The Birthday Card

How birthdays are celebrated in Malaysia?

In Malaysia,seconds to midnight is the time we will be waiting most.All birthday celebrations family members and friends gather together to enjoy food. They may sing along together or play musical instruments. Friends or relatives who visit give presents to the person celebrating their birthday or they may give an ang-bao. This is a small red packet filled with money. If relatives do not know what to buy, the money is a good present.

At about 16 when teenagers start to invite boys and girls to their parties there is lots of dancing and games to help find a partner. They often make up their own games so that everyone eventually finds their own partner. The trick is always to have the same numbers of boys and girls! At 18 birthdays are celebrated with family members or people may go to the movies with their boy/girlfriend. At 21 people usually have a big party.

At all birthday celebrations people have birthday cake with candles and they sing the Happy Birthday song in English, Chinese or Malay.

How am i going to modify the original birthday card?


Nothing much to modify the card because the layout is simple.So,what am I going to do is to just change the font of the birthday wish,the background color,a little bit more stars and lastly the local culture elements at the back of the font.

This is the earlier skecth of the card



I choose the hand held fan as a local element to be fit into the birthday card.The fan being used by chinese people for many years especially in Melaka,the Baba and Nyonya oldies.It has lots of different size and pattern.



CARD IN THE MAKING OF:STEP 1


I create few rectangles using rectangle tools and fill it with different colors just like in a screenshot.Then,i resize those rectangles randomly and make it vertically positioned.


CARD IN THE MAKING OF:STEP 2


I create another rectangle and apply the filter affect to create a new shape.I use transparency tool and apply the screen effect so it would match with the background colors.

CARD IN THE MAKING OF:STEP 3


Next i create a gradient for later use.


CARD IN THE MAKING OF:STEP 4


I paste the gardient layer onto the main workspace.I type out the birthday wish using text tool and a font that may shows the joy we could had on the day.I stylize the fonts by applying drop shadows effect.


CARD IN THE MAKING OF:STEP 5


I create a new layer to make the star's shape using star tool.Different size of stars would look even better compared then a single n big stars.So,i decided to make lots of stars and later duplicate it.Then I apply the screen effect to the stars.Next i draw the local element(hand held fan) using brush tool,after applying distort and transform effects,I place it at the back of the birthday wish.


CARD IN THE MAKING OF:FINAL STEP 6


I type out the greeting words and here we are.The front side of the card.


BIRTHDAY CARD:STEP 7


Next i create a new document A3 size,landscaped position.I drag the related layers from the card's front side document and paste it into the new created document.Then I resize it accordingly using transform tool.I select the background layer,the colourful part and select flying menu options and choose duplicate selected layers.And there,we have another background created for the card's greeting part.

BIRTHDAY CARD:STEP 8


I create a star using star tool.I create 3-5 stars at first and later I get those star's layer duplicated with different sizes,directions and blending mode being applied.

BIRTHDAY CARD:FINAL STEP

The final step,I make sure the path of the front and greeting part are inside the workspace.Lastly I type out the greeting words.


BIRTHDAY CARD:FINAL LOOK


This is the final view and free to be commented.

The Calendar

Hello again to the followers of my blog.This time's post will be the making of Eid ul-Fitr's Calendar.Here is the description words before we proceed to the designing process.

Eid ul-Fitr,A New Day With A New Hope.On this day,it marks the end of the month-long fast of Ramadan.Muslims are encouraged to dress in their best clothes, new if possible, and to attend a special Eid prayer that is performed in congregation at mosques.


IDEATION OF THE DESIGN

The purpose the calendar being made is to show the celebration of Eid ul-Fitr(arabic).Eid ul-Fitr commemorates the end of the month of Ramadan.Muslims are encouraged to dress in their best clothes, new if possible,that would be the inspiration of the calendar's design and also the reason why i play around with the colors in the calendar.All Muslim's wear a colorful clothes on the day.I use pelita as the main object to symbolise the day of Eid ul-Fitr.Plus,we only use the when celebrating Eid ul-Fitr.


DESIGN OF THE PICTURE

This is the sketch I've made before proceeding my artwork to illustrator.




CALENDAR IN THE MAKING OF:STEP ONE


For the first stage,i open a new document of 31x52cm in size.Next,i select the gradient panel and drag the colors from the pallete.I select the rectangle tool to fit the lower part of the calendar and the color gradient willl fill out the rectangle's inner part.


CALENDAR IN THE MAKING OF:STEP TWO


I make a same method by creating another rectangle with a different color gradient.That will fit the upper part of the calendar.


CALENDAR IN THE MAKING OF:STEP THREE


By refering to the chosen festive's month,I start makin those days of the month by using text tool.I took lots of time arranging those days as we have not been thought yet about the object's compositioning.So,i decide to make the text in 20pt in size so it will be easier for me to arrange it.Next i make the numbers smaller by using transform tool and put it on the calendar's lower part.


CALENDAR IN THE MAKING OF:STEP FOUR


Next,I type out the days in a week and later i use the filter effect,the outer glow.Filter>Stylize>Outer Glow.


CALENDAR IN THE MAKING OF:STEP FIVE


I put the month the festival fall into,month of September.


CALENDAR IN THE MAKING OF:STEP SIX


The hardest part,at first,I try to use the pen tool to make the 'pelita' looks really in shape.After few times of failure,I decide to use the brush tool and I think it's suit to the calendar.I draw the 'pelita' by using different color of strokes.The strokes size is 7pt.


CALENDAR IN THE MAKING OF:STEP SEVEN


I smallize the 'pelita' and later put it on the calendar.I create few circles around the 'pelita' using eclipse tool.


CALENDAR IN THE MAKING OF:STEP EIGHT


This is the shape which i refer to the image I've uploaded.It's a gemoetry shape in Islamic's Architecture.I create a shape using rectangle tool and later duplicate and arrange it vertically.I merge it into one layer and duplicate those layers and resize it few times.


CALENDAR IN THE MAKING OF:STEP NINE


I get all the stuff well positioned.The layers is up to 69 and it's quite messy so I get those layers in a group to make it well organized.


CALENDAR IN THE MAKING OF:FINAL STEP


I type out the festival wish as a final touch.


CALENDAR:THE FINAL LOOK


TOOLS USED IN ILLUSTRATOR
Rectangle Tool
Eclipse Tool
Brush Tool
Free Transform Tool
Text Tool
Filter Tool

REFERENCES IMAGES