I did an evaluation for my Children's Book.

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. Digital Flat Plan
I am pleased with the images I have drawn for the flat plan for my Children’s Book. I am proud of them because it shows how the
illustration can be used to demonstrate the page layout and look realistic. I think they are good because it shows clarity and
understanding from the sketchy drawings to the text. If I went back to do flat plan, I would have improved my drawings by
making them neater.
Mood Board
I did it well because my images contrasted with the colours and fonts. I looked at professional examples of other mood boards
done by graphic designers and magazine editors. I was able to get ideas and see how the colours coordinate with several images to
build up a collage.

4. Does your final product reflect your
original intentions?
Compare your planning/digital flat plans/
storyboards to your final product
For my first draft, I started out with eight pages briefly in Children’s Book. The story breakdown helped me to outline each page
and develop an original script.
I did a second draft because I realised there was room for improvement. I changed the sentence structure, to make my story
breakdown more interesting. For the second script, I have included descriptions and images to add more detail to story.
Overall, my Children’s Book consisted of eleven pages for my story breakdown and twelve pages for the script.
Script Draft 1
The Ugly Duckling caused a stir as soon as he was born. The mother duck was so surprised about her extraordinary duckling’s
appearance. She treated the Ugly Duckling as an alien creature that did not exist.
Script Draft 2
Page 2- When the last egg finally hatched.
All the eggs hatched except for one

5. The similarity between flat plan and Photoshop on page one is the mother duck laying eggs in her nest
on the bank. The position of the duck on the flat plan is centered whereas on the original page, the
duck is situated on the left. The mother duck two eyes and tail are visible on the body but not on the
Photoshop version. The beak is open whereas on the next page the beak is closed. There are bushes,
flowers have stalk and leaves in the background in contrast to the next side, where the grass is sloped
downwards and leaves, stalks are absent from the petals.
The reason for all of these differences, is because at the time, I didn’t notice what my pages lacked or
what they had in common.

6. I am proud of this page because it took me awhile to add in
extra details. I managed to get the Photoshop version similar
to flat plan, in terms of the Ugly Duckling and swan ‘s
appearance. This page has reflected my intentions because it
mirrored the Ugly Duckling’s appearance to the swan, in the
lake.

7. 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 I have constructed my images fairly well for each page. I used Photoshop to edit images for each page. Throughout the
book, I used bright colours and characters such as: Ugly Duckling, mother duck, wild ducks, farmer and male cockerel, to
construct my images.
Texture is visualised greatly on the second page. I used the polygonal lasso tool to get the grass effect and ruffled feathers for the
ducklings. I used the pale blue lines to get a ripple effect in the dark blue water. I also left broken egg shell on top of the ugly
duckling’s head and made it bigger to make the main character stand out.
Throughout the book, I did close up and outward shots of the Ugly Duckling and the other animals. I also used speech bubbles and
black text in my book to make the story interesting.

8. How well have you constructed your
images?
In my images, I used different character styles. The ducklings looked realistic because of how I positioned them near the mother
duck. I also made the characters more noticeable by using the eclipse tool to create the body outline and features.
My images looked like photographs and this were one of the strengths. If I removed the texture of the grass, my characters would
still look good.
I noticed there was a gap near the cockerel’s neck at the end of the page. This is an element of weakness and I could improve this
character by using the brown colour to fill the void.

9. How well have you used text to
anchor your images
• You should talk about the combination of words,
images and text.
In the early stages of planning production, I knew what I wanted on each page. I used the script and flat plan as strengths to help me develop and
match images with text for my Children’s Book. “You’re the ugliest duckling we have ever laid eyes on.” This is a good example of text that is
used as a form of speech. The presence and image of the Ugly Duckling evoked strong descriptive words and questions from the characters.
The actions of the characters in the image, also played a part in determining what words to be displayed on the page. Good anchorage is shown
where the text and image support each other.
A negative example may be where I put a lot of text but the picture didn’t show much of what was happening. There is room for improvement,
as more words could have been used to make the story more interesting.

10. Images

11. Is your product suitable for your
audience?
• Reference your proposal
This proposal is being referenced from Development Pro forma, where we had to talk about target audience. Yes, this product is
suitable for my audience and the audience remained the same throughout the Children’s Book. My story is for children aged 3-7.
The reason I selected this age group for my book is because the reader would be more drawn to the images and will have
some knowledge about animals in their environment. The Ugly Duckling is for males and females.
There is a moral behind this story which allows adults to easily convey to young children.
Reference audience appeal-The duckling is rejected by the other ducklings because he is ugly. Then he turns in to a beautiful swan
and is finally accepted by the other swans. Joy and acceptance is revealed in the end.
Throughout the book, emotional appeal is showed through images and strong descriptive language.
This emotional appeal is more likely to attract a female audience but the fact that the duckling is male, would help to attract a male
audience.

12. • Give an audience profile and describe
suitability in reference to content
For my audience profile, I considered my age group to be between three to seven
years old. The book is suitable for males and females. This emotional appeal is
more likely to attract a female audience but the fact that the duckling is male,
would help to attract a male audience.
Children from different backgrounds may want to read the book. Young children
could have more imagination when it comes to reading stories. All the children
from different ethnic backgrounds, can identify with main character, which is the
Ugly Duckling. I intended my book to be for children from different social classes.
The content is suitable for my audience because of the bright colours used in the
images. The nature of my images is being referred to the outside environment. For
example: lake, farmhouse and grass are suitable backgrounds for the narrative
setting. The images are age appropriate. Young children love animals, and that is
why I considered ‘The Ugly Duckling’ suitable for my audience.
I used one line of text per page as young children are more attracted to pictures
and this can help to develop their imagination.
My book is situated for young children who have short expansion time. For
example, a three year old would most likely listen to their mother and join as they
become familiar with the story. A seven year old will enjoy reading the book
independently.

13. What do you like/dislike about the
techniques you have used?
Reference specific tools you used with images
• Rotoscoping- At first, I didn’t like using the polygonal lasso
tool to outline the images in Photoshop. The reason for this was because
I am fairly new to the rotoscoping technique. As I progressed throughout the book,
I got better using this tool to edit images. I realised to get the shape looking similar
to the original, I had to outline the image slowly, to get the outline smoother. I used
the polygonal lasso tool, to create the trees and lake.

14. Shape warping - I liked using the warping tool because it
allowed me to change my picture by stretching it out in
different angles, to get the size I wanted. I used the warp tool
to transform the wild duck’s body and the speech bubbles. It
also helped to create the lake in the background. The warp tool
was useful because it made it easier to build up feathers on the
duck’s body and made the lake wider. The warp tool gave me
the chance to angle the speech bubbles downward towards the
character.

15. Illustration- Illustration was one of the first methods I used before developing my book. I
liked this technique because it helped to show the content and page layout for each page.
Sketching the images for my flat plan helped me to show image construction. The images
were drawn in squares and numbered by page, to show page representation. I really liked
drawing the swan on the last page because I find swan’s feathers were very realistic. I could
improve this drawing by sketching the feathers darker, to make it more noticeable on the
page.

16. What do you like/dislike about how
your final product looks?
I liked the page layout for my Children’s Book. I used the warping and polygonal lasso tool on Photoshop to complete my book. At first, I found
using the polygonal lasso tool quite hard as I found it difficult to outline the shape exactly. I think overall my book looked fascinating and
insightful because I used bright coloured images.
I disliked how my Ugly Duckling looked because I had to keep changing the physical appearance of him. As my book progressed I showed the
Ugly Duckling transforming into a swan.
The change of colour for the Ugly Duckling’s feathers could have had an impact on the page and reader alike. The consistency of the main
character lacked accuracy in my pages. The Ugly Duckling’s head and neck were either too big or small for the body. This caused the image to
look off- balance on the page.

17. Why did you include the content you
used?
• Images- I used animal characters such as: Ugly Duckling, wild ducks, cockerel and mother duck in my images. The reason
I used Ugly Duckling frequently in my pages was because he was the main character. I included the farmer because he was
responsible for rescuing the Ugly Duckling.
• Fonts- I used font, Times New Roman, size twelve because the clear writing would be easier for young children to
understand and read.
• Effects- Overall, I think my Children’s Book would have a positive effect on readers. The bright colours used in the images
and the small font used would have a friendly appearance to readers. This would attract the children, and tempt them to
purchase the book.
• Colours- I used three colours in my background. The reason for this was because I wanted the story’s location to be in a
lake setting. I used light blue to represent the sky, dark blue to represent the lake and green to represent the grass. I came up
with these specific colours because it would help young children to learn as well as remember the colours that surround them.

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.
I used blue as my main colour in the images for my Children’s Book. This was because I liked the colour personally and the
colour, blue was used for the lake and the sky. I used grey to reflect the tone of the Ugly Duckling’s feathers. I used a white sky in
one or two pages to show winter has arrived. I also use white for the swan’s physical appearance. The colour palette helped me to
find colours that go together and reflect the same brightness and tone.
For my page layout, I used simple style technique with an image and text per page. The flat plan helped me to think where on the
page to place the text. My flat plan would be an asset to my final product because it showed strength of planning and production.
Farmhouse and lake were two locations used in my Children’s Book. I used these locations to show where the Ugly Duckling and
farmer lived. The illustrations and animal characters were hand-drawn to make my story unique. I started out my book with bright
colours then as the story progressed, I used a lighter tone.

19. Audience Responses
Cultural competence:
Media texts require us to have a certain level of cultural understanding to
be able to interpret them.
At a basic level, this could mean being able to read the language that a
magazine is written in.
At a deeper level, it means being able to interpret signs and symbols that
we use a visual shorthand to communicate ideas.
We recognise these signs in our own culture but find it harder to
understand when looking at others.
We create and attach meaning to signs and symbols in many different
forms.
19Creative Media Production 2012

20. Audience Responses
Cultural competence:
What is this?
This is a Norwegian Pine tree, covered in
snow and with a red ribbon on.
Our cultural understanding allows us to
interpret its meaning.
To us, in British society, it means
Christmas, presents and family.
This is because we share a cultural
knowledge.
20Creative Media Production 2012

21. Audience Responses
Cultural competence:
There are many other signs and symbols
that we attach meaning to.
A leather jacket can imply rebellion.
A sports car can imply wealth and power.
A cross can represent religion.
21Creative Media Production 2012

22. Audience Responses
Cultural competence:
Visual representations of everyday objects are often the same the world
over. A car appears as a car, no matter what country it appears in.
What that car means however, can be very different depending on your
cultural background.
22Creative Media Production 2012

23. 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?

24. A man is shown in my Children’s Book by being a farmer character. The farmer would be represented well because his action of kindness
depended on the Ugly Duckling’s fate. When the farmer noticed the lifeless bird, the reader can describe the farmer as an observant and open-
minded person. You can also tell he was interested in surroundings around him because he was not just focused on the path he was walking on.
The farmer way of coping with the situation, was to take the Ugly Duckling home and try to fix his broken wing. If the farmer did not
recognize the Ugly Duckling, he could have died and the story would not have much of a plot and happy ending.
My work featured different social groups. The comparison between human social groups is being reflected through the animals’ characters.
The questions the animals asked were similar to that of human’s speech. This story can be very emotional because it showed how social
animals must need social security in order to survive. All of these scenarios showed how a character can be accepted or rejected based on his
physical appearance alone.

25. 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?

26. The swans inspired the Ugly Duckling because being able to fly with their flock influenced him to hope to become one. He can
escape from his habitat and find a proper home, where he is happy and can depend on them to show him where to get food and water
resources in order to survive. My work has scene-to- scene visual style. I chose it because the events that happened in my story is
based on transition. An example is when the Ugly Duckling changed into a swan. It can also be simple style because if you look at
my pages below, there is big space at top for text and the characters are recognizable as animals.

27. What style have you employed in
your products?
The cut out or collage style was used in depth for my product. I chose it to make my images look effective.
In my images, I used the cut out technique for the lake and swan’s feathers. I used the ripple effect in the water, as inspiration
for me to improve the swan’s feathers. I also used the cut out for the lake edges to show the transparency between the different
shades of blue.

28. 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

29. I think the main strength of my mood board is the overall mood and feel of the book that I achieved. I gave the book an emotional sadness
which reflected the Ugly |Duckling’s yearning to be a beautiful swan.
Using the device of reflection worked well to show the transformation scene and I particularly liked my choice of colours to enhance the
mood. The use of trees was also effective. Trees can be iconic of particular seasons and can visually demonstrate the passing of time.
I am particularly pleased with the image of transformation showing the Ugly Duckling and beautiful swan partially revealed in the
water’s reflection. This worked well to give a sense of anticipation to turn the page and see the complete transformation.
Finally, I believe the inspirational quote I used usefully hinted at the direction my story would take. The colour and choice of font for this
contrasted well with the background and made the whole book more attractive.
“Why Be An Ugly Duckling When You’re A Beautiful Swan”. This is an example of an inspirational quote that is linked with the moral of
the story. The moral of “The Ugly Duckling” is not giving up on yourself when challenges come your way.
If I had more time I would have used more colourful images and worked on a more interesting alignment. This would have given a
greater variety to the pages of the book.
One specific issue I had was with the character of the farmer. Given his important role in the story I should perhaps have given him more
space and development. The farmer could have been embedded further in the mood board and flat plan.
My flat plan was another strength of strategic planning for my Children’s Book. The flat plan helped me to decide what image to put on
each page and where to align text.
A weakness I noticed, was that my flat plan was not accurate to my original flat plan. This was because I used different shapes to create
the image. The warp tool did not give me the effect I wanted and this lacked representation.
I could see what needed doing in my production schedule. This gave me a chance to plan my class sessions and complete my final
product in time. This showed strengths of planning for my Children’s Book.
I did not stick to my production schedule as I thought I would. This was because some bits took longer than expected. I had to take out a
page and redo farmer page. If I had looked over my production schedule carefully, I would have realised my misjudgement of the amount
of pages I used for my book. I had to redo my page with the farmer because it would not open the Photoshop file due to an error.
When I put all my images in the PowerPoint, I realised I used the wrong paper size. I had to go back and readjust my paper size and
resave in Photoshop and Jpeg version. My carelessness caused this process to be longer than expected and time was wasted from
continuing the other tasks effectively.
Finally the test page was the last method I used for pre- production and planning for my Children’s Book. I was able to try things out with
the test page. Experimenting with the different colours and using the polygonal lasso tool, to create my characters were used as strengths
for my images.
One weakness that arose from the test page, was poor time management to complete the task. I finished the test page but it took me
almost two days to finish, because I used a lot of animal characters and finding the suitable colour for the background proved quite
difficult.

30. Mood Board

31. 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?

32. The Ugly Duckling is being compared to other Children’s Books. I have decided to explore the genre and themes that had a historical and
cultural background in relation to the story.
I researched two books that were similar to my work. Adopted by the Eagles by Paul Goble and The Brave Little Parrot by Rafe Martin,
Susan Gaber, illustrated by Susan Gaber. The similarity between Adopted by the Eagles to my work was that they were both of the same
genre and similar themes.
The genre was western and themes consisted of: birds, animals, characters and values, friends and friendship. The value of trust and
friendship is reflected through the characters.
Both authors were influenced by past events and this was shown by different themes used in the story. For example, the Ugly Duckling was
being teased because of his physical appearance and never really fitted into friendship groups. The author had a similar experience in his
life when he was bullied in school for the shape of his nose and social awkwardness among peer groups. These life experiences helped to
show us the importance of kindness.
The genre and subject showed similarity between both books. The Genre consisted of fables and myths. Overall, the subject consisted of
birds, courage, bravery, heroism and honour in The Brave Little Parrot. The main theme I was able to pull out from The Brave Little Parrot
was bravery. When the Ugly Duckling ran away, his attempts to flee the scene was an act of fearlessness.
The Ugly Duckling film was produced by Walt Disney in 1931 and 1939. The fairytale by Hans Christian Andersen caused an inspiration
for Walt Disney because the animations by the animals caused such a delight to film watchers, that they decided to redo the movie in 1939
with Technicolour. Cartoons have existed in the past. The cartoons were regularly viewed on television programs. Movies still existed but
the popularity of cartoons are reduced now, as more films continue to produce what is seen in reality and not fiction.

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