Emila Yusof

But I won’t be jumping to joy yet as there are Bigbook 4, 5 and 6 waiting in line for me to draw them. Here’s a cropped page from Bigbook3. All titles will be revealed once they have been printed.

Here are some quote banners for you to put up on your sidebar. These are all made from my drawings accompanied by famous quotable quotes (original quoters are given credit). I am glad I found a way of sharing  my drawings with you.

I hope you can relate to these banners and feel free to copy + paste the codes in your blog. Enjoy!

Basically the size is square 250 x 250 pixels but if you want a smaller size, please adjust the width and height value equally.

Source code:

<a href="http://emilayusof.com/category/blog-banner/"><img src="http://i448.photobucket.com/albums/qq205/emilayusof/eybg250qb01.jpg" alt="get your free blog banner at emilayusof.com" width="250" height="250"></a>

Source code:

<a href="http://emilayusof.com/category/blog-banner/"><img src="http://i448.photobucket.com/albums/qq205/emilayusof/eybg250qb02.jpg" alt="get your free blog banner at emilayusof.com" width="250" height="250"></a>

Source code:

<a href="http://emilayusof.com/category/blog-banner/"><img src="http://i448.photobucket.com/albums/qq205/emilayusof/eybg250qb03.jpg" alt="get your free blog banner at emilayusof.com" width="250" height="250"></a>

Source code:

<a href="http://emilayusof.com/category/blog-banner/"><img src="http://i448.photobucket.com/albums/qq205/emilayusof/eybg250qb04.jpg" alt="get your free blog banner at emilayusof.com" width="250" height="250"></a>

Source code:

<a href="http://emilayusof.com/category/blog-banner/"><img src="http://i448.photobucket.com/albums/qq205/emilayusof/eybg250qb05.jpg" alt="get your free blog banner at emilayusof.com" width="250" height="250"></a>

Source code:

<a href="http://emilayusof.com/category/blog-banner/"><img src="http://i448.photobucket.com/albums/qq205/emilayusof/eybg250qb06.jpg" alt="get your free blog banner at emilayusof.com" width="250" height="250"></a>

Source code:

<a href="http://emilayusof.com/category/blog-banner/"><img src="http://i448.photobucket.com/albums/qq205/emilayusof/eybg250qb07.jpg" alt="get your free blog banner at emilayusof.com" width="250" height="250"></a>

Source code:

<a href="http://emilayusof.com/category/blog-banner/"><img src="http://i448.photobucket.com/albums/qq205/emilayusof/eybg250qb08.jpg" alt="get your free blog banner at emilayusof.com" width="250" height="250"></a>

Source code:

<a href="http://emilayusof.com/category/blog-banner/"><img src="http://i448.photobucket.com/albums/qq205/emilayusof/eybg250qb09.jpg" alt="get your free blog banner at emilayusof.com" width="250" height="250"></a>

Source code:

<a href="http://emilayusof.com/category/blog-banner/"><img src="http://i448.photobucket.com/albums/qq205/emilayusof/eybg250qb10.jpg" alt="get your free blog banner at emilayusof.com" width="250" height="250"></a>

Happy Independence Day to all Malaysians wherever you are.

A sketch of Sultan Abdul Samad Building from my sketchbook. Ink & Watercolor.

Updated my gallery with more photos. I’m not a pro, expect flaws here and there.

Dear Marzie, because you’re you, I’m celebrating today! May today be filled with sunshine and smiles, laughter and love. Happy Birthday.

Here are some Merdeka blog banners for you to put up on your sidebar. Do you want more free banners for other occasion or for everyday use? If so, leave me your thoughts on my comment box.

Basically the size is 250 x 250 pixels but if you want a smaller size, please adjust the width and height value.

Source code:

<a href="http://emilayusof.com"><img src="http://i448.photobucket.com/albums/qq205/emilayusof/eybg250m1.jpg" alt="get your free blog banner at emilayusof.com" width="250" height="250"></a>

Source code:

<a href="http://emilayusof.com"><img src="http://i448.photobucket.com/albums/qq205/emilayusof/eybg250m2.jpg" alt="get your free blog banner at emilayusof.com" width="250" height="250"></a>

Source code:

<a href="http://emilayusof.com"><img src="http://i448.photobucket.com/albums/qq205/emilayusof/eybg250m3.jpg" alt="get your free blog banner at emilayusof.com" width="250" height="250"></a>

Source code:

<a href="http://emilayusof.com"><img src="http://i448.photobucket.com/albums/qq205/emilayusof/eybg250m4.jpg" alt="get your free blog banner at emilayusof.com" width="250" height="250"></a>

Source code:

<a href="http://emilayusof.com"><img src="http://i448.photobucket.com/albums/qq205/emilayusof/eybg250m5.jpg" alt="get your free blog banner at emilayusof.com" width="250" height="250"></a>

HDUP SEORANG BLOGGER or Life as a blogger is a contest hosted by Denaihati and sponsored by eQurban.com.

This entry is related to my first post – HIDUP SEORANG BLOGGER I.

Have you read the part one yet? Ok, cool. Now the next thing you need to know is why Emila blogs?

I actually blog just for fun in the beginning and it became serious when I quit my 9 to 5 job. I mostly share my artworks with people with the hope of getting constructive comments and from there I would try to improve my work. Later on, I developed an interest of becoming a children’s book illustrator and I see that blogging is just the right platform to get my art and self known to public. And so I built up my portfolio from scratch, from doing personal artworks to taking up commission jobs. I recorded everything in my blog. I joined social networks to connect with people and let them know what’s new in my blog.

I took the opportunity of blogging and tried making some money by doing paid posts, sell hand-painted totes, create illustrations for online shops such as GCU, Imagekind, Zazzle and Etsy. I made quite a descent pocket money but that does not gain me a lot of money, so I decided to open up my own online little shop to sell my stuff and take design jobs for blog makeovers or header illustrations or personalised dolly (thanks to my blogger buddy, Marzie for the idea of selling the dolly). Alhamdulillah, todate, I get a lot of online commission jobs.

My effort of getting myself known has been fruitful. Two years ago, a publisher discovered me! And last year, I won big; I was the first winner of Foldees.com greeting card contest and bagged a Wacom tablet plus hard cold cash of RM2500.  And early this year, I became the Grand Prize winner of Blog4FT contest for my “Kuala Lumpur: A to Z Fun things to do with Kids” entry. It was an illustrated e-book that I offer for free downloads. This has won me a brand new Peugeot 308 Vti!! Back in 2007, I made it to the Top 5 of AMBP list and got to stay at Awana Genting. And best thing is, todate, I have thousands of friends locally and internationally.

My son, Yassin, posing with our winning car. He and his dad were my biggest supporters throughout the Blog4FT contest.

You see, being a blogger is worth it. If not for blogging, I would not have been invited to join such contests and win something. If not for blogging, I would have not been discovered by  Linda Tan Lingard who is willing to publish my first picture book and sponsor my trip to Italy to attend the Bologna Children’s Book Fair and made it possible for me to blog from Italy. If not for blogging, I would have not met Yusof Gajah, the famous award-winning illustrator who has made it possible for me to join the Words+Pictures=Book, Contemporary Malaysian Picture Book Illustration Exhibition at Petronas Gallery.

Somewhere near Trevi, Italy

You see, being a blogger is really worth it. It has realised a dream of a typical housewife to be a children’s book writer and illustrator and get rewarded with things that she could not buy on her own.

This is my story; life as a blogger. HIDUP SEORANG BLOGGER.

p/s: I am taking this opportunity to thank all of you who has made my blogging life a successful one. A BIG THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart.

Related Posts:
HIDUP SEORANG BLOGGER
HIDUP SEORANG BLOGGER I
HIDUP SEORANG BLOGGER II

This contest is hosted by Denaihati and sponsored by eQurban.com.

Uma Krishnaswami from Writing with A Broken Tusk wrote a review on my first picture book “My Mother’s Garden”.

My Mother’s Garden by Emila Yusof

Regionally specific children’s books are hard to come by in much of Southeast Asia, so it’s nice to see My Mother’s Garden, an offering from OneRedFlower, a Malaysian press.

Here are some things debut author-illustrator Emila Yusof does in this book:

She doesn’t drum in its cultural or geographic specificity. It’s just the first person narrative of a child in a garden with her cat, playing and watching until the raindrops fall, driving them indoors.

This garden, however, does not have roses and daffodils in it. It’s full of lush tropical plantings, and the child doesn’t stop to explain that. She just plays on the cusp of reality and her own fantastic imaginings, while around her are aloe vera and hibiscus, ginger and frangipani and ixora. Backmatter shows us the botanical and common names of plants in the book, along with spot illustrations, but young readers can just as easily enjoy the book without this added information.

Children who live near such gardens will recognize them and feel the pleasure that comes with familiarity. Children who have never seen a frangipani tree could well feel the very different pleasure that comes from traveling through the pages of a book.

Slice of life stories may feel passe in markets that were deluged with them twenty years ago, but in some places the questions still remain: whose slice and which lives are being privileged, and why.

Thank you Uma!

While I am busy struggling to meet deadline for bigbook 3, my husband and son is having a great time at the kitchen this morning. They are making bahulu. Yassin is so happy to make his first kuih!