With the development of globalization, more and more cultures blend together. Perhaps because of this, nowadays many foreign artists advocate their native styles. As a Chinese student, who enjoys designing projects with visual meanings, I decide to make a series of 12 postcards, illustrating famous architectures in my hometown, Wuhan. I’m looking forward to practicing the skill of transferring sketches to digital forms fluently.
I was born and raised in Wuhan, China for 20 years, and would like to share images of my home and myself. I choose to draw famous architectures in Wuhan because I enjoy the design and the symmetry of the buildings. Once I chose the topic, I decided to use the form of a postcard, because I would love to mail the happiness of my graduation from university to everyone I appreciate. After determining the form and content, I started selecting several images of architectures in Wuhan to draw. I was fascinated by the crush of both British churches and Chinese traditional pagoda in Wuhan. Additionally, when deciding the quantity of postcards to make, Professor Dicharry suggested I do at least 12 postcards for a great diversity for architecture in Wuhan. After that, I re-learned Graphic Design programs through multiple tutorials when I didn’t know features in Illustrator. Now I’m increasingly comfortable with using Illustrator. When I’m drawing architecture on a computer, I first sketch them on paper, then upload drafts to Illustrator and mount the architecture in black and white, making them look like classic film. After mounting everything, I designed a visually interesting layout for installation, emulating the way people frame photos at home.
During the process, I learned some lessons. At first, I was struggling in deciding whether to do architecture or food or both. Both of them, in Wuhan, are famous in China and even in the world. I finally gave up the food part, and chose to draw the architecture for a more concentrated theme, rather than jumping around the topics involving everything. I learned that sometimes I have to give up things to make the whole more focused. I think the ability to transform sketches to digital images is useful, especially when I need something that cannot be found online, then I could make them on computer, making me more flexible when finding sources.