Digital graphics evaluation pro forma

1. Graphic Narrative
Evaluation

2. Does your final product reflect your
original intentions?
• My original intentions was to make a children's book to market to 3-4 year olds,
and this would mean creating simple graphics and text that would be read to the
child instead of them reading it themselves. My final product fits this intention set
out in my proposal in my opinion, as the graphics are simple, they are easy to
interpret and they are not clustered with text that the child is unlikely to able to be
able to read. I have not changed anything to do with the story from my initial idea,
and I think that the story is the one part of the book that I have really nailed, in
comparison to the quality of the graphics, which I am not too happy with.
Graphically, for the most part I have stuck to the ideas set out in my flat plan and
digital flat plan, apart from a few pages on which I think that I have improved upon
in comparison to said flat plans. I have not kept the text on the pages like I have in
the planning document so that is one thing that I have changed. The final product
reflects the mood board too in my opinion, as I have captured most of the themes
and imagery shown in the mood board.
• I have not taken any influence for the illustration side of things, but I have for the
way in which the page has been laid out. I took some influence from the Tale of
Mrs. Tittlemouse by Beatrix Potter, as I think that the way in which the page is laid
out in that story is very clean and aesthetically pleasing.

3. Digital flatplan. Final product
Here is an example of the final product reflecting the planning stage. I decided to keep this flat
plan similar throughout all three stages of development as I thought it would be a good
establishing shot for the character, as it shows who he is, what he looks like and where he lives. I
did change the mountains to the sea however because it worked better for the story, as he lives
on an island and not next to some mountains. I think that all of my pages would reflect there flat
plans if I had put as much effort into all of them a I had this one, as I think that this one is by far
the pick of the bunch.
Flat plan
Example of planning reflecting final product.

4. Digital flat plan. Final product.
Here is an example of a page that does not reflect the planning stage. I have changed the graphic for the
final page as I decided that showing the mothers grave would stress the emotional pain that the
characters went through and showing the boy with his head in his hands also added to that, and it would
also be easier for a child to interpret what is going on in the final image compared to the flat plan.
Another big thing that I have changed for this page where the text goes, as I planned for the text going
on the graphics themselves, but when I wrote the script I realised that I would be far too much text to fit
onto the page, so I decided to keep it on the page next to it o the graphics can just be on there own.
Now saying that this page does not meet the planned look doesn’t mean that I am not happy with it, as I
actually prefer the way the final image looks to what it would have looked like if I did it the planned way.
Flatplan.
Example of planning not reflecting final product.

5. How well have you constructed your
images?
• For some pages, I have constructed the images to a relatively high
standard, for example, page two is actually very good and I am very
pleased with it indeed, but then there are others such as page four which I
really do not like at all, as it looks bland and a bit boring, as I did not have
a lot of time to create my images, they have suffered immensely due to
me rushing them out in order to be finished in time, and this is where the
process would be different if we had a bit more time.
• To improve on my images, I would add more detail to the characters, add
additional characters to the background so that they do not look so empty.
Something else that would greatly improve the quality of the pages is
better textures, not just the textures themselves but more of them, so
that the whole pages looks like it has a feel to it, and not just some parts
of it.
• The one thing that I feel as if I have done really well on is the design of the
main character Noah, as he is done to a higher quality compared to
everything else, an I feel as though I have nailed the emotions on his face.

6. This is the page that I am most happy about, as I think that I have constructed it to a pretty high
standard, as you can easily tell what is going on in the image without reading the text, as it is
just an establishing shot.
The house is well
detailed.
Whilst not being centre
stage, Noah is clearly the
subject.
The sky looks great.
The islands and
icebergs show the
landscape off well.
The textures on
the water and
on the snow are
quite good.
Good example of image.

7. This is a page which I think is one of the worst out of the bunch. The colours are boring, the
characters look out of place and the house Is not very well detailed at all. This is not what I had
in mind when I set out to make the image. To improve this image, I would changed the colour of
the walls, or at least some section so that the page did not look so brown, and I would make the
environment look a bit more like a home rather than a room with some furniture in it.
The walls and ceiling look bland. The windows could do with
more detail.
The seals head looks
OK, even though it
looks out of place.
The bear skin looks
pretty good.
The colours are boring.
The
characters
aren't too
bad.
Bad example of image.

8. How well have you used text to anchor
your images
• The combination of the text and the images is pretty none existent,
as I have placed the two separate. Initially I planned on having the
text on the images, and put it in the background, but I found out as
I was writing the script the text was far too long to do that, this
meant that I had to put the text separate from the images. This
resulted in me placing the text on the page opposite. This looks
better anyway, as the parent/guardian can read to the child from
one page and the child can look at the images whilst the story is
being told to them.
• If I were to do this again, I would make the pages bigger so that I
could accommodate all of that text, maybe putting the page size to
A3 instead on A4. This way the book would be a lot more colourful,
as it would not have the black text on white paper, which is pretty
boring. Also I could have condensed the text down a little bit so that
I could have fit it onto the page, which maybe would have looked
better.

9. Here is one of the pages from the book, and the way in which the text looks is nice, it is easy to
read and it means that the image is not too clustered. Although, the image would look a lot
more colourful if the text was actually in the image, but it is too long to fit. The text does look
pretty good, as the font is not out of place, is is easy to read and is aesthetically pleasing.

10. Is your product suitable for your
audience?
• The final product that I have produced is suitable for the audience that I
have set out in my proposal. The target audience that I set out in my
proposal was aged between 3-4, from a middle class background and not
gender specific. I made the story suitable for the age group by taking a
fairy-tale already told to children and pretty much just replacing the
original characters with mine and tweaking the story a bit to make it a bit
more suitable for the children of today. I did not have to change much
about the tale as it was already child friendly for the world in which we
live in nowadays, unlike a lot of the original fairy tales written by people
such as The Grimm brothers, which were actually pretty dark if you read
the original un ‘Disneyfied’ version of them. One thing that I did change
for the story was the monster figure, as in the original tale the monster
figure was the Baba Yaga who was portrayed as being purely evil and out o
get everyone as it were. I changed this as I think the friendly monster
approach works better for the character that I have created, as I have
made my audience unisex I had to make sure that I did not stereotype
anyone or anything within the story specific to gender.

11. On the left is the Baba Yaga, which is where I got the story from, as you can see the Baba Yaga is a pretty
terrifying character, especially for small children, so what I did to make it more child friendly is to completely
get rid of the Baba Yaga, as not only does she look evil, but she is an evil character too. The character I found
that would replace her was from Inuit legend, called Kalopalaing. There was not really much I could find on
Kaloplaing, which made it easier for me to be able to mould him into the character that I had chosen him to
be, the big friendly cuddly giant, a misunderstood character if you will. I have done a good job of making the
book suitable for my audience in general, as it looks simple, there is no graphic imagery or graphic
descriptions and it is pretty short, which means that it wont demand the audiences attention for too long.

12. What do you like/dislike about the
techniques you have used?
• My favourite tool that I have used in production is the cutout filter, which I have used a lot for
the skies and for a few different objects throughout the book. I like this tool as it makes the
objects look amazing with relatively no effort or time. This tool can be don’t by going on
‘filter>filter gallery>cutout’. You could say that using this tool is cheating a bit, but it was
never stated that we weren't allowed to use it, so I did.
• Something that I have always been horrendous at is drawing, this is probably the reason why
I disliked the brush tool the most, as I straight up wasn’t good with it at all, often making
things look awful, then deleting them to find a better way of tackling them.
• A technique that I found extremely interesting and useful is the clipping mask tool. This is
where you can make something stick over the layer below, creating a shape with that look to
it, for example, if you wanted a square to look like some macaroni, you would find an image
of macaroni from the internet and make a clipping mask, and then you have your macaroni
square. This tool is very useful for creating texture, because when you lower the opacity of
the clipping mask it makes it look like the shape has the texture of the image that you have
put in the clipping mask.
• I have enjoyed using the rotoscope technique. I did this to create the main character Noah.
This is done by adding shapes over an image and then colouring the shapes, then deleting the
back image so that you get a cartoonish version of that image.

13. How to use the cutout tool.
Find image. Place in Photoshop.
Go to filter>filter
gallery.
Choose cutout and and change the
sliders until you have the right effect.
Hit ok.
This is the final image
with the filter on it.

14. How to do a clipping mask.
Open Photoshop and place a shape down.
Place your chosen image on the layer above the
shape.
Right click on the
layer and select
‘create clipping
mask’
Your clipping mask is created.
Turn the opacity
down to make
the texture.

15. Rotoscope technique.
Here you cannot see the process of the
rotoscope but you can se what the
finished product look like. This
rotoscope in particular is a very good
one, as I took ages over it. I was a bit
stretched for time during the
development stage of my book so I
could not get my rotoscopes to the high
standard shown here, and I think if I had
more time I could have got it done a lot
better than I did.
The tools I used to create this
rotoscope was the polygonal
selection tool, the shape tool, the
bush tool and Gaussian blur in
order to create a well detailed
image that has a lot of depth to it.

16. What do you like/dislike about how
your final product looks?
• I dislike a lot about the way my product looks. All of the
characters apart form Noah do not look very good at
all, as they are not as detailed as him and I did not
spend as much time on them as I did on Noah. I do like
most of the backgrounds however, as I have got them
right for the story and for the location that I have set it
in. I also like the way that the text looks, both the font
and the way in which is positioned makes it look very
clean and aesthetically pleasing. In planning, I wanted
the book to look a bit like how the famous illustrator
Axel Sheffer designs book, including the Gruffalo and
The Smartest giant in Town.

17. This is the opening page of the book. I like this page in particular as it is a good establishing shot,
it shows where the book is set and who the character sitting on on the iceberg is and who he is
to the story. This is an example of one of the better pages that I have produced during
production.
The sky look really good. The mountain looks pretty decent.
The text looks good.
The image could do
with a border of
some description.

18. This is the Smartest Giant in Town written by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Sheffer. This is an
example of one of the very finest children's book in terms of narrative and illustration, and a personal
favorite of mine growing up. The difference between this design and mine is stark. My pages have far more
text, no speech and you cannot really see the characters faces. The one thing that I took inspiration form
this page is the fact the the text is separated in some capacity from the image. If I were to do the book again
I think that I would have added speech (which would men less text) and I would have made it more like the
right hand side of the Smartest Giant in Town page. One thing that I have noticed in my work that does not
match Sheffers, is that the characters in mine do not always fit the background, often sticking out like sore
thumbs as they are designed in a different style to the background, often not looking like they belong in
thieir own story, in Sheffers illustration however, the characters always look like belong to their world, and
do not look out of place like mine do on the page, and this is why I think hat these books are so successful.
One thing that I really admire Sheffer for is the way that he always shows the characters faces in every ‘shot’
on the page, this means that the reader can always gauge how they are feeling, and it makes it easier to
illustrate, as you don’t really have to change much with their body, just do a bit of adjustment with their
faces.
Comparison to
other books.

19. Here is Mrs. Tittlemouse written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter. This is an example of a book that is
more similar to mine than the previous one. This is where the inspiration for my text came from. I don’t
think I have made the text look as good as Potter did, but you can definitively see the influence that it
has had on my book. The difference between mine and Potters work here is the fact that her illustrations
are so highly detailed and realistic compared to mine, which are more cartoonish in appearance. This is
because she was not around when Photoshop was invented and children back then would have preferred
a more realistic drawing than a more abstract Photoshop document, as it would have been an
otherworldly new thing for them. Something that is different tin this book is the way in which the
characters fit into their environment, like the Smartest Giant in Town, they look like they belong in the
world that Potter has created for them, which is different in mine as the characters do not look like they
belong in the world in which I have created. I think in general these pages are very similar, the only thing
that Is different is the level of detail in the illustration.
Comparison to
other books.

20. This is the Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss. This is on of the most famous books, let alone children's
books ever written. This book employs Dr. Seuss employs his instantly recognisable art style
here to create a beautifully weird book. Everything that he has put into this world is strange,
from the characters to the land that they walk on, it all looks strange, and I think that works
incredibly well for the story. This is a page that is very different to mine indeed, from the text
being on the illustrations, to the aesthetic qualities of said illustrations. I think that a common
theme for the three images that I have compared to mine is the quality of the characters and
the way in which they belong to their world, which contrasts with mine, as mine do not look like
they belong to the word which I have created for them. I think that the illustration in this book is
far better than mine, as it is highly detailed and its style is consistent throughout the book,
whereas mine sort of differs as the book goes along, because I didn’t really think it through
before choosing an art style.
Comparison to
other books.

21. Why did you include the content you
used?
• I have included all of the images because they all add to the story
and give context to the the text that accompanies it I have not
made any additional images, so all the ones that I have made are
the ones that went into the book itself. I have used the Viking font
from dafont.com as I feel like that style of text fit the story
perfectly, as it is an old fashioned font for a story that happened ‘a
long time ago’. The only effect that I have used is the cut-out effect,
which essentially gives the image a cartoon filter. I have mainly used
it on the skies as it is great for making the colours pop. I have also
used the cut-out effect on the icebergs in a few of the images. The
colours that I have used in hindsight are quite bland, and as it is a
children's book I should have used a few more bright colours so it
looks more interesting to younger eyes.

22. This is the font that I have used for the text. I found it on dafont.com which is a great site for
finding free to use fonts. http://www.dafont.com/viking.font
I didn’t try any other fonts as I really liked this one, because I thought that it fits the setting well.

23. What signs, symbols or codes have
your used in your work?
• I have taken a fairly realistic approach to designing the colour
scheme for the book, I have only used colours that you would see in
the environment of the arctic. As the colours are fairly boring, I
have added some textures to make the pages a bit more
interesting, so I can keep my audience engaged. I have taken a
pretty realistic approach to the design of the environments and the
world in general, and this is because it is easier to create a realistic
environment than make a wacky one. I have a few different
locations in the book, inside the house, the village, the mothers
grave and Kalopalings island. The tone for the book is pretty up and
down, it starts off sad, with the main characters mother dying and
then the step mother being evil, but it finishes with a happy ending
in typical fairy-tale fashion.

24. Here is a rectangle with one rounded side and a black bit in the middle of it. That is what it
literally is. But the way things look an the way in which you interpret them is different, as this
shape is not only just a rectangle, but it is also a gravestone, as pretty much everyone from the
age of 3 upwards is able to recognise what a gravestone looks like. Symbolism and the way
objects are interpreted in books are very important, because this little rectangle gets a pretty
heavy point across which is both highly important to the story and the characters in that story,
telling years of emotional pain with one tiny little rectangle on the page. This means that you
have to get it right, and you have make the symbols and the shapes that you are trying to make
represent things look like the real life objects that you want them to, but at the same time
keeping the art style of the book that you are illustrating. This is why I have not put any fine
detail on the stone, as that would go against the art style of the book.
Symbolism.

25. I have put a hearth in the home of Noah, I have done this to show that it is not just any old
building, but his home, as a lit hearth represents comfort and warmth, which is what his home is
supposed to be like. I think that this creates a bit of juxtaposition with the step mother, as she is
making the house uncomfortable for him but it still looks like a home. The seal’s head above the
fire also shows that the father is a hunter, as a head on a wall typically means that someone has
hunted it down to put it up on the wall. The rug on the floor also further adds to this image that
his father is a hunter.
Symbolism

26. What representations can be found in
your work?
• I have tried to represent women, men and children in a way that would be realistic to the
culture of the Inuit people, with the man in the story being the hunter and the woman
staying at home and looking after the family. My work features different ages, as the child
and the two adults are obviously from different age groups. I have not included any diversity
in the characters religions or their culture, as I wanted to stress how isolated they were in the
Arctic. I think that I could have tried to add more diversity into the book, but I think that it
would have taken away from the theme of isolation with where the characters lived. A
children's book that I think has a lot of diversity is the Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson, which has
loads of different animals in it. I think that it is easier for you to have more diversity though
when all of your characters are all animals. When you have animals as your characters,
something that you do not have to worry about is misrepresenting cultures and potentially
offending millions of people by portraying them in an offensive way, and this is why I have
taken extra are to portray the Inuit people in a manner that is respectful of their culture.
• I think the representation of the step mother figure being evil works from the stereotype told
in a lot of fairy tales that the step parent is always an antagonist for the story. I think that this
may offend some step parents, but as it is just a fairy-tale being told to children I don’t think t
would bother many people too much. I think that it may have a negative effect on children
however, who may read this book and then get the idea that all step parents are the same as
the on in this story.

27. Inuit child. Inuit man. Inuit woman.
I think the way in which I have represented these three characters is respectful and I think that
they look like they would exist in the same ’universe’ for lack of a better word. I think in
comparison to the the Inuit culture and the way that they dress I think that I have designed the
characters in a respectful and dignified manner.

28. ‘Despite the increasing number of stepfamilies, research
suggests that negative stepmother stereotypes continue to
exist in contemporary society.’
I think that I have built upon the step mother stereotype that they are not very nice by making
the step mother in my book the antagonist. I think that I could have done something maybe a
bit more original to try and avoid this stereotype, and to be honest, the evil step mother is more
of a cliché than a stereotype at this point, after a lot of folk stories and old fairy tale have an evil
step mother in them. I think that if I had to do the story again, I maybe would try something a
bit more wacky to try and make the story a bit more exciting, like an evil wizard casts a spell on
his father or something more magical along the same lines, and I think the story would have
been much more interesting and exciting, especially for the younger audience.

29. What style have you employed in your
products?
• I think that my work does not have a particularly
recognisable style, as in the planning stage I never
really looked to many books for influence. I think that if
I did the book again I would definitely look to other
books for influence, not only for style, but how the
story is structured and how the pages are laid out. I
think that the book isn't as good as it could have been
as I did not fully explore all of my options during the
planning stage.
• I think that the book has a cartoonish look to it, and it
pretty minimalist when it comes to the backgrounds, as
they are not very detailed but you can kind of tell what
they all are just by looking at them.

30. Here is an example of a pretty minimalist page. There are only a few shapes in the background,
but still I think it is easy to tell what it is. I have tried to make the textures look fairly realistic by
getting things form the internet that look like the objects that they are supposed to represent,
for example I have used tinfoil for the texture on the sea, which makes it look fairly realistic in
my opinion, as the folds and lines in the tinfoil look like the waves of the ocean.

31. What were the strengths and weaknesses
of the pre-production and planning
• I am fairly happy with the planning and research stage if this project, as I feel like I have shown the
development of my initial idea well. I have done this by making an extensive mood board for all
aspects of the book, from the characters to the text. Also I feel like I have shown that I have
explored different ideas within my idea generation mind map, which shows that I am open to
different stories and for the story to change as I go along with the development of it.
• Time management has been a problem for me this year, especially on this rotation. I think that the
main cause of this is that I do not work fast enough and I get distracted very easily. I had planned on
making twelve pages going into the production stage. By the end of the production I had completed
nine out of the eleven pages in which I had planned, and cut down the book to ten so I did not have
as much left to do. In my planning document, I stated that I would finish two pages per session, but
in reality it was something like one page per two or three sessions, as I found it difficult to finish in
the time that was given.
• I think that I have stuck to the proposal for the book pretty well, as I have not strayed too far from
the ideas set out within it, but when I have I think that I have improved upon it.
• I think that I could have done my hand drawn and digital flat plans a lot better than I did, maybe
adding a lot more detail instead of just a character on a background.
• I think that in my planning booklet, I have outlined al of the aspects of my book, for example things
such as audience and cost, to pretty high standard, meaning that if I were actually making this
book I would have some decent planning behind it.

32. Here is one of the two hand drawn flat plans that I have made for the book. As you can see,
there is not that much detail on it. Another thing that I do not like about this flat plan, is that
the placement of the text is entirely inaccurate, as in the book I placed the text on a separate
page so that the pages would not look to overcrowded with objects. There is one upside to
this flat plan, and that is its simplicity, it is just stick figured with really simple environments,
so that you can tell exactly what is going on in the frame, which is a good thing.

33. Historical and cultural context
• The story that I have used comes from the eastern European character called the Baba Yaga, who is
a witch that is portrayed as a bogeyman figure in many stories and fairy tales. These stories and
fairy tales were very often gruesome and pretty horrifying for young children, as the culture back
then was more accustomed to blood and violence compared to modern day culture, where
gruesome tales are reserved for adults.
• Most of the stories which I have found that contain the Baba Yaga also have something to do with
step mothers or family in general, for example, I have found one which is identical to mine but
instead of a boy is is a brother and sister going to the Baba Yaga to seek help. Another one that I
have found portrays the Baba Yaga in a bit of a different way, she isn't evil in this story, but in fact
she actually helps the girl who is sent to her by the step mother. Another story has a boy stolen by
the Baba Yaga and then rescued by a brave girl. All of these stories have strong themes of kindness,
as the child who is sent or taken by Baba Yaga is always a kid spirited child. Another thing that
occurs in all of the stories, is the typical ‘happily ever after’ ending to it, which turns a gruesome
story into a happy one at the end.
• For my story I have changed the character of Baba Yaga into an Inuit character called Kalopaling.
Kalopaling is portrayed as a boogeyman figure that the Inuit people do not really know much bout,
this works in my favour, as it has allowed me to mould him into the character that I want him to be.
The character from children's books that I think that he is most like is the Gruffalo, who is a big
scary monster who is actually just misunderstood and is a big friendly gentle giant.

34. References.
1. Donaldson, J. (1999). The Gruffalo- About. Available: http://www.gruffalo.com/meet-julia-
and-axel/about. Last accessed 12th June 2017.
2. Donaldson, J. (1999). The Smartest Giant in Town. Available:
http://www.gruffalo.com/world-of/books/julia-and-axel-s-books/the-smartest-giant-in-
town. Last accessed 13th June 2017.
3. Multiple. (2017). The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse. Available:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tale_of_Mrs._Tittlemouse. Last accessed 13th June 2017.
4. Miller, A. (2015). Stepmothers’ perceptions and experiences of stepmothers stereotypes.
Available: https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/handle/2292/26705. Last accessed 13th
June 2017.
5. Multiple.(2017). The Cat in the Cat. Available:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cat_in_the_Hat. Last accessed 13th June 2017.
6. Unknown. (2014). Baba Yaga. Available: http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/ftr/chap06.htm.
Last accessed 15th June 2017.
7. Unknown. (2006). Baba-Yaga and Vasilisa the Fair. Available:
http://myths.e2bn.org/mythsandlegends/textonly117-baba-yaga-and-vasilisa-the-fair.html.
Last accessed 15th June 2017.