Merayakan Kehilangan is first book ever published by Brian Khrisna in 2016.

It contains compilation of his writings and poems about the feeling of losing and letting go.

Below are the first cover.

The book received good review from the readers and Media Kita, the publisher, asked Brian to release a special cover of its 5th anniversary of the first release.

Brian came up with the idea to take the setting illustration in Bandung, his hometown. 

A view from Pasupati bridge (now Prof Mochtar Kusumaatmadja) chosen as the scenery.  

Luckily I have tons of scenery photo of Bandung. Photo above are taken in 2016, the first time I'm using Fujicolor C200 film camera from the Pasupati bridge in the morning. Brian also love the idea to make morning as the time in the illustration as shown in the photo.

The feeling of losing and letting go that visually represented by a person longing for a something on the first cover, become the basic idea for the cover re-issue.

I made three layout for the initial sketch.

Brian love the second one as the scenery from Pasupati bridge captured well and the character doesn't need to be too exposed. The bike added to the illustration are classic Honda Astrea Grand; the persona represented need to be at least relatable for certain young people in Bandung who like some sort of classic bike.

I carefully chose and stack houses for the cleaned up sketch. Also making the proportion of the composition looking good and balanced.

The initial tone were greenish since reference I took tend to have that sort of vibe.

Dreamy and calming morning. I have confidence with this tone at first.

Going through the detailing process, I enjoyed drawing roof and houses with its textures and shadows. Kind of intensive labor but the complex the detail is

the more enjoyable the drawing process.

The Astrea Grand were black with its classic stripes. The black ones are the most common color of this series. Later it changed to red after some adjustment of the colors

First draft of the colored version. Brian were ok with the shape details but not with the color. It's too greenish and doesn't shows the desired mood.

A major color changing are issued for all of the part.

So I make hue, color balance and saturation adjustment. Still couldn't get the desired mood. Quite tricky to change whole color tone those color adjustment. 

After some adjustments here and there finally I can get the desired mood. Not only the hue, saturation and the color balance, I did some adjustments manually for the skies and the character. Color of the bike are also changed. Watch the coloring process below.

Final illustration:

It's quite a long process. Please enjoy the details below. I made every spot enjoyable as much as possible. 

Here's the final products:

ALWAYS FORGET TO TAKE PHOTOS OF MY PORTFOLIO IN THE BOOK STORE SO HERE IT IS REMAINING ONE IN MY WIFE PHONE:

Thank you!