ABOUT ME
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Emila Yusof Colourart Contest
Join the fun with Emila Yusof Colourart Contest! Colour your way to winning some great prizes including hand-drawn Emila Yusof tote bags!
How to enter
- Buy any ColourArt by Emila Yusof at OyezBookStore.com.
- Select your favourite drawing from any of the three books from Emila Yusof’s Colourart series.
- Start colouring!
- Upload a photo of your masterpiece to Oyez!Books FB page with the title Emila Yusof Colourart Contest.
- Get your friends to vote for your masterpiece by clicking Like.
- The Top 5 photos with the most Likes will be judged by Emila Yusof who will then select the winner!
Rules
- Contest runs from 15 May to 14 June 2015.
- Colouring must be done on original drawings from any of the Colourart books by Emila Yusof. These are Mother Earth, Nature Sings and Dream World.
- Colouring can be done in any medium as long as it is done by hand.
- Only photos posted on Oyez!Books page during the contest period will be eligible for entry. Posted photos can be shared.
- Photos may be used for promotional purposes on Oyez!Books website and social media channels.
- Total Likes will be based on statistics as provided by Facebook for the period of the contest. Cutoff time is 12pm on 14 June.
- Contest results will be announced by 14 June at Silverfish Bookstore at 4-5pm. Judge’s decision is final.
Prizes
- Winner will receive RM100 worth of book vouchers from Oyez!Books, one complete set of all Colourart books, and a beautiful hand-drawn tote bag by Emila Yusof.
- The remaining four participants from the Top 5 will receive one Colourart book of their choice, and a beautiful hand-drawn tote bag by Emila Yusof.
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Mother Earth – Colourart by Emila Yusof
My first colouring book for adult is out!
Colour your way to an appreciation of beauty and nature. You may also frame your masterpiece to decorate your room or give it as a gift. Printed on quality art paper suitable for water colour, pencil colours or markers. The reverse of each piece of art is blank so you do not have to worry about damaging the next artwork.
Mother Earth – Colourart by Emila Yusof
Softcover with Art paper
Size:210 x 240 mm
Pages:24
RM20.00You can buy the book at OyezBookStore.
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Mama’s Garten got recommended by the German Foundation Reading
My German publisher of Mamas Garten e-book, Feingespinst, sent a good news that the e-book got recommended by the German Stiftung Lesen (Foundation Reading)!It was recommended by book (and ebook) expert, Christine Kranz.The best sentence is:
“A lovingly designed and illustrated book, which of course can be combined perfectly with a trip to the countryside. Garden dreams are possible everywhere!”
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Featured in Fireflyz Magazine, March Issue
There was an error in the article; please read ‘Girl From Perak’ as ‘Girl From Pahang’.
Here’s the full article:
Colour me Happy
Self-taught illustrator and children’s book author Emila Yusof’s beautiful picture books are beginning to attract an international audience. Firefly met the Malaysian talent to find out where and how she produces her beautiful tomes.Emila Yusof could be just the woman to engage children in reading. She fights on the side of paper in the war on technology, producing beautifully illustrated books that explode with colour and whimsical characters, introducing today’s youngsters to the world of gardens and crafts and capturing the imagination of the young through her words and pictures.
Picture Perfect
Malaysian-born Emila has been an established illustrator and author for the past few years, attracting the admiration of readers and industry insiders alike for her ability to create lovely stories and illustrate them with beauty and grace, and a healthy dose of vibrancy.
She has produced a set of alphabet books for children and illustrated the book The Legendary Princesses of Malaysia, but is perhaps best known for the charming, recurring character of Dina. Dina first appeared in the beautiful My Mother’s Garden and is now becoming an icon in her own right, accompanying Emila on her trips abroad.
While Emila has enjoyed a strong reputation and loyal audience on her home shores for some time, the rest of the world is finally sitting up and paying attention thanks to ongoing trips abroad to promote her work at various international book fairs. One of Emila’s books was recently picked up by a German publisher and is set to be translated, while another is being licenced for an online book animation in Taiwan – “I believe it’s a good start” Emila says humbly.
The Girl from
PerakPahangInternational success as a book author and illustrator was far from the mind of the young Emila growing up in Perak, who harboured dreams of being a fashion designer but had a drawing pencil firmly in her hand from the age of five. “It is in me,” she says, “I just have to draw.”
Her creative instincts led to a career as a graphic designer, before she moved into illustrating in 2007 and finally to her role as an author in 2010. The move to create her own picture books was one prompted by an inability to find ones she liked, drawing on the world around her to create books that sing with Malaysian culture and traditions.
Her books have proved popular with the young audience for whom they are intended, but her skills have also caused a flurry of invitations to attend events and appear at workshops, both in Malaysia and abroad.
An Online Story
Emila’s unexpected journey to fame has been documented on her blog Emilatopia since 2005, an award-winning site where she records her thoughts, her achievements, her latest creations and some jealousy-inducing photographs from her travels around the world.
“Blogging is an important platform to get more people to discover my artworks and books,” she explains, “and it has helped to get comments on how I can improve my art.”
There seems to be little space for improvement in the beautiful works Emila has created so far, which appear in alongside text in both English and Malay and sparkle with colour and fun.
Her inspiration is drawn from travel: “The world is made-up of all sorts of colours, I love the richness and vibrancy of it (Oh, I love autumn!). And I think that is reflected in my work, the highly saturated and vibrant colours.”
There is also a distinctive Malaysian style to her books, which Emila feels is important to “keep people aware of the things we have in our country.”
Hard Work
While globe-trotting serves to get the ideas flowing, Emila creates her work from her home in the Malaysian capital, trying to maintain focus on drawing with a husband, son and cat in tow. “The tight deadlines are tough for me,” she admits. “I have to balance my work with the household chores.”
While many marvel at her whimsical creations and imaginative work, Emila had no formal training and remains adamant that skills such as hers can be learnt “as long as you have the passion to draw” she stresses.
Her passion continues to produce a steady stream of fine creations, with forthcoming works including Dina’s reappearance in My Father’s Farm and others that have yet to come to life under her pen.
Keep an eye on Emilatopia to keep tabs on the humble Malaysian, admire her images on Instagram (emilayusof), or visit her agent to see how you can get your hands on her books (http://www.yusofgajahlingard.com/emila-yusof.html).
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My Mother’s Garden e-book in German Language
Following a success in licensing the e-book right to a publisher, Feingespinst, My Mother’s Garden, or Mama’s Garten, is now available for purchase at:
– Apple iBookstore for Apple iOS (iPad, iPhone) sowie MacOS (iBooks)
https://itunes.apple.com/de/book/mamas-garten/id958579956…– Kobo eBook Store for diverse eReader auf Apple iOS (iPad, iPhone), MacOS, Android, PC/Windows (ePUB3)
http://store.kobobooks.com/de-DE/ebook/mamas-gartenIt will soon be available at Amazon Kindle-Shop and Google Play-Shop.
Mamas Garten (4,99 €)
ein interaktives Audio-Touch-Bilderbuch
von Emila Yusof -
German Digital Deal for My Mother’s Garden
I have good news; My Mother’s Garden (MMG) has been sold to Anja Leidel of KONO Design und Technologie GmbH for world German ebook right. KONO also optioned world German print and digital rights for the series.
It was a case of serendipity when I met Anja at the Frankfurt Book Fair during her very short trip around the fair halls. She was looking for illustrators and I took the chance to introduce myself and my books. I gave her a copy of MMG and two days before I return to Malaysia, she e-mailed me about her intention in translating my book to German and published it as e-book. I quickly jump at the opportunity and now the e-book is at its re-designing stage by Anja. The enhanced ebook with audio will be published before Christmas this year. It will be made available for sale at Apple’s iBook Store, and for the Google and Amazons Kindle devices.
Since it was first published in English, My Mother’s Garden has gone through a second print run and translated into Malay by Malaysian publisher Karangkraf. It has also been animated by Moker Taiwan and English digital rights sold to Perbadanan Kota Buku, Malaysia.
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Collaborative Princess book
I’m back! There are so many exciting stories to tell and this is one of it.
With Malaysian Consul General to Germany, Adina Kamaruddin. She loves the Legendary Princesses of Malaysia and bought all copies that I had.Oyez!Books and I collected more than 20 stories for my upcoming new collaborative book—of legendary princesses from around the world—at the Frankfurt Book Fair this year.
Oyez!Books, represented by Linda Tan Lingard at the fair presented the list of countries below:
- Belgium
- Bulgaria
- Canada
- Chile
- China
- Egypt
- Estonia
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- India
- Indonesia
- Iran (Persia)
- Korea
- Netherlands
- Philippines
- Romania
- Serbia
- Singapore
- Switzerland
- Thailand
- Turkey
- UAE
- UK (Wales)
- Vietnam
Stories and legends of princesses were collected from people who dropped by my table at the Malaysian stand. In some cases Linda went and asked at different country stands especially at Hall 5.0 where the international publishers were.
The next step will be to follow up with the contributors for the full story, background and image references for me to illustrate the book.
Many people at the fair loved the idea and all the more when they saw my illustrations in Legendary Princesses of Malaysia. In addition, a Spanish publisher has expressed interest in a co-edition.
Submissions and contributors were accepted only during the fair but all other queries may be addressed to: lindalingard@yusofgajahlingard.com.