Greetings From... - Lhasa Postcard

From my roughs, I decided on this composition so I started to create this in illustrator by creating half of the image and then reflecting it to make it symmetrical. I used a centre guide line to make sure the image was perfectly central. 

I found a photo online of this building and imported it into illustrator to try and recreate the shape of the spire with basic shapes and the pen tool. When I had created the central one, I copied and resized it to make the others and then used shapes to build up the rest of the shape. I found it quite challenging to copy the detail of the spire in such simple forms - I decided that using blank spaces between groups of shapes meant I could show separate components without having to add an outline. 

Adding a coloured background completed the colour scheme for my postcard based around the three primary colours. I lightened the red to make it look more like the colours of the Chinese flag which provides another link to the location of Lhasa. 

In my research, I found out about prayer flags and thought this would provide some interesting imagery to add into my postcard. The first layout of the flags is quite confusing to the eye. It draws the eye towards the lady's head but looks like it is connected to her in some way and it overshadows the building in the background too. The second composition is better because it looks more balanced and the objects seen in the image seem evenly spaced throughout the frame. Also, adding a horizon line gives the building a grounding and gives the image a better overall sense of depth.  

The face looked a bit plain - I didn't want to add a nose or mouth because I felt this might confuse the shape of the praying hands but a subtle addition of some makeup/rosy cheeks was enough to make it less plain. I used a line intersecting the half way guide to ensure the pink circles were spaced evenly. 

I tried to simplify the colour scheme by sticking to red and yellow as the main colours. I think this is unsuccessful because the brightness of the white clothing is very distracting and it makes me think of some kind of martial arts clothing which combined with the praying pose may be confusing. 

I reverted the colour back to blue and added in a skyline of mountains. I think the grey looks okay as it isn't too overpowering and it sits nicely in the background. However, after trying out a similar thing in darker red made me realise that this was better. I think keeping the background all in tones of red keeps the relevance of the Chinese flag clear. 

Final Postcard

I have tried to keep this postcard simple and symmetrical but I felt that the mountains needed to be less uniformed so I did not make these symmetrical although they are still balanced. At this stage, I am happy with this as my first final postcard. Depending on how my other postcards turn out, I may end up altering this one slightly to ensure that they work as a set.