Graphic Narrative Evaluation

Does your final product reflect your original intentions?

My work is pretty similar to the original design, I didn’t change it much but I changed the design of the people compared to the original storyboard. For my flat plans I used random images from google to use for them, for copy right reasons and how I didn’t want them to look that similar to them pictures I decided to change the people and the designs of how I originally planned. I think if I did copy them it would have looked to weird because of it being random images from google, so it would have made it look like I copied everything which would have made the work I do not mine. I also wanted to stick to a certain style within my work so to do this I tried not to copy to much of my storyboards, design wise.

As you can I see it took me a while to get the right design that I wanted for this page. I kept a few parts of my design so I could keep it looking sort of similar to the original. But as you can see that the one on the right, that is my final image, is similar in a way that its close to being the same, like the characters are close to the same as the image on the left.

How well have you constructed your images?

How I have done my images is that iv given them a cartoony/comic book effect by putting a stroke on them, this gives my characters and parts of my background an outline. This makes it look like the images would be used for a comic book, because this style is mainly used in comics and graphic novels. It gives the images a nice simplistic feel to it. I also tried to keep with the same style with everything I have done. I made it have this comic book effect by creating simple shading and simple shapes to create my images.

This is the outline stroke

Simplistic shading

How well have you used text to anchor your images

I have tried to complement the images with the text by making the text look like a child’s writing. I have done this to make the text fit with the images. I have made the images simplistic and have a cartoony/comic book effect, that’s why I have used childlike text, it makes they both work with each other and make the book look like it is made for children. While writing the book I tried to make the wording of the book simple also, this is to also go with the text and the images. This is to make the reader feel like it is made for them and it allows the children who read it enjoy looking at simple shapes and simple letters, which will help them read it easier. I have used a serif font for my book so it resembles a child’s handwriting, this makes the book seem more like its for children.

This text is a simple and easy to read text, a serif font.

The simple style goes well with the text.

Is your product suitable for your audience?

For my book I believe I have got the audience that I wanted. In my proposal I wanted to reach an audience of 7-11 year olds, so I think that my book has reached that and that I haven’t gone over that age range. I made my book with that age in mind to allow me not to make it to violent or make it have complex text or fonts in it. This has allowed me to keep it not too dark. This allows me to keep my audience young but not to young that I would have to make it look more cartoony and add more colours. This would make my book look silly because its more of a older type of story with harder text to read and it wouldn’t be suitable for a young audience.

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

What I like about the techniques that I have used is that it makes my images look cartoony but it also gives it a slight comic book effect, this is the type of effect I was looking for. To create this I have used the polygonal lasso tool to rotoscope real life images, this was to get a life like cartoon to get proportions right. After doing the rotoscopes of people I then went on to the layer options and put a colour overlay, of my selected colour I need, on to my layer. After the colour overlay I put a stroke on the the layers, this creates a border round the item I have copied and pasted, this effect makes it look like a comic book.

This is selecting and using the polygonal lasso tool.

This is putting a colour overlay on the layer we copied with the lasso tool.

This is putting a stroke on the layer.

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

With my product I like how I created my characters and the background, how they look like a comic book, I like this because they both match with each other but you can see clear details and definitions in the characters and background. I have made them look the same by making them both rotoscoped and how they both have a stroke effect. This gives my shapes an outline creating the effect as if it was drawn instead of it look as though it was done on a computer.

Why did you include the content you used? I chose these colours to give it a slightly dark

feel to it but not make it look like its for a high age range, I still wanted to keep it 7 – 11 age range. By using dark colours for in the labyrinth it creates the effect of that place being dark and horrible, I would use richer colours like gold and dark read to simulate the rich people like the kings. To also keep with this age range I used easy to read font and I spaced the letters out as well. I created a weathered looking effect to make the paper look old and distressed. This creates an effect of old paper. This just adds another small detail to my book.

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

With my colour I tried to keep a certain theme with my book and that is old Greek colours and keep my book looking old and have my book have the right shades of colour to show where my character is in relation to the story. The style of my book, again I have tried to keep to a certain theme with my book, I have made the shadows stand out and them be made out of only lines, this is to give my book a comic book feel to it. Similarly I have done the same with the characters with the shading and the way I have created my characters. To give it more of a comic book feel I have given most of my different layers a stroke to give it an outline.

What representations can be found in your work?

In my work there isn’t a big range of different characters. There is only about 4 or 5 characters in my book. This doesn’t allow me to have much of a verity of different races or children in my book, there is one woman who iv tried to keep the same style as the men to not allow my book to look sexist in anyway. I have a few people who are different ages in my book, the oldest people have the most grey hair, this is so the children who read my book can easily picked out which of my characters are old and which ones are younger. I have made the two kings, who are the fathers of my two main characters, the oldest looking because they are people who would look the oldest in my book.

These are my older characters

These are my main characters

What style have you employed in your products?

While creating my book I have tried to keep to my own style, this is to not infringe any copy right issues with other books or films. Iv tried to keep to a comic book feel to my book this is to just give my book a bigger audience, this could make an older audience buy my book which expands the market of my book.

What were the strengths

and weaknesses of the pre-

production and planning The planning and research I did worked well because it

helped with what story I wanted to do and it helped me find ways of telling the story. I would search different way people have created their own minotaur and their own theseus. I put these into a mood board so I could see which ones I like to base mine off, then I would mix up characters to make mine. By this I mean I would use the body of an existing character and use a head of another and use them to create my characters. I used a time management sheet to keep keep time while making my book. This would help me know what I was creating and what days I was doing it on. Like I would create page one on a Tuesday and make page two and three on Wednesday this was to stop me going over the time limit that we had.

Historical and cultural

context

There isn’t loads of different books for Theseus and the Minotaur for the fact that Greek myths aren’t as big as a fairytale or a folk tale. This means that there are only a small selection of different books or films you could look at. My work is a little different from the books that are around at the moment. From what I can find there are most of two books that have gone with a comic book feel towards them, there are a few that have very simple illustrations but I don’t think they are made for a audience as young as mine, I feel as the other books are made for 12-16 year olds. I think these ones are more of an education use.

These are the comic book ones. These are the educational

ones.

Peer Feedback Summarise peer feedback and discuss

Responses you agree with Responses you disagree with