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?

COMPARISONS TO MIND MAP & MOODBOARDIn my mind map, I discussed and gave examples of the different components of my story and how it would appear to the reader. One thing that I keep consistent was the colours I used in my pages. I wanted to use sunset, purple and green based colours which relate to the African culture/style. Here are the colours I suggested I wanted to use in my book and beside are some examples where I used those colours in the book.

In my mind map, I gave examples of text styles I wanted to use and the layout of the book. The layout I wanted was to have the text on one page and then on the corresponding page, the right page, I would have the image. I did achieve this in my book and I added a boarder too for effect. This is an improvement on my original intentions.

For text I wanted to use fonts that was very rustic and African style, that almost looks carved. I didn’t quite use this text style because it made more sense to use a more simplistic text to make the book easier to read. However, for the front cover I did use a carved, rustic text which looks like stone but at the same time it looks somewhat regal to represent the royal figure in the story.COMPARING DIGITAL FLAT PLANSPage one in both my digital flat plans feature the lion in his castle with the drum glowing in front of him. In the drawn, first version of my flat plans the lion also has a scythe/staff. On page one in my actual book there is the lion, the glowing drum and he is in the castle. This is an example of how my final product represents my original intentions well. In fact the image I used in my flat plans, is the same image I used to source my final product. However, page one in my final product does not feature a scythe/staff so you could argue that it doesn’t entirely match the flat plan.

A page that didn’t match my drawn flat plans was page 4. I initially aimed to make a page which was split in two and it would have the tortoise with food on one side and the angry animals on the other. Whereas, I actually ended up making an image of a feast on a table. The flat plan did contain food so I didn’t completely move away from my initial idea, but I still didn’t follow the flat plan as closely as some of my other pages.

How well have you constructed your images?My initial style was inspired by an artist called Will Terry. Through research I found that I really loved his style so I aimed to replicate it in my book. The rounded style and the vibrant, vivid colours is what I really wanted to imitate in my book.

TEXTURE – I often used textures or patterns in my images to liven them up and make them look less flat or bland. I would use a clipping mask over an existing object or I would use ‘threshold’ to make the pattern black and remove any unwanted areas. I really like the effect using textures gave and I feel like that was something really good about my images. As you can see, the tree I used on page 6 and 8 has a pattern on the trunk. This really finishes off the image and without it the image would not look as good.COLOUR – The colour scheme for my book was heavily based onAfrican culture and the overall appearance of Africa, but withemphasised colours. I used yellow based greens to create the grassto represent the lush savannah in Africa. In pages 1, 2 and 6 I used a sunset colour palette to create the sky. To make the sky look more realistic I used a gradient so it was not just one colour and make a more realistic sunset. In page 8, I used a radial gradient to make the sun look more realistic. I made the colour in the centre yellow and the outer colour blue and changed the angle and scale a little bit to create the sun. I really liked the effect this technique gave.

Here is a scene from his book “Skeleton For Dinner”. As you can see Terry has used textures and vibrant blues; none of the colours are muted or pastel. Also the characters are very rounded with no jaggered edges.

This is page 8 from my book, and as you can see the style is

similar in some respects. Everything is smoothed off and I have used textures just like in

Will Terry’s art. Also I have used lively, bright colours, which

again is like Terry’s style.

Page 2 was my test page where I experimented with different techniques, colours, placements and textures. The whole premise of my book was to create it using shapes and source images (especially for the characters), however I did use some rotoscoping for some areas. One thing that I’m not 100% happy with if how the tortoise turned out using just shapes. I would’ve liked it if the head was a different shape to what it turned out to be and I would’ve liked the hands and feet to look a bit different. One possible way I could improve this is by using various source images rather than just one and try using different techniques. Below shows the development of Page 2 and a talk through of techniques used.

This I my source image for page 2, as you can see the tree in the image is very similar to the tree in the actual page. This is because I used shapes and rotoscoping over the image to create the actual tree.

Here is the first draft of page 2, it’s very basic and simplistic with no real gradients or texture; it’s very bland. The sky gradient is not as smooth as I would’ve liked.

In this next draft I had added African patterns to the path, sun and tree. I changed the perspective of the path pattern to make it look like it was getting smaller. However I was still not happy with the grass and sky. I also added the tortoise and leaves.

After I had finished all the other pages I went back to Page 2 to try and improve it with the knowledge I had gained. I had learnt from page 8 that I could use a radial gradient to create a more realistic sun and sky. So I did this using orange and yellow to make a sunset. I added in some silhouettes in red on the horizon because I knew this was a nice effect to the image after creating page 6 and 8. Another thing that I added a gradient to was the grass, this was to make it look rounded and like it was going back into the distance. Finally I changed the pattern of the path and changed the perspective.

OVERALL APPEARANCEGenerally speaking I am very pleased with how my pages turned out using the techniques I listed, and I think they are well constructed. I especially like how I constructed Page 8. I wanted to add some animals to the watering hole but I didn’t want to overwhelm the image, so I just made them silhouettes instead. Because they were at a watering hole, I needed to add a reflection in the water. I did this by by distorting the silhouette using ‘ripple’ and then adding a gaussian blur. Finally I changed the opacity so it didn’t just look like I’d layered it over the water. However there are a few areas I don’t think are as well constructed as they could be, for example the drum and lions body/robe. I would like to eradicate the black line around the image because nothing else in the book has this black line, so it looks a bit out of place. I would possibly like to try adding a body to lion so it looks a little more realistic under the robe.

How well have you used text to anchor your images

IMAGERY/INCONOGRAPHY Anchorage is demonstrated well in my work through use of colour, facial expression and generally just linking the text to the image by illustrating certain words. In page 8 I have placed a broken love heart above the tortoises head, also I have added tears. It is said that the tortoise “with a broken heart” speaks to his family These two aspects represent how sad the tortoise is and how text is used to anchor it to the image.

FACIAL EXPRESSIONSAnother image where I have involved emotions and where text is used to link to the image is on page 7 when the father is “explaining to their children the rules of the fruit tree” and how it’s important to follow them. To represent this I made the tortoises face have a stern look by making the eyes smaller and flattening out the mouth. Also I had a finger pointing towards his son and a thought bubble above his head. However the text isn’t used as well as it could have been to anchor to my images. In the image it looks like the young tortoise is being told off, however in the text it says he is just having something explained to him. I could improve this by changing the words (possibly to lectured) or changing the facial expression.TIME AND SCENEOn page 3 I created a scene which was set in a clearing in the forest. To demonstrate this I created a lush, green tree with the palm nuts the tortoise was collecting. I used text to anchor the image by saying that the tortoise was collecting palm nuts, and I also said in the text that the King’s wife and his daughter came to “a clearing”. These two quotes link to the images well and I have successfully represented the words. I could improve by possibly adding more trees and long grass. Also in the text I mentioned how “One evening” the tortoise was walking through the woods. I illustrated this by creating a scene with an orange sky and silhouettes to implicate that the sun was setting.

PROPSThe final image that I will be discussing is page 4. On page 4 I have created a feast with fine cuisine, drinks and a large cake in the middle. It looks quite grand and there’s a lot of food. Text is used very well on page 4 to anchor to my images, it says how when the tortoise would beat the drum and “a feast appeared”. Feast implies that there is a lot of food that is of a high standard, so here the text links really well to the image.

EXISTING PRODUCT Here is a book by Julia Donaldson called Spinderella. On this page there is an illustration of children in a dining hall at school and they’re eating their dinner. You can see on their plates that there is food which looks like peas, potatoes and fish fingers. The text in this book is used very well to link anchor the image. The sentence begins by saying that the children of “Scuttleton Primary School were eating their dinner”. This links to the image because it is evident that the children are sat in a school cafeteria. Also the ending of the sentence says that they were eating “fish fingers, potatoes and peas” for their dinner. Again, this links to the illustration because the children are eating these three things in the picture. In comparison to my book, I think they are very similar in the way they use text to anchor to the image. For example in my book, on page 6 I said that the tortoises were collecting food for dinner from a “fruit tree” and in the image there is a basket of fruit. In this book, the text says what the children are eating for their dinner and what they’re eating is in the image.

CONCLUSIONTo conclude, I think that I have successfully used text to anchor my images. This is because I have illustrated the scene and then the text has explained what is going on in the image. For example in page 8, I said that the tortoises had to live under the magical tree forever. In the image there is the tortoise looking heartbroken beside the tree. However, I could improve how I’ve linked the text to the image on pages 1 and 3. This is because in the text I said how the lion was a King of all the land. But I haven’t given him a crown, so this kind of defeats the object of calling him a King because all Kings wear a crown. This could possibly confuse children because they will be using imagery to understand the characters. Although the King hasn’t got a crown, he is the only animal wearing a long robe which implies royalty to the reader.

Is your product suitable for your audience?

AUDIENCE PROFILEFor my children's book there are two target audiences I am trying to create a book for, the children and the parent/s. Through production I have not changed my target audience and it still remains the same as what I proposed at the beginning. In my proposal I said how I will be creating a book for 3-7 year olds and this has remained the same due to the style I used.

TARGET AUDIENCE ONEAGE – 3-7 because I am using a very simplistic style with big, vibrant pictures. Also the vocabulary is not very complex and is fairly easy to understand.GENDER – In my proposal I have said I didn’t aim to target one gender, however after production I think my book is targeted slightly more towards boys that girls due to some of the dark settings.CHARACTERISTICS – My target audience will typically, as stated in my proposal, enjoy lively, adventurous stories with bright pictures and a strong narrative. The bright images are more visually attractive to the younger audience.

TARGET AUDIENCE TWOAGE – 25-40 because I am targeting the parents of the

children. These are usually the ages at which people have children or are raising a 3-7 year old.

GENDER – I think my book does not have a target gender for the parents because either parent can read

the story regardless of their gender.APPEAL – My story is an engaging and attractive story to

parents. The story is not complex and safe for children to read, this will really appeal to parents.

When researching the demographic for some children's books, generally women of the age of 25-39 came up.

This supports my target age group however it does not support my target gender. They appeared to be

interested in “Early Childhood Education”.

CONTROVERSIAL CONTENTSeen as my target audience is young children I had to ensure that my book contained no offensive, or inappropriate content for that age group. My book is very suitable for my audience because it has no content which could be deemed inappropriate. As I stated in my proposal and the beginning of my book, my story is set in Africa. A common controversial theme which could be linked to my book is racial stereotyping and racism. In my book I included African culture, like JuJu and Egbo men, but nothing that is racist or incorrect, my characters are all animals which have no stereotypes linked to them besides what is common throughout African folk tales; the tortoise being the bad guy.

VISUAL CONTENTAll of my images are suitable for my audience due to the lively yet simplistic illustrations and they are fitted to the context. There is no gore, blood or violence shown or described in my book which will make the book appeal more to the parents. The only part which could be deemed remotely violent is the part where the Egbo men are said to start beating the tortoise. However this is not shown in the corresponding illustration which is why I don’t think it’s harmful to children at all.

TEXT BASED CONTEXTA part which plays heavily in the selling point of the book is the interesting, exciting narrative which is portrayed through the text itself. Because of how young my target audience is, I had to ensure that the text is suitable and easy for them to understand. This is why my vocabulary is often simple and not confusing for them. The 5-7 year olds could possibly even use the book to learn how to read better and improve their skills.

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

USING SHAPESADVANTAGES/LIKESTo create most of my book I found a source image and I would recreate parts of that image using shapes. Once I had chosen the right shape to begin creating the image, I would lower the opacity and then use the warp tool to manipulate it into the desired shape. Overall I think this technique worked really effectively and it allowed me a lot more freedom and creativity when making the backgrounds. It worked exceptionally well when creating the lion, although I had difficulty at first after some trial and error I managed to create a lion which I’m really happy with. One advantage to this technique is that you can create really clean cut, rounded and bright images. There’s no jaggered edges and you can create some quite interesting and different characters. For example to create the lions mane, I just overlapped different sizes of the same shape and in different colours which gave a nice cartoon yet sophisticated resultDISADVANTAGES/DISLIKES Even though there are many advantages to this method, there are some disadvantages which may have affected the quality of my work. Using this technique is very time consuming and can become very tedious after awhile. This meant at some points I was rushed for time and I possibly didn’t get as high quality work as I could have. For example in page 5 and 3, I would’ve like some more time to improve the drum because using this technique made it difficult to create a drum that didn’t look out of place. Also another downside to this technique that I dislike is the amount of plain space that is sometimes created with this technique. Because I am using single colours with a possibly gradient, the image can sometimes look a bit flat if one shape is used to cover a large area of the image. For example in page 4 the grass looks a bit odd and flat because it’s a large area which is one single colour. To improve this I may try adding some more hills and objects to the background.

ROTOSCOPINGADVANTAGES/LIKESTo create some parts of my image I used rotoscoping because it seemed the better technique to use for that specific area or it was too complicated to create with shapes. On page 2, 6 and 8 I used rotoscoping to create the tree, this was because without using it I wouldn’t have been able to get the effect I wanted, which was individual leaves, using shapes alone. As you can see all the different bushy parts of the tree are not smooth all the way around and have jaggered leaves around the edge, using shapes I would not have gotten this effect. So an advantage to using this effect is getting jaggered edges where needed and saving time by making it a lot easier and simpler.DISADVANTAGE/DISLIKES On page 6 I initially wanted to create a tree from a source image using rotoscoping, however this proved difficult. For this particular tree, I wanted it to have smooth edges and using rotoscoping, it just was achievable. So even though in some instances it is great to use to get those sharp edges, it is not always appropriate and can prove difficult. After awhile of trying to make the technique work, I just decided to use the tree I had created in page 2 and change the textures and colours. This in fact worked really well. Also, another disadvantage is that if you’re not careful when using rotoscoping, you can end up recreating the source image and not adding your own style to it. This not good when creating a sourcebook and you could come into copyright issues.

INDIVIDUAL TECHNIQUESCREATING LIGHTINGTo add some depth and lighting to my image, I tried to create shadows and highlights to emphasise how the image would’ve looked in real life. To execute this I simply just got the paintbrush tool, changed the colour to black (or orange depending on the sunlight colour), set the hardness to 0%, set the flow to 50% and the opacity to between 10% and 20%. This technique worked really well, on page 1 and 4, to add some subtle shading to my work, it also worked to add shape and roundness the specific object. However, this technique did have its downsides. It wasn’t always easy to get the right opacity because you had to start light and go darker in certain areas. This meant that you couldn’t go over some areas twice because it started to make it look streaky. Overall, I really liked the effect this gave and after a lot of perseverance I made it look good.

SILHOUETTESAdding some extra details to my pages gave a nice touch to the image and brought out the African theme further. To create the silhouettes I got the image of what I wanted to create a silhouette for, like an elephant, and I would use shapes to recreate this animal in just one colour; I used red because black would have stood out too much and it blended well with the sunset. There were barely any things I disliked about this effect besides the fact that had to make sure the shapes blended really well together. To conclude, creating these silhouettes added a lot to the image and when executed well, was a nice effect.

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

FONT – Throughout the book I keep the font and font size (21) consistent which I think is important. For the main body of text I used PT Serif. I really like this text because it has a sophisticated, ancient feel to the text. Also it looks like it could've been handwritten or carved into stone. However for the first letter of the paragraph I used a different font called Perpetua Tilting MT in size 33 because it added a bit of a twist to the text and gave a nice effect. This font is little more fairy tale style but it still worked well with the overall theme.CHARACTERS – I really love the lion characters in my final product, they are interpretations of African animals. I think they look contemporary and quirky; the sharp lines and bold colours match the African culture well. I especially love the lions mane and all it’s different colours because how well the technique I used, turned out. Whereas with the tortoise, I’m not so happy with how it turned out. I really like how the shell looks because, again, it has this rounded style to it. But I’m not very fond of the head and it’s shape, I think if I experimented I could make the head shape look a little better. TEXTURES – In some areas of my book I have used textures/patterns to add some interesting features and patterns to the images. I like the outcome of doing this because without them the illustrations looked quite bland and were lacking in some African style. When creating the chairs on page 4, I used a clipping mask to overlay a wood texture onto the chairs to add some realism and so they were not just plain brown. I used an African pattern on the tree trunk and branches on page 6 and 8. This created a really attractive effect and brought the page to life. However, if something that I dislike about the textures is on page 2 on the tree. I would prefer to have used a different texture because I find the current one to be a bit boring.

COLOURS – I used colours heavily in my book to bring it to life and to really portray the African theme. One thing I really about my use of colours if the silhouettes. I didn’t want to make any silhouettes black because I felt this was too harsh and stood out/looked odd compare to the rest of the colours used. So instead used a deep, orangey red because of how well it blends in with the sunset, which gave a really nice effect. I also used this technique when creating page 8. I thought putting animals with textures at the watering hole would be overwhelming, so instead I used the silhouette technique and it worked really well. LIGHTING – One thing that I think went exceptionally well throughout my book, was adding shadows and highlights to add depth the image. To do this I set the brush colour to black (unless adding sunlight) and changed the opacity to 13%, flow to 50% and hardness down to 0. Then I just painted the areas where a shadow was necessary, in doing so I added a lot of roundness and depth to my illustrations. When adding sunlight, I did the same thing just using orange and yellows instead. One good example of where I carried this technique out was in page 1 with the pillars. There is a window showing the deep orange sunset, I figured that orange light would be hitting the pillars, so I added an orange glow. I did the same with the mountains.

CONCLUSIONTo conclude, I mainly like most of the work I have created and I’m very happy with the outcome. I’m especially pleased with how pages 1, 6 and 8 turned out. I really like colours I used on these pages because I think they contrast well and portray the African style even further. On page one I really like how I used lighting to add some depth to the image and I like how I created the sky which you can see through the window. I also am pleased with how the tree on page 2, 6 and 8 turned out because the appearance of the tree looks magical and doesn’t look out of place with the contemporary style of the book. However my book could do with some improvements and is not to it’s highest standard; there are some areas that is dislike. Areas like the drum and the tortoise need improving in my opinion. I dislike the black line around the drum and I would like to try remaking it. Also as I mentioned before, I’m not happy with how the tortoises head, arms and legs look. I would like to try experimenting with different techniques and styles.

Why did you include the content you used?FONTS – For the main body of text I used the font PT serif and then for the first letter of each paragraph I used Perpetua Tilting. I used PT Serif and Perpetua Tilting because it seemed to correspond well with the images. Because the images are quite simplistic but detailed and bright, I wanted to use a simple font that wasn’t too loud. Also these fonts seemed to have an African, carved vibe about them which is appropriate for one of the main themes of the book.COLOURS – Colours were used heavily in my book for iconography. My main colour scheme for the book was green, purple, orange, yellow and red. Green was used to add a lively feel to the book, I made it a yellow based green to portray the lush grasslands of Africa. Purple was used for a magical effect because when it is a deep purple it implies mystery. I used it for the drums glow and it worked well to imply that there was an enchantment on the drum. The orange, yellows and reds are quite typical colours of Africa and seemed necessary to create a book based in Africa. EFFECTS – On certain pages I used different effects to improve the general appearance of everything. One example is using a gradient tool on the grass and sky to give the appearance of them getting further away, or to create a sunset. I used a radial gradient to make a convincing sun that didn’t look odd and out of place. On the grass I used a linear gradient to give the appearance of the grass getting further away and to create a horizon.TEXTURE - Africa is renowned for it’s vibrant culture and patterns, so it seemed essential to include some patterns in the book. The texture I used on the King and Queen’s robe were traditional African clothing patterns and add to the overall vibe of the book. I used them because a plain red robe didn’t look as good as a patterned one; it looked bland otherwise. A flat brown tree trunk looked quite boring and the image appeared quite flat, but adding the pattern brought the image back to life and improved it a lot.

Although I’ve already spoken about use of colours, I’m going to continue to talk about them in terms of lighting and effect on mood. Using orange colours gives a warm tone to the image and a sense of happiness, which is why I used this particular colour. The use of yellows and pinks also helps to give this warm, happy mood and I used them also because they’re very lively and vibrant which is what I wanted to create in my image.

The use of deep, pinky purples and blues adds a sense of mystery and magic. This is a good tone to have in my book because it features a magical drum and there is almost a sense of mystery as to what the drum can do. Purple also, is used to portray the royalty of the lion because I used it throughout the castle. You could also say that in page one, I used to purple to add a dark mood to to the page. This is because alone with lighting, the page is created very dark and is only lit by the glow of the drum and the window. The fact that the room is only lit by the glow of the drum enhances this magical tone and signifies its importance.

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

CULTUREWhen choosing a story to do, I was focusing heavily on doing one from African culture, this was because I had many ideas on how I would execute my book. I used locations heavily to imply the African setting. Africa is renowned for it’s lively, vibrant culture and I wanted to include this in my book. One way in which I did this was using colour. I often created deep orange and yellow sunsets for the background. These colours, for most people add warmth and liveliness to the pages or will remind them of Africa, therefore giving additional meaning. Another way in which I added additional meaning to the text was using words like Juju and Egbo men. These two words both signify something in African culture, but to us they don’t mean anything. Using patterns and textures created by African artists, again give meaning to the book. People will be reminded of Africa when seeing these images and people of that culture will be happy to see something that signifies Africa.

ROYALTYThe theme of royalty in my book is quite prominent, therefore I needed to include some signs and codes to portray this. Crowns and wealth are often associated with royalty and have a lot of meaning in society, whether this be positive or negative. When a person sees an image of a crown, or expensive jewels they will often relate this to the royal family. In my book I wanted to give this same effect. I didn’t include a crown on the characters, however I did use expensive looking robes with bold patterns on and they are stood above the rest of the characters. This implies to the reader that they are royal and have ultimate authority over everyone.

EMOTIONS AND APPEARANCEThe tortoise shows the most emotions out of all the characters. On page 8 the tortoise is very sad and I have used certain signs, symbols and codes to portray them. He is seen crying, so I added some tears to his face. Tears all across the world will mean sadness or happiness, but they imply is a lot deeper. For some people they can have a deeper meaning and they may feel sorry for the tortoise. However for others they may interpret them as being happy tears. To ensue there was no confusion, I put a broken heart above his head which really added a lot of meaning to the text. The broken heart implies something really bad must’ve happened to the tortoise for him to be this sad and a lot of people will interpret it this way.

CHARACTERSIt is evident that the main character is the tortoise, because he is featured heavily throughout the book. However what he represents and implies to the reader is a lot different. In UK culture the tortoise is not seen as much besides being slow and a pet or wild animal. However, in African culture the tortoise represents a lot more. It is common to see throughout African folk tales, the tortoise being the bad and often being the main antagonist throughout, which is the premise in my book too. It is a similar concept with the lion in my story. Usually, in cultures the lion is seen as wholehearted, courageous, strong, royal and wise. This is due to many factors including films such at the Lion King, The Chronicles of Narnia and The Wizard of Oz. In my book we see similar symbolism through the use of expensive robes, high stance and him caring for his kingdom. The lion in my book is never seen in a negative light and I think this adds a lot of meaning to his character and the book. Readers will see him as a wise, strong character who is the highest authority and this is the case throughout most cultures.

EXISTING PRODUCTS The Gruffalo is a prime example of how signs, symbols and codes are used in books to give additional meaning. Throughout the book we see the cunning mouse creating a scary beast in his head stop the animals from eating him, but in the end this gruffalo appears. When the mouse is listing the features of this beast, we see a lot of codes used that are stereotyped with fear and dangerous animals. For example, the gruffalo is described to have sharp claws which the reader will relate to tearing apart flesh and danger.

What representations can be found in your work?

My book features two types of social class which are both reflected differently, in some respects quite positively. The first social class we are introduced to is upper class, or in this case royal, this is the lion King and his lioness. In my book I have the King of the land, who is a lion, and he owns the kingdom. He is represented wearing a robe to symbolise royalty and he is stood above everyone else in page 3. He is also represented very positively in the book as being generous and caring towards his people, it is said that he often hosts feasts to calm tensions in the land. However, royalty is also represented badly in the book too after the King’s lioness and his daughter take food from a poor, hungry tortoise. Although they apologise, it can still represent greed and naivety.

The second social class is the working class which is represented by the tortoise. On page two we are introduced to the tortoise who is foraging for food in the jungle, then the King’s wife and daughter take some of his fallen food. The tortoise says how he works so hard for his food and how he struggles. This represents the struggles of the working class because they have to work hard for their food unlike the upper class in this book. Also it represents how money is a valuable object because without it the tortoise would be dead and the King wouldn’t be powerful. On page 6 and 8 the I put some mud on his knees to imply how hard he worked for the food he was gathering and this also helps to give the implication of working class. Finally, the only animals in my book to have clothes are the royals, who are wearing expensive robes, this could imply their state of power and that they’re top of the hierarchy.

In my book there is only two female character, and this is the King’s wife and the tortoises wife. She is represented, in some respects as being lesser to the males and that she doesn’t have much authority because she is not a main character. The fact that throughout my book she is referred to as the King’s wife implies that she belongs to the King and does not have a name; this is an old folk tale. Also she has no real role in the book other than stealing food from the tortoise by accident. However, you could argue that the only reason why she appears to be the lesser is because she is not the one in power, meaning she doesn’t have much authority. In page 3 she is shown standing above the tortoise with her King which implies that they are of equal power and that she still holds a state of power. The other female, the tortoises wife also appears to be equal to her husband because they both go out and get food together, there is not stereotyping. I gave her some feminine features, to outline her femininity, like eyelashes.

There are some children in my book, which are the tortoises sons, however only one actually features on a page. They are represented as being lesser to their parents who have authority over them, this is an obvious representation because parents do have authority over their children. I gave the children wider, larger eyes and I made them shorter.

The whole book is based in Africa, however there are no people in it, just African animals. This makes it a bit more difficult for racism and racial stereotyping to occur, so there are none of these aspects in my book. I ensured that there would be nothing that could be deemed offensive in my book, and I made sure that I respected their culture. There was a lack of variety of women in my book, but this was difficult because I only had 5 characters. But, this could create it’s own representation, possibly that I was trying to imply women were lesser than men or that they didn’t need to be a strong female role. However, this is not what I was trying to imply at all, it was just due to there only being 5 characters and the time of when the tale was written. Lastly, you could interpret the strong female role as being the Queen because she does hold a state of power and she does have a strong influence of how the story pans out – without her stealing the food, the tortoise would have never gone to the King and received the drum.

What style have you employed in your products?

CORINNA ICE is a freelance illustrator from China, she has been illustrating children’s books for 10 years. She is part of the inspiration for my work and I have employed some of her style in my product. I love the unique style to her work and how everything is rounded. I incorporated this style into my work by creating some fun, and quirky backgrounds which are smoothed round. Everything in her work seems to flow well and coincide with each other, this may be due to the contrasting colours or a well thought out image. Either way, I used a same approach with my colour scheme and I made sure they contrasted well. However, her work is very detailed and I would’ve liked to have included this into my product, but I didn’t have the time or photoshop skills to do so.

Here is a side by side comparison of my and her work. Although Corinna’s is a lot more detailed, the lighting and basic style remain the same. She uses bold colours and I did too in my work. I also incorporated, around the drum, glowing lights which relates to the pastel, faded glows and colours she uses in her work.

KATIE KIRK is an illustrator who runs her own design studio and illustrates children's books. Her work is very simplistic and uses bold, striking colours; she has a very contemporary, individual style. I incorporated her simple style into my work and I used the bold colours too, however my work does have a little more detail than hers. As you can see from the image of my work, I used bright oranges, blues and reds which is similar to the green, pinks and red used in her book illustrations. I also really liked her ‘different’, quirky style so I tried to include this in my work with textures. Her images are quite flat, but she manages to add depth with small touches like the trees and the winding path. Although I didn’t use this technique too much, I still incorporated it on page 2.

The overall style of my work is very simplistic which makes it easier for children to understand; I kept this style consistent throughout. To make the pages I mainly used shapes, some rotoscoping and very little gradient. This helps to keep this consistent style. However one key concept that I wanted to be part of my book was colours. I chose this because I really wanted to have eye catching, vibrant colours because these help keep children engaged in the book and make it more appealing. One way in which I included this was through patterns because they are usually interesting and complex, this makes sure that the book isn’t too simple. This is especially prominent in page 6, where I have used bright pinks and oranges to give a mystical theme to the page and to create a sunset. I used a pattern on the tree bark and this made the page more engaging and imaginative.

I chose to keep create my characters as cartoon, quite abstract versions of the animal they represent. This is because I didn’t want to overwhelm the image and I wanted the character to the main focus point of the image. My characters are smooth and allow the pages to flow with one another. I kept the characters consistent throughout, only changing their facial expressions or hand position. To make the characters, I used shapes only and I barely used any gradients. I feel this helps keep the characters simple but still produces a nice effect.

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

Trying out photoshop techniques in pre-production really prepared me for the actual production. A reason for this is because it allowed me to try out different techniques and find out what worked for me. Also, it abled me to practise and try out these techniques in different areas. However, some of my pre-production work was not completed until after production, so this did hinder some of my work because I hadn’t completely mastered the skill yet.

There were many strengths and weaknesses to my planning, some aided me and some didn’t. A strength to my planning was my moodboard and spider diagram because they were of really high quality. The moodboard I created was of high quality and contained lots of information on colours, patterns and styles to use. This really helped me during production because I could directly chose colours from the colour palette and I could also use the textures I had found, from the moodboard. In doing so I saved time because I didn’t have to search for and find the texture I wanted on the internet. For example, when I needed a pattern for the Kings robe, I knew I had an appropriate one on my moodboard, so I just took that one. I had also found some source images and put them on my moodboard which saved time when going into the production phase because I already had found the source images. Also the moodboard helped me try out some techniques. My spider diagram also aided me to some extent because I had listed what fonts, characters and settings I wanted to create. This helped me a lot when deciding on these three areas and made character creation more efficient because I knew exactly what needed creating and what to use.

A weakness to my pre-production and planning was my flat plans because I didn’t complete both my flat plans until after production. I had done a flat plan for only 5 of my pages and had not completed a flat plan for 4, 6, 7 or 8. This was because I didn’t have many ideas as to what I was going to do for these three pages and was unsure on what would work well and how I would create them. As I started to production for each of these pages, I would look for source images of what I vaguely wanted to created and this gave me the inspiration on what to make. Me not completing the flat plans, definitely hindered my production because I avoided doing these pages and when it came to doing them I didn’t have a clear idea of what I wanted to create. This wasted some time because I would make drafts and then change my mind, or I would try to brainstorm ideas.

Before starting production, I researched into other children's books and this helped me gain inspiration and learn how to asses visual styles. I first researched children's books to gain an understanding of how to layout my page and how much text should be on the page, this was really helped. Next I researched children’s book illustrations which helped decide on a visual style for my book and allowed me to imagine how I could set out certain scenes. It also meant that I could incorporate some of their style into my work and I could start to think up some creative things to add into my pages.

In my planning document, I created a production schedule where listed what I should be doing during that particular session. It also included more specific details about what to create and what techniques to use for execute this. This was quite helpful when it came to production because I knew what I was making and what content would be in it. However, I didn’t really stick to the production schedule because some pages took a lot longer than others I found, especially the first few because I was still getting to grips and learning the technique. In some respects it was quite discouraging when I found out that I was behind schedule by two days. I did catch up towards the end because I got better at the techniques and I did the most complex pages first because they were my favourites. Some pages I still didn’t have an idea as to what I was going to do for them, so I avoided doing them which meant I didn’t do my pages in numerical order. I think the reason why I was behind schedule and avoided certain pages was due to bad planning on my behalf. In the future I would make sure to have all my flat plans done before starting production and I would be more realistic with timings in my schedule so I don’t get behind and discouraged.

Historical and cultural contextCULTUREAs I have mentioned previously, my book is based in Africa so there is a lot of cultural content included in my book. Africa is renowned for its colourful, vibrant culture. One example of where I have included cultural context is the African patterns I used in my work. I used many patterns designed with Africa in mind in my work, and it really added to my work. Page 8 is where I used a beautiful African print and I feel that it added a more African vibe to the image.

Another example of where I included cultural context is using the words Juju and Egbo men in my work. This again adds a more African vibe to the image and will allow people of the African culture to relate to the words and the book more. This could possibly be a good selling point and help it appeal more to the people of that culture.HISTORICALMy book is based quite heavily, including the textures, on African tribal prints. For example, the tree in page 2 is quite tribal in style due to the knobbly, abstract appearance. I also added a tribal, cave man print to the tree trunk. This also gives the book more historical context because it relates to the old African tribes and the cave man era.