The document provides guidance for evaluating a graphic narrative project. It instructs the reader to provide specific details about their work, including written and visual examples. It also prompts the reader to identify areas of their project to praise and areas that could be improved, with specific details. The reader is told they can add additional slides as needed and should delete any blank slides before submission.

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?
I believe my final product reflects my planning for the children’s book, this is seen mainly
through the original storyboards and digital flat plans. When creating my pages for the
children’s book I aimed to follow the structure that is shown in my digital plans for the
pages, as all the images that were seen on the pages weren’t too small that people wouldn’t
be able to see what it is trying to show and if I followed this structure it would mean that I
would have 11 pages for my book, which is at the end of the scale of pages I was planning to
create (8-12 pages).
Flat plans Final pages

4. There is very little variation between my flat plans and my final pages, although on page 3,
I did decide to remove an illustration from the top section, as if it contained three image of
the boy walking into the woods than the illustrations would be squished and look
stretched, therefore I decided to include only two pictures so the characters would look in
the right proportion to the background and the rest of the page.
Flat plan for page 3
which contains three
images on the top.
Final page 3 which
contains two images
on the top.
To create the final pages I did alter the locations slightly for the illustrations as when creating the
pages I felt that the new images helped to show the comic book style I was going for with the
book, as they showed the darker shadowing more within the tree line and the colours were
more vibrant, so would be more appealing to the children who would be reading the book.
Although I did change the locations slightly I kept the items within the location the same such as
the rock which the boy sits on in page 3, the location has changed slightly showing more detail
on the woods behind but the rock is still shown which the boy sits on. I also kept the character
of the youngest son which was used in the flat plans for my final pages, but altered him slightly
so that he didn’t have lines for legs and arms, as I felt the character used would be easily

5. associated with a young brother. He would be easily distinguishable from other characters
because of his blond hair, so the children reading the book would be able to recognise him as he
appears throughout the book.
The flat plans for pages 2 and 3 alongside the final pages, which
shows the slight changes within the locations of the illustrations.
The same character is
used from my flat plans
in my final pages, with
some alterations to the
arms & legs and the hair
colour.

6. How well have you constructed your images?
I believe the construction of my images would be suitable for the purpose of a children’s book,
as the characters are simple yet distinguishable and the overall visual appearance of the pages
accompanies the story that is trying to be told. I constructed all of my characters and objects
that are seen within the illustrations with rotoscoping images found on the internet with the
polygonal lasso tool, which I then filled with a colour on Photoshop. I layered up aspects of the
character to create the final image and once this image was created all I needed to do was
change certain aspects such as the mouth and eyes to how their different expressions. Although
this was difficult with the main character of Puss in Boots because at the beginning of the story
he had to look like a normal cat , so I had to create two different rotoscopes, one where the cat
is sat down and the other where it is waling which could be used for when it follows the boy into
the woods. As well as creating the rotoscope of the normal cat, I also had to create different
variations of the cat wearing the items of clothing, such as walking, kneeling and close up on the
face. I ended up creating 6 different variations of this character and I needed to make sure the
characteristics of the character were repeated through each interpretation of them so that the
children reading the book would understand that it was the same cat from the beginning that is
wearing the clothing items at the end.
Image
found on
the
internet.
I put the image into Photoshop then
rotoscoped it and altered some of
the features such as the clothing
and added facial features and
turned the image I found online into
the king for my story.

7. For the other characters
present in my book all I
needed to do if they
needed to show another
expression was to remove
the facial layer on the
original image and add
different eyes and mouth
to show their new
expression. This was
harder for the main
character of the cat, so I
had to create 6 different
versions which would be
reused throughout the
story.
To create the texture of the cat’s fur all I needed to do was create another layer on top of the
body and change the colour to a slightly darker or lighter variation of the orange body, this
created a shadow aspect to create the joints on the legs of the cat or the darker fur mark for the
face, while the lighter colour would help to show the different patches of colour for the cats fur.
To be able to create the texture on the clothing items I added different layers containing small
lines which would be a lighter colour to the item which gives the item the feel of having a
texture and looking more 3D. The vibrant orange colour of the cat helped to let the children
know that it is the same cat at the beginning of the story and at the end and it also helped make
the character stand out on the pages against the darker backgrounds. The colours of the other
characters within the story although have certain elements that help them stand out against the
background such as the young boy’s blond hair and the knights bright white outfits, this still
doesn’t distract the audience from the main focus of Puss in Boots.

8. The images that I constructed for my book were meant to replicate those which are seen in
existing comic books, but they would be simplified for the young target audience. There are
many styles that are associated with comic books and I tried to follow the general idea of
having a background image that contains a lot of shadow created by having an extra layer
over the background. I decided to create my own style for the characters, making them very
cartoon like which against the typical comic book styled background, made them stand out
more to the audience reading the book. I took influence from original comic books adaptions
of fairytales such as the Goldilocks comic book that has recently been released. I tried to
follow the style of this comic book as the images are usually basic but look like they show a lot
of detail due to the shadowing effect added, this is also clear in another comic book which
was used for inspiration for the layout as well as the construction of the background within
the Superman comics.
The cover of the
Goldilocks comic
book compared to
the cover of my
comic book cover
for Puss in Boots,
which contains a
basic character and
has more detail
from the
shadowing of the
trees in the
background.
The simple yet effective layering of a black
shadow over the background creates the
comic book style effect which is present in
the Superman comics.

9. How well have you used text to anchor
your images?
The font of the text for my comic book styled book isn’t the typical comic book style that
people would associate with a comic as this font style contains all capital letters, which for
a younger reader who has just learnt to read it may be difficult to read as there is no clear
definition between capital letters and lower case letters. Whereas the font style that I
decided to use for my comic book, there is a clear definition between the capital and lower
case letters so the children will be able to read the book easily. Although the style of the
letters doesn’t really fit in with the traditional comic book lettering that is simple but easy
to read, the font that I chose accompanies the idea of the fairytale because of the rougher
edges on the lettering some would associate with the forest and trees rough edges, which
is where this fairytale is mainly located.
A traditional
comic book
with the
capital letters
being used for
all of the text.
A screenshot
from one of the
pages from my
comic book
styled book,
containing a font
that uses both
capital and lower
case letters so
the book would
be easy to read
for children.

10. When creating the illustrations for the text I made sure that what I was describing was
happening in the image I showed in the picture. For example on page 4 the text
describes the list of items that the cat needs to complete his task, and I made sure that
within the picture I included the list of three items that he needs, so the children can
follow the story even if they’re having the story read to them by a parent. When creating
the illustrations for the text I tried to follow what other children’s books have done
previously such as ‘The Dinosaur That Pooped A Planet’ with showing the key points that
are said in the text within the image.
My book.
The
Dinosaur
That
Pooped
A Planet.

11. Is your product suitable for your
audience?
• Reference your proposal
• Give an audience profile and describe
suitability in reference to content
I believe my product is suitable for my audience of children aged between 5 and 7 due to the
simplistic story that is being told would be easy for the children to follow. The existing
children’s books that are aimed at the age range similar to my book usually contain a lot more
text, and the language that is used within these book is more suited to this age, and doesn’t
contain very simple sentences such as “The dog was red.” The text within my pages would be
more complex containing longer sentences that would be suitable to children aged 5-7 years
old who are beginning to read longer books.
Children’s book aged 5
years and below contains
very little text on the
pages.
Children’s books target at
children aged between 5
and 7 contain more text
per page.
A page from my book
that is similar to that of
the books already
existing for children aged
5-7 years. There is a
similar amount of text
per page to existing

12. Within my proposal I stated that my book wouldn’t be gender specific, which I believe I
have created, although all of the characters within my book are male, the style of the book
and the story isn’t aimed more at the male audience but this is the audience that would
probably choose a comic book style book to read as they are more likely interested in this
style than females. Although the book would appeal to females because of the use of a cat
as the main character within the book and that it doesn’t show any violence.
This book is also suitable for my audience because I mentioned in my proposal that my
book would be aimed more at England and countries where English is the first language
because. When writing the text for my pages I ensured that it was written in English and
each sentence made sense so people would understand the story.
Although my book would probably be
aimed more at younger males it would
also appeal to the female audience
because of the use of a cat as the
main character and the style of the
book contains gender neutral colours
such as orange, yellow and green for
the majority of the pages.

13. Another technique that was used to create my comic book that I thought was effective was the
use of the Polygonal lasso tool which I used to rotoscope my characters using existing images
online as a stencil. This technique helped me to create my characters in the style of a comic
book, because the tool is very basic and any detail that is needed to the character would have to
be applied through multiple layers which helped me keep them simple and the only detail that
was added was contours to show the legs on the cat and the markings on the cat’s belly and
head. The curves on the cat’s body and the clothes he is wearing are simple but recognisable if
What do you like/dislike about the
techniques you have used?
One of the techniques that was used on every illustration for my children’s book was the
layering of the cutout filter of the background image and a threshold layer. The cutout filter on
the background of an image helped to create a feel of the book being drawn or painted, similar
to that of a comic book. The threshold layer which was added over the top of this image helped
to define the shadows which were within the image and added an element of depth to the
image as it creates a feel that the background goes on for miles because of the dark shadowing
towards the back of some of the images.
Original image I
found on the
internet, before I
edited it for my
book.
The original image which has
been edited to create the
comic book effect for my
book, the two layers of the
cutout and threshold have
been layered on top of each
other.

14. they were to appear in a future page. The simplicity of the rotoscoping of the characters fits in
with traditional children’s books where the illustrations are simple but are clear in telling the
story such as Elmer, Dear zoo and Spot which is shown by the examples of the illustrations on
the pages below.
Spot
Elmer
Dear zoo
Two pages of my own book
which contain simple
illustrations with block
colours similar to existing
children's books.
Although the rotoscoping technique worked effectively for my children’s book there have been
some problems with resizing existing rotoscoped characters that have a stroke to help them
stand out against the background. When I have been resizes characters to fit them on pages,
such as the Puss in Boots character on page 9, the stroke highlighting the character seems to be
too thick which doesn’t fit in with the theme of the other pages within the book.
An illustration
from page 9
where the stroke
effect on the
image is too thick.
An illustration from
page 4 where the
stroke effect on the
image is the correct
thickness.

15. When using the rotoscoping technique I had to rely on already existing pictures to use as a
stencil for my images, and because I struggles to find an image to use for the basis of the close
up of Puss in Boots talking I used an image where a ct’s face was slightly side on to the camera
and I created the rest of the facial expressions and neck of the cat myself, and because of this
the illustration which is used on page 10 is slightly wonky and doesn’t fit in with the style of the
previous illustrations. When creating this illustration I struggled to get the proportions correct
on the face and to show the cat’s neck which ended up with the image looking slightly wonky
and looking flat. Although the rotoscoping technique was effective for creating the characters
and objects I needed to construct my pages quickly and effectively because I was using existing
pictures for stencils I was limited to what photographs I could find of a cat with it’s mouth open
(like they’re talking) facing the camera, so I had to make do with what I had which is why the
illustration on page 10 doesn’t fit in with the theme of the other pages.
The illustration
of Puss in Boots
on page 10
which looks
slightly wonky
and doesn’t fit
in with the
theme of the
rest of the pages
in the book.
Another
illustration of the
cat from the
beginning of the
book, which
followed a stencil
of an original
image to make
sure the features
on the face were in
proportion to the
rest of the face.

16. What do you like/dislike about how
your final product looks?
Like
- Puss in Boots character illustrations
- Comic book style background
One of the main features that I like about how my final product looks is the l layout of the
pages because it helps to make my book unique and be different from existing children’s
books as it follows a basic structure of a comic book which will hopefully appeal to my
target audience. I like the basic look of the pages as they incorporate multiple illustrations
onto one page so the readers have more pictures to help them to understand the story. The
simple white border helps to separate the illustrations and allows younger viewers to be
able to enjoy reading a comic book with language they’ll be able to understand.
Existing children’s books page
examples.
Examples of my
pages from my
children's book.
Existing comic
book pages which
I based my pages
off.

17. Another feature I like about how my final product looks is the illustrations that I created for
the first time we see Puss in Boots wearing all of the items that he requested from the son,
because this was created by using an original image online of the Puss in Boots that is
associated with DreamWorks and I created my own version of the famous fairy tale
character with the DreamWorks image as a stencil. When first creating the Puss in Boots
character I struggled to make the cat different to that of the DreamWorks character because
it is recognisable, but eventually to make my own version I changed the colour of the cat’s
eyes from green to blue, removed the belt and the sword, changed the style of the hat to a
fedora and added a white feather instead of an orange/yellow coloured feather, even by
doing these slight changes the cat for my book now doesn’t look too similar to that of the
DreamWorks cat.
The original
image used
when creating
my version of
Puss in Boots
which includes
the belt with
the sword and
orange
feathered hat
(DreamWorks
version.)
My version of the
famous fairy tale
character, which was
based loosely
around the
DreamWorks
character to the left
but with some
minor adaptions
such as the removal
of the belt and the
colour of the eyes.

18. As well as the style of some of the characters not fitting in with rest of them, although it is
meant to be a basic comic book style so that children can easily understand and follow the story.
I believe that some of the page layouts could be altered slightly so that the white borders
around the separate illustrations could be on an angle slightly so that they reflect real comic
books that exist even more. By altering some of the page layouts it may make the book more
appealing to read.
Although I am reasonably happy with the outcome of my children’s book there are a couple
of things that I dislike about how my final product looks, such as how some of the features
on the characters have been created. The hands on the human characters such as the 3 sons
and the father consist of a circle which doesn’t contain any lines or clear definition as to the
fingers on the hands, which I believe doesn’t fit in well with the rest of the comic book style
as we can clearly see the hands on the Puss in Boots character and the knights but with the
family at the beginning they do not fit into the same style as the other characters.
Inconsistent style of the
illustrations of the
characters between the
family at the beginning
and the other characters.
Changing some of my
page layouts from
this…
To this to make them
more appealing to
readers.

19. Why did you include the content you
used?
The images within my book were included because I thought that they helped to tell the story
in the best way to the children reading it. I tried to include images that showed the key points
within the text on a certain page, so that if the child was having the book read to them then
they would be able to follow what was happening within the story through the illustrations
used on each page. Every illustration that I used for my book was needed to help to the
children to understand and follow the story, and to five them a visual image to help them
imagine what the story would show.
The font I chose to use within my book were used because the style of the lettering is similar to
that of fairy tale book already existing and I thought that the rough edges of the letters relate to
the rough edges of the story and where it is set (within the woods and the bark on the woods). I
decided against choosing a typical comic book style font because the lettering was all in capital
letters therefore it wouldn’t have been easy for the children to easily follow, unlike the style I
went for which is easy to read because the capital and lower case letters are easily
distinguishable.

20. The colours used within my book were used because they were simple so that children would
associate the colours the characters were wearing with their role within the book. Such as the
ginger cat as the main character because the bright orange would stand out above any other
colour on the pages and the red and gold colours would be associated with the king and
royalty, so that this character holds the power over the village. This is the style that typical
children’s books/TV shows choose to follow as children usually associate a colour with the
character stereotypes such as the bad guys wearing black and the good guys wearing white.
The effects within my book were included because I wanted to create a comic book but for
children that would be easy for them to read and understand but with the style of a comic. I
used the cutout filter effect for the background image, which made the image more basic with
a lot of block colours, and to help with the definition between the colours and buildings etc. in
the background I added another layer of a threshold over the top which helped to add a dark
shadow on certain aspects of the background. Apart from having the comic book effect on the
background images within my book I didn’t use any other effect for my illustrations, all of my
characters were rotoscoped and made to look cartoon like, which added to the comic book
style.
Typical villains
within children’s
books/TV shows.
Typical heroes
within children’s
books/TV shows.

21. What signs, symbols or codes have
your used in your work?
I chose to use lighter colours to associate with the hero within the story such
as the ginger cat, and the blond haired young boy which is a contrast to the
two elder sons who have darker coloured hair to show that they aren’t the
heroes within the book in fact they could be seen as playing the role of the
villains because they won’t let their youngest brother live with them and send
him off into the wood on his own.
As well as making sure my characters would be easily recognisable for younger
children by making them wear the colours that are associated with villains and
heroes the location for the majority of the book is the woods/forest. This is
usually a code that is used in children’s fairy tales to foreshadow that
something bad is going to happen within the story such as ‘Little Red Riding
Hood’ or because the woods are seen as an environment that people aren’t
used to and it is represented as the unknown, such as ‘Hansel and Gretel’.
Lighter colours
contrast to the
darker colours used
for the character.
Good vs. Evil.

22. With creating my main character of Puss in Boots, instead of following the style that
DreamWorks have created for the cat, with having a sword and a belt I decided to go down the
more traditional route of the cat just wearing the three items that he requested from the boy as
well as some gloves for his paws. If I was to create the Puss in Boots character similar to that of
the well-known DreamWorks character the younger children who would be reading my book
may be confused as to what role he plays within the book because he would be carrying a sword
and may appear evil to the readers. So I decided to have the character without a weapon so he
would appeal more to the younger readers and I also changed the colour of the feather on his
hat to white because this is the colour associated with the hero.
My version of the Puss in
Boots character doesn’t carry
any weapon so he will appeal
more to the younger readers.
The white feather and the no
weapon will hopefully come
across to the reader that this
character is the hero within
the story.

23. What representations can be found in
your work?
Although the traditional fairy tale includes both male and female characters with the
son ending up marrying the king’s daughter, I decided to change the story slightly,
because of my comic book style I thought that story could be a series within the comic
which would be released every other week, and each story would follow on from the
last and end up telling the whole fairy tale. But for the first issue I decided to keep the
story simple and not to include the reference to the king’s daughter, so the first issue is
based mainly around male characters, so would appeal more to male children, but as
the comic book series progresses I would include female characters in later stories.
Men within fairy tales are traditionally seen as the hero and who save the female from
danger, but Puss in Boots is one fairy tale that also shows the male character to also be
somebody in danger, as seen through the youngest son, as the two elder sons won’t
let him stay with them and there is a possibility that he would die because he doesn’t
have any food etc. which helps to show younger children that the male character isn’t
always the hero and roles can be reversed.
My book features characters with different ages ranging from the three son’s father
to the youngest of the three sons who is a main character within the story. Although
my book focuses mainly on the young son and Puss in Boots the story does include
different characters with different ages such as the King, which makes the book more
interesting to read because it helps to represent other age groups and social groups to
younger children while telling them a story.

24. What style have you employed in your
products?
I have employed a basic comic book style in my product, that will hopefully
attract younger readers in to choosing and reading comic books when they are
older, due to the similar set up that the fairy tale book has to a real comic. The
influences for my book would consist of a range of comic books that use
different styles such as ‘Iron Man’ and ‘Superman’ for my influence of the
background style of having a darker shadow layered on top of another colour
to give the effect of the surroundings/items being in 3D.
Iron Man comic book
Superman comic book
My comic book

25. Because there haven’t been any comic book adaptions of fairy tales that are suitable for younger
readers I took the majority of my influences from existing comic books, as these are the best
suited materials to base my child friendly comic books off of. For the style of my characters
within my book I decided to go against the traditional comic book style, which is similar to that
of which I used for my background with the two different layers laid on top of each other; as this
would have shown too much detail on the characters and I wanted them to be quite basic and
containing block colours, similar to existing children’s books. So for my influence of the style of
the characters I looked at basic comic books and found a style that is similar to what I wanted
my characters to look at, which was the ‘Captain Snow’ comic books. As well as this particular
comic book I also used existing children’s books such as ‘The Ugly Duckling’ because I liked the
simplicity of the characters along with the thick black line which highlighted them on the pages,
which I wanted to use within my book as I didn’t want the characters to get lost with the
background.
Influences for the
style of my
characters within
my children’s
book.

26. What were the strengths and weaknesses
of the pre-production and planning
The planning helped me to complete my children’s book in the time we were given because it
meant that I had something that I could refer back to at the end of each session at college, to
see whether I was on track or not. Usually I was on track with my schedule but I was slightly
behind at the beginning because it took me a while to get used to the tools I was using on
Photoshop. Once I had completed my first 2-3 characters I was used to the tools and how they
worked so I caught up with my schedule and finished with 1-2 sessions to spare, which I used to
fix a couple of issues with my book, such as the positioning of some of the characters on the
page against the text.
The research helped me to complete my children’s book because from looking at existing
comic books and children’s books I knew exactly what I wanted my book to look like, so when
creating the illustrations and setting out the pages it took a lot less time than it would if I hadn’t
done any research because I had an image in my head of what I wanted the finished pages to
look like. With having research existing comic book styles I knew what I needed to be able to
create to interest readers in reading my book which would help to make my book unique
because there isn’t any comic adaptions of fairy tales for children.

27. Historical and cultural context
My children’s book is unique and not like any other children’s book that is released
because I have incorporated the comic book style that is usually for older readers and
created a basic style so that younger readers can also enjoy reading comic books.
From my research I have found no comic book style children’s books that have been
created from adapting existing fairy tales such as Puss in Boots, the only existing
comic books for children that have come before my book are the stories that contain
new story lines with original characters such as ‘Phoenix’ and ‘Owly’. There have
been no adaptions of fairy tales for children in the style of comic books, but there
have been similar releases of fairy tale stories in the style of comic books for elder
readers such as ‘Goldilocks’.
Existing comic
book style
books for
children consist
of new
characters and
new stories.
Existing fairy
tale comic
books are
aimed at elder
readers, with
more detailed
pages.

28. There have been many different adaptions and releases of the Puss in Boots fairy tale,
but my book is different to all the previous releases because, the story is quite long
and contains many key events so instead of cutting out many of the key events there
will be a weekly release of my book each following on from the last and telling the
story of Puss in Boots. The releases that have come before my book or which are being
sold now usually stick close to the traditional fairy tale apart from the DreamWorks
design, and my book does stick quite close to the fairy tale with some adaptions such
as the king paying for the cat’s services and providing a house for him and his master
to live in. My book also contains more recent representations of the characters
through the use of digital illustrations rather than drawing or painting the images for
the book. I have tried to stick to the traditional representation of the Puss in Boots, by
giving the character exactly what he asks for to complete the quest, but because he
doesn’t give any description of the items of clothing I decided to go with a more rustic
look with the matching brown boots, cape and hat.
Books that
have come
before my
version of Puss
in Boots
contain mainly
drawings or
paintings
whereas my
book contains
digital graphics.

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