Event : Comic Fiesta 2017 + Things I Bought

I thought I prepared myself for my first Comic Fiesta. 

I did, but it was not enough. 

The event was huuuuuuuge, huge as in 2 big halls in KLCC convention center, not including people outside, waiting at the park, super-packed alleys that you need to slowly walk, long queues of people waiting to meet their celebrity cosplayer or take turn to try out games, or even buy things. This was my very first huge event. The biggest one so far, and I've never seen such crowd :F

My booth was located at B-B01, so it was among the first booth at basic art booth, next to the premium ones. We bought extra ticket for Af as my assistant of the weekend, so we could take turn to walk and find nice beautiful things that people made. 

New things I prepared for Comic Fiesta :

• 2nd version of 'Game Nerd' enamel pin (almost sold out before the event)
• 1st version of 'Book Nerd' enamel pin (sold out before the event)
• 'My Doodle Book' zine (not so many people bought)
• Sticker sheets x 4 (so - so, people like the Harry Potter fan-art sticker)

Things that were sold fast :

• The remaining enamel pins sold out in the first few hours
• Japanese sticker pack version 2 + 3
• Laser-cut 'Game Nerd' keychain
• Laser-cut charms 
• and several more MesinWood + Eureka stuffs.

From this event, I can conclude that the audience love movie - series - anime related fan-arts. I didn't make as many fan-art stuffs as other booths, so we didn't get as much hits. If I want to attend more events like this : Comic Fiesta, Comic Art Festival KL, Animangaki, etc - I need to make more fan-arts, it is what sells compared to original illustrations. Some people even came and asked whether : "There are characters that I know of ?" or keep calling the 'Game Nerd' stuffs inspired by the original Game Boy as "Beemo" from Adventuretime. I never felt so old. 

But anyway, the sales was so great - we reached the highest sales for any events I've ever attended so far ! It gives us hope and kinda show me that my hard work almost paid off. I love selling my stuffs and creation to people, even how 'syok-sendiri' it might seems sometimes. But without people keep on buying and supporting, I would never be this far.  

Thank you - for every support, every money spent on buying the things that I made, for every visits, for every 'hello - I'm a fan'. You have no idea how hard I work throughout this year as a full-time independent illustrator and designer just to pay my bills and prove that I never wanted anything so bad. I love every single day I'm working for the past 9 months, creating, planning, and making stuffs. I am so happy guys, thank you. Thank you for the wonderful 2017 journey !

PS - You can also support me on my Patreon : https://www.patreon.com/azreenchan ❤ Where I share more detail stuffs on the projects I'm working on, on current life and thoughts and tips + tricks.

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And here's for the things I bought from illustrators and comic artists at Comic Fiesta !

You know, I took so many short trips to finish both 2 halls :

• because the halls were so big
• and there were too many people, so it was a slow-paced, taking turns kinda thing
• and sometimes so many people came to our booth, I can't just leave Af alone :F

But I told Af, that I've been waiting to join these kind of events and it is just once a year thing - so I need to explore and find great illustrators. It was the only chance to be surrounded by so many inspiring people ! Here I bought a LOT of printed stuffs to be added into my doodle book. This made me so happy ❤ I tagged almost all comic artists and illustrators, please do follow their work on Instagram.

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Like chibi stickers by Foxkunkun and name card from Meyoco (there was nothing that I can buy from her booth that was not out of my budget) :

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Lokamade was everywhere in bookstores, so it wasn't as exciting as meeting Ashionglee from Indonesia in person ! He is an Indonesian National Graphic Illustrator and I asked for his signature. Super inspiring. I also bought the 'Passion Pays' sticker from my partner ; Eurekartstudio.

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A colouring book from the legendary Kidchan/Cyanparade !
Two things that I love from this series :

1. Black/White stroke - no colours, so I can see just the beautiful strokes without getting distracted by colours
2. Symmetry 

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I also bought a 'Thor' sticker and an art-print inspired by Rogue One from Machodoodle/Amelia Lo from Indonesia. She got a lot of cool stuffs, but I had to limit my budget and not get too many things at one place :

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Weiliwonka and Pottetto were 2 local illustrators that I found from the previous CAFKL. I was super excited to see different kind of strokes and styles being used in illustration (because most booths were anime/manga-based style). I didn't buy anything Pottetto because the sticker set from her 'Stranger Things' fan-arts were sold out (too bad) :

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Hope to see you guys again next year !

❤

Video : Etsy Made Local 2016

Af finally compiled the video he took at the previous Etsy Made Local event - read the post here. Thaaaaank you Etsy team and also to Af who has been right at my side in every events + activities I participated since we got married. 

These final months in 2016 had been great, fun, busy and exciting, I joined an event at Public Garden Singapore, with Etsy Made Local and also Rantai 10th year anniversary. I also taught a doodle class to children for school holiday program and almost reach 100 orders in my Etsy this year alone. T^T

This was a great year, thank you guys ♥ 

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Made Local by Etsy 2016 from Farikarim on Vimeo.

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Events : Junk-ed Maker's Market, Wisma Central

The last 2 weekend were spent at different events : 1. Junked Makers’ Market in Wisma Central, Jalan Ampang near KLCC and another one 2. Etsy Made Local, at Battery Acid Club in PJ. Both were a one-day event.

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The day started early in the morning on Saturday - we both drove to KL almost late because the event was supposed to start at 10am and we went out quite late to buy the tiles to make the kitchen top at my apartment. So we used GPS and took MEX highway to avoid the unwanted traffic, I did a double check on the flat-rate parking fees at Avenue K : RM 5 for the whole day which seemed the most affordable and nearest one considering we were staying for the whole day. The items were all packed in 3 big bags that were easy to bring for a short walk across the road.

Little lights all over the event :

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Junked Makers’ Market :

The event was located at Level 2, Wisma Central - the place that we sometimes go to print stuffs in the city. When I arrived at the place, the organizer greeted me. She recognized me immediately - she then ushered me to my booth. A nice booth located by the end of the corridor, next to the bigger space where people give talks and created art installation. There were little LED lights along the corridor : on the floor and on the ceiling, the place was a bit dark and not so good for business as people can't see clearly all the items on the desk - I wish I brought a desk lamp, but it was cozy and comfortable, macam tempat lepak2. Especially when they played a nice playlist of : the XX, Mew, Artic Monkey, etc all through the event. 

Note : This was also why I didn't take any photos for the event, the lighting was quite bad :F 

Here I took snapshots from Af's videos :

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The vendors :

The event was a really small event with not more than 15 vendors, in conjunction with a cafe’s launching and several talks of the day about 3D printing and laser cutting. I met one of the artist that I really like the intenet : Syarifah Nadhirah. She does a really nice soft-coloured watercolour painting that I’ve come to like from her society6 account. So I bought two of her printed postcards : one of it was a picture of lime and lemon collection, and another one was a drawing of artichokes. I already put inside my journal. Oh, I also asked for her signature. I make that a habit - every time I buy postcard or art prints from artists or designers, I make sure I ask for their signature. As a token of a short awkward meetups. I will try better next time !

The organizers :
They also have a really nice friendly organizers. I felt a bit old, seeing this kids managing stuffs and all. But I also felt their strong vibes that I used to feel when I started my early years at events and booths. So it was a nice reminder :)

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The video highlight :

Like always, video highlight was made by AF, 

please contact him for any projects regarding videos :

JunkED Makers' Market 2016 from Farikarim on Vimeo.

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Outcome :

Sales : RM 200
- Booth rent : RM 60
- Parking : RM 5
- Foods of the day : RM 70
- Car : RM 30

My sales was not so great, just enough to pay the rent, eat lunches and dinner at IKEA and some extra more. The event was not too hectic and busy, people were friendly and supportive, just not so many crowds as I wish it would. 

Here is the poster I made for the event :

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Here's a map of Prototype Gallery :

Mini Escapism : Tanjong Sepat, Selangor

It was Shazni's aka Nerdless Art's wedding. 

I'm not quite fond of weddings but he came to my wedding last May with his friends - all the way from KL to Pekan *there were only a few friends that came, him included. So I felt the need to show up to his big day, I didn't even argue with Ma :D 

So all of us readied ourselves that Sunday morning. The wedding was held in Tanjong Sepat, around 40+km from our house. We wore our specially-made Batik from ma, the one that she made for my wedding event - *for her and my siblings. The mixture of red, purple and black, it was custom-hademade sewn into a kurung modern. We actually even got a small sling bag matched with the clothes as well.
Food was good, the event was nice.

On our way back, we stopped by at Kampung Batu Laut to take some pictures. We randomly stopped the car when we saw reachable nice view, it wasn't even the place to hangout kot because no one was there compared to Pantai Morib not quite far from the location. And air tengah surut! Even better. There were a lot of tiny crabs, the wind blown so strong and we took a LOT of pictures. Because it was such a beautiful-beautiful place :

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Definitely a place for us to do road-trips in the near future ♥ 

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Here is a picture of us :

We also stopped by at Pantai Morib afterwards for cendol and fresh coconut drink. It was packed with people spending time with families. Food stalls were everywhere, people playing roller blades and scooter, flying kites and bubbles. The view wasn't even half as good as the place that we stopped by. Too bad, they kinda missed out this :

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Book : IQ84 *updates*

Notes :

Although I am a woman, I am not much of a normal-chick-lit & romance fiction's reader. Book reviews reading experiences mostly came from something as odd and heavy as this or as light and inspiring as Mitch Albom & Paulo Coelho. I know majority of this blog reader is pre-adult : below 24, due to my doodle interest. So I hope you won't take my book recommendation into your account, unless you are as bookaholic as me and read for life. Thank you ❤

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Book 1 : IQ84

It has ended well, I took longer than I intended.
Maybe due to the very slow start.

It reminds me of The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo trilogy with less big words, odd names, political complications and wordily-visual brutal scenes. Both touch topics on publication and the dark horrifying side of rape cases. Aomame is a lot like Lisbeth Salander but without the super genius brain and photographic memory. If you loved Stieg Larsson's trilogy, most probably you'll love IQ84. You can read synopsis & reviews here.

This book is not suitable for young adult, because it is a little disturbing especially the terrifying scenes on child rape - at least it was disturbing enough for me. *Although Haruki Murakami did not visually written any of those scenes - the simplicity of his writing is quite impressive. Stieg Larsson was too visual and that was impressive in a different way. If you want something different than normal fictions, maybe you can try the book. 

Self-note : 

IQ84 is not IQ level - 84 but 1984, the year the event took place and Q stands for 'question'. 

One of the main character in the book, Tengo, reminds me of my colleague at the lab. Although he doesn't write books and teach at cram school.

I love his simple way of telling stories & emotions. Might read more of his books later.

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Book 2 : IQ84

I can bear any pain as long as it has meaning. - IQ84

Along with the long story dragged slowly, I managed to keep on reading, sometimes for hours in the bus, and train, completely unaware of my surrounding. *which was pretty impressive. There were disturbing intense scenes : on Air Chrysalis and those creepy Little People from the book that Fuka-Eri wrote, on finally meeting the Leader, on purification part between Tengo &  Fuka-Eri? - I need a deeper understanding on why must intercourse has anything to do with self-purification , this reminded me so much of the Dan Brown's book - Da Vinci's Code. 

If Haruki chose not to explain it in the third book, well, he would be some-what a very irresponsible person. And I'll dislike him. He can't possibly dug a hole and leave it empty. A good writer needs to explain his story.

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Currently on
Book 3 : IQ84

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PS : Amazon bought the GoodReads ! 

Is that good? I hate Amazon, they are not Malaysia-friendly.

Homestay : Day 1 : Kmpg Kuala Medang

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Hello !

Last weekend I was lucky enough to join Blogger's Day Out with Pahang's Homestay Program by Tourism Pahang. 

Being adopted by random families for a short length of time is not new to me. This was not my first home-stay experience, I joined several home-stay programs with Rakan Muda in Pahang ( Kuala Lipis & Janda Baik ) while I was in Uniten and also to Japan (Fukuoka) while I was in my school years.  This would probably be my forth or fifth time. 

In this program I went to :

Home-stay Kuala Medang, Kuala Lipis

Home-stay Kmpg. Peruas, Raub

Home-stay Kmpg. Sungai Pasu, Raub

Along with other famous bloggers : Lily ,  RaW ,  Fiey Ahmads , Fahd & Zara. Meeting them was an eye-opening experience, they shared many little stories and tips from their journey. Each blogger got their own style and ways to travel & share their stories. Although I am more to silence and solace while  traveling, with them, I was triggered to join in the little society : and boy they were a LOT fun & louder than they seemed on the first day :D

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Home-stay Kmpg. Kuala Medang, Kuala Lipis, Pahang.

DAY 1 :

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Food Galore :

Lemang To' Ki in Bentong

Our delicious lunch.

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Boat Ride

The boat ride experience was by far the most exciting activity on our first day. It was one hot sunny afternoon when we first take a ride off to the other small kampung : Kuala Serau . It took about 10-15 minutes ride to arrive there.

We were also given a chance to feed fishes in the river. Countless fishes snatched fish pallets hurrily when I lowered down my hand in the water. Cold and slippery fish's skin, thank God I am not afraid of fishes! 

On our way back home, rain started to pour down lightly.

It was one great experience, having to ride a boat both in hot and rainy time.

How tall can the river goes

Lily & Fahd

Our boats.