Graphic Narrative Evaluation

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.

Does your final product reflect your original intentions?

• My final product does not directly reflect my original intentions, but you can see the inspiration I took from my storyboards. This can be seen in most of my final pages, especially in the first few, there are changes however, in the plot and some of the lay out , as well as the choice to go from having a page of text as well as a page of image to more of a comic book style with all the words and images on one page and speech bubbles for the characters speech.

• I also changed the characters names and some of the plot, I took out three characters and added one in, in order to make my story more like my initial brainstormed idea, I took out the characters that would've represented Friar Tuck ,Will Scarlett and Maid Marion and replaced them with an extra villain with no name as he shows up at the end to create a twist ending, which I did not plan in my story boards.

• The plot changes go from Hood trying to win back Maid Marion to rescuing King Paul.E (King Richard equivalent).

It went from this. To this.

How well have you constructed your images?

• I feel like my images have been rather well constructed, with a combination of real images and drawn out cartoon like people, this made it easy to keep the outline of the character and just change the facial expressions and body language

This image was always used on every page but edited to create the desired look depending on what had to be done at what scene.

This is the same image edited for a different page.

How well have you used text to anchor your images

• I feel that my text anchors my images perfectly as it explains perfectly what's happening on the page, my only complaint would be the way my speech bubbles have been arranged, sometimes its confusing which speech bubble should be read first.

Here is an example of this happening.

This should be read first Then this , but the positioning could perhaps confuse a reader.

Is your product suitable for your audience?

• My proposal is suitable for my audience ( 5-7 years old) as I do not include anything which could be seen as offensive or unsuitable for young children, and even though my book contains scenes of violence its not portrayed in a way which could corrupt an impressionable mind.

These pages show how I avoid showing the effects of violence in my book, this creates a cartoonish effect and doesn’t use any imagery that could offend or effect a young child.

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

• I used the paint feature on Photoshop to create my characters, as I said earlier I enjoyed doing this as I could easily change my characters facial expressions without having to draw them all out again, I also enjoyed using real photos with filters over the top as my backgrounds because it makes my characters and points of interest really stand out.

• Using real photos however, made it difficult to find images which I wanted to use as my backgrounds, as I could only use photos that were available to me.

In these images I used pictures of a hospital corridor and a prison cell for my backgrounds.

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

• I like the way my characters stand out from the backgrounds because they are the points of interest in the book, there are some pages which I really like the look of but others I think could've done with some work if I had more time to work on.

I didn’t like this page, I found it to be pretty bland and pointless, if I were to go back id either get rid of it or at least add more to it to make it more interesting for a young child to look at.

This page however has a lot going on and really stands out compared to the other one I highlighted.

Why did you include the content you used?

• I used the chosen font because I found it to be easy to read and it stood out well on all the backgrounds, I chose certain images because they worked with what I needed for my script.

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

• The tone of my work is overall a happy one, lots of bright colours, however on some of the sliders particularly the last one, the tone is very dark, lots on shadows, dark figures and sad looking characters.

This is a comparison of the tone in my book, going from really light in tone to really dark.

What representations can be found in your work?

• Considering there are no women or children in my story, I cannot be portraying any form of representation for them, my book represents the strong being big muscular blokes whilst the weak who are locked away are the fatter or weaker guys.

This is an example of one of my characters being put in a weak position even, he is the only character in my book who is portrayed as not being ripped.

As apposed to this character who is striking a heroic pose, he is a main hero who is portrayed as being massive.

What style have you employed in your products?

• The visual style in my product is one of a comic book or graphic novel, granted not as cleanly executed as one, an inspiration of mine to do this style was one of my favourite books growing up, Universals Cavalcade of Horror, this book is one of few graphic novels I have read and I attempted to replicate its techniques in my book.

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

• Planning and research helped me in my production as it allowed me to take inspiration and ideas from certain kids books and realise what's needed to create a successful one.

• My time was not that well managed as I didn’t really stick to my schedule, I still finished in time but it would've been more organised if I had stuck to my schedule.

• A specific example of a book I looked at was The Tiger Who Came to Tea, and I used the same dimensions from that books pages for mine.

Historical and cultural context

• Seeing as my work is based of a folk legend with no copyright issues, there has been many adaptations of it, however I do believe mine is a fresh take on the tale with no other versions quite like it.