Evaluation

In this unit, I needed to create a graphic narrative in whatever style I chose. I chose mine to be in the
style of pop art. In my own narrative, the plot focuses on a young teenage girl (Violet) who is trying
to get the new boy to fall in love with her and take her to prom after recently breaking up with her
previous boyfriend. In my storyline, my plot somewhat follows Todorovs theory in which the story
begins with an equilibrium leading to a disequilibrium and then ending with a new equilibrium. What
is unconventional however, is that my narrative structure actually begins with a disequilibrium in
which the protagonist doesnt know who she is going to go to prom with. This problem is established
at the very beginning of the narrative. This structure should appear effective as starting with a
complication engages the audience as they will be left with suspense and will want to continue with
the story. Most existing graphic narratives seem to have a plot that follows this theory. A well-known
example of this is the Fray comic book series. The narrative begins with on Earth in the 21st century
where centuries have passed since demons had been banished from the planet and the last slayer
was called for (Equilibrium). Suddenly, a new group of demons have returned and are back to ruin
the city. (Disequilibrium). With the help of the new vampire slayer, Melaka Fray who defeats the
demons, peace is restored once again. (New equilibrium).

This spark is further continued when the helper of the protagonist encourages the main character to
go for the new guy at school, Devon. By introducing a new character, the audience will gain
interest as to finding out more about the character and seeing how they fit into the narrative. The
narrative continues on to Violet introducing herself to Devon in which the audience can react to the

introduction of the new character.

Furthermore, with the beginning of the storyline, the audience can view their own perceptions of
the protagonist and the rest of the characters. In regards to the protagonist, Violets characteristics
appear to follow the typical mean girl archetype in which she is pretty, popular, rich, confident and
rude. The second page of the narrative shows the audience the protagonist being mean to a fellow
student Sonya. Violet replies to Sonya, I didnt think girls like you would even think about showing
up to prom. This sense of sarcasm leads to the audience often reflecting on their own actions and
behaviour as well as the certain point of the narrative being relatable for audiences who have felt as
if they have experienced this in their own lives. With my target audience being for young girls
especially teenagers, situations in this plot may prove to be relatable for some readers.

The audience
can witness these attributes throughout the narrative, however, she does appear to have some
development leading onto the climax of the plotline. Further on into the storyline, readers find out
the motives behind Violets cruel ways. Her parents dont appear to have the best of relationships
with the climax revealing that Violets father (Henry) had committed adultery with Violets mother
finding out and kicking Henry out of the house, leaving Violet in tears. Moreover, the reader can see

a softer, more human side to Violets character. This climax also hints that Violet has often felt
neglected in the past by her parents which could give reasoning to her negative behaviour.

After the climax, the relationships between her friend, Grace and her potential love interest, Devon
appears to be left somewhat estranged when Violet doesnt pay attention to them particularly
Grace. This leaves the audience in suspense as they want to find out the resolutions to the problems
that Violet has been facing.

Later on in the narrative, Violet appears to be even more distant from everyone when she is
exceptionally rude to Sonya by sarcastically insulting her prom dress.

From this distance, a new equilibrium starts to be brought back together when Devon calls Violet to
ask about her troubles. In this scene, the audience see how truly vulnerable Violet is in her
distraught state when she confides to Devon about the recent separation of her parents. This should
indicate to the audience that they should feel empathy towards Violet and as well as making them
realise that everyone has their own problems and that it is fine to tell others their problems if they
have any.

The new equilibrium is further resolved when Devon also feels empathetic towards Violet and helps
her by asking her to the school prom as his date. Violet joyfully accepts and the ending finalizes the
relationship between Violet and her love interest as being complete by sealing it with a kiss.

Overall, my plot line is developed quite well as it follows a basic plot that is relatable to my target
audience. Young teenage girls should be able to relate to not only the characters but also the plot
line as girls are associated as being more involved with the prom scene rather than the boys.
Furthermore, despite having relatable situations, the narrative also adds some humour involving
Violets reactions towards certain things thus making it more original and humorous.

Although, my narrative structure appeared to be developed well enough for my target audience,
there are a series of faults with the overall plotline. The narrative could have developed the
relationship between Violet and Sonya with Violet apologising to Sonya at prom. Also, the minor
characters particularly Violets parents could have also been developed as it was hard for the
audience to establish their placement in the story as well as their history with Violet. The audience
could have also seen the climax played out much more dramatically too. Along with the text to
indicate to the audience which point they are in the story, the images also help to indicate the
narrative. A lot of the facial expressions and body language within the narrative helps to tell the
audience what is going on in the scene. For example, in this scene, you can tell from Graces
displeased facial expression, that Violet has upset her.

By using colours to represent the emotions of Violet, the reader is able to comprehend how the
character is feeling which helps to reinforce certain plot points in the narrative. For example,
towards the climax, the scene is enhanced by green which helps to tell the reader that something
bad is about to happen as green is not only an alarming colour but also symbolises jealousy and envy
which are themes constantly referenced in the narrative. After not only being inspired and influence
by existing pop art narratives including The Powerpuff Girls and the early Batman comic books, my
own narrative does show qualities taken from these franchises.

The graphic style of my graphic narrative demonstrates the pop art style. I carried out this technique
by taking real life stills and then editing them on Adobe Photoshop. By using the poster edges tool
on the artistic filter in Photoshop, I was able to edit these photos by making them appear to be in
the pop art style. This helped to make the images appear more posturized and cartoon like which is

common for pop art. In terms of the colour choice, I wanted to make sure my graphic narrative
featured feminine and bright colours. Furthermore, I used certain colours for certain connotations,
for example, red representing love and blue representing sadness. I was extremely influenced by The
Powerpuff Girls comic book series as they were aimed for a similar target audience to mine. The
Powerpuff girls comic book series is known for promoting girl power and uses colours such as pink
and purple to display this as these colours are associated with femininity. Also, I ensured I displayed
the typical characteristics that are associated with the pop art style visually in my work. This included
outlining most things in thick, black lines which helped to make everything in the scene appear
bolder and brighter. I used mid to bright tones in my work as I didnt want my narrative appear too
childish or unrealistic. This is why the characters within the narrative dont appear to be too bright
or enhanced in colour. Unlike, the Powerpuff girls where everything is hand drawn and unrealistic
looking, the colours and tones appear a lot brighter and more enhanced due to the narrative
representing the fantasy genre, my narrative is of the comedy drama genre in which the image
construction is a lot more realistic in appearance.
Furthermore, from the way in which I created these images by using real life stills, my images are
much more realistic compared to other graphic narrative images. For example, Jem and the
Holograms is a well-known franchise that have also spawned a comic book series. The images
constructed for their books are quite cartoon like but still incorporate elements that are similar to
mine. They feature bright and feminine colour schemes using colours such as baby pink and bay
blue. The colour pallet is quite similar to the ones Ive used. These images help to reinforce the idea
of girl power which is a theme common for comic books that are targeted at a young female
audience. I chose my images to appear quite realistic as I was using themes and everyday life
situations in my narrative, so by making the images appear as realistic as possible but still in the pop
art style, I was able to make my graphic narrative somewhat unique in terms of creative style.

(Jem and the Holograms)

Throughout my graphic narrative, there are captions with all of the photos, this is due to the
narrative showing realism as well as elements of the comedy drama genre.

With every piece of work, there is always room for improvement and in my graphic narrative, this
could be included. In regards to aesthetics, my images may not follow the traditional pop art style. A
common trait for the pop art style is to have the Ben-Day dots technique in my work and I lacked
this despite wanting to my graphic to be of the traditional pop art style. I would also enhance the
colours to make them appear bolder and brighter so the images are easier to make out.
Furthermore, to improve I would enhance the colours by making them appear slightly brighter in
colour. This is because pop art is a style known for having extremely bright colours that stand out in
the page. In this extract of my own graphic narrative, the
colour appears quite pale and it is difficult to make out
what colour the image is meant to be so in future I would
enhance it to a brighter yellow.

In comic books such as Supergirl, the colours have been enhanced extremely which helps the colours
to symbolise the emotions and feelings within the narrative. I would use elements of this in my own
work next time. As a comparison to my own work, you can clearly see the colour contrast between
my own work and the cover of the SuperGirl comic. Despite being hand drawn, the detail to colour
far exceeds my own work and this has told me that in future I need to make sure I use the correct
lighting so the colours stand out more and appear brighter. This would help push the colours out

more so the audience can tell what emotions are being symbolised as well as being closer to the
traditional style of pop art.

(Supergirl)
Another element I would change is the layout of the graphic narrative. Technically and visually any
graphic narrative should have a clear and concise layout with the panels for the images and text to
be clearly read in the right order. Not only in pop art this is essential but for any graphic narrative,
the layout must be done correctly for anyone to understand the order of the plot. In regards to my
own graphic narrative, this may be difficult at points as the boxes are too close together and in an
odd outlay possibly making it difficult for readers to understand. Also, with my target audience being
quite young, they must find uneasy to comprehend what is happening in the story if they arent able
to follow it.
In future, I would choose a similar layout to those used by popular graphic narratives that are aimed
for young girls. In Phoebe and Her Unicorn, the plot is easy for readers to follow the narrative as it
still follows the structure of traditional graphic narratives but also is structured in a layout that is
simple and easier to understand.

(Phoebe and Her Unicorn)

In terms of time management, the production process was difficult to attend to. It took around a
couple of days to take the photographs for the image construction. It was difficult trying to find the
right locations for the images to be taken as well as making sure they were of a high quality. This
task took longer than I expected as I thought it would take a short period of time to take these
photographs. However, it was essential that I took these images as Im not the best artist so the only
way for the images to appear to a decent standard was by taking real life pictures and then editing
them.
With editing the images, this was a process that also took longer than I thought it would. Making
sure I used the right filters and colour enhancements was painstakingly long at times and not being a
patient person made the whole production process feel longer than it actually was. I think it would
have been easier for me to have had some assistance with taking the photos as this was the most
difficult part of the process for me. With not having that many hours a week to complete the
production, it was hard to reach deadlines. Not being the only person taking photographs for their
graphic narratives, being part of other peoples images also set me back time as I wasnt doing my
own work.
In my own work, there does appear to be social issues that might raise questions in my production.
My representation of some of the female characters in my narrative, in particular the protagonist

might raise some eyebrows. Violet, the lead character is confident and extremely vain and she uses
the qualities to try and gain an interest from her potential love interest. From a feminist community,
this characters personality and motives could appear as sexist as Violet is seen as a somewhat
stereotypical female, however it could be argued that she is also a femme fatale example. I wanted
my protagonist to bring humour to the story by knowing her own strengths, attractiveness and
confidence, by showing the audience her sassiness and her sarcasm, this was only done for a
humorous approach and was not done to offend. Due to my target audience being for young
women, it was difficult trying to create a character who enlisted parts of the traditional role a female
character as well as trying to establish new qualities that didnt make her stereotypical.
Often in comic books, there are two types of female characters that are portrayed, one being the
damsel in distress (early comic books) and the over sexualised heroine (modern comic books). The
damsel in distress was the typical portrayal for female characters in comic books and this is seen in
many including: Betty Brant from the Spiderman franchise and Louis Lane from the original
Superman series. Both women serve a very small role with hardly any recognition as they are both
overshadowed by their male counterparts and both women have to be rescued by them as it
appears they cant escape by themselves. This is now seen as quite sexist for women as they were
originally portrayed as weak and constantly relying on men to save them. However, in my own work,
the protagonist more likely follows the new age for the portrayal of women in comic books. The
well-known heroines in comic books such as Wonder Woman and Bat Girl are known for using their
sex appeal and shown with revealing or extremely tight costumes. Although they are shown with
these sexualised appearances, they do however use their strength for positivity and are shown to be
smart, independent and strong. I wanted to apply these positive qualities into my own work but I
didnt want to include the sexualised exploitation to my characters as my this would be too
inappropriate for my target audience who are young females.