The document provides a template for evaluating a graphic narrative project. It prompts the creator to summarize their work, provide examples from their project to explain it, identify areas that went well and could be improved, and reflect on how well their final product achieved their original intentions. It includes questions about the construction of images, use of text, suitability for the intended audience, and techniques used. The creator provides detailed responses analyzing various aspects of their graphic narrative book project for a young audience.

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 I created mind maps and mood plans to create my initials idea, after this I decided
how many pages I would have and what text would be on each page. After this I created my flat
plans and the my test page, all of these things helped me to figure out what would go on each
page and what each page would look like. In my original page plan I had 15 pages, however after
rethinking this and deciding that I would not have enough time to create this many pages I
decided to settle with 10. However, after I had started creating my pages I decided that a page
was not necessary and I got rid of it, this meant that in the end I had 9 pages. I think that I could
have spent more time working out what was going on each page even though I thought I had
worked out what I was doing I could still have given it more thought. After I had decided how
many pages was going to have and I had sorted my script out I drew some flat plans. I used these
to try make it clearer to myself what I was going to put on each page image wise. I do think that
these helped however I think I could have put more detail into them and spent more time making
them clearer and less like sketches. As well as these flat plans I created mood bored to shows
how I was going to illustrate my book, what style it would have and what my characters and
backgrounds would look like. I set out with the idea that I would have a simplistic colour scheme
and that I would keep the colours and the illustrations simple. I think I have stock to this quite
well, the colour of the background of every page is the same and the foliage I have in my pages
are all the same colours.

4. This is flat plan for my page 5 and
this is my final page 5.
The image on the left in my original flat
plan for my page 4 and the image on
the right is my final page for page 4. On
thing that has changed is the path in
the background, in the flat plan there's
is no path. However when I started to
create my page I discovered that the
background had a big green space that
would look better if it had something in
it. To cover he big green space I used a
oath, this path is on nearly every page
therefore is a consistent feature
throughout my book.

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.
My images are very much made up of block colours, they are recognisable colours that fit my target
audience. I used this because I felt it would appeal to the target audience the most having colours that
the recognise and that they are familiar with. Because of this my images o not have very much texture
to them, however this is the way I indented them to look in my planning. I think this has worked well
and has come out similar to the way in which I wanted it to look. The overall visual style of my book is
almost animated and look like something like the television program ‘My Pet Dinosaur’. My book is
similar to this because in this program everything is in block colours and dose not have very much detail
on the characters or the background. In my book I think there is a theme in the visuals that is consistent
throughout the book, the simple colours are kept and the look of the book is the same the whole way
threw.
I made my characters by getting base images from the internet and using the polygonal lasso tool to
create my own version of them. As well as in my background I have used block colours in with my
characters to make them recognisable and so they fit with the style of my book.
Compared to my earlier work that I did with the polygonal lasso toll the over all look is a lot less
textured, the images that I created when I was practising with this tool have more texture and more
colour in them, this is different to my final product because I have used gradient overlays and texture
tools to create a more realist look.

6. This is an image from the
program ‘My Pet
Dinosaur’ and the
second image is of a
page from my book.

7. The image in the top right is an earlier
piece of work I did using the polygonal
lasso tool. In this piece I have used lots of
gradient overlays to show the shadow on
his face and glasses. I have also used the
texture in his hair to make him look more
life like and more realistic.
In the image on the bottom right of a
page from my book I can see that the
image dose not have shadows, this is
because it was not in the style that I
picked and did not fit with it. The block
colors in the second image are less
realistic than the image in the top corner.

8. How well have you used text to anchor
your images
• You should talk about the combination of
words, images and text.
The way that I have linked the text to the images was a hard part of the production, on my third
page I had to redo the image to make sure that they matched the text because originally it was all
in a wired order and the text said one thing and the image said another. I tried to use minimal
words in my book and tried to convey the story threw images more than text as it is aimed at a
young audience. However as I moved on in my production I realised that it was hard to convey
the real storyline without explaining what was happening threw the text. Because of this I have
used more text than I has originally wanted to, however the story now runs a lot smother and has
gives the image more meaning. One book that I looked at and wanted to do something like was
the book ‘Bears in the Night’, in this book the story I told in less that 30 words. I knew that I
would not be able to write the story in this amount of words however I did want to use as little as
possible. My book and this book are similar because they both use repetition, the repetition in
my book is that he meets a snake then a bear then some monkeys and in ‘Bears in the Night’ the
words are repeated in different orders on every page.

9. I this page I can see that the text is anchored to the
image because in the text it says ‘He runs as fast as
he can away from the bear.’ and the image is of
him running away from the bear. This helps to tell
the story in a visual way as well as through the text.
However in this page it is not so clear. In the text
it says ‘He is walking through the jungle’ where
as in the picture he is standing still. This is an
example of the words not being anchored to the
text and something that could be improved in
my book.
This is a page from the book ‘Penguins are Small
and Llamas are Tall’, on this page anchoring is
shows well. In the text it says ‘Penguin give the
ball a big ol’ kick’ and in the picture we can see
the ball moving with lines behind it going to the
penguins foot showing that the penguin kicked it.

10. Is your product suitable for your
audience?
• Reference your proposal
• Give an audience profile and describe
suitability in reference to content
In my proposal I have said hat my target audience is boys aged 4-6, I do think that my book is
suitable for the older end of my target audience but not so much the younger end. If I was to give
another target audience to my book I would out it as boys aged 5-7 as I think they will enjoy the
story line more and will be able to read it on their own. My target audience is young boys aged 4-
6, of a middle class background. I have chosen this demographic because I feel my story suits
these the most. I have a boy as a main character of around the same age as my audience. Also
middle class family's have more disposable income than other classes and on average have more
than one child. The main bulk of my target audience live in detached houses in nice areas, this is
due to there social class; middle class. As well as this my story is set in a jungle which is more
stereotypically a boys setting rather than a girls, if my story was aimed at young girls of the same
age I would set in something like a castle. I think I have reached my target audience because the
colour scheme and language I have used are appropriate for the gender and age range of my
audience. A book that has a similar target audience is called ‘boy racer’ by Ian Whybrow, this
book has a simial colour scheme o mine with lots of greens and some blue, mainly primary
colours that children would recognise.

11. The image on the top right is of the front
cover of the book ‘Boy Racer’ by Ian
Whybrow, as you can see the main color on
this front cover is green. The image on the
bottom right is of the first page of my book,
the similarities that my book and ‘Boy
Racer’ have are that both of there main
colors are green, this is because both the
books are aimed at boys and stereotypically
green is a color that more applies to the
male gender. However the differences are
that my book is more illustrated in a block
color way and ‘Boy Racer’ looks more hand
drawn.

12. What do you like/dislike about the
techniques you have used?
• Reference specific tools you used with images
One thing that I like about the techniques I have used is the way the leaves have more than one
colour in them. To create this I used the ‘polygonal lasso tool’, I used this because I think it the
most effective tool to use to create a shape that is not a normal square, triangle or circle. After I
had used this tool to create by base shape for the leaves, I then use the same tool to create the
detail and the different coloured patches on some of the leaves. I think this has worked
effectively because it shows different shades if the same colour and gives the little leave of detail
that was needed to make these laves look effective.
Another tool I used was using shapes to create my bear. I don’t think this worked as well as it
could have because the bear dose not look very realistic compared to the monkey and the snake,
I used the polygonal lasso tool which gave my monkeys and snake the leave of detail that made
them look realistic but also fit with the style of the book. Also because I used the shape tool on
the bear it meant I had to use a stroke around the features of the bear, this did not fit with the
style of the book and made the bear stand out from the other characters because they did not
have strokes around them and it did.

13. As you can see the character
on the left (Talib) dose not
have any strokes around any
of his features and the
character on the right (the
bear) dose. This dose not fit
with the style of my book
however without these
strokes the bear would not
have any features and would
look even more unrealistic.

14. What do you like/dislike about how
your final product looks?
One thing I like about the way my final product looks is the way that the colours are consistent
and the characters are consistent throughout the book. This gives my book a professional look
and gives it a look that is consistent and that my target audience will be able to recognise and
relate with. It will also help them remember what has happened previously in the book, if the
styles were different on each page the book would look very jumbled and the children that my
book is aimed at may become confused by the drastic change in colour and style. Another thing I
like about my book is when something becomes a threat to Talib it becomes darker and looks
intimidating. Children of the age of my target audience will recognise these colours and will help
them understand that the character surrounded by these dark colours is intimidating or a ‘bad
guy’.
One thing I dislike about the overall look of my final book is they flatness of it, it dose not have
very much depth, because of this I feel it looks slightly boring and could be more entertaining to
look at if it had more depth within the images in the page. As well as this I also would improve
the final page and make it look more like a jungle because at the moment it looks to spaced out
and not full enough. I would put in more trees and bushed to fill in the big green spaces.
A book that has a similar style to mine is ‘Cliford the Big Red Dog’ by Norman Bridwell, the style
of this book has quite a lot of block colours and not very much detail within the images. This is
similar to min because my images do not have a lot of detail within them and also a lot of block
colours are used in my book.

15. On the top right hand corner there is an
image of the front cover of ‘Clifford the big
red dog’ and on the bottom right there is an
image of a page in my book. One thing that is
similar id the block colors in the background.
In the top right image there is two colors in
the background and in mine there is one
colors however the colors that are used in
both images are bold and do not have
shading on them.
One difference between the two images is
the brightness of the colors used, all the
colors on the bottom right image are quite
similar to each other and therefor the parts
of the image that aren't this color stand out.
Where as in the top right the colors are all
very bright this makes everything in the
image stand out.

16. Why did you include the content you
used?
• Images, fonts, effects, colours
The reason I included the images I did was because I felt the told the story the best. I felt that including
lots of leaves and greenery would show my target audience clearly where the story was set and make it
easier to understand. As well as this, by using the images I did to tell the story it meant that I did not
have to use a large amount of text which was what I wanted to do as my target audience are young and
may not be very confident readers at that age. I included the font I used because I think it is clear and
easy to read. Also I felt it fit with my style it is simplistic and clear. Also with my target audience being at
the age that most children learn to read it helps them as it is clear and the spacing makes the words
easy to see and easy to read. I did not use effects on my book because it did not fit with my style, I
didn’t want to use effects like blur or a filter from the filter gallery as this could make my image look
more cartoon like and was not how I wanted my book to look. The colours I used are mostly greens, I
chose this colour scheme because it fit with the setting of my story but also because it appeals to my
target audience. Green is stereotypically a boy colour, this is why I have chosen green to my base colour
because it appeals to the majority of my target audience as well as fitting with my storyline. I used a
male main character in my book so that he also appeals to my target audience, if I was making a book
for a girl of the same age I would have set it in more of a pink place with a girl main character, this is
because if the story is based around a person my your own gender it is more appealing, especially at a
young age.

17. The text on the right hand side is text from a children's book, the text on the left is
some text from my book. A similarity that can be seen is the spaces between the
words, on the left I can see that the words are spaced out making it easier to read.
This is the same on the text on the right, as well as this I can see that the text is
large also making it easier to read, this is also the same on the text on the right. The
text on the left is from children's book aimed at young children, this is why the text
is big and spaced out so it is easy ad clear to see, also the words that are in the text
are not complicated words so the target audience will be able to read it. I have used
these techniques in my work because I feel it best fits my target audience and will
maw it easier and more enjoyable for them to read an this young age.

18. 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.
In my book I have used symbols such as light and dark to show good and bad, one example of this
is on page 7, this is when Talib meets the monkey king. To show that the monkey king has
authority and is quite an intimidating character he has a throne and being the throne the
background is dark and the branch's have no leaves on them. This connotes that he is a scary
character, I used a gradient overlay to make the background turn darker the closer it got to the
monkey king so that when it got to behind the monkey king it was black.
As well as this I have used dark colours around the bear when he and Talib get to his cave, this is
to show that he cave is a bad and scary place, this will help the children understand the change in
the character. I have made the cave very dark colours and used the leaves on it to show more
darkness as they are a darker shade to the rest of the foliage the book. I also used the teeth and
eyebrows of the bear to show the change in his personality, the eyebrows are more curved and
come down closer to his eyes and more of his teeth are on show. This shows the reader that the
bear has changed and he is now a more evil and nasty character.

19. These images show the change
in the color of the background
and the teeth and eyebrows. In
the first image the bear looks
friendly and his teeth are not
on show. Also his eyebrows are
more rounded giving his face a
less harsh look and making him
look less scary. In the second
image the background is
darker and his teeth are on
show. As well as this his
eyebrows are more sharp and
give his face a harsh look
making him look more scary
and harmful. Young children
will recognize these features
and will realize that he Is not
what he seamed in the
beginning.

20. On this page Talib meets the monkey
king for the first time. To show that he
is intimidating I have used a color
overlay to make the background of
where he is darker than the rest of
the page. This connotes that he is a
scary character and that he has
authority. Also I used the branch’s
behind his throne to show that he is
more scary as they have no leaves on
them, this could suggest that he is in
control of everything even nature.
I have also used is facial features like I
did in the bear to show he is a scary
character. I have make his teeth be on
show and brought his eyebrows down
towards his eyes to make him look
angry.

21. What representations can be found in
your work?
• How are men, women or children shown in your work? Does
your work feature different ages, races, social groups or
religions? Does a lack of any variety of character types create
its own representation?
In by story there is only one human character and he is represented as venerable. I represented
him this way by letting him follow people he dose not know around the jungle such as the bear.
He believes what the bear says and end up being even more lost and in even more danger then
he was before. I have dressed him in a grey cloth to show that he is poor, this gives him more of a
backstory and shows the reader more information about him.
As well as this the young boy Talib is also shows as quite adventuress, it shows young boys as
being quite out there and almost brave. However if I was going to make him stereotypically brave
he would have maybe fort the snake and the bear so it could be seen that he is brave for being
out in the jungle on his own but not so brave because he runs away.
At the end of the book the boy settles down with the monkeys and this could show a link
between small children and monkeys, may people refer to small children as monkeys as they can
be ‘cheeky’ or ‘naughty’. This could show a link between the behavior of young boys and the
behavior of monkeys.

22. 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?
The style that I have used is quite simplistic and uses mostly block colours to show the
background and the characters. On book that I used for instauration was ‘That’s not a monkey’ by
Fiona Watt, this book has a similar style to mine because it also uses block colours and shows all
the characters and backgrounds in a simple way. I think this is a good style to use because it is
simple and easy for the young audience to understand. Because block colours are use it is easy to
recognise the colours and the shapes of the places and characters are easy to recognise as well,
this make it easier for the children to read and understand the book.
I chose this visual style because I felt that it would appeal to the audience the most. If the colours
and characters are easy definable and recognisable it will make the aspect of reading seem easier.

23. The image on the top right is of the book
‘That’s not a monkey’ written by Fiona Watt
and the image on the bottom right is from a
page in my book. One similarity that the two
image share is a solid background color, this
is a style that is used in children's books
because It makes the main concentration be
on the text and the one main image. Also
the block colors in the main images is also a
technique that they share, using block
colors make the images more recognizable
and help to tell the story as the images are
not complicated.

24. 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
One strength of my planning was knowing what text was going on each page. Originally I thought
I was going to have 15 pages however I manages to cut that down to 10 before production, when
I started production I realised that I had a page that was unnecessary and that I could remove
from my book. Even though I removed this page I could still keep the text on the pages the same
apart from one, this made it easier an quicker to create the pages. One thing I could have
improved about my planning would be the flat plans as they were not detailed enough and could
have been more helpful if they were more detailed. My research helped me because it shows me
the amount of text to put on each page and what size the pages should be. It also helped me to
see what styles I could use and which would be more effective for my target audience and story
line.
I managed my time well and stock to my schedule and this meant that I had a session to go threw
my work and make any changes and improvements I could. My schedule helped me do this
because without it I could not have know what to do each day and would probably ran out of
time.

25. My pre-production helped me because it made it clear what my style was going to be and
mad me understand what needed to be done in what amount of time. My proposal made
it clear what my aims where going to be with my final book and what my target audience
would be and what they liked. As well as this the text page gave me an idea of how the
book would look when it was finished, when I had my characters and my backgrounds
figured out. My text page helped me because it made me understand more what I needed
to do and how I was going to do it. Mostly I used the polygonal lasso tool and shapes to
achieve my final product.
This is my proposal, in my proposal
I set out what I was wanting to
achieve with my book. I feel I have
stuck to my proposal quite well and
I think that making this proposal
helped me to clearly understand
what I would need to do to achieve
wheat I wanted and how I was
going to do it.

26. 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?
My story is based on an African folk tail called ‘The Ape, the Snake and the Lion’ which, from my
research, has only been printed as a book once in a book of other African tailed called ‘Zanziba
Tails’ written by George W. Bateman and Walter Bobbett. Although I have used this story as a
stimulus I have changes it to make it more child friendly and to make it fit in to a shot book.
Because of this the book I have is not very similar to many on the market at this moment. Books
such as ‘Jungle Book’ and ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ are two very successful books that are also set in
the jungle, however these books have a very different story line to mine.
The style I have used is a popular one within children's book, books such as ‘Clifford the big red
dog’ and ‘ That’s not a monkey’ use a similar style to mine. As far as my research can find there
are no books with a similar story line to mine with the same style which would make my book the
only one to be on the market.

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