depth. I think my favourite page is the first one which was the first page that
I designed, I think this page was one which is simpler and neater. I also think that all the
colours go really nicely together on this page.
This page is one of the pages which I dislike the most. I think compared to the first
page the colour scheme has changed massively. I still think this page is okay but it
doesn’t go with the visual appearance that I wanted from the book. I’ve found
that the colours are much brighter. I have also noticed that repeating the
Thumbelina character without changing the angle of the character also ruins the
page. I think that I could have improved this image if I had more time. I could have
also added some more grass details to this page as that it would be as detailed as
the other pages that I created. I could merge all the layer together and change the
brightness settings and contrast settings so that the page is darker, this might help
to make this page match the scheme that goes on throughout the book.

12. Why did you include the content you
used?
• Images, fonts, effects, colours
This is one of the pages that I used the most effects on, so throughout the whole
book I used the clipping mask method to create patterns and textures in parts of the
images. So for example on this page I used a floral pattern to create the wallpaper in
the background, I think that because i’ve done this it makes the image more real as in
reality the walls will be decorated in some way. I also used textures for the wood on
the cupboards door, the reason I did this was because it made the stand out more as
door rather than just squares. I also added texture detail into the kitchen surface as
this would be common in reality as well.
The use of colour I think is best shown in this page. In my planning I had planned to
use colours which are quite neutral as I thought it would be more calming from a
child's point of view. However once the book started to come along the colour
schemed seemed different than what I had planned. I used bright yet refreshing
colours on my pages. I have also used a lot of different tones of green which I think
was important because of most of the story being set in garden scenes. Because a lot
of tree and flower were involved without the pages I wanted to use a wide range of
different colour tones so that each page still looked unique and different from each
other. I am overall happy with the colours that I chose to use throughout the book
even though it wasn’t what I had planned.

13. The font that I chose to use I chose
because it seemed traditional and
flowed with the visual style of the
images. However I think that the font
could be easier to read and I tried to
solve this issue by adding a stroke to
the outside of the letters. I have shown
screenshots of the font itself and the
settings that I added to the font. I use
the same font for each page and
showed the text in the same layout and
positions as all the other pages which I
think gave the pages a sense of
organization.
On this page I used some images which already existed by adjusted
them so that they were my own which I did by creating a clipping mask
with them. For example I have done this on the character to add more
detail to the clothing. On the witch character I used images of stars
merged into clothing so that it related to the witch character. I found
that this made that character more interesting as it was originally a
simple design. I did a similar this for the old lady, I used floral patterns
on both the jacket and skirt. Which is reality would be more likely that
wearing plain colours, a lot of old people may wear things along the
line of floral skirts and cardigans, so I wanted to show this by adding
textures.

14. 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.
One of the characters that I needed for my story was the old woman which would be at the beginning of the story as
also a important part to why the story begins. Because I needed to show the character as an old woman I had to use
things that would symbol the sense that she was old. Because the book is aimed towards children I had to make this
character visible to them that she was old. So to make this character old I had to use things that were stereotyped
with old people. For example I used the colour grey for the hair, as when people get older there hair starts to go grey.
I also showed that she was old by the choice of outfit that I gave her. I used a floral pattern on this skirt which I
common in old woman and a floral cardigan may also be common. I could have shown this character as even older
by using details in the skin to create wrinkles, however I want to keep the characters on the same level of detail. This
finished character is clearly shown as an old woman.
I also used a female frog character, I started of by creating just a plain frog
but to show that the frog was a female I used aspects of the character to
symbolize to female side. So for example I added some red lips and eye
lashes, it was simple to add them and still makes the character look
simple. Although now you can tell that the character is meant to be a
female and I'm sure that the audience demographics will be able to tell
that this character is a female from the text and visual appearance.

15. These two characters are two of the characters that represent genders as different,
this wasn’t planned but parts of the characters do symbolize the genders. For
example I have a purple colour for the female character and a blue colour for the
male character. I have also used used different textures in the clothing which
separates them. For example I have used a floral pattern for the female character and
a checkered pattern for the male character. Skin tones are also different. The outfits
are also symbolized with genders, for example the female character is wearing a
dress and the male character is wearing trousers and a jacket. I think that because
the audience profile for my children's book gives an age range of 3-6 I think that it is
important to separate the character enough and change the visual appearance so
that it is obvious to this age range who and what the character is as characters are an
important part of the story.

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?
Because the demographics for my children's book was children between the ages od 2-6 I wanted to create
some characters which were easily recognisable for that age range. Therefore I created the characters so that
they could be shown as different. For example I created two characters of different ages, Thumbelina and her
mother. I showed an age difference between these two characters by using colours and patterns. For the mother
I used grey as her hair colour, this is something that is stereotypically related to older people. Whereas for
Thumbelina I used long brown hair which would be stereotyped for someone who is younger. I think that
because of using these colour different the audience for my children's book will be able to tell a difference. I
could have used more shapes to separate the characters by age, I could have used tones and wrinkles of the skin
of the mother to add a sense of age, however I didn’t.
I also used colours and patterns to create representations for the characters of different genders. For example
Thumbelina and the Prince can be shown as different because of the colours I have used for their clothing,
Thumbelina is wearing a purple coloured dress and the Prince is wearing a blue jacket and trousers.

17. I also had to show the frog character as a female which I did by using eye lashes and red lips. Which in a cartoon form shows the
character as female and makes it obvious. It was important that this character was shown as female and I found that this as the best way
to do that. I haven’t used anything in my children's book which represents race, religion or social groups. The story that I have made
doesn’t need to relate to any of these subjects and wouldn’t offend anybody of a specific race, religion and social group. Skin tones and
body figures is something that is repeated throughout the whole of the book.
I have found another example of how a frog has been represented as
female. This example was found from the Thumbelina cartoon film. From
the picture we can see that they have used a lot of the colour pink and
makeup. The representation on the character from the film are more
obvious and extravagant compared to the details that I used on my own
character.
I have also looked at the characters in the same film. I noticed that they
have also represented the two main characters by gender using colour. If
you look at the character from the film you can see that the prince has
been designed so that he is taller and slightly bigger than Thumbelina,
the colours used on the Thumbelina character are also more girly. I have
created the characters in a similar way to the film.

18. 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?
My children's book was influenced by the original Thumbelina story, I adapted the story line so that it
was simpler and could be separated into 9 pages. My original idea for the story was influence by the
traditional visual designs from old fashioned children's books. I designed the visual style for my
children's book to be quite traditional, using subtle colours, patterns and textures. Also sticking to
the original characters and storyline. I did this because I thought that it made the children's book
more fun and kept the original Thumbelina story alive. The finished product does look like a modern
version of the old fashioned designs. The colours ended up being brighter and more vibrant than I
had expected. The Thumbelina storyline suggests a complication between friendships and shows that
not everyone can be trusted, yet there will always be a happy ending. The reason I chose to use the
Thumbelina story for my children's book is because of the moral that the story has. The outfits I used
for the characters and the characters themselves show a modern style, along with the scenes for the
backgrounds.
My Thumbelina children’s book wasn’t influenced by a Thumbelina children's book which already
exists. I wanted to create a whole new version of the book. When planning I looked at the illustrations
by Beatrix Potter and Teagan White. I had planned on creating a children’s book which was a similar
style to these two people. However throughout making the children's book I found that using a more
modern design made the book more fun and exciting. I have looked at some existing products for the
Thumbelina story, the film has a more modern design. The colours are brighter and there is more
depth in detail.

19. 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
As part of the planning I created some flat plans showing how the pages were going to look and how I was going to lay them out.
Throughout the whole production process I used the flat plans as a way to keep track of what I was doing. I was referring to the flat plans
when creating the pages, I found this easier. I also found that planning out the story before I started the images was also helpful, this
meant that I could simply copied and paste the finished text into the finished pages which saved me loads of time for production.
Completing the mind map also meant that I had already looked at Thumbelina books which already exist, this gave me an idea of how the
characters and scenes could be represented. I think the strengths from the pre-production was the flat plans, I had a clear idea from the
beginning what the pages were going to look like. I think that my weakness was changing the original story and summing it up so I could
use it for the text.
I think that I could have managed my time more efficiently, for example I spent a lot of my production time working on the characters
which didn’t leave me as much time as I wanted on the backgrounds and scenes. I used my schedule from my planning as an idea of
where I need to be, however throughout the production I was starting to be behind. I solved this by starting on the backgrounds and
scenes alongside the characters so that I could see that I was making progress and could start putting the pages together. I used some
extra time compared to what I would have needed to finish, however I managed to finish the story to the quality that I was hoping it
would be at. I also think that I could have managed my time better if I had planned to create a book which doesn’t have as many different
characters and scenes, I think that I gave myself to much work for the time that we had been given.

20. 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 have looked at some Thumbelina books which already exist. The books that I found
were on Amazon, there is a large selection of different books all of different styles and
designs. My work is quite similar to some books which had already existed, there is a
similar representation between the scenes and the characters, I haven’t yet found a
book which has the same layout as me. One of the main similarities between my own
children's book and the children's books that already exist is the storyline, I used the
original storyline as reference and changed the wording of it so that it was slightly
different. The demographics for the Thumbelina children’s books which already exist
are the same as the demographics I used for my children’s book.