Task three: evaluation of your finished work

Image Construction: the construction of my images overall were good. I used my

own photographs, as well as stock photos from image libraries of foxes. I also
used shapes & rotoscoping to produce Reds red hood. I used the technique
called Halftone pattern, which breaks the image into small circles. The circles
gave a classic comic book effect, but also retaining the quality of the image. I
chose two colours: black & white. I chose these colours as they contrast against
one another & allow Reds red hood to draw the eye in. I also used a part of the
top image e.g. a tree or path two run through the middle of each page so all the
pages have a part to them that feels continues & moves the eye downwards
through the page. Using contrasts on some of these pages of white & black also
separated different sections. I used a house style throughout the graphic novel,
which allowed the construction to be easy.

Anchorage: I believe the text I used in my work allowed the graphic novel to flow
quite well & the worked in harmony with my images. The text explains what is
happening in the photos, if it was not clear in particular with speech & causing
suspense in the work (example on the last page of my graphic novel). I used a
combination of speech (mostly speech) & telling the story. I used black & white
writing on top off a contrasting background this separated the text from the
image, but also allowed it to be of a similar style as it was the same constant
colour in the work. I feel like I did not need a lot of text as my images speak &
convey the story for themselves. One of the typical codes and conventions of a
graphic novel is the ratio of image: text is typically around 90:10, meaning there
is usually more image (graphic) to text.

Signification: Although I think Ive followed some typical conventions of the
graphic novel genre in my work. I used a font titled Comic Book, which made the
text look stereotypically graphic novel-esque. I also added, like mentioned above,
a half-tone texture that fit well with the genre, but also allowed my own
photographs to stand out. I didnt want to make my work like just another
graphic novel so I didnt follow other typical conventions apart from that. One
code I did actually follow in my work was the fact I made Reds red hood stand
out & stay red. The red is very significant as it is Reds key feature & its what you
think of when you think of the story Little Red Riding Hood (its in the title). The
use of the colour red also allows Red to stand out compared the other characters
& features in the graphic novel. The colour red also symbolizes certain feelings
like danger, its like the fact she is wearing the colour foreshadows that she is
going to be in danger. The colour red could also symbolize the death that is going
to occur. It is a significant part of the original story & I wanted to keep it in my
work. The wolf connotes a sense of scariness & is again featured in the original
story. The wolf is also a very dark character in the original story so I wanted to
convey this with the darkness of the words because they link together. Red
discovers the wolf in the forest & it needs to be dark & scary so both the wolf and
the forest need to convey this. I did this by using a black and white contrast.
Using the white against the black really allows the black to stand out. Black
connotes danger, mystery and darkness, which is what both the forest and the
wolf need to convey. This is important overall for my work. Binary Opposition
can be said about the use of black and white together. This is because of the
connotations they both have. They are basically opposite in meaning. For
example, white connotes purity & light, whilst black connotes mystery &
darkness. The character Red can be seen as the white & the wolf can be seen as
the black.

Representation: I have 4 different characters in my story. Red & Jack are in a
relationship, so they are of a similar age. I believe I have portrayed this young
age group (17/18) well as Jack has a job & Red is going to visit her Grandma,
which shows compassion of that age group. Also, in part two (which I never was
meant to create), Red kills the wolf with Jacks help. She does not just let Jack do
it, which shows gender equality. Grandma is ill & lives by herself, which is a
genuine problem in todays society, even though this storyline is used in the
original story, I wanted to show what we should be doing as people to help. The
wolf is used as a warning to not to talk to strangers, which is just as an important
message to people at an older age. Overall I would say that my graphic novel has
a positive & realistic representation of each age group mentioned which was
important for me to get right. A character like Red can influence the target
audience of young teenage females.


Historical and Cultural Context: I have not come across an actual graphic novel
version of Little Red Riding Hood, but I can compare my work to other graphic
novels & the story of Little Red Riding Hood. Comparing to the earlier types of
Little Red Riding Hood, most notably Brothers Grimm, who wrote the arguably
most famous version of Little Red Riding Hood. In their version Red & the
Grandmother get eaten by the wolf, but are then saved from inside the wolfs
belly. The wolf is then killed. In my version of the story, this is not told in my
actual graphic novel (as I did part one of the story). Red is also seen as
significantly younger in their version of the story (her full title being Little Red
Riding) whereas my Red is older (late teens). Also in the story, the lumberjack
comes to save them both. In my version he is Reds boyfriend at the beginning of
the story & would help Red to kill the wolf at the end (if I had produced it).
Comparing my actual graphic novel construction to others, I feel like my graphic
novel doesnt compare to anything that I actually researched. Although I did take
inspiration from general comic book styles, I would say I gained more inspiration
from pop art styles of work. Roy Lichtenstein inspired the dot style of my images.
I decided to make my images black & white to give my own work an individual
style & also allow Reds iconic red scarf to stand out.












Production Processes: My production processes have allowed me to produce
technically competent work, as I would consider it to be on the same level as
another well-made graphic novel. Although if I have critique myself linking to
this, I would have changed the way I actually changed the images. I produced
them all on one page, it would have been easier & possibly more effective & of a
higher quality if I had had a separate page for each image. If I had done this
editing would have been easier & the way it was put together would have been a
lot clearer. I also would have produced the hoods better. My skills in Photoshop
has improved since this project began and I believe I could now round off edges
better that would have improved the overall quality of my graphic novel. The
way I would of done this is by rotoscoping closer to the actual picture line & if
there were rough edges I would have erased them with the eraser tool. I also
would of liked to take images of the male character as I had to rotoscope a full
body shot of him sometimes. I believe it would have looked better if I had actual
photos of him, as this would have improved the overall quality of my work again.
To do this I would have had to find a male model, instead of using myself in the
photographs. To create my product I used Photoshop & digital photography. I
took digital photographs & used Photoshop to edit these photos. I also used
image libraries to find photographs for the wolf. Rotoscoping for the hood was
also used. I believe I have a moderate ability of creativeness & I believe my work
shows this. The changing of the story to the modern era, the contrast between
the black & white images to the red hood & then the inclusion of the pop art
inspiration had created a piece of work that is creative & also original in the
sense that nothing like this has been produced before. The least creative part of
this piece of work would be gaining inspiration from other places. The most
creative part of my work would obviously be bringing different elements
together & making them work all together.