kiran

1. Graphic Narrative
Evaluation

2. Does your final product reflect your
original intentions?
When it came to my planning I came across a European folk tale called the secret, this is the story I
chose to base my children's book around. There are certain aspects about the story that I felt were not
appropriate for a children's book and also parts I changed to make more child friendly and relatable. All
the characters are are talking animals instead of humans and instead of having no specific setting I
sweet it in Africa, this gave me the whole theme of a safari and safari animals and in turn gave me an
overall style. In the original folk tale instead of finding two pots of gold he finds a flower instead as I
thought a flower was more of a suitable and childlike thing to have. Also instead of the main character
wanting to keep the gold he wants to give the flower to his wife to show his love. I felt this was a better
plot point to have than the greed of the main character. The rumour that’s one of the main plot points
of the story is “The King has a tortoise in his belly”. I thought this was too weird and too much like an
old folk tale and not really the best thing for a child as they would get confused and become less
interested in the story so I changed it to “The `King paints on his spots” I though that this would be
easier to understand and children would like it and get it as the kings character is a giraffe. This would
help incorporate the characters more and make it seem like the story was based around the characters
not the other way around. I kept the moral of the story the same as it fitted well with the overall
narrative of the main character despite them being animals. My flat plans remained pretty much
unchanged, the only thing I did was add much more to the frames than what's in the flat plans making
the scene more complicated. I even tried to keep the hills in the background the same shape and
composition in comparison to the characters. Other things I changed are things like making the sun
move across the page during the course of the book and adding pattern overlays that I could not draw
on flat plans. The books I tried to take influence from when designing mine were ones such as ‘The
Selfish Crocodile” I love the background style of the selfish crocodile and the difference between the
style of characters and the style of the background. I think it makes the characters stand out well.

4. How well have you constructed your images?
First I made the sky, I make a selection using the
polygonal lasso tool to select where I wanted the
sky to be, I then used the refine edges tool and
moved up the sliders that said ‘smooth’ and
‘contrast’ this made it look like my selection was
less boxy and more natural. I then selected a
photo of the sky that had the appropriate amount
of clouds and colour. I wanted to pick one that was
orange instead of blue to give more of an
impression of an African savannah. I added a
‘cutaway’ filter altered the sliders until it was the
style of sky I want, I then altered the
Hue/Saturation to achieve the orange sunset tones
that I wanted. To create the hills I used the same
tools I used to create the sky except I added more
points to the line to create a curve then used the
refine edges tool to make it more of a smooth
curve so it looked more like a hill. After making
three to four hills I added different colour overlays
to each one each having a colour shade I thought
added to the theme of Africa and the desert.
Usually beige/orange shades and green shades. I
made the hills that were going more into the
distance lighter to give an impression of depth to
my frames.

5. I then found a series of photos of desert ground,
grass, shrubbery and other African style terrains
and again added a cutaway effect to them I make
sure these effect only had about 4 levels of colour
so they appeared more simple than the sky, I also
alters the fidelity of the edges to make the edges
more smooth and sharp rather than super
complicated patches of colour. With these finished
terrains I placed each terrain above the hill I
wanted the terrain to be on and applied a clipping
mask to the hill so each specific terrain covered
each hill. After doing this and positioning the
images where I wanted then I used the transform
warp tool to bend and alter the images along with
the shape of the hill in order to make them
followed the edges on the hills and look like the flat
terrain photos were actually hill shaped not flat.
Once the altered photos were overlaid and warped
I then turned the opacity down to bring out the
original colour of the hill and to make the overlay
more subtle and real looking.

6. When making the sun a messed around with many different patterns till I found one I liked then
drew an orange circle by holding shift to constrain it. I then added an outer glow to make it seem
more like a sun then overlaid to paisley design and turned down the opacity. The sun is actually
two circles on top of each other both with different outer glow effects, this helps it look more like
a sun rather than just a sharp circle in the sky. From my first page to my last page I moved the sun
each time so if you flip through the pages the sun actually moves across the page, this adds a level
of interactivity, things like this combined with the many things it the background gives the book
more of a reread quality to it.
Page 1……………………..Page 2

7. When making the characters I make a separate Photoshop file
then dragged them over when I had finished, with the two
Wildebeest characters I had the make them as a side view so
what I did first was make the face of my character using many
shapes and warping them based on what I thought a
wildebeests head would look like. Once I had the head shapes
arranged how I wanted them I merged all the shape layers and
added a brown colour overlay to my whole shape. Once I had
the main head shape it was then easier to add features like the
horn and the eyes, nose and ears etc. I designed each part
separately on the same paged then altered it to fit the same
colour and style I wanted for my characters, I paid special
attention to the eyes of my characters and made sure they
were suitable to be used on every character, by adding the
same eyes to each character it makes them look like they are
all from the same narrative and hat they all belong together.
When I had made the head and face u put them together in a
layer group to keep them all together and proceeded to make
the body of the animal, with my main characters like the two
wildebeests and the king giraffe I had the give them a side view
as if they were walking but with my secondary characters like
the elephant and the lion I made front facing looking at you.
This helped distinguish the main characters that walk about the
page and the secondary characters that pop up once.

8. Once I had my character bodies and faces I felt something was
missing so I took a bunch of the right fur and animal texture from
the internet and added a cut away filter to them. I then overlaid the
right textures with the fight parts of the animal and rotated and
warped them so the direction of the fur looked realistic and added
depth and texture to the characters while keeping things like the
eyes and mouths intact so the features stood out against the
texture of the faces. By having my characters designed more simple
helps them stand out from the more complicated background and
stand out as well as looking like actual character that children can
enjoy looking at with out them being too scary/real and having the
right amount of cartoon quality. After I had designed the characters
and fished them in all their positions I added them in their specific
positions on the page shrinking them and enlarging in comparison
to where they are on the page, the characters that were on a hill
behind the other hills smaller and the once closest to the bottom of
the page I made bigger. This helped to add depth and give the
impression they can walk around and makes the image look less
flat. I also added silhouettes of different African trees and shrubs
into the background on the horizon, this helps fill the page more
and gives the ready more to look at. It also adds the the whole
Africa theme. I also added some elephants to the background
walking in the horizon then the next time we see that same
background it the book the elephants have walker further across
the page. I added multiple little things to the background to help
develop my setting more and make it seem like they're not the only
ones in the savannah. I added things like monkeys and goats to
certain trees and added a Jeep in one scene which is the only sign of
humans in the whole book.

9. How well have you used text to anchor your images
With my text pages I wanted a recurring theme but something that could be slightly altered each time. I wanted it
to be a simple overall design as not to take away focus from the text that is overlaid. I chose the same paisley
pattern I used on the sun but I blew it up so it took up the whole page, I added an brown colour overlay to the
pattern that was a PNG and then draw a beige box over the whole page and took down the opacity of the pattern,
this created a nice subtle backdrop for my text. I still felt something as missing so I added a African style tree in the
bottom corner of the page but it looked out of place. I liked the idea of things going on around the text though so I
added a small strip of ground the the bottom with the polygonal lasso tool so it looked the the tree actually had a
home. I them came up with the idea to add animals and have them walking in a line, I chose the silhouettes of
many animals that were specifically in my book with the exception of the goat in the tree. Some of the animal
silhouette PNGs I chose weren't as sharp as other so I selected the lower quality ones with the quick selection tool
then used the refine edges sliders the make the edges more sharp better quality. I added the same colour overlay
to each of the animals as well as the ground and tree to make the whole image look like its own silhouette. As each
page went on I moved the animals along the horizon again creating an animation effect that adds a little extra
depth and life to the book. I kept the page this simple as not to over complicate the page and take away from the
main part which is the text. With the text itself I used the font ‘PT Serif’ I chose a serif font as it’s the most popular
with children's book and is the easiest for younger audiences to read. I added the same colour overlay as the
characters in the bottom of the page to make it seem like they all fit together well.

10. When selecting what parts of text to split into which pages I tried to keep each plot point
as it own page. I also tried my best to make sure the last sentence of the text tied in well
to the image it was describing.
He walked back up to his farmhouse and told
his wife “Did you hear? King Jerry paints on
his spots!” “Wow really?” she replied. “Yes,
but don’t tell anyone! Keep it a secret,” he
said. “Don’t worry I won’t” replied Wendy.
After a few days one of the servants had
heard the rumor from Larry, who had in turn
heard it from Gary, who had heard it from
Ellie, who had heard it from Wendy. Finding
out it was Woody who had spread the rumor
he had his servants bring Woody to him.
He had never seen a flower so beautiful and
colorful living in the hot and dusty savannah.
He thought to himself, “I wonder what I
could do with it?” Then he came to the idea
that he would give it to Wendy, his lovely
wildebeest wife to show her just how much
he loved her.
When making my flat plans I tried my best to condense the eight plot points each into
their own personal graphic that summed up well the point I was trying to get across.
There were sometimes when I had to move the last sentence of a paragraph and
move it to the next as it didn’t fit as well with the page art and by moving it to the
next one it makes the paragraph tie in more with what written down.

11. Is your product suitable for your audience?
My Proposal said “I will be targeting an audience that is young but not so young
that they cannot read for themselves and are maybe just learning to read and
talk. I will use bright colours as to keep younger children visually entertained as
well as providing lovable characters. It can be read to a child by their parents
but also read by older children themselves. Also children that are into and fond
of animals and like to think about traveling and the world around them. Girls
and Boys and mainly ages from 1-7 yrs.”
I feel the text pages have just the right amount of text that they can
be both read by an older or more intelligent child as well as the
parent reading the book to a younger child. I made the text font size
24 to give the the best possible readable quality to the page without
making it too big and tacky. It’s a good font size and amount for those
children you are maybe just starting out or learning to read. I feel as
though this would a good book to learn with sure to this reason as
well as the use of odd words in to book which aren't too hard to read
but still widen their vocabulary. The colour scheme of my book uses
very simple and primary colours while also fitting with the colour
scheme of the African savannah. I used lots of subtle shades of the
same colours ranging from reds, oranges, and beiges for the skies and
deserts as well as blues and greens for the shrubbery and water. I feel
as though these colours are easy to distinguish from each other and
provide a easy to view colour scheme that isn't too in your face and
provides a nice calm setting for the characters as well as the children
reading. When making the characters I was sure to try make them as
simple as possible and I paid special attention to the faces and tried to
make them as friendly as possible

12. I used the same set of eyes for each of the characters and
this I feel was the main thing that made them all look like
part of the same book. I used less levels of colour with my
animals and added simple textures so they would be easy
to look at. I gave them mostly blank expressions so the
children could project the feelings they want onto each
character. I tried my best to make each character lovable
and to give each character a reason to be liked e.g. even
though the the giraffe’s character is hurt and he want to
banish woody he instead has mercy and forgives woody and
teaches him to share. This is a likable quality even though
he's the main antagonist of the story. I also changed things
like the two pots of gold he is is supposed to find in his
field, I instead made it a flower that he wanted to give to
his wife; this makes my main character more lovable.
Another technique I used to keep the readers interested
was packing my frames full of fun small things in the
background, this add depth as well as making my graphic
pages much more rich and entertaining to look at as well as
being more stimulating for the readers. the narrative
content as well as the visual content is all completely
appropriate for my target audience and I feel I have made
the story as suited as I can the the audience I want.

13. What do you like/dislike about the techniques you have used?
When selecting the right way to put
background animals in I chose the technique
of using a source image of the animal I want
as a PNG then selecting the animal with the
quick selection tool then going to the refine
edges section and altering the sliders that
said ‘contrast’ and ‘smooth’ then inversing
the selection and deleting the edges of the
animal therefore making the edges sharper.
Then I placed them into the background
after resizing them. I chose this simpler
technique as these background characters
have nothing to do with the story so I tried
to get the best result in the easiest way.
When making the sun I chose to have a pattern overlay to make it more interesting. But first to
make the sun look like a sun and not just an orange circle I used a technique where I actually
placed two circle shapes the same size on top of each other. By applying different outer glows to
each circle it created an edge that looked a lot more like a sun and something I was more proud
of, I made sure I place the pattern over lay on the sun before adding the outer glows, this way
the pattern itself would’t be added to the glow and it would just be the colour.

14. I think my use of using the Polygonal lasso tool to select and area of the
background then taking a source image of a normal sunset and adding a
cutout filter then applying a clipping mask to it might not have achieved the
best possible outcome and some parts of the sky are so contrasting and so
detailed it takes away from the impact of the image as a whole. Maybe a nice
blended gradient with some clouds that are rotoscope as not to look too
detailed might have looked a bit more friendly and would have fit with the
whole image style more. I used this same technique for the hills as well but
using the refine edges tool with the polygonal lasso tool to create a smooth hill
shape. I then added colour and an altered overlay image, tuned down the
opacity and warped it to shape, this I feel was the best possible way to do the
hills and I am please with the result.

15. What do you like/dislike about how your final product
looks?
I think the sky could be better. Its quite complicated and overpowering in some shots and I think it takes away from the
other graphics on the page sometimes which are the most important. I think that it could be a bit softer maybe and not
have colours that are so bright and powerful, I think it would look better as more of a subtle gradient maybe. I think
maybe I could have put more time into the style of characters I wanted, I was planning to use more pattern overlays
and things to help the book stand out more and be more quirky but I just settled of normal fur overlays with my
characters which still looks good but I feel might have been more fun for children to have weird out of the ordinary
characters to follow. I also think more could have been put into making the characters more friendly and nice to look at,
I think this is partly due to the eyes I used. I used the same set of eyes for each of the characters which helped a lot to
make them look like they were part of the same book but I think the eyes themselves could be made to look a bit more
cuter and likable. The characters look more like pictures and not like actual characters. The characters that look the
most likable are the lion and the elephant and I think this is due to the fact that the elephant has a blank expression
and therefore look innocent and the lion has a smile which shows happiness but the giraffe and the wildebeest don’t
loom as lovable as the other two and I think this is due to their expressions not being as well drawn.

16. I like the use of small animals and background objects, I feel as though this adds a great amount of
depth to the graphics and makes it seem less like a flat image and more like an actual
environment, also by adding multiple background items it help fill the page and makes sure that
each patch of space is used for something. I think this is good for kids as it means they can go back
and have even greater enjoyment from looking at the pictures. Younger children will find it more
enjoyable having more things to look at other than what's just been told to them. I am also
pleased with the technique I used to for the ground and hills, but I think what made this
technique really work was the fact that I warped the images after they were overlaid to help
mould to the shape of the hill, and by adding a cut out filter it helped the pictures I used stay in
the simple cartoon style I was using.

17. Why did you include the content you used?
• I chose to make my characters animals due to the fact they
would be more child friendly and would be easier for
children to enjoy and understand. It also makes sure that
the characters are easy to tell apart as they are so different .
Animals are also very popular in other children's books such
as ‘The Gruffalo’ or ‘The Selfish Crocodile’ children prefer to
follow and enjoy animals more than people as they are
different and lovable.
• I chose the setting of Africa as its very famous and even kids
will know what kind of place Africa is, also sue to the fact
that Africa is famous for its animals and there are lots of
iconic animals to choose from when doing my book. Africa
also has a very distinct style and character to it which can
be easily translated into comic style or another visual style
and still be recognisable and iconic. Africa also has a very
distinct colour scheme and would give be a good range of
colour to use to achieve a hot African feel to the pictures I
tried to find lots of iconic shapes and images associated
with Africa such as the animals and the iconic tree shapes.
Choosing this setting helped me decide what kinds of
animals I would put into my book and what I would have to
change from the original story in order to make it seem like
it actually is set in Africa.

18. • When making my characters I tried to choose recognisable animals that children
would enjoy to follow. I chose to give all my character the same eyes as it makes
them look like they are designed with the same thoughts and style in mind. I chose
different fur overlays for each character also so they looked more like real animals
but kept the faces quite simple, I did this so their expressions would be easier to
read especially by children who would be mainly the ones looking at the pictures
and not reading.
• I chose PT Serif as my font as all serif fonts are easier to read than the average
font and serif fonts are by far the most used fonts in children's books as children
and distinguish between each letter more efficiently. This is also the best font for
children who are trying to read and as my book might be too hard for younger
children to read by themselves its something that they can certainly use to help
learn as they get older. I made it an appropriate size that wasn’t too small so
younger children could read with more ease.
• I purposely made my characters a more simpler style than the background so they
would stand out more against the colour and detail I used.
• Books such as the selfish crocodile do different styles for different elements of the
pages but they also integrate the writing with the pictures which is something I
haven't done.

19. What signs, symbols or codes have your used in your work?
• With my colour scheme I tried to use many shades of warm
colours like reds, oranges, yellows and beiges as well as
different greens and blues. This colour scheme was one of
the main aspects that I think made the setting really feel
like a hot desert are like Africa. By keeping these colour as
recurring themes it really tied the pages together and made
them seem like they were indeed all from the same book.
• With the setting of Africa I tried to use many iconic images
such as the wispy trees that are found all around Africa and
in illustrations of Africa made famous by films like ‘the lion
king’ I also took influence by using things such as the huge
sun and the hill like horizons.
• When it came to my giraffe character who is a king in my
story I thought it was best to use small symbolic things
rather than just dressing him all up in royal posh clothes, I
opted to just use a simple gold crown on his head to
symbolise his character as a king as crowns are a universal
symbol for power and royalty.

20. 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?
• There are only two women characters in my book and one is only motioned by name and the other
is the wife of the main character, in the book the woman tells everyone something she shouldn't
have and as they are not other woman characters that do anything positive within the book it could
be seen as a negative representation of women but the main character in the story find a flower
and wants to give it to his wife to show her how much he loves her which I think help edge away
from that negative representation. I think also the fact there were no women in my original folktale
story I took influence from which also might have made me think of my characters a certain way.
• As the characters are all animals I cannot really show race or religion based on the characters
themselves as they are not people I can only show social groups and ages but even with them in
mid my characters ages are not specified and there are no children characters in my book. I think in
this way it lacks variety and I maybe could have done more to show different kinds of people
reflected in the animals.
Male Female

21. What style have you employed in your products?
• When I came to visual style I looked at modern children's books such as The
Gruffalo and The Selfish Crocodile among others and I really like that their
illustrations were bold and colourful compared to older more traditional children's
books. I also liked how in some of them a lot of patterns were used to give certain
books an individual style which I took influence from, I also took great care in the
colours of book and the schemes I would use over and over again to help tie to
book together and make each page equal. As I was using the setting of Africa to
help my colour schemes I picked very warm colours like reds oranges and yellows.
• I took influence from other children's books such as ‘The Selfish Crocodile’ ‘The
Gruffalo’ and ‘Bears Don’t Read’. Bears don’t read uses many different patterns
and overlays when making certain parts of the background environment to help
add more depth and texture rather than average blocks of colour. It also distances
itself from other books by using un orthodox techniques to get the required result.

22. What were the strengths and weaknesses of the pre-production
and planning
• A strength of the planning is I was quite through when researching
the kinds of styles I wanted to take influence from. I did this by
looking at other children's books and TV characters and looking at
the basic shapes colours and styles used to make them and all their
narrative environments. A weakness of my planning is the fact I
didn’t have a super clear idea of who my target audience were going
to be and I think that my actual graphics might have been different if
I had more of a clear understanding of who I was making the
graphics for.
• When it came to time management I feel I was really good a getting
my assets completed in good time to a good standard. For example
when making the animals I made the heads separately from the
bodies and the bodies separate from the background and I feel I
used the right amount of time on each section and my time was
shared equally between each asset.

23. Historical and cultural context
• I think compared to older children books this has a lot less writing and the
illustrations are more modern compared to older books that maybe had
paintings and intricate illustrations that were integrated into the text on
the pages.
• I think my book is better compared to books like The Selfish Crocodile and
The Gruffalo in the sense that they combine modern art style with
traditional looking text, they also keep to a good colour scheme and a
good style that I think helps tie to book together. Also the fact that the
characters are animals also isn't as traditional and I feel this is also a very
modern and new compared to older children stories. This book is not like
e.g. Peter Rabbit or The Lion The Witch And The Wardrobe where there
are not many illustrations or maybe none at all. These book also have a lot
,more writing and are more suited for older children or for parents to read
to their children

24. Peer Feedback
• Some of the responses I agree with are the fact I need to be more
clear with my target audience, I didn't really have a clear idea of the
exact age demographic I was going for when I started making the
book and maybe if I did the book might have been different in some
way. I also agree with the fact I maybe didn't alter my folk tale story
enough from the beginning I only changed things like the characters
and the setting and thing like small plot points children wouldn't
understand as much, I should have really added more of my own
story and more of a personal twist the narrative. I agreed with the
fact that I was quite clear in certain aspect such as the key
techniques and methods I would be using to make my book.
• I maybe disagree with the fact I could have elaborated more on my
mood boards as I feel the amount of photos on the mood board
isn't as important as the photos themselves and I feel the photos
and pictures that are on there represent well the ideas I had in
mind when making the book