Event : Malaysia Hobby Expo, MAEPS & My Biggest Doodle

Before the event :

I found out about the event around 2 weeks before the event. I contacted the number stated in their Facebook, for the guy in charge of the event - vendor booth and asked about the booth's price and the whole process. Told them that I'm a doodler and I want to sell my doodle items - all handmade, to let them know that "I doodle and that's considered as a hobby" because I thought last-minute enquiries will be ignored.

But the guy replied and told me that he will call me instead because he got an idea. Later he called and asked me if I could doodle on a huge white vinyl in exchange of the booth's fees and 2 passes. I discussed with Af, and we felt like it was a good opportunity to get a free booth in exchange of my doodle service, so I agreed :D

A week before the event :

I received an exact size of the white vinyl which was 12 x 16 feet and seeing that I can't imagine how big it was, I just said okay without worrying too much. They asked me to doodle "hobbies theme" so I did several sketches in my sketch book, all the items I want to draw : BookWorm Club, The Cosplayer, The Artsy Crafty, The Collector, The Cook, The Sporty, and lastly The Doodler. Fair enough.

I relaxed, until 2 days before the event and we went to Maeps to actually see the white vinyl and I just found out how big it was ! It was ridiculously big ! Big as I never actually imagined I will doodle on before. By that time I felt a bit anxious for the weekend. They told me to start on Friday so they can hang the doodle before the event.

Later I bought so many markers because I didn't know which one to use, and also to avoid running out of ink for drawing that big. I spent around RM 50 for various of markers - that I finally didn't use :p

On that Friday :

I managed to convince Af to take an unpaid leave to 'teman' me that day and help to doodle as well :D I can't imagine doing it alone in one whole day ! So after breakfast outing, we went to Maeps. We started to doodle around 10 am and we finished filling up the whole space around 7pm. 

I mostly used one of the markers - the biggest one I have, because I like how thick it looked on it. They laid it on the stage so we had the space to draw freely without anyone's attention. 

That was the moment that I realized that I can doodle - still. 

After all this years of my own silent treatment. 

And so we doodled, until our back ache and our mind exhausted from thinking about items to doodle on such a big white space. Aja even came during lunch our to help, and I just strictly said that they can doodle anything they want - but please bear in mind about the space between items and no fill-in colour to let everything look nice together.

We came out with this :

I want to personally thank Aja and Af for helping me.
It was such a nice experience, after this I can answer to people when they ask me 'how big you've doodled before?' - It was 12 x 16 feet in 8 hours :D

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On the event days :

It was a 2-days event, we got a booth in the flea market space. 

I sold all my sticker packs, postcards, greeting card, totebags and zipped bag printed by CreativeUnited. I got around RM 400 for the event, just by selling mostly stickers :) Alhamdulillah. A nice small income for the weekend.

Here is a video made by Af :

Malaysia Hobby Expo 2016 from Farikarim on Vimeo.

Personal thought on the event :

I wish there are more to arts + crafts people and booths around - I was hoping for more stickers and planners and washi tapes and fan-arts, but there was none. Most items are focused on boy's hobbies - figurines, cars, remote-controlled machines and stuffs that I've never really interested in.

And there was no books. Imagine that. 

Is reading not considered as hobby anymore? 

I hope next year people will come up with more than 'boy's-toys' :D 

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After the event :

I didn't want to put all the doodle into waste, so I planned on using it for my digital illustration as well. It worked well as a sketch that I can refer from to be digitalized later and turned into stickers. So I'm putting all updates in my dribbble account for now before printing it now later :

Little Thing 223 : Pokemon Gooo o o

I was born in the 80s, so when Pokemon fever had just arrived in Malaysia in the 90s, my siblings and I were among all the kids 'affected' by the anime. We watched the anime, read the comic, collected the small figurines, sang along to their theme song, watched the first few movies repeatedly, played the game on Gameboy console, and I even finished Pokemon Red + Silver until the very last battle. Yes, I was that dedicated.

But as a kid - and all through my teenage years, that was our 'thing'. It did took a lot of my time, I did stayed in after school to hunt for pokemon and train them all for those battles. But, as normal as anyone who plays game, we should fairly understand that the fever will last depend on the person - some will probably are just not interested, some will play half-way through and some, like me, will spend a LOT of our time finishing up the game. 

But a game, is just a game. 

I had my time, so when the fever strikes again now during my late 20s - I didn't even flinched. I'm not excited, there's no point for me to use my time again to catch all the Pokemon that I caught 15 years ago. Even though they are now in AR world where we can see it in 3D, it still feels like a repetitive game. I already played it twice, I can't put myself in that position again. 

I'm not sure why the world has suddenly put a lot attention in the game until people feel there's a need to put a religious rule on it. How can it be possible for people to say something is haraam just because of all this hype? Can you imagine if for example, my sister downloaded it and caught like 3 pokemons, and rarely open it and suddenly my mom saw her playing the game on just random event when she was bored - and because of the ridiculous new rule she read on shared Facebook post, my mom scolded her for committing a sin =.= Because all mak-mak really like sharing stuffs on social media and believe them all word-by-word. This wouldn't be the first time I argue with my mom about shared posts on social media. Haiyooh.

For me, a game is still a game - any game can affect the player depend on how they decide to play it. It is the same concept. As an ex-gamer, I wouldn't judge other gamers - I just hope they can use their time wisely and play the game moderately. 

These are the points they claimed :

• Bahaya dari segi pengintipan pihak luar 
• Pencerobohan ruang peribadi 
• Faktor keselamatan seperti kemalangan 
• Kelalaian 
• Ketagihan melampau terhadap gajet 
• Kehilangan fokus terhadap realiti sekeliling 
• Gangguan emosi seperti mudah marah akibat kekalahan - what?
• Membawa kepada akhlak yang buruk 
• Ancaman kepada pekerjaan dan pelajaran

As one of the Pokemon gamer 15 years ago that spent 3-6 hours everyday training and hunting for Pokemon, I can conclude that it did took a lot of my time, but everything turned out just fine. My exam results turned out good and my state of mind was just fine. Ditto both my younger siblings and the kids in our neighbourhood.
We had our time. It was all just a game.

Note : The fever was expected, but the new religious rule was not.

Doodle : 2016 Gift-away

Hello !

I'm giving a away a fun parcel packed with little-little items that I made : zipped pouch printed by CreativeUnited + 'Explore' totebag + illustrated postcard + some of my favorite washi tape sets + exclusive signed artprints + random stickers + personally hand-crafted package with all my love. 

I'm not entering the perfect stranger this year, might as well make my own gift-away project :D

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How to :

1. Share this post to your blog/instagram/twitter/facebook and comment below to inform that you are participating in this gift-away.
2. Each share will count as 1 submission - because I will also run this gift-away in facebook and instagram as well. So you can enter as many times as you want.
3. Winner will be selected by random name generator on the 31st August 2016.

Note : Anyone can participate in this gift-away.
Good luck !