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1. Graphic Narrative
Evaluation

2. Does your final product reflect your
original intentions?
• Compare your planning/digital flat plans/ storyboards to your final product
• I feel that my final product reflects my original intentions for the layout and content of the story for
the most part. I was able to keep a cartoon style to the images throughout the story which made it
more suitable for the target audience. I was also able to make the script very simple and easy to
understand. I was also able to space out the text and make a clear box for it to be placed in below
the images on each page which meant that both the images and the text on each page were in
good proportion on each page. I was also able to fit my story onto 9 pages as originally planned so
that it does not drag on for too long as kids don’t typically have a long attention span. I was able to
keep a bright colour scheme throughout the book which made it have a much more cheery mood
which is more applicable to my target audience. The story itself is in a format that is very universal
as was my original intention too which means that it can be distributed easily and will be available
on the vast majority of electronic based platforms. This is useful as the children I am aiming at may
not have the high end equipment that is required to run more specialised formats and functions. If I
was to compare my original intentions to an existing product I would compare it to the book the
gingerbread man. I wanted it to have a similar look and feel to the boo with a cartoon style and
short length. This is because the story is very famous and is recognisable and creating links to my
story would make my story have a familiar feel to it and allow it to be recognised within the fairy
tale genre well whilst retaining its individuality.

3. If I was to compare my original intentions to an
existing product I would compare it to the book the
gingerbread man. I wanted it to have a similar look
and feel to the book with a cartoon style and short
length. This is because the story is very famous and
is recognisable and creating links to my story would
make my story have a familiar feel to it and allow it
to be recognised within the fairy tale genre well
whilst retaining its individuality.

4. Here is an example of how my work has evolved from the flat plans
that I made to the final page. As you can see the designs have been
followed from the plans in the final document and I have managed to
keep the product to my original intentions in terms of layout. The final
image does have some changes though, I have added some more
scenery to make the scene more exciting such as adding the sun and a
sign in the background to have less blank space in the scene. The text
has also been spaced out better.
Flat Plan
Final image

5. How well have you constructed your
images?
• How well have you constructed your images? You could talk about the
overall visual appearance and well as the use of texture and colour.
• I think my images are very well constructed and they are suitable for use
in the book. I have created my images using a range of skills on Photoshop
such as shape manipulation, rotoscoping and use of filters and gradients.
My images are also saved as jpegs so they are a very universal format
which can be accessed on the majority of hardware. My images are in a
cartoon style that makes the images seem more fantastical and fun rather
than realistic which is also to suit my target audience of younger children.
The images take up an a4 sized page which means that they are large and
clear on a full page so they can be seen easily and the text can be read
clearly which is helpful if the reader may struggle if the page would be too
small. The images also contain bright and happy colours which make the
images lighter and easier to see but also create a happy tone which suits a
target audience who would prefer a more light-hearted stories at this
stage in their life.

6. How well have you used text to anchor
your images
• You should talk about the combination of words, images
and text.
• In my story I have used a small amount of text to
accompany the images in the story. I have used this amount
of text for may reasons such as the fact that it is easier to
read and that it speeds up the story but it is also because I
want the pictures to be the main focus of the story as
children typically prefer looking at pictures to reading. I feel
that I have pulled this off well as the text usually relays the
speech and extra information whilst the images give a clear
representation of what is going on in the scene. This makes
the text and images compliment each other well.

7. Alternatively I could have
used a text style similar to an
existing book such as the
gingerbread man. The
gingerbread uses a very small
amount of text but it uses it
above the images with no
border a white space. This
has the advantage of looking
less out of place on the page
and making the book quicker
by using less words. However
I feel that my design is more
clear as it stands out more on
the page and the white
background contrasts well
with the black text and
makes the text easier to read
than the other design.

8. From the picture it is obvious that the
cake has been eaten without having to
read the text. This makes it so the text is
there to compliment the images which
take up a lot more of the page.
There is a small amount of
text and it contains mainly
speech as I have not used any
speech bubbles in my images.

9. Is your product suitable for your
audience?
• Reference your proposal
• Give an audience profile and describe suitability in
reference to content
• My target audience for this project is younger children and
their parents. I have tried to suit my book towards my
target audience in several ways. I have used a cartoon style
with bright colours to create a happy tone for my target
audience as they typically prefer more light hearted and
chilled stories. I have also used a minimal amount of text as
the target audience may struggle to read so it will be
helpful. I have also used simplistic language with high
frequency words used so that the reader will be
comfortable reading without having to tackle complex
language.

10. Existing product comparison
This is another example of an existing children's book called ‘the
gruffalo’. My book shares several techniques with this book to be
appropriate for the target audience of children. For example they both
use large images as they are more interesting for children and can keep
their attention. Another thing they both use is by using a cartoon style
to make the book look more happy and fantastical which makes it more
exciting for children. They both also use anthropomorphic characters
within the book to personify animals to make them more friendly and
relatable to the audience. This is another technique which makes the
book more fantastical and makes it more fun for the children to read
about.
Anthropomorphic
character

11. What do you like/dislike about the
techniques you have used?
• Reference specific tools you used with images
• I used rotoscoping, shape manipulation and filters to
create my images. The benefits to using these
techniques was that I was able to create a cartoon style
that was simple but showed a decent amount of depth
to it. I was also able to use these techniques in decent
time and was able to make my story in good quality in
time for my deadline by using these techniques. The
techniques. With the techniques I have used I dislike
the fact that they are not too complex in their design
and other techniques may have allowed me to go into
a lot more detail than I did using these techniques.

12. What do you like/dislike about how
your final product looks?
• Seeing the final project I can see the parts that I have completed well and those
that I haven't. The length of my story had upsides and downsides. I liked the short
length because it made the speed of the story a lot quicker and stopped the story
dragging on too much. It did restrict the amount of detail I could go into as I could
only fit so much on the select amount of pages that I used. In regards to the
amount of text that is used on each page I feel that I am satisfied that it is long
enough to tell the story to a good degree whilst still allowing the images to relay
the scene clearly on its own and simply add extra information and speech to each
page. However I feel that I could have shortened the text even more and this
would have allowed me to target an even younger audience as they may struggle
with sentences longer than about five or six words. In regards to the images I feel
that they have a good and consistent art style throughout the book. The art style is
a cartoon style that is appropriate for children so it works as an aesthetic in the
book. The book also has bright colours within the images which work well to
create a happy mood throughout the book. However the art style does restrict the
amount of detail that I am able to go into as it is a cartoon. This means that they
are not as detailed as I could have made them; however with this being a book
aimed at children I do not feel that this is a significant problem.

13. An example of a product that has
some things that I wanted in my story
If I was to pick an existing product that
I would have preferred to look like it
would be the book spot the dog. This
book uses the right amount of text
that I would have liked as it is very
simple and allow you to target an even
younger audience. It also uses a nice
and friendly cartoon style like my book
which makes it appealing to children.
It also has clear and stand out text by
using white spaces to place the back
text as it is a good contrast which
makes it clearer.

14. Why did you include the content you
used?
• Images, fonts, effects, colours
• In my story I used a sans serif text because it looks more relaxed
and informal. This was chosen to suit my target audience as it
would suit them being less formal as children tend to prefer more
light-hearted things at a young age so it suits them well. I used
black text so that it was clear on the white background so that it
can be easily read as children may be new to reading so I felt it was
important to make it as clear as possible for them. I used bright
colours in my story to create a happy tone throughout the book as
it would suit my target audience to have a more happy tone to the
book. I used shadows in the book as it added some depth to the
characters and scenery as they were very basic cartoon characters
and I felt that it would make each page more complex. I chose the
images that I did because they relay the scene on each page very
clearly so that children who cannot read properly can still
appreciate and follow the story to a good degree.

15. 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 work I used the following techniques to convey symbolism. I used bright
skies and scenery to symbolise the happiness that the cake feels as it has the
freedom to run away. This creates a giddy atmosphere and it make the reader
share in the happiness of the cake throughout his escape. I have also used the
colour red subtly next to several of the characters chasing the Johnny cake to
convey the danger that they pose to it. Examples of this include the red t-shirt that
the boy wears, the red toolbox that is laid by the side of the two workers and the
red eyes on the sign next to the wolf. I have also used symbolism on the characters
to help create association with their occupation and role within the story. This is
show through the workers having a toolbox with tools in beside them this helps to
show that they are workers who are doing some sort of building. One of the
workers also wears overalls which are stereotypical to people doing work where
the may damage or stain clothes. I have also given the wolf, bear and fox sharp
teeth to show that they pose danger to the Johnny cake and that it should
therefore be careful around them. This allows them to be more clear as the villains
in the story to the protagonist.

16. Here are two examples of
symbolism within the story. On the
left the bear has sharp teeth to
convey the danger that he poses to
the Johnny cake and that he
should be weary of him. The page
on the right shows the red toolbox
where the red colour symbolises
the danger that the workers pose
to the Johnny cake.

17. 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 my work I have used a boy as a rival to the protagonist. The boy has a rather
plain design and is a representation of an average boy as his clothes are casual and
his build and height are average. I have also used two male workers in the story.
They are also average looking for the most part but one is wearing overalls to
represent that he is a worker this is mainly done for symbolic purposes. The two
characters are middle aged and work as average adult figures. The main
protagonist of the book is genderless and the reader can decide what gender they
are. This character is represented as a silly and cheery character. The other
characters in the book are animals that can talk they are represented as if they
were regular adults in personality terms but they aesthetically look like slightly
personified animals by using the same eyes in most cases, standing on two legs in
some pages and the same art style to link them to human characters within the
book. The variety of ages and species make each character seem individual and
stops the characters being too repetitive and ending up looking like clones of each
other.

18. What style have you employed in your
products?
• Discuss influences/ existing products
• What visual style does your work have and why did you choose it?
• Some of the designs within the story are heavily influenced by outside
sources. For example the design of the Johnny cake character is based on
previous renditions of the tale in other books. This was done simply
because I was unfamiliar with this tale and wanted to make sure that the
character I was creating would be somewhat similar to what it was
supposed to be. The visual style that I went for was a cartoon style that
had outlines around each character and object. I chose this style as it is
very relaxed and would be familiar to my target audience as many
children's books also run a cartoon style. It also meant that the characters
would not take too long to create so I would be able to finish within my
schedule and meet my deadlines effectively. By using this style I would
also be able to create a more fantastical look to the book and allow it to
appeal to the target audience more as it would be more exciting to them if
it had this mood to it.

19. Comparison to other techniques in
media
This is another example of a technique to create the
book. This example (curious George) is made using a
hand drawn style. This makes the book look more
relaxed and informal which can make it appropriate
for children. I, however, went with a cartoon style as it
allows me to make the book look less formal whilst
also allowing me to go into a lot of detail and make
the book look more polished than by using a hand
drawn style.

20. 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
• The planning and pre production helped me gain some influence and examples of
previous products relating to this story. This was important as I had not come
across it before and I needed to see how others had written and drawn to see if I
could use any of these ideas in my own work. It also allowed me to have a look at
the different aspects that I would have to take into account when doing this
project such as a colour scheme, font styles and art style rather than deciding
them all on the go which may have caused some inconsistencies throughout my
work. This is mainly prevalent on my mood boards and spider diagrams. The
planning also allowed me to make a schedule so that I was able to manage my
time effectively when I was completing my project and keep me on track to
meeting deadlines and being able to know clearly what my task was for each
lesson. However the planning did take a lot of time to set up and it could be
argued that this time would be better spent working on the production of the
project instead as it is the most important part of the project.

21. 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?
• Product that relate to this story are rather uncommon but the ones that do exist
are similar in the general theme of the story and the basic timeline stays the same
in both my story and in previous renditions. The amount of text in my book is
dramatically less that in other renditions and this is because I wanted the pictures
in my book to have a larger impact and the text to compliment them rather than
being the primary method of telling the story. The previous products also have a
lot more complex and archaic language within them as they generally seem to be
set in an early English time period. This differs from my book as I have tried to
modernise it and make the language less complex and more modern to appeal to
my target audience. The previous renditions also tent to have old fashioned
scenery such as thatched houses in their images which I have altered in my book
so that the houses are more modern so that the reader will relate to them more as
they will probably not be used to seeing thatched houses and the sorts of uniforms
that the characters wear in the artwork of the previous work. It may also be
important to note that all the previous versions of this story are hard copies and
with mine being a digital copy it is broadening the amount of people that will view
the story as more people tent to read things digitally nowadays.

22. Here are some examples of other renditions of Johnny cake
compared to mine. As you can see my design is vaguely based
off of the other renditions but I have made my own touches to
the designs in terms of colour and facial design to make the
character look more friendly and cheerful to suit my target
audience.