Postcard 1

Possible reference images from Google images.

Figure 1

Sightseeing : The National Mosque, Kuala Lumpur tower, Petronas twin tower, 

Traditional clothes - 'Baju melayu' and 'Baju Kurung'

Coconut tree

Animal : leatherback sea turtle

food : Roti canai and satay

Traditional game : Wau (a type of kite)

Fruit : young coconut, durian, papaya, manggis and rambutan

Symbol : Hibiscus

Figure 2 and 3

I did all these illustrations in Illustrator by using the Pen tool inspired by figure 1. Previously, I had decided to use flag colours to colour my illustration but for these, I just picked random colours. I don't know why but I just did.

Figure 2 - I used these for my final postcard

Figure 3 - I didn't use these illustrations for my final postcards.

So overall I did 12 illustrations for the Kuala Lumpur postcard.

In llustrator, I created a new document. 

Document size 120x210 > Landscape postcard.

I started to layout as I wanted (repeated pattern) but it didn't turn out well

Figure 4 and figure 5

Figure 5 - I laid out randomly

Figure 6 - then started to make a repeating pattern but as I said, it didn't look nice.

Figure 6 

Figure 6 - I tried to make it a line but it still didn't work. So I decided to look at at figure 5. After I had a long thought and looked back to my research, I thought it would work if I added more illustrations so I decided to create more illustrations

Figure 7 and figure 8

Figure 8.1

So I decided to do figure 7 and 8.1. It is a building in Kuala Lumpur called 'Menara Tabung Haji' (firgure7) and LRT ( similar to Underground in London). But then I gave up on figure 8 because it would take me forever to illustrate it.

This is how I live traced to get a pattern effect in Illustrator. Please ignore some random noise on the video :P

I went back to my ideas and decided to do my 1st idea (The shape of Kuala Lumpur and place each landmark onto it by following the real location.)

Figure 9 and figure 10

Figure 9 - I went on Google Map to get the shape of Kuala Lumpur then I placed it in Illustrator in a new document, locked its layer. I then made a new layer > the pen tool to trace the shape of Kuala Lumpur. 

Figure 10 - I placed and arranged the illustrations randomly but it still did not please me

Figure 11

Figure 11 - I decided to only use buildings for my postcard by placing them in a line (I used the grid to make sure they were straight) but I still did not like it.

I was almost giving up on this idea. I had thought of illustrating respected figures from each countries. e.g. India > Ghandi, Malaysia > Mahathir Muhammad, UAE> King Zayed bin Sultan Al-Nahyan. But I did not think it would be creative enough.

After I had a long thought, I decided to do some more research so I went on Behance.net then I found something interesting

Figure 12

Figure 12 - an artwork by Sara Maese. I like how she divided each illustration into a circle shape.

Figure 13 and figure 14

Figure 13 - I replaced my illustrations. I picked the main objects that represent Malaysia which are:-

Wau - Malaysian kite

Petronas Twin Tower 

Rafflesia - The biggest flower in the world which grows in Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur Tower

Durian - Malaysian fruit is known as King of fruits

The National  Mosque

I decided to used a limited colour scheme by using the flag colours. I decided to use a pastel colour scheme and used the Ellipse tool (E) to create circles. At first I wanted to put the blue, yellow and red colour circles randomly (as shown in figure 13)but it looked weird so I decided to place them together like figure 14. Blue circles, yellow circles then red circles.

Figure 14 - I changed the illustrations' colour > I had to make sure that I did not use the same colour as the background.

I had a problem with the Rafflesia  flower because I live traced the pattern

Figure 15 and figure 16

Figure 15 - the actual size of the flower on the document was around 120x210cm but I had to scale it down so I could place it on a circle on my postcard. 

Figure 16 - I scaled it down and the pattern looked bigger compared to figure 15's pattern. I wanted the pattern to be like figure 15. So what I did was I had to save the file figure15 as pdf and on the postcard's document I had to place it (Shift+cmd+D) so the pattern size would remain the same.

Figure 17

Figure 17 - for instance on figure 17, whenever I wanted to change the flower's colour, I had to go back to its main document, change the colour, save it as pdf and place in on the postcard document. The durian (middle bottom) looked wrong with the red inside? so I might need to move it to another circle.

Figure 18

Figure 18 - I moved the illustration around to fit the colour. For instance I had to change the colour of the durian (top right) so it looked realistic and delicious as the real colour on the inside of the durian is yellow.

Figure 19

I was debating if I should place 6 illustrations like figure 18 or do a repeated pattern of figure 18 for figure 19. But after I asked some people, I went with figure 18 as I had started to lose some detail in figure 19 as the illustrations were too small