Graphic Narrative Evaluation

Does your final product reflect your original intentions?

• My final product does reflect my original intentions in some areas, when I first thought of my book, I pictured my main characters having caterpillar parents, throughout the development of the book, I found out that caterpillars do not give birth to other caterpillars, and as my story features caterpillar parents, I had to re-do a few scenes and re-do my script, this was a major set back and effected my original intentions a lot, but I managed to re-create the script and change the scenes. I hoped to develop a child-like, cartoony, simple yet fun children’s book and I feel like I have accomplished my task with the use of Photoshop tools and creativity, with the aid of my pre-planned sketches and scripts, I managed to develop my original intentions and make them into a reality.

• My book could’ve been in much better detail, but I am happy with my results, its not too simple, it does have a few nice details throughout but not enough to make it too realistic, the cartoon factor is strong but with small details, it balances it out and gives the book a nice finish, with the use of earth colours and keeping it consistent throughout the book, I managed to replicate what I first had in mind when coming up with the children’s book, I wanted to make it seem like the main character (Carl) was actually in a caterpillar world.

• I had to make a few changes throughout, but the changes made it better, my final product does not only reflect my original intentions but is also better than my original intentions, throughout the development of the pages, I have found little things that would be 10 times better with a little detail such as, shading, texturing, overlays, gradients and slight tweaks in characters, all these details have a positive factor to my book, I did not plan on adding many details because I thought it would be too detailed for a children’s book, but even with a few tiny details on the characters and surroundings, it makes the book look better whilst still keeping the cartoon factor to it. As I went through my book, I found out that changing things such as colour of the sky, grass and buildings adds depth to the story, adding shading on objects adds definition whilst still keeping the cartoon style. My colour scheme for my original intentions was to use very bright colours, I decided that bright colours were not my best choice I chose to dull the colours down, using earthy, dark colours was a better option for me, due to the characters state of mind, using darker colours would be more suitable in the story.

How well have you constructed your images?

• I think I constructed my images well. I constructed my images using simple shape tools on Photoshop, I used shapes such as rectangles, circles and even some custom shapes to create different objects but with the use of transform tools to warp and distort the shapes, I can create objects that are not supplied on an ordinary shape tool, this comes in handy when I wish to add detail to a scene, little things in the background such as the sun, a chair, grass or clouds can give make the scene look a lot more better, instead of having big blank boring spaces, I filled them in with clouds or the sun etc.

• In the book “A Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle, it combines simple shapes such as rectangles and circles to create larger objects to construct the background. I did a similar effect and used shapes to create bigger objects, such as buildings, tables, doors and the surroundings in general, this is a great, simple way of creating a background, and using textures, overlays and effects I made the background look a little more abstract than what it would look like without detail. I used easily recognizable colours like browns and greens to keep the story consistent, I picked a story about a caterpillar and then built from that, using earthy colours to add a sense of realism and to make the story more immersive, I used the same range of colours throughout to add consistency I also used shading as this is a good way to add definition and perspective, I had to use shading techniques and I had to scale and re scales objects to add good perspective and definition to a scene, with the use of transform tools and shading, I could easily achieve this. In scene 8, where Carl turns into a butterfly, I had to somehow make it look like he was looking in a mirror, this was difficult, but I replicated a mirror by using a light blue rectangle and turning the opacity down quite a lot, whilst leaving the rest of the scene opaque. On scene 7, you see Carl back in his bedroom, with the door open, to make it look like the door was opened, I had to make the door a lot thinner, and by adding a stroke to it, it would make the door stand out more, I also put an image of some ordinary wood where the door used to be, this made it look like it was leading outside of the room into a hallway perhaps.

How well have you used text to anchor your images

• I think the text anchors the image well, the text explains what is happening in the scene very well, it is easy to understand how the text relates to the scene, I got significant parts of the scene and tried to include them in the text, just in case the reader does not point this parts out, I believe my text explains the scene in a good, simple and understandable way. After completing a page, I would read through the text and see if it matches the image, if not, I would go back to the draft scripts and change it so it matches the scene and pointed out significant parts of the scene.

• Below is an image from my book, it shows how the text correlates with the image well and tells you exactly what is happening in the scene, I originally put a glow around the text, but it was inconsistent to the other pages, so I decided just to stick with a plain black font, this works very well as it does not interfere with the background, the font style is easy to read and the colour makes it stand out on the background, making it a lot easier for the reader to read and understand

Is your product suitable for your audience?

• I think my product is suitable for my target audience. I chose a target audience of 5-8 years old, my children’s book has a very good cartoon factor to it, this appeals to children around that age because they would currently watch cartoons and grow up with them so they would be interested in cartoony style things such as my book, my book also follows The Obscene Publications Act 1959 , no mature content is in my book, my book is not defined as a toy so the New Toy Safety Directive 2009 is not needed. The audience ranges from 5-8 as it leaves a good age range to focus on, my product involves nice, simple colours and talking insects, children would find this fun and interesting, I also included a school in my book (Caterpillar school) this relates to children at 5-8 years old as children usually start school as the age of 5, so my book may interest and excite them about school.

• My children’s book contains no strong language or mature content, so children would not be influenced in any way. My book is based around caterpillars, and can potentially get children involved in nature and wild life, this would be good to educate children and get them interested in activities such as going out and looking for new things, 5-8 years old is a good age range, they start learning new things and nature and wild life would be interesting and fun to them, my book does not contain very hard words, the terminology is easy to read and would fit well into a 5-8 year olds vocabulary, what’s the point of creating a children’s book that children can’t even read? So using easy vocabulary would benefit to the children’s reading experience.

What do you like/dislike about the techniques you have used?

• I really like my use of the custom shape tool, I used it to create abstract shapes and objects I could not find or create using an ordinary shape tool, I also used ordinary shapes such as rectangles and circles and combined them to create larger objects and surroundings I liked this as it allowed me to use my imagination to create the environment in the story. The transform tool also allows you to warp and distort shapes, I really liked this tool as it let me create abstract objects such as beds and characters, the transform tool is very useful as it gives you the power to create whatever object you like and shape any object into what you need, this comes in use when you need to create an obscure object. With the use of shading techniques, I could add perspective to the surroundings and add definition, this is good as it gives a more abstract background and can give characters and objects some definition.

• I dislike my consistency of textures throughout the book, I would use textures on one page and completely miss them out on another page, I think it would look better if I had used textures throughout the book, as my 1st page had some nice textures on it, I would’ve preferred to have carried that out throughout the book. I would’ve liked to do some rotoscoping a lot more throughout my book, but I found out it did not aid me in all tasks, I knew I could create my book with simple shape and transform tools on Photoshop, rotoscoping was good when I had to create the butterfly, it allows me to get details from the wings and body, but apart from the butterfly, I found no use of rotoscoping but I would’ve liked to use it a lot more.

House curtains are textured

House curtains are not textured

Here is a look at inconsistency in my book, in scene 3, the curtains are not textured, in scene 9, the curtains have been textured and are a slightly different colours.

What do you like/dislike about how your final product looks?

• I like how my final product is set out, my text anchors the images very well, it is easy to tell what is happening and where the situations are taking place, the colours go well with each other and easily define different parts of the surroundings. I like how I have used the transform tools to create objects, I had to use a lot of imagination to come up with ideas for the shapes I needed. I also like how I have started from scratch and have been able to develop a whole book just from Photoshop tools, with creativity and imagination, I managed to create most of my book just from the shape tools.

• I do not like my lack of characters, I think that I could’ve added more characters to make the story more immersive, instead of using caterpillars, I could’ve added more insects, just to add some diversity I also think I could’ve given them more details to define the characters, give them unique personal differences, I think I could’ve given each character their own personalities, this would make the book more interesting and allow the reader to get a better look at each character.

Why did you include the content you used?

• Font: I feel the font I chose is very suitable for my book, it is easy to read and is very visible to the reader, the font I chose is not too striking, it does not have any special features to it, it is a plain, simple font that works well with my book.

• Images: I only used one image from the internet in my book, I used a blue butterfly from Google images, I found out that I could create abstract, large objects by just using the shape and transform tools, so I did not have to browse the internet for a long time looking for a picture I want.

• Effects: I used a few effects throughout the book, such as texturing and filters, using these effects add a lot of definition to the book, but still leaving it with a cartoony style. Using the filter gallery can make a piece of your work look quite cartoony and the filter gallery offers a lot of options.

• I only included one piece of internet content in my book, most of my book is all made from scratch and edited and developed through Photoshop, I preferred doing most of it in Photoshop as I felt like it offered me more freedom to construct whatever it is I need.

What signs, symbols or codes have your used in your work?

• My book is about caterpillars so I decided to choose earthy colours for the scenes, to give my book a slight sense of realism, when someone looks at greens and browns, the first thing that pops up in mind is nature and a very natural environment. In scene 5 and 6 there is a group of caterpillars that are teasing Carl, when we look at this group and then look at Carl who is on his own, he immediately think of Carl being the left out character, as he has nobody around him, he is lonely but when we look at a group of characters, we think that they are a stronger, more intimidating group of characters.

• We can also see a significant size difference between Carl and the other characters, when you take a look at the size difference, it tells you straight away that Carl is the inferior character.

• The house is very straight-forward, it is not a very detailed house, it is a simple house with 4 windows, a door and chimney, when we look at a drawing of a house like this, it can resemble a children’s drawing as it is very basic and not detailed, same with the trees, the trees are very basic as it consists of two colours, greens and brown, this is similar of how a child would draw a tree.

What representations can be found in your work?

• My book does not include varied social groups, races, ages or religions, I did not choose to have different social groups in my book as I would like my book to show equality, keeping the characters the same will not potentially stereotype groups of people, the only difference between the characters is that the main character is smaller than the others, I have not created different groups of characters as I find it unnecessary due to the story of the book.

• The story of my book does include teasing but not too excessive to the point it becomes vulgar, the meaning of the book is too not care about what other people think about you, just keep staying positive and things will get better, this is why I included the teasing, too show how other people can put you down, but to never listen to them.

What style have you employed in your products?

• I chose a cartoony style for my book, cartoons have been influential to children’s for years and has been a positive thing for children, I thought using a cartoon style would catch children’s eyes and it will relate to them, having a cartoon style if simple, easy and effective, it works well, especially for a children’s book. I decided to use caterpillars as characters because it adds a fun and new addition for children, it also can intrigue children into looking into nature and the wildlife, so I like to believe using caterpillars as characters is a good influence, they are not a harmful or scary creatures, so it is relevant for a children's book, I employed a cartoon, simple style from the book The Lonely Caterpillar by StoryJumper, they used simple shapes to create a whole caterpillar world, they used quite earthy colours such as greens and browns to add realism to the caterpillar story, I replicated the earth colours as I thought it was very suitable for the story I was doing, The Lonely Caterpillar also uses shading techniques to add definition to the book.

What were the strengths and weaknesses of the pre-production and planning

• How did the planning and research help• Planning and research helped a lot, I could get a good grasp on what I needed to do and what would help improve my book,

planning helped me set out the pages, where text, characters and surroundings would go and when it came to the development of the book, I could easily look at my plans and easily set out each page how I intended it too, research helped me by giving me good ideas on what style I could use, I wanted a cartoon styled book and by research existing products, I could find out what style would be best for me.

• How well did you manage your time• I feel like I could’ve spent a little more time focuses on minor details, I finished before the deadline, but if I had spent a little

more time on the book, it would’ve added those slight details that would improve my book a little bit more, I created a schedule for my children’s book, I planned out what page I would do on each day, so I had a clear timetable of what I needed to do and when I needed to do it.

• Reference specific examples• Specific examples include my drawn pages, I drew 10 pages and each page consisted of one scene, this helped me out a lot

as it allowed me to look back at them and set out the book as I first planned it, with a few tweaks obviously, it allows me to place text where it would fit best, place characters where they would fit best and construct the overall surroundings of the book. The script I did allowed me to be able to see what font size would be best for my book, I knew that the more text I had, the more space I would need, so I constructed the pages in a way where I could easily place text, no matter the length, it would fit onto the page.

Historical and cultural context

• Before starting my book, I had a look at a few other professional children's books, such as:

- ‘Giraffes can’t dance’ by Giles Andrea- ‘Tom and Millie's Wizzy Busy People’ by Guy-Parker Rees- ‘A Very Hungry Caterpillar’ by Eric Carle• These books gave me a lot of inspiration, I liked the illustration from A Very

Hungry Caterpillar, you can tell it’s a children’s book just by the illustration, it is very simple colours and techniques used.

• I liked the page layout for Giraffes Can’t Dance, it used a 2 page spread with text on the actual image, I liked this idea because instead of having one page an image and the other text, it mixed it up and placed them together, this would be better for children as they could read the book and look at the pictures at the same time, so there would not be any boring reading moments. Current products include ‘The Lonely Caterpillar’ by StoryJumper, I based my book off of this, it has a very similar storyline, It is a very simple book made via a computer, but the results are very good, it looks very cartoony and the techniques used are comparable to mine, such as, simple shapes to create objects, buildings used to add a hint of human-like realism and earthy colours to show the caterpillar’s surroundings. The illustrations for books such as ‘Giraffes can’t dance’ and ‘Tom and Millie's Whizzy Busy people’ are very advanced, they are very detailed and textured, the illustration for my book ‘The Caterpillars Miracle’ is less advanced but still has key elements, such as, the main character is featured on my front cover and the scenery that the story is placed in is on the front cover.

Peer Feedback

• Summarise peer feedback and discuss• All in all it was very impressive. I specifically liked how you always compared your points to professional

books and seeing what you could improve on and how you took inspiration from the pros.

• I agree with the feedback, I took other professional books into consideration and saw what I could improve on, seeing how other illustrators used techniques and how pages were set out.