Graphic Narrative Evaluation

What do you think of the overall narrative assignment?
I think that the overall narrative was a very good idea. I liked how the whole project was based on water, mainly the sea. This is a good idea because it gave a wide range of poems to choose from, and all had really good imagery to help make graphic narratives.

Are you happy with the material you chose?
I chose the poem 'Island Man' because I remembered the poem from school, and knew what the poem was about. However, I nearly chose 'Blessing', again because I have studied this. To choose the poem I would do, I did two storyboards, one for each. After this, I found that I had more ideas for Island Man.
The decided to draw out my storyboard on A4 paper and then scan in to colour in Photoshop. I thought that this would work because I would be able to manipulate the drawings more than I would if I had made the whole thing using Photoshop. This is because I felt that I would struggle trying to make it all in Photoshop, however, I would get better colour using Photoshop. I then added text and backgrounds in Photoshop.
I am happy with doing this in the way I did because I feel that I got strong results.

Would you make adjustments next time?
Personally, I wouldn't have put the text in boxes in the corner. This is because I had to make the text in Illustrator after, and it was harder to make the lines meet up. For example, on Frame 2 and 3, there is the sun, and it was hard to follow it around to make it look like it flowed.
I would also go over the drawing with a dark black pen over the pencil. This is because it was hard and took a long time going over all of the black lines.

Are the techniques you used to make your solution adequate or would you use a different range of production techniques?
My narrative looks exactly how I wanted it to look. This is because I drew the frames, so it would look how I want it to look. However, I wish I was more skilled in drawing. When frames 4 and 6 were done, I felt that they didn't look complete, so I added in the background, the sky, grass and water to make it look more detailed.

What are the views of other people regarding your narrative?
I initially showed my lecturer when the first coloured designs. The designs were discussed and it was decided to add more detail, such as the shadows and a fish into frame two.
I then showed the finished designs to some members of the class. They said that they found the designs bright, colourful and well detailed.

Does the narrative work?

I think that the narrative does work. This is because it follows the poem and you can see the change between the Island and London, and it reflects his thoughts: the Island being 'beautiful' and bright,
whereas London is dark and grey and 'boring' to him, even the seagulls are different colours!
I think the writing stands out and it works on its own, as well as in the image.

Final Designs finished

When I scanned my work into Photoshop, I had to redo the outlines. To do this, I started by adjusting the threshold, however, this didn't work as well as I had hoped, so I used a paintbrush to make the lines bolder. I then used the paint bucket and paint brush to colour in the drawings. When this was finished, I focused on the font of the writing.
Originally for this, I had just out a normal font in a box at the top, but it didn't look very effective. This is when I went into Illustrator and focused on making the text stand out.
After this, I felt that frames 4 and 6 weren't as effective as the rest. This was because the drawings were central to the page, whereas the rest of the frames all had backgrounds. So, I added in lines in the shapes of buildings and coloured grey. I then added in grass, and water on the last frame, and just grass in the 4th frame.
To finish off, I added in shadows to the people, the fish, the trees and the ball to add more detail. To do this, I used to 'polygonal lasso' tool to create where the shadow would go. Then I used the gradient tool to colour it in. On the fish, this didn't look great, so I then added a blur on this, to go with the effect of the fish.

Here are the finished designs: