The document provides feedback on a graphic narrative project. The creator made some minor changes from their original plan, such as reducing the number of pages from 10 to 9. They also changed the style from non-comic to comic book style after creating a test page. While most elements turned out as planned, the creator feels the wolf character does not match the comic book style of the other characters. Overall, the creator is pleased with the visual style and use of text but feels they could have integrated the text better and made the wolf match the other characters' style.

1. Graphic Narrative
Evaluation

2. Does your final product reflect your
original intentions?
Originally I planned to create 10 pages, but as I was making them I realised two of the
pages were more or less the same thing, so I changed from 10 pages to 9 as it made
more sense to the story. I have also slightly changed the wording from the script of
one or two pages so that it made more sense to the storyline. Besides this I think it
has followed my planning overall. Although not identical, the pages of the final
product do match those of the flat plan and the slight changes are nothing drastic. For
example, on the one of the pages of the flat plan, Grandma’s house is at a completely
different angle to how the final page turned out but this did not influence the story in
any way.
My original intention was also not to make the book in a comic book style but after
making the test page in that style to see how it would turn out, I decided to make
every page with a few principles from other classic comic books. I also made the
decision after making the test page that I could it for the final product so I changed
the dimensions of the page and it fit perfectly with the other pages. Although I do not
think the wolf is done in a similar way and if I were to go back I would definitely
remake the wolf in a more comic book style to fit with the rest of the pages and
characters. The rest of the final product I do really like and I think fit really well with
the story.

3. This was the flat plan for page 6, and the finished result for page 5 which was originally
page 6 but as I explained on the previous slide, has been changed. The differences
between them, although small and un-drastic, are that the text has been altered a little
and the angle of the house has changed. These also show how these small changes make
no influences on the story.
Flat Plan.
Final product.

4. How well have you constructed your
images?
I think this is something I have done well, and I like the overall visual appearance the pages have. For
most of the backgrounds I had two layers of the same images. The bottom layer would have the cutout
filter applied, and I would change the amount of levels until I was happy with how it looked. The second
layer would have a threshold applied and edited until I liked the look of it. Then it would have been
darkened so it turned transparent and this made the backgrounds for the majority of the pages. The
characters were all created in a slightly different way.
Little Red Riding Hood had the most detail which I liked. To create her I would rota scope over an image
of a hooded cape, and rota scope sections from the cape, change the colour and added a Gaussian blur
to create the effect of shadows where the fabric fell different. Her face and legs were created by rota
scoping over images of people and made to look more like a cartoon rather than the actual photograph
of the people they originally were. Her boots were made in the same way the backgrounds were by
using a mixture of filters, and a threshold.
The Wolf was created by rota-scoping also. I would again, rota scope sections of him, change their
colour and add a Gaussian blur to create a shadowed effect, and also add a few extra detailed such as
the white in his ears. The wolf has more of a cartoonish style than Little Red Riding Hood which is
something I do not particularly like and if I were to re-do or change the pages I would possibly change
how I made the Wolf’s face look as I think he looks too happy and friendly to be the villain in this story.
In addition to this, I think the fact that the two main characters having two different styles isn’t as
effective as what it would be if they were both in the same style.

5. This is one of the images I Rota-
scoped to go towards the making of
Little Red Riding Hood.
This is the difference in the wolf
with and without the extra details
of the extra layers and the effects
I put on them.

6. How well have you used text to anchor
your images
I think I could have worked the text into the pages better, but I also do not
think it has been done in a bad way. For the text, I put small paragraphs in a
white cloud shape and added it to a corner of a page where nothing
important was going on. Other books I researched had also done similar
things to this so I knew it was style that worked for my target audience. The
book ‘Laura’s star’ has done something very similar but they have done
reverse to what I did. They made their pages so the illustration was in a
bubble and the text was just a paragraph on their page. For their target
audience, I think this worked well.
The text worked well with the images on the pages as it explains what is
happening in the story when it is not completely obvious. For example, on
page 4 when Little Red Riding Hood starts picking flowers while the wolf is
running away in the background. The text explains that the wolf is on his way
to find Grandma’s house, and not just running from the small girl.

7. This is the difference between how I have
anchored the text to the images and how
Laura’s star have done anchored them
together.
Laura’s Star.
Little Red Riding Hood.

8. Is your product suitable for your
audience?
In my proposal I stated the target audience for the book would be for children of both genders between the
ages of 4-8. After creating the book I now feel like children at the ages of 4-5 may prefer books with a more
simple style, but some 4-5 year olds could prefer books with more detail in the images so I still think that
children from the ages of 4-8 is a suitable target to have for the book. I also think it is suitable for the book to
aimed towards both genders as the protagonist is a young girl who dresses quite girly which will appeal more
the little girls who prefer more girly things to boyish things. The wolf and the woodsman will appeal more to
boys as they are seen as more manly than the other characters in the story and stereotypically boys tend to
prefer this over other things. The story as a whole will appeal to most children as it is a classic fairy tale that
children have enjoyed for hundreds of years.
The average child to read the book I think would be a 7 year old girl. I think this because fairy tales, especially
those with a female protagonist, tend to appeal more towards young girls as usually they have things that are
in young girls interests. In addition, at the age of 8, some children may be wanting to improve their reading
level and read more challenging books than this one, but children at the age of 5 or 6 may only be beginning to
be able to read books completely by themselves. 4 or 5 year olds also may not be able to read by themselves
very well or hardly at all by themselves so I believe the ages of 6-7 are the perfect ages to read the book. In my
proposal I also stated “the book will also be aimed towards English speaking countries, mainly focussing on UK
to people in the social class of ABC1 as they will see the book as a luxury expense which won’t break the bank”
when talking about the target audience and I still think this is the case as the book will most likely be bought as
a present for a 7 year old girl who prefers to read books. It is also suitable for anybody though, not specifically
for a 7 year old girl. This is another reason why I think the comic book style works really well as I believe it will
appeal more to the male children as cartoon featuring famous comic book characters are also aimed more
towards young boys. It will also appeal more to girls, or any children, that are not really into classic fairy tales as
it has a different style to your average fairy tale book.

9. What do you like/dislike about the
techniques you have used?
I created each page on Photoshop using a variety of tools. This included: the polygonal
Lasso tool, the magic wand tool, the Gaussian blur effect, filters and editing the layer style.
My most used tool is the polygonal lasso tool which I used to rota scope over a series of
images to create one specific image, ie. Little Red Riding Hood. Once I had rota scoped a
shape, I would use the same tool to cut sections out of the same, then edit the layer style
to add detail. To achieve this I would change the colour to a shade slightly darker or lighter,
to create a shadow or a highlight, and add a Gaussian blur so there were no sharp lines.
Another technique I would use is I would duplicate a layer and hide the top one. Then I
would add a filter to the bottom layer, most likely the cutout filter. After changing the
amount of levels in the filter, I would show the top image again and add a threshold. Like
the filter, I would edit he threshold until I am happy with it, then I would darken the layer.
This would cause it to become transparent, and you would be able to see the layer with the
filter under it. The effect this had was creating more of a comic book style. I mostly used
this for the backgrounds but I also used this with a few of Little Red Riding Hood’s things,
and the woodsman’s shoes. Both of these techniques I really like, but they both have their
faults too. The first technique I found really effective and thought it made the characters
look quite good, however this technique takes a lot of time and if you accidentally click out
of place when using the polygonal lasso tool, you had to start again. The second technique I
think worked really well and fit with the style of the characters.

10. What do you like/dislike about how
your final product looks?
Overall, I like the style of my final product more
than I dislike it. I really like the detail on Little Red
Riding Hood and how it goes well with the comic
book styled backgrounds. I don’t, however, like the
style of the wolf because I don’t think he goes well
with the other characters in the book and looks
more cartoonish than realistic. In addition to this I
also think Grandma and the woodsman are not as
detailed as Little Red Riding Hood, but they are not
as cartoonish as the wolf. In spite of this, I think as
whole the final product looks good, and the almost
comic style works well for this product.

11. Why did you include the content you
used?
I chose a really simple, easy to read font as the book’s target
audience will most likely only be learning how to read and
will struggle more if the font is a fancier or more eccentric
font. The Little Princess books also use a simple font, as did
other books I looked at while I was researching them, which
told me that this was a common thing with Children’s books
so this is what I went with.
For the colours whilst she was in the forest I tried to keep
them fairly dark as the forest is a dark and dangerous place.
Whereas when she is inside Grandma’s house, the colours
are a lot brighter as that’s where she is saved from the
danger and is safe again. I also used darker and lighter
shades of colours to create shadowed and lighter areas. I did
this to add more detail to the characters so they fit more
with the rest of the final product. There were other versions
of Little Red Riding Hood without so much detail, like the
one to the top right illustrated by Nick Sharratt, which
looked much more cartoonish but I thought the more detail,
the better for the style I was going for.

12. What signs, symbols or codes have
your used in your work?
Whilst Little Red Riding Hood is walking through the forest at beginning the story, the forest is
fairly dark which symbolises danger for Little Red Riding Hood. However whilst she is in Granny’s
house, it is brighter which symbolises that she is safer than what she would be outside. When the
Wolf is dressed as Granny, you can recognise this as he’s wearing a certain styles cap and
nightgown which is internationally as something a Granny would wear. This is symbolism as once
anyone can see these and instantly recognise them as Granny.
On the page when the wolf tries to eat Little Red Riding Hood, you soon recognise that he’s angry
due to the fact his facial expression changes. His smile increases in size which makes him seems
more scary, and his eyebrows lower on his eyes which instantly will make him look angry. Little
Red Riding Hood’s expression also changes indicating she’s gone from one mood to the other. Her
eyebrows become raised and her mouth opens wider which gives the impression she’s gasping
and scared of what is about to happen to her.
There are also a lot of signs that give away when the story is set. For example, there is no
technology in the story at all which tells us it was before any one had electricity. Another sign is
that her mother lets her travel through woods which are homes to dangerous animals such as the
wolf and are full of strangers like the woodsman. Nowadays a mother would not let her child as
young and foolish as Little Red Riding Hood into such a dangerous place without any supervision
at all.

13. What representations can be found in
your work?
In this story, the Woodsman who is a strong male character is presented as the hero
who saves them being eaten by the wolf. Little Red Riding Hood is shown who is the
protagonist of this story and a little girl is presented as being too trusting and naïve
and is shown by how easy it was for the wolf to distract her by telling her Granny
would like some of the flowers. She is also presented as being stupid as she can not
recognise when the wolf is dressed as her Granny, and Granny is presented as weak,
and frail due to fact she’s mentioned as being ill twice, and has been locked in a
wardrobe by the wolf showing she did not have the strength to fight back. The wolf is
presented as cunning and clever as he tricks Little Red Riding Hood so he can eat her
but gets killed right before he has the chance to.
The represents the female characters as being the weaker, less intelligent gender. As
the story is hundreds of years old this is not surprising as it was only in the past few
decades or so that women are starting to be seen as equal. However, if the tale was
written in today’s society then Little Red Riding Hood or Granny could have saved the
day which would mean there would be no need for the woodsman to be involved at
all in the story.

14. What style have you employed in your
products?
My product has more of a comic book style than a classic cartoon style. I did it this
way because not many books aimed for young children have this style, and currently a
lot of the classic comic books are being made into children's TV programs and movies
so this style is progressively becoming more and more popular with the younger
generation.
The style was moderately influenced by both Marvel and DC comics because I liked
the style of the DC comics as it looks more realistic than the Marvel comics. However,
more younger people tend to prefer the Marvel comics to the DC comics so I tried to
incorporate elements of both styles into my work. One of the elements I used was in
the DC comics, the backgrounds had areas of black which gave the page a kind of
creepy feel to it so I decided to try this for the pages where Little Red Riding Hood is in
the forest. Another element which influenced my work is in the newer Marvel comics,
the characters have details on their clothes or bodies which are more shadowed and
have a slight blur to them which gives them more definition and make them look more
realistic. This is something I have also attempted for my characters.

15. These are examples of
where I got some
inspiration and how I have
attempted do similar
styles.

16. What were the strengths and weaknesses
of the pre-production and planning
During the planning stages I was ill which had only left me with a short
amount of time to actually plan for the production. As a result of this
my planning did not go as well as I had hoped which could have
possibly effected my work. Although I do not think it had as much of
an impact on my work as I thought it would have as I believe I still
produced a good level of work despite the poor production planning.
Because of the lack of time I had only written brief summaries for the
production schedule like ‘Day 1: Create Little Red Riding Hood for Page
1’ so I had to go back and rewrite them and add more detail so it was
more along the lines of ‘Day 1: Use the Polygonal Lasso tool to rota-
scope over a mixture of images such as a cape, and use a mixture of
filters and image adjustments until an image of Little Red Riding Hood
has been created and I am happy with it.’

17. Historical and cultural context
The original Little Red Riding Hood was written by Charles Perrault in
1697, and over time many adaptations of the classic fairy tale have
been written. These include the 1944 adaptation in the Merrie
Melodies series called ‘Little Red Riding Rabbit’ starring Bugs Bunny.
This wasn’t a book though, this was a 7 minute long film adaptation of
the story. There is also the Little Red Riding Hood in the ‘First Favourite
Tales’ series published by Ladybird in 1999. This version has a lot more
cartoonish features about the style, and looks like it was hand drawn
and coloured which differs from the way I illustrated my product. A
more current adaptation is the Nick Sharratt, and Stephen Tucker
version in the Lift-the-Flap fairy tales series. In this product, the pages
have flaps for young children to lift and discover new elements of the
story. It was aimed for a younger target audience than what my
product was aimed at which you can tell by the more friendlier images
and brighter colours.

18. These are images from the books and a
still from the short movie I talked about
on the previous page.