Greetings From...(Cities of the World - Post Card Project (2)

After researching into many different festivals from around the world, I decided to base my four postcards on festivals that took place in four specific cities which all vary a lot from each other. The cities I looked at were; Munich (Oktoberfest), Rio de Janeiro (Carnaval), Venice (Carnevale) and Delhi (Holi).

Delhi

At first I sketched out lots of ideas in my sketchbook using pencils. I then chose to combine some of these together to form one image. I drew it out in pencil first and then I used pen to draw a clear outlined line drawing of my final idea that I could use to work on digitally after I had scanned it on to the computer. I wanted to include lots of flowers and paint as this festival is a festival of colour and celebrates all that rich in it. I also chose to include an Indian Elephant and building to hint to the reader the location. I used reference images so that I could portray the objects and correct aesthetic to portray India. However I mainly used my own imagination for this piece- this was really crucial as I had to create a succinct image even though I was using multiple references. Below are some images from my work on illustrator:

I started off with some simple shapes to create the right atmosphere with the main colours in the piece. I chose warm tones of yellow and orange in order to portray Indias warmth and the exotic elements, and also to exaggerate a fun a happy atmosphere.

I kept the original pen drawing as a top layer in Multiply on Illustrator so that I had some guidelines to work to.

I then deleted the top layer and allowed only a few outlines to appear- I tried to avoid black as I felt this piece needed to be light and free in order to represent the festival and city. This postcard represented Delhi during the Holi festival which is a festival of colour. I used an expansive palette with a wife range of colours on this piece but I still tried to keep it all in sync with main colours such as reds, blues and yellows.
I also tried to use as little black as possible to keep it as fun and vibrant as I could. I included objects such as the building, the Indian elephant and clothing and makeup such as bindis to suggest location. The colours chosen also represent India in reflection to their spices and vast range of wild life.


Venice

I portrayed Venice through their festival carnival and used the layout of one of their gondolas to present the illustration.

I used some reference images of costumes but only used these for some information, most of the patterns and colours I made up. I wanted to portray the mystery and romance of the city and the festival so I used couples and a small hanging light giving off some warm tones into the dark. I used black to enforce the mysterious element and some pink tones to suggest lust. I also used blue to represent the canals and yellows to show the fun of the city and festival.

I also used my initial sketch as a guideline in this piece; after scanning it in I worked on it on Illustrator placing it as a top layer using Multiply. This meant the colours could be added and worked on seperately to the original illustration.

Munich
For this German city I was focusing on the beer festival held there called Oktoberfest; the biggest of it's kind in the world. I wanted to capture the merriment and main components of the festival: beer, music and dancing. Much of the festival is held in massive tents with lots of decorative ribbons and hangings, this is why I used the tent shape as a border for the image.
First I drew out some separate components I wanted to include in the piece which I thought captured the city at festival time:

I then mapped out how I could arrange these within the border:

 Using Paint I cut and pasted the more detailed drawings on top of the composition plan:

 I then started adding shapes and experimenting with colour on Adobe Illustrator:

 I decided that perhaps darkening the background would make the image look less cluttered and also add some more depth to the piece with shadow and highlights. I also darkened the main girls lips, lightened her skin, added a red border around the bottom to make a more finished effect and added some white marks to highlight around the beer in the centre:

Rio de Janeiro
As I felt my previous postcards were far too over crowded and not very effective in portraying one simple message, I decided to just focus in on one figure for my Rio postcard. I obviously studied the fabulous costumes of the dancers on the floats and parades. The costumes are vibrant, fun, sexy and colourful and really reflect the vibe of the city and the festival. I tried to convey this using Adobe Illustrator and using a variation of reference photographs to work from as well as experimenting and adding colours and details myself.

First I drew a rough design of the figure in pencil and then used it as a layer to trace the image over the top. The original drawing:

I made the background a slightly more subtle shade of pink as I liked the contrast between the colours but I thought that the headdress and feathers on her costume should stand out away from the background. The colours in the image above clash and distract from the subject matter (even though the bright pink did add vibrance in reflection of the festival itself).

I decided to add some pattern in the space around the feathers as I thought it looked a bit bare in the above image and the added pink 'feathers' add even more power and impact to the movement of the image. 

I made the lips slightly darker (below) as I thought they looked slightly too light being the same shade as the background. If I had more time I would experiment more so with the colour scheme especially the background and lip colours. 

I then made the lips slightly more vibrant again...

After I had scaled them to the correct size on Photoshop I then printed them off, however this went very badly as the colours, which is one of the main aspects in the work, came out completely differently and far more bland. 

I was unable to get the colours to come out right using that specific printer so I managed to find another to use. This time however I had even worse problems as the computer I was using to print them off didn't have Illustrator and so would not open up my images. To solve this problem I used jpeg versions of them to open using Photoshop. I was scared that this would mean that they lost some details or clarity however it seemed to work successfully. I then scaled them again down to the correct sizes and printed them all out. 

However again I had a problem as because there is some white space around the edges of my images, it is hard to see where the postcards ends and begins. I tried to add a border on Photoshop but I could not find out how to do this. My printer then started to print them out too cropped however by changing a few of the printer page settings I managed to solve this. In order to be able to see where to cut out the postcard I added some digitally drawn borders using a colour already in the image. 

This solved my problem but I am not as happy with the final outcomes. I dont think they look very succinct or clear and if I were to do this again I would definitely rethink how I drew the borders and explore how to make the borders as effective as possible. I also would try not having a border but instead cropping the images so that colour took up the majority of the image. Scale and layout is definitely something I really need to get my head around while I am designing the initial sketches and not just have as an after thought.