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. Dont be restricted by what is
here.
Any blank slides should be deleted before submission.

Does your final product reflect your

original intentions?
Storyboard Draft:

Final Draft:

I feel that the final product is almost exactly the way I wanted it to be in the
end. I made a few changes from the storyboards here and there when it came
to producing the final pages but only minor ones and when I felt they would
make the piece look better. Take the page above for example. Not a whole lot
has changed when it comes to the character designs or the shape of the
assets, but there are noticeable differences. For one, the mud patch was in the
central bottom of the page in the storyboard, but was moved further to the
right in the final draft to make room for text. Another example would be with
the shadow effects, in the storyboard theyre just ovals scribbled underneath
the characters, but in the final, they were given a more realistic approach by
being shaped exactly like its corresponding object and skewing and distorting
away from it in the same direction as where the light is hitting the

When it came to converting the character designs to the computer, I

think it was executed really well. They look almost identical to the
storyboard draft without the sketchy and scratchy outlines. However,
I feel the outlines could be a lot smoother when it comes to curves
and even straight outlines. A lot of the outlines look jagged up close
and it doesnt look as appealing as I intended it to be. This was not
the case when it came to the backgrounds, but thats because they
werent hand-drawn on the computer like the character designs. I
think next time, I should definitely draw the outlines of the characters
on Illustrator as that software has an antialiasing function for handdrawn outlines.

My Narrative Environment piece here became the

basis for my background style in the book because I
love the way it looks

The backgrounds were presented in the way I intended them to be as

well. I wanted them to look similar to my Narrative Environment piece
in the slide above and I think Ive done a pretty good job mimicking
that style. The only aspect I changed from that piece was the bevel
effect on the clouds because that was the only aspect of that piece I
didn't like; it made the clouds look like plastic when I wanted them to
look fluffy. Getting rid of the bevel really helped to make the clouds
look like the way I wanted them to be.
Unlike that piece however, I drew the backgrounds on paper first in
the storyboards and then I would trace over them with shape
manipulation on the computer. I didn't draw the pattern textures on
the storyboards but I wanted them to be on the final pages anyway
because it makes the book look more stylish. I knew what patterns I
wanted to add and I knew what elements will have what texture (e.g.
zigzags for grass, zebra pattern for tree wood etc.) from producing
the test page so I felt that I was on the right track. I thought the end
result was amazing so I feel satisfied with that part.
I wanted the book to look bold, colourful and stylised and they are
often the key features to making a visually appealing childrens book.
I think the book has a good colour palette thats bright and bold, lots
of stylish effects and design choices (such as patterned textures) and
the character designs blend in well with the backgrounds because of
the books cartoony nature. I wished I added just a little bit more
variety to the primary colour palette, but thats because I wanted a
natural colour scheme, such as brown for the Hedgehog and the Mud,
grey for the Hare, green for the grass etc.

How well have you constructed your

images?
I feel that I have constructed my images really well. For each page, I would start by drawing a
storyboard based on the books script. Then, I would scan the storyboard to the computer, paste
it onto my development pro-forma and organise where I want the text to be on the page. Next, I
will paste the storyboard onto a blank Photoshop document, and trace over the characters with
the pencil tool in black. Once Ive done that, Ill add colour to the characters, construct the
backgrounds using the shape tool and the edit tools, while I simultaneously add effects to the
assets.
The thickness of the outlines on the characters is at an appropriately thin size. Having black
outlines not only helps make the characters stand out but it also looks natural based on the
character designs. I just wish the outlines were a lot cleaner and smoother; there are a lot of
instances in the book where the line work looks really jagged. This was probably because
Photoshops pencil tool doesnt have an antialiasing function to automatically smoothen lines,
like on Illustrator and Flash. The brush tool doesnt even have this feature as well. To fix this
problem for future works, Ill try to improve my outline drawing skills but I should also use
software that has an antialiasing function like Illustrator for some extra quality assurance.

Notice the jaggies on this

curved outline here. I think
it should be a lot smoother
than this and thats really
my only issue with the
character illustrations.

The colours are bold, they are suitable to the surroundings and the lighting of the page, and even
though the book is colourful, its not overly colourful to the point where it becomes visually
unpleasing with the amount of different colours on screen. Although, I do think theres a bit too
much of an emphasis on green and brown in the book which was mainly because the entire book
takes place in a grassy field-themed area, and those are the two primary colours that naturally
make up those areas. Perhaps next time I can maybe spice things up by maybe having the trees
orange or red instead of brown or something like that.
I have incorporated mathematical patterns for textures, like zigzags for grass, a zebra pattern for
tree wood, small dots for the mud etc. Normally, patterns like these would be too loud on the
eyes, but because they have been colour ranged and the opacity on them has been decreased,
the black sections of the patterns are instead a slightly darker shade of the area the pattern is
overlapping. That way you can still see the pattern but it also wont be too visually distracting
and will be much less likely to make someone feel dizzy. I wanted to incorporate that aspect here
because I wanted the book to look visually interesting and appealing. I feel that if I didnt add the
patterns to the textures, the book wouldnt look as interesting. I even made a comparison below
of two different versions of page three. One with textures and one without. The one with textures
always catches my eyes first, so that makes me believe that the whole idea of patterns for
textures was a success.

Which picture looks more eye-catching to you? With or without textures?

How well have you used text to

anchor your images
When drawing the storyboards, I honestly didnt always take the text into consideration
when designing the layout of the pages. Instead, I focused more on where the characters
and background objects should be placed for visual appeal. But I would often leave big
areas of space in the page for where I could potentially put the text in, just in case I
might want to have the block of text in a different position from where I originally
intended.
After scanning the storyboards onto the computer and importing them to my
development pro forma, I would then add a square with no fill and a dashed outline to
each storyboard, each with the text Add Text Here. This was to distinguish where I
wanted to text to be in each page of the book.

An example of how I plan the position of

my text boxes on the development proforma

For adding the actual text to the book, I used a font I downloaded online called Edds
Font which is a little bit like comic sans but it looks more handwritten and stylish, which I
thought would match the hand-drawn style of the characters perfectly, hence why I chose
it. However, because its a font I got online and is from an internet cartoon called
Eddsworld (which is why its called Edds Font), I will have to gain the show owners
permission before publishing the book due to copyright.
The text itself is black because it contrasts from the brightly coloured graphics of the
book: making it easy to read. However, in order to make the text fully and easily
readable, behind each block of text is a circle that has the same colour as the area of the
page the text is in front of. So if the text is in front of green grass, the circle will be the
same shade of green as the grass. The circle is also blurred out so the rim of the circle
blends in with the background. Originally, all the circles were all going to be white which
can be seen on the text page. This was because white is the opposite colour to black, so
it would make the black text readable. However, this idea was scrapped because having
the circles the same colour as the area behind the text looked more natural and suitable
with the book.
The book has been written in a simplified manner. The text describes what is going on in
the page as well as present the characters dialogue. This is important to the book as it
helps readers get an understanding on whats going on, in case the pictures didn't make
any sense to younger readers. Also, the text helps move the plot along, which is very
important in a book like this. Paragraphs are quite long for childrens book standards, but
the sentences are short and simple-worded to make it easy for kids to read and
understand. The book is written in past tense as most Grimm fairy tales are written that
way in their original counter-parts.
The text in the final version is aligned to the left rather than being centred, like in the test
page, because it helps kids read the text in an orderly fashion when they know the first
word of each line starts in the same column to the left. The spacing between lines, words
and letters is very small to assure that kids stay on track with the text while reading.

The original white blur in the test page

The way text is presented in the final book. The colour behind
the text blurs out to blend in with the image

Is your product suitable for your

audience?
As I mentioned in my proposal, I wanted the book to appeal to kids between
the ages of 3-9. I believe this book will be suitable for them as there is no
mature content in the book, the material is pretty harmless for this age group.
I had no specific gender target for the book which is a good thing because it
meant I didnt have to pander towards a certain gender and therefore, theres
a much wider audience for the book.
The books text is very simple-worded and sentences are very short, which
makes the book easy to read for my demographic. In my proposal, I brought
up how I wanted the book to appeal to children who want to read a story that
feels fresh and non-clichd. But my book had to be an adaptation of a fairy
tale, so to make it feel new, I chose to reboot a more obscure tale that hasn't
been overly adapted before like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs or Little
Red Riding Hood, hence why I chose The Hare and the Hedgehog as I liked the
story and nobody seems to bring that tale up a whole lot. The more obscure
the tale, the less people are likely to know it. But by adapting it successfully,
the tale will be re-introduced to a much wider audience. So if the book is
successful with appealing to kids, one of the Brothers Grimms most forgotten
tales will be given the spotlight again.
When I showed the book to my younger sister who is nearly turning seven at
the time this evaluation was written, she thought the images were really
good. She was laughing at some of the weird faces the characters would pull
when they show extreme emotions, like the Hedgehog getting angry on page
four, and the Hares jaw dropping on page eight. However, she thought the

I also mentioned in my proposal that I wanted the book to appeal to kids who
like to read books to look at stylish pictures. I wanted to make the art style
look visually appealing for this purpose because even though this may have
been from my own personal experience, children may not want to read the
text, but rather look at the pictures, because theyre more interesting to look
at than plain text in the eyes of the child. I made the book look appealing to
my audience by having bold and bright colours, simple yet expressive
character designs and unique texture patterns to the backgrounds. There are
also icons in speech bubbles for pages where the characters speak so that
kids can understand whats going on without feeling the need to look at the
main text. But the text is still in big and obvious areas as kids still need to be
encouraged to read.
The icons are there
for children who
want to look at the
pictures and still
understand what is
going on

yet the text is

still clearly visible
to encourage
children to read
as well.

What do you like/dislike about the

techniques you have used?
Originally, I was going to draw the character illustrations on Adobe Illustrator instead of
Photoshop, I wouldve imported the illustrations to Photoshop as that was the software I
was using for producing the backgrounds. However, I ended up drawing them on
Photoshop instead because the backgrounds were produced on the same software,
making it easier to edit the illustrations and more efficient to work around with. I have
used the pencil tool with a Wacom Cintiq 13 graphics tablet for drawing the outlines of
the characters. This really constructed the characters in the book and gave them fluid
and natural-looking lines. The thickness of the outlines is at an appropriately thin size.
Having black outlines not only helps make the characters stand out but it also adds more
detail when they are thin. I only wish that the tool had some kind of antialiasing function
like in Flash and Illustrator to make some of the outlines smoother and less jagged when
it comes to drawing curves and straight lines.

Editing a shape with the warp tool on Photoshop

The fill tool has also been great for the character illustrations as well as the backgrounds.
It was the most efficient way to add colour to the assets of the book. When it came to
adding depth to the drawings, such as adding a darker colour to an asset thats further
away from the view on the page, I would often create a new layer of black, decrease the
opacity percentage to 11% or 25%, collect the darker version of that colour, hide the
black layer and fill that asset with that colour. While it was a tiny bit of a hassle to do, it
worked for its set purpose: to make the colour scheme feel consistent when it came to
adding lighting/shadow effects. I would also add lighting effects to the characters by
giving each of them the same black and white gradient overlay (with a different angle
depending on where the sun is on the page) and decreasing the gradient overlays
opacity to 10%. This made it look like there was actual light hitting the characters, giving
it more depth and visual appeal.
When it came to producing the backgrounds, I would paste a JPEG image of the
storyboard and give it its own layer, and trace over the background assets with the shape
tool. The shape tool was great for the backgrounds; not only did they have the basic
squares, circles and other polygon-based shapes, but they also had a wider range of
useful shapes with the custom shape tool: arrows for the icons, leafs for the cabbages,
pointy squares for the furrow lines etc. I would often edit the shapes using Photoshops
editing tools like Warp, Skew, Distort, Rotate, Scale etc. These tools really helped
construct the shapes so that they match the way they are shaped on the storyboards,
especially the warp tool as it allowed me to curve and bend straight lines. These tools
were also useful for adding shadows and textures to objects. But I felt the most vital tools
for those aspects were the colour range tool and the opacity tool. Because I got the
textures from the internet in black and white form, I had to get rid of the white so I can
overlay it on shapes and decrease the opacity of the black areas so it will blend in with
the shapes. I was able to achieve that with the colour range tool because it allowed me to
select a colour from a layer and clear everything on that layer that has that selected
colour. For shadows, I would add an extra copy of a layer, give it a completely black
overlay, place it behind the original layer, use the editing tools (mainly distort and skew)
to position the shadow and decrease the opacity of the layer to 50%. This was much
better than the drop shadow option as it gave objects more accurate shadows.
The Filtering tool has been very useful for adding effects to assets. For example, the
Gaussian Blur tool worked really well with the clouds to make them look soft and fluffy
like real clouds, even though the clouds are very cartoony and stylised in shape and fill
The motion blur has also been great for showcasing the speed of the Hare when hes
running in the eighth and ninth pages of the book. The glow filter made objects that were

What do you like/dislike about how

your final product looks?
I love the character designs of the book. I used my normal cartoon drawing style for
them which took a lot of inspiration from the Sonic the Hedgehog character style,
as well as cartoons like Steven Universe and The Simpsons. The designs are
cartoony and goofy, but are also easy to look at and inoffensive to the eye, making
them visually appealing. I only wish the outlines were a lot cleaner and smoother;
there are a lot of instances in the book where the line work looks jagged and poorly
drawn. This was probably because Photoshops pencil tool doesnt have an
antialiasing function, like on Illustrator and Flash, to automatically smoothen lines.
The brush tool doesnt even have this feature as well. To fix this problem for future
works, Ill try to improve my outline drawing skills but I should also use different
software like Illustrator for some extra quality assurance.
I also love the background style of the book: its not photo-realistic but it has its own
style and charm to make it look pretty. Everything is constructed with the shape
tool as well as the editing tools so it looks consistent throughout. I love the use of
textures in the book as theyre not realistic textures, but rather mathematical
patterns, like zigzags for grass, a zebra pattern for tree wood, small dots for the
mud etc. Normally, patterns like these would be too loud on the eyes, but because
they have been colour ranged and the opacity on them has been decreased, the
black sections of the patterns are a slightly darker shade of the area the pattern is
overlapping. That way you can still see the pattern but it also wont be too visually
distracting and will be much less likely to make someone feel dizzy. My only issue
with the textures is that bits of them on some pages can go out of the object
theyre supposed to strictly be overlapping. I did fix this issue while making the
book by rubbing the outside sections of the pattern out with the eraser tool, but it
still looks messy. Maybe I should experiment with a much more efficient tool next
time something like this occurs in my work.

The colour palette is also very good on both the characters and the backgrounds.
The shades of colours are bold, theyre appropriate to the surroundings and the
lighting on the page, and even though the book is colourful, its not overly colourful
to the point where it becomes visually unpleasing with the amount of different
colours on screen. Although, I do think theres a bit too much of an emphasis on
green and brown in the book which was mainly because the entire book takes place
in a grassy field-themed area, and those are the two primary colours that naturally
make up those areas. Perhaps next time I can maybe spice things up by maybe
having the trees orange or red instead of brown or something like that. Despite this
however, I still think the colours blend in naturally with the books art style which is
important to making a books visuals look gorgeous.
The love the variety of different visual effects that Ive incorporated into the book.
Almost all the assets in the book have a light to dark gradient overlay, even the
characters, which adds depth to the book. The clouds have a small Gaussian blur
effect which makes them look fluffy like actual clouds. The motion blur was also one
of my favourite effects when it was used in pages eight and nice, as it adds life to
the characters and to what theyre doing. I also love how the shadows were
presented in the book; they dont look blurry like actual shadows but they look
rather bold and clear which matches the bold visual style of the book. However,
they do distort and skew in the direction of the light on the page like actual
shadows and their shapes are accurate to the objects the shadows replicate. The
glow on bright objects like the 50 coin and the sun also add life to the book as it
showcases the brightness of the object.

This is my favorite page in the book visually

because of the depth added to the furrows in the
background and I personally think it has the most
well-drawn stills of the characters in the book.

Why did you include the content

you used?
I wanted the book to have a very cartoony art style because that style of
imagery attracts the eyes of the kids more than it does with the eyes of adults.
Thats why the character designs are stylised and the backgrounds are simple
in design. I used my normal cartoon drawing style for the characters because
its my main drawing style so I love the look of it, but its also inoffensive to the
eye while still keeping the designs look cartoony and goofy. Taking inspiration
from Sonic the Hedgehog, I have incorporated patterns for textures, like zigzags
for grass, a zebra pattern for tree wood, small dots for the mud etc. I wanted to
have the pattern style in the book because I love this design choice and I
wanted the book to look visually interesting and appealing. I feel that if I didnt
add the patterns to the textures, the book wouldnt look as interesting.
For the books text, I used a font I downloaded online called Edds Font which
is a little bit like comic sans but it looks more handwritten and stylish, which I
thought would match the hand-drawn style of the characters perfectly, hence
why I chose it. The text itself is black because it contrasts from the brightly
coloured graphics of the book: making it easy to read. However, in order to
make the text fully and easily readable, behind each block of text is a circle that
has the same colour as the area of the page the text is in front of. So if the text
is in front of green grass, the circle will be the same shade of green as the
grass. The circle is also blurred out so the rim of the circle blends in with the
background.

Ive added a variety of different visual effects into the book. Almost all the
assets in the book have a light to dark gradient overlay, even the characters,
which adds depth to the book. The clouds have a small Gaussian blur effect
because it makes them look fluffy like actual clouds. The motion blur was used
in pages eight and nice, as it showcases motion on a still image. The shadows
in the book dont look blurry like actual shadows but they look rather bold and
clear which matches the bold visual style of the book. However, they do distort
and skew in the direction of the light on the page like actual shadows and their
shapes are accurate to the objects the shadows replicate. This was done to
again, add depth to the visual style of the book. There are glows on bright
objects like the 50 coin and the sun to show the brightness of the objects
while still looking appealing.
The colour palette is bold, the selection of colours are appropriate to the
surroundings and the lighting on the page, and even though the book is
colourful, its not overly colourful to the point where it becomes visually
unpleasing with the amount of different colours on screen. Even though I do
think theres a bit too much of an emphasis on green and brown in the book, it
was done that way because the entire book takes place in a grassy fieldthemed area, and those are the two primary colours that naturally make up
those areas. The colours were also used for symbolism. For example, the
Hares socks, gloves, and bowtie all have a shade of purple. Purple is a colour
that often represents wealth, vanity and royalty which fits in well with the
Hares character; he is quite the distinguished gentleman and has better legs
for running than the Hedgehog. Purple represents that trait of The Hare really
well and that he is at a higher class than the Hedgehog, which was why I chose
that colour. Another example of colour symbolism would be with the
Hedgehogs wifes head-bow. Its got a light-pink colour which resembles her
fragile and soft personality and her love towards her husband.

What signs, symbols or codes have

you used in your work?
Symbolism has been incorporated into the books colour
palette. For example, the Hares socks, gloves, and bowtie all
have a shade of purple. Purple is a colour that often
represents wealth, vanity and royalty which fits in well with
the Hares character; he is quite the distinguished gentleman
and has better legs for running than the Hedgehog. Purple
represents that trait of The Hare really well and that he is at a
higher class than the Hedgehog, which was why I chose that
colour. Another example of colour symbolism would be with
the Hedgehogs wifes head-bow. Its got a light-pink colour
which resembles her fragile and soft personality and her love
towards her husband.
Symbolism is also used in the form of icons. Whenever a
character notices something, gets surprised or shocked, a red
exclamation mark with a thick black outline will appear above
their heads. Exclamation marks are often used in fiction to
symbolise danger or being alerted (which is why it is red),
most famously in the Metal Gear Solid games when you get
spotted by an enemy.

The characters dialogue is written in the pages text, however the book
also shows communications through speech bubbles with icons in them
rather than text. Take the fourth page of the book for example:
The Hedgehog challenges the
Hare to a race. This is expressed
through a checkered flag as that
is an iconic symbol of racing due
to how they are used to signify
the end of a race.

The Hedgehog is wagering a 50

coin with the Hare. A simplified
version of the 50 coin is shown in
the speech bubble. When a
character or an object from the
book is shown in a speech bubble,
its often given a simplified look to
make it easy to draw and see on a
smaller scale. The way the colours
are incorporated in these are also
done like they were done by a child
with crayons, which was just a
style choice.

The Hare asks the Hedgehog

what shall they wager for
whoever wins the race.
Wagering is a form of betting so
this is represented by a golden
first place trophy to signal that a
prize is to be won to whoever
comes first place in the race.
The question mark on the right
also resembles how the Hare is
asking the Hedgehog about their
wager.

Audience
Responses

Cultural competence:
Media texts require us to have a certain level of cultural understanding to
be able to interpret them.
At a basic level, this could mean being able to read the language that a
magazine is written in.
At a deeper level, it means being able to interpret signs and symbols that
we use a visual shorthand to communicate ideas.
We recognise these signs in our own culture but find it harder to
understand when looking at others.
We create and attach meaning to signs and symbols in many different
forms.
Creative Media Production 2012

20

Audience
Responses

Cultural competence:
What is this?
This is a Norwegian Pine tree, covered in
snow and with a red ribbon on.
Our cultural understanding allows us to
interpret its meaning.
To us, in British society, it means
Christmas, presents and family.
This is because we share a cultural
knowledge.

Creative Media Production 2012

21

Audience
Responses

Cultural competence:
There are many other signs and symbols
that we attach meaning to.
A leather jacket can imply rebellion.
A sports car can imply wealth and power.
A cross can represent religion.

Creative Media Production 2012

22

Audience
Responses
Cultural competence:
Visual representations of everyday objects are often the same the world
over. A car appears as a car, no matter what country it appears in.
What that car means however, can be very different depending on your
cultural background.

Creative Media Production 2012

23

What representations can be found

in your work?
There are no humans in the book, all the characters are portrayed as animals and theres only
three characters in the entire book: the Hare, the Hedgehog and the Hedgehogs wife. All the
characters have no special names other than the name of the corresponding animal the
character represents, or in the Hedgehogs wifes case, the name of her title in their marriage. No
special names were given because that was the way it was done in the original version of the
tale by The Brothers Grimm. It remained unchanged in my version because from what Ive
absorbed from many successful childrens books and tales, a lot of animal characters are named
simply after their animal names with maybe a few adverbs or adjectives describing their
personality: e.g. The Big Bad Wolf and The Three Pigs, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Gruffalo,
Fantastic Mr. Fox etc. Considering how most of these stories have been created or adapted
recently in that manner, I saw no harm in keeping it that way, plus its more memorable for
children than giving them generic names like Henry the Hedgehog or Harold the Hare.
The characters in terms of design and colour palettes represent their corresponding animals
almost accurately with my cartoony art style. The Hedgehogs primary colour is brown, has
spikes on his back, a black circular nose and a long snout like actual hedgehogs. The same thing
applies to his wife who looks exactly like him only with eye-lashes, a head-bow and heals. These
aspects stereotypically represent women, so it helps distinguish the two hedgehogs while letting
the audience see that she is his wife without needing to read too deep into her. It is important
that they look identical due to the books story. The Hares primary colour is a bluish-grey colour
to represent a chinchilla rabbit, has a small but pointy tail, long ears and a small, pink, triangular
nose. All the characters were designed to walk on two legs like humans rather than all fours like
with actual animals due to how the characters behave more like humans. This is one of the
reasons why they wear human clothes as well, (even though theyre still mostly naked like actual
animals) like socks, shoes, bow-tie, gloves, head-bow etc. It adds more colour and slightly more
detail to the characters as well as making their designs look more charming.
There is very little cultural representation in the book. The book takes place in an ordinary
grassy, field-themed area which is a more natural setting and doesnt represent any culture like
how a city-themed setting would be presented in media. However, there are still pieces of
cultural representation within the book but only minor and innocent ones. For one, theres a line
in the book that states The church bells rang. This implies that theres religion in the books
universe, but because the characters dont act religious and the fact it only mentions a church

Another example of cultural representation would be with the 50 coin as money is represented
in British form. Theres no specific reason as to why its British money, but I guess it can be
considered an Easter Egg to how the book was made by a British citizen. Even if young foreign
readers dont know what a pound is in money, its still ok; the fact that its a coin is enough to
imply that its money, because its the most standard source of wages. Finally, theres the
chequered flag in one of the speech bubbles on the fourth page. This was added because the
black and white chequered flag is an iconic symbol of racing, so when people see it, they think of
racing. So it is used in the speech bubble to visually imply the Hedgehogs challenge to race.
The Hedgehogs wife is represented in the book as a typical housewife. In the first page of the
book, she is seen cleaning the dishes, which is considered a house chore. It is stereotyped that
married women do nothing but house chores. This wasnt the reason why the part was added into
the book. It was in there because the Hedgehogs wife was described as doing house duties in
the original Brothers Grimm version of the story. So it was more to do with sticking with the
original personalities of the characters rather than being intentionally sexist. During the
production of the book however, I did tone it down in the remaining areas of the book featuring
the Hedgehogs wife. The biggest example would be with the sixth page of the book. Originally in
the pages storyboard, the wife was shown dusting the walls inside the tree-house. But in the
final draft, shes just simply standing in place, looking shocked at the Hedgehog when he
mentions his wager with the Hare to her. This was done to make the Hedgehog seem less sexist
towards his wife. This is also why I got rid of the line Put your house duties on hold for a sec
from the original script.

Storyboard Draft: The Hedgehogs wife

is shown dusting in this draft

Final Draft: The Hedgehogs wife is just

standing in place in this draft

What style have you employed in

your products?
The overall art style of the book was inspired by the art style from this internet
show called Eddsworld. In the show, the characters are drawn with black
outlines over a background with no outlines and was constructed with mostly
geometric shapes. I love this art style because not only does it look visually
appealing, but its also very easy to do thanks to the simplicity of it. Not to
mention the simple graphics are not too distracting to look at which is suitable
for a childrens book.
For the character designs, I have used my normal cartoon drawing style, which
takes inspiration from Sonic the Hedgehog character style and cartoons like
The Simpsons, Spongebob Squarepants, Steven Universe etc. I chose this style
for the characters because its my main drawing style so I love the look of it,
but its also inoffensive to the eye while still keeping the designs look cartoony
and goofy.

A mood board from my

development pro forma that
features all the inspirations for
the books visual style.

Speaking of Sonic the Hedgehog, the series has also influenced the idea of
having patterns for textures. For example, the zigzags on the grass resemble
the stripy grass in Green Hill Zone from Sonic 1. This was one of my favourite
features from the classic Sonic games as it made the levels look visually
interesting while simultaneously wouldnt distract the player from the game,
even for a fast-paced platformer like Sonic. I wanted to incorporate that aspect
here because I wanted the book to look visually interesting and appealing.
Green Hill Zone from Sonic the Hedgehog.
This is the version from Super Smash Bros.
Brawl

This is what I mean when I

compare the textures to Sonic
the Hedgehog. The fact that it
uses patterns instead of realistic
textures.

Page 3 of the book

As you can see here, the characters are represented to look

like their real animal counter-parts in terms of their colour
palettes and main body features. But I also took inspiration
from iconic animal characters that are the same breed as the
characters in the book while designing them. So the Hedgehog
in the book is a fusion between a real hedgehog and Sonic the
Hedgehog, whereas the Hare is a fusion between a chinchilla
rabbit and Bugs Bunny:

What were the strengths and

weaknesses of the pre-production
and planning

Planning out the production process of the book really helped give the book quality control. For
one, practising with Photoshop tools on other work before-hand really helped me gain knowledge
on how the software works. It also helped me gain ideas on how I should produce my book using
those tools. Writing a script for the book was a very important part of the books pre-production.
After I first wrote the books text, I got it checked by my tutor for quality assurance. He helped me
make the book more suitable for children by simplifying the text and getting rid of as much filler as
I can. I also numbered each paragraph with the page number I want the text to be on, it really
helped me develop the books structure. Its also a good thing I drew the storyboards after I wrote
the script because that way, I know how each page should be drawn.
While designing the storyboards, I didnt always have the text in mind. What I mean by that is I
wont always think of the right area in the page to place the block of text. This made the process
of placing text a little bit of a mess, but I would often leave big spaces in the book for where I
could potentially put the text in. Although I knew what font to use in the book since the beginning
of pre-production, I never really thought of how big the font size should be until I made the test
page, and I havent tested the size on the other pages at that point. During production, I would
place the text after I produced the page which was really risky due to how I wanted every page to
have the same font and size of text. Maybe next time, I should play it more safe and place the text
over the storyboard before I actually produce the final draft of the page.
Making a proposal for my book helped me come up with an overall synopsis for the book to help
me better understand the book. It also helped me think of a profile for the books demographic,
the books format, number of pages, page size, production methods and the books deadline to
keep me on track with time and production management. I also made a planning booklet where I
worked out the books cost, profit, legal issues and production resources using reliable resources
from the internet. This was really helpful to making sure the book is suitable for publication and to
think what things from any previous planning might need to be considered.

Before the book started production, I created a test page to gain a clear idea on how I want the
final book to look like. This was a step in the right direction for creating book, even though I did
make a few changes to the final build. The Hares colour palette has been altered to better suit
the character for both his personality and for visual appeal. This change was made before
production started. Unlike the next change to the final draft which was decided during
production. The blurred circle behind the text is the same colour as the area behind the text
rather than white to make it blend in with the environments better. The text was also aligned to
the left rather than being centred to make it more comfortable for kids to read.

Test Page

Final Draft

Creating a time schedule for production sessions was really useful for organising my time.
It relieved stress out of me as it gave me hopes for getting the book done on time.
However, my time slots werent accurate and were much rather estimates for how long
each session I thought should last. But the problem was, I didnt record the amount of
time it took to complete each section of the page when I produced my test page before I
created my time schedule. This is something I shouldve done as I ended up taking longer
on making the book than I initially thought I would. I managed to get my book completed
on time, but maybe I should make more accurate time estimates next time in case of a
potential delay in production. But the idea of having a schedule really helped me out with
organising things with the books production.

The overall process of creating a page in the book:

5. Well then, I accept your
challenge, said the hare as he
shakes hands with the hedgehog
I suggest we rally at the furrow
fields. Good idea! Meet me
there in half an hour the
hedgehog arranges I am very
hungry so Im going to go home
to have a quick breakfast. The
hare was agreeable with the
hedgehog and so they depart. As
the hedgehog strolls back home,
he thought to himself He may be
a distinguished gentleman with
long legs, but hes still an
arrogant fool who must be taught
a lesson.

Script

Storyboard

Final Build

Historical and cultural context

Compared to the original version of the book received in 1840, not a
whole lot has changed in terms of story. The narrative structure of the
book is almost identical to the original tale with really only one major
change. The fact that the Hedgehog was cheating the race by having
his wife, who looks identical to him, stand by the other end of the
furrow is revealed at the end of the story rather than before the
climax. This was done to make the story more interesting as it gives
the reader an enigma to think about while reading: how is the
Hedgehog beating the Hare in the race with those small legs? The
reader wont find out the answer until the end of the book, which
keeps the readers on their toes.
Due to the simplistic setting of the story, the book didnt really need
to be modernised for newer readers. It still takes place in a grassy,
field-themed area, the Hare and the Hedgehog are still participating
in an on-foot race and the Hedgehogs scheme, which I mentioned
earlier, is the same. Its only minor cultural details that I felt had to be
changed, mainly with text. But before I go into text, I should mention
one aspect I did change and that is the price the Hare and the
Hedgehog wager. In the original tale, they wager a gold louis d'or and
a bottle of brandy, but in my version, its a 50 coin. This was
changed because kids nowadays will probably not know what a gold
louis dor nor a bottle of brandy are, but theyll know what a pound is
if they live in the UK. And even though you cant actually get singular
50 coins, the fact is a coin notifies the reader that its money theyre

Now for text, because this is a childrens picture book, a lot of text
from the original had to be re-written and simplified to make it easy
and fun for kids to read without using any archaic methods. This
involves shortening sentence lengths and using more common
synonyms of some of the more ancient words. This also included
getting rid of any sentences that may be seen as filler, in other
words: pointless to the story. Like this one line from the original tale
that went into detail about the Hedgehogs turnip patch and how it
feeds him and his wife. That got removed because it had no real
affect to the main story of the book, nor do we learn anything
important from it. So if the line can be considered as filler, it will
only waste page space for text and imagery and therefore, should be
removed if necessary.
Due to how ethical issues have changed since the tale was received
(which again, was just before the mid-1800s), I also changed or
removed any lines that may be seen as morally offensive to a more
modern audience. Personally, I think the most important example of
this is on the sixth page when the Hedgehog asks his wife to come
with him to the furrows. In the original tale, theres a line of narration
that states What was the hedgehog's wife to do? She had to obey,
whether she wanted to or not. This line may have given audiences
the impression that the Hedgehogs wife is spinelessly servile and
unethically submissive to the Hedgehog, which can come across to
older viewers as a very disturbing and creepy undertone. As someone
who is about enter his adulthood, I got that vibe when I first read that
line in the story. So because I disliked that line and I figured parents
will get offended by it, it was removed for the book. The hedgehogs
wife still goes with the Hedgehogs plan in the book because of the

Peer Feedback
Summarise peer feedback and
discuss
Responses you agree with
Responses you disagree with