This time round, the assignment is to create a postcard that has to do with Asia. Jing said to avoid using costumes, food and landmarks. The first thing that came to my mind was Peking Opera and the mask that they used. Initially, I wanted to create the mask using pictures or illustrations that is related to Asia such as the Great Wall of China, the different races in Asia, etc... However, I scrape that idea because I realised I don't have pictures of my own with those stuff that I wanted to make up the mask as I thought using pictures to form a collage in a shape of a mask would be prettier as compared to just drawings of mine to form the collage.
Being a peranakan and I think not many people know about peranakans until The Little Nyonya came about, but I still wanted to stick to a peranakan theme as it's my heritage! I didnt want to use cuisine cos its common plus it was widely portrayed in show so I decided to use a peranakan house in my postcard. I like peranakan houses because they are just so beautiful and its symmetrical. Whatever that in on the left will be on the right as well. I think this is actually a unique feature of a typical peranakan house. :)
I decided to place two people there, one being a Chinese and the other being a Malay. It's because of these two races inter-marriage, that's how peranakans came about and that is why I portrayed one as a Chinese and the other as a Malay. They are wearing traditional Chinese costumes for marriages as the girl is wearing a cheongsam and the guy is wearing the changsan.
Also, Infernal Affairs, the movie is considered a hit in Asia so much so that Hollywood actually bought the rights and did a remake. Therefore, I add in a little bit of "pun" by using the Chinese characters of Infernal Affairs to form the signboard. This has nothing to do with Peranakans but but it is indeed an achievement for Asian/Hong Kong movies and I'm an avid fan of that movie too.
As I was supposed to play with colours, I decided to try a green theme, a gloomy theme, a nyonya theme, a blue theme. For the last two thumbnails, I was playing with the speaking and shouting colours.
Ultimately, I decided to go for the nyonya theme which is the picture shown below.
During tutorial, there were suggestions that I could put like the kids wearing the kebaya in between the two figures in my picture to show a Peranankan family and also because the entire thing is symmetrical, I could make something in the picture out of place in order for it to look more dynamic. Also, I could make the figures overlap the front of the house. I also drew the walls wrongly as people were mistaken that the scene is in the house instead of the entrance of the house. I was thinking of adding some text to the back of my postcard about Perankans and how they came about in order to "educate" the buyers of the postcard.
Update
Added a pair of shoes outside the house to give a "cheeky" feeling as it disrupts the whole "systematic" feeling in the postcard.
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