Work Related : Wander - Second travel book + Video

The book, I should have written about my self-published book like 2 weeks ago when I opened for the pre-order (it ended last night). But I was busy and pre-occupied with other small projects and workshops and restocking stuffs  :F I didn't even updated my Patreon page as many times as I should this month. 

But I had my coffee and chocolate treats and I supposed I should write something about it now.

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This is a project that took a year to finish. 

Book projects take so much time and energy especially when I'm the one that have to decide on the tone and the style and the cover and the quality of the work. No one gave me any direction - yes, I received suggestions and opinions but in the end I decided on everything. So it is a 'syok-sendiri' project. 

I didn't want it to be a travelogue, I didn't want it to be a guide, I didn't want it to be a comic. But I wanted it to be just like a personal travel diary - almost exactly like something that anyone can do when they travel because I did just that. That was my daily input when I was travelling in those 14-days Japan trip. I wanted to show people that it is possible to do such thing (even if you are not a comic artist, or a writer - you can definitely compile something and make your own book).

Wander (buy the book here) 🚀 :

In this book :

• Daily activities
• Places I visited in Osaka, Kyoto & Nara
• Halal restaurants in Osaka
• Things I saw and found interesting
• On foods
• Stamps & ticket/passes I collected

More about this book :

• Size : A5
• Pages : 60 coloured pages
• Printed on 360 gsm matt-laminated cover + 128 gsm art paper for the content
• Language : English
• Self-published, printed in Malaysia
• 100 copies first-print
• Signed and numbered

Editing was done by my English teacher, Miss Chin.

Note : If you found any spelling/grammatical mistakes please inform me via email : azreen_31@hotmail.com so I can edit and print the improved version in the next printing. After all, this is a self-published book, I didn't have the budget to hire professional copy-writer 😅

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This book means so much to me, because I did what I wanted to do. I know I travel a lot and every time I travelled, I feel like I should have produce/make something out of it. Useful stuffs. So that my travels will mean something, will somehow benefit others. I'm glad I compiled this in a book form.

Buy Eskapi (Singapore + Indonesia), read more.

Buy 'Wander' (Japan).

The making :

Work Related : All Things New + Shiny

I think I've been super productive these couple of months. I love making and creating things without anyone telling me what-I-should do or not-do. I think there is something about being an artist, you kinda choose to follow your instinct and passion. 

As a designer, I had to follow all the designer's rules and requirements made by clients. Although it is good (in a way), I always thought it was somehow giving me limitations and I'll be stuck and depressed (every day). It did taught me how to be a better designer, but I was born a rebel. I don't like to follow :F I think if Yayoi Kusama listened to other people's critiques since she started making art, she won't be the legendary Polka-dots Queen now. 

As an independent illustrator, I can experiment on things that I want to learn and explore. I can use the same colour all over again, I can try different styles and decide on how the end product should be. All my syok-sendiri stuffs that make me feel excited to work everyday. ❤

Here are the things I made since I work as a full-time independent illustrator :

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They are available at my :

Local e-store (Malaysian only)

Etsy (International)

And I am forever thankful to people who chose to

support me on my Patreon (I love you guys forever)

❤ ❤ ❤

Work Related : First Self-published Travelogue 2

My love for far-off places started when I was 14, after my first Fukuoka homestay program in 2000. I decided then, to collect as much money as I can, to distant myself from my friends (so I wouldn't feel bad when I need to say goodbye) and to love being alone (in case I never meet any like-minded life partner) in order to fully commit to the idea of travelling in my whole adult life. 

When I was small, travelling was only something rich people/international students would do. Without money, we can't really go to far places because flight tickets alone was so expensive. As I mentioned, I started collecting money when I was really young, by the time I finished my degree when I was 25, I managed to collect RM 10,000 from all my duit raya, daily school money, and part-time works. Those were collected since I was born, because I hardly touch the money from my ASB and I am a very dedicated person. It wasn't much la, but collecting money that much without any help from parents or full-time work, RM 10,000 was a LOT.

So by 2009, I started travelling every year. 

I think I started by going to Umrah, and every year afterwards, I allocated money to go to at least 1 new place each year. 

And because I am really thankful for achieving my life-long dream to travel to new places, I also put an effort to record my stories while travelling by writing, taking photos and doodling. So that I won't forget that I've been dedicating my life to see these wonderful places in this world and I'm hoping to share it with the world back.

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I love books, I love writings and I love illustrations, eventually I knew I wanted to share my own travel journal. Of course, anyone can write a travelogue, or buy a guidebook from the bookstores. But what I wanted to share was something more personal. Little tit-bits, little stories, random mini adventures. 

When I read a visual travelogue, I want to know the person, their stories and how the place + adventure affect them. So I started collecting travel journal, and visual travelogues from illustrators & comic artists.

The first visual travelogue I bought was in 2012 : French Milk by Lucy Knisley and soon afterwards, I bought all visual travelogue each time I found out an illustrator made one. I love their stories, I keep them as an inspiration, I read them over and over again. 

The list of my travel/illustration related books :

• French Milk by Lucy Knisley (France)
• Displacement by Lucy Knisley (a Cruise)
• Carnet de Voyage by Craig Thompson (Europe & Morocco)
• Memento bento by Alessandra Criseo (Japan)
• Tokyo on Foot by Florent Chavouet (Japan)
• Maneshima Island Japan by Florent Chavouet (Japan)
• Perfect Tree Shapes by Frannerd (France)
• Orange Ginger Jam by Frannerd (Chile)
• Natsu by Atelier Sento (Japan)
• Jejon di Jepun by Jonsuraya (Japan)
• We bought a bus ticket from KL to England by Black Jellyfish

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You see, passionate people make things that they are passionate about. As for me, combining stories, travels and illustrations in a book is something that I want to do mainly for myself (syok sendiri). 

That's why I finally finished digitizing the last year's travel journal and self-published it. I knew I don't have something solid to purpose to publishers and I hated the idea of being controlled by what-can-sale and what-not-so-'in' the market. So I just made it myself. Some of the books from my favorite illustrators produced were self-published, and I did bought it online straight from them. So I thought, why not?

In this Indonesia-Singapore travel journal that I recorded, I kept those little stories in the simplest form of writing and doodles (because I am not a comic artist, I don't do stuffs in comic boxes, and I don't have rules to follow). It was just a travel journal that I recorded during that time, only. So it wasn't perfect, and collecting 22 pages of random doodles thinking that I might want to share with the world was hard. BUT, as I would always say, "JUST START" with whatever you have and whatever know, you'll learn to improve along the way.  

Here's to my first self-published travel journal ❤ :

Anyway, if you want to read and also add my book in your collection, 

you can now buy it from : My Online Shop ⭐⭐

And if you want to help me making more illustrations and more books, you can support me from my Patreon account , I usually post early videos, secret projects, and post random gifts and latest zines to my Patrons ❤ 

Work Related : First Self-published Travelogue

Heyyy, it's been more than 2 months since I resigned from being a full-time Chief Designer at a local start-ups ! I've been really productive and excited lately, I don't think I've ever been this productive (maybe I've been collecting ideas and content for long). 

New stuffs :

• Book : Travelogue Melaka (is still in the checking-editing process by the publisher)
• Enamel pin : 90s Game Nerrrd
• Patch : Wandering Soul
• Art prints : Moonrise Kingdom & Just Start
• Self-published book : Eskapi - Travel Notes & Doodle !  

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The stories from this book/zine is not really new stuffs la (dah basi), plus, I already uploaded everything in this blog (in writings). These were travel notes and doodles while I went to Surabaya & Singapore last year, so the contents were already there waiting to be inked & digitized. I actually took 10 months to make this :D Hah.

This isn't my first travelogue. I've been keeping visual travel notes since 5 years ago (if I'm not mistaken). So I have some from previous Eid, Beijing trip, homestay programs and stuffs. But they aren't worth my time to digitize (old lame stories, I cringed when I re-read it). 

Anyway, long story short, I want to share my travel notes & doodles as an illustrator and someone who loves to travel since young. I want to make each journey matters (I already wrote it, photographed it, now I illustrated it). So I digitized this and self-published it. Hope you'll like it 💖

You can pre-order yours now at : My Shop for RM 12 and even get a copy of "Things to Doodle" zine for free (if you pre-order it before the 3rd of Aug). 

The estimated delivery time is : Mid August (they are currently in printing process) 

Who is this book for ? 

• People who love to travel, this is a fun + easy book to read about my short experience in Bromo & Singapore. 
• People who love doodles & scribbles in book, this is one example of how to turn your experience into something physical, a different way to share with the world. 
• People who love visual journals/visual travelogues, here is a sample from someone who loves to doodle and to record things in writing. 
• Anyone who would appreciate the work of a local illustrator ! 

About this book : 

• Size: A5 (15 x 21cm) 
• Printing info: Printed on 210 gsm gloss laminate cover, 128 gsm art paper content 
• Pages: 22 printed pages (24 pages in total) 
• Language: English + Minor Malay Printed in Malaysia
• Self-published (no local publisher or editor or distributor) :F
• All rights reserved to the owner.

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Upcoming travel zine : Osaka + Kyoto 

The difference between last year's travel note and this year's travel note : the dedication and effort. In Japan, I really pushed myself to jot down something every day so I won't forget all the stuffs that happened. I also kept little stuffs (tickets, passes, stamps) to be added in the travel journal. I kept track of the foods I ate, and where I ate it (so people can use it as a guide as well). Plus, this time, I did all these in coloured version (because I'm getting used with illustrating & colouring ). I think so far so good 😃

I'm excited for this one to be published next !

Work Related : Top10 Finalist Lejen Komik

Oh heyy, I submitted some of my visual travelogues from the previous Tokiyo Trip to Lejen Komik's travelogue contest just for fun because I've been keeping and peram-ing my Tokiyo travelogue for awhile now + I don't know when I will possibly finish it =.=

I made it to their top 10 finalist from 77 submissions ! :

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I sent illustrations of buildings in Kichijyoji town : Nest Robe, Pack Mart and Puku Puku. Got a bunch of other buildings and stuffs as well, but I'm still keeping it for my future travelogue project. Peram peram sampai basi. Well, hey, here are the detailed version :

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Work Related : First 30 days in Reckless Life 2.0 as a Freelancer

I started as a doodler several years ago in 2010.

I worked myself up to be a self-learned graphic designer and a freelance illustrator since I was still in the university - majoring in IT. I love the fact that I learned so many things along the way, and I explored paths in the creative world as much as I could possibly take while working permanently with companies. 

So it's time for an experimental phase again.

Here I'm sharing with you, what it's like to be a noob full-time freelance illustrator. What the days, nights and sometimes weekends look like since I left the 'office' work. I used to get around RM 5k per month as a senior designer + freelancer before this. I left that stable life for a flexible working environment just so I can find meaning to my working life again.

This is a long post that I've been updating everyday for the month of March ;

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First week :

Tuesday (1/3) :

• Illustration - Brownies Packaging + Mockup. The client wants something cheeky and cute in my stroke. So I did something like my personal project - Macaron, and added more items like : brownies, vanilla, almonds, butter, and those little things.
• Colouring - Brownies Packaging x 4 options 
• Behance - Bfab Branding posted on Behance

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Wednesday (2/3) :

• Photo Editing - Wedding Izah. She got married early this year but Af has been procrastinating, so I took the job for the full editing + touch-ups.
• Test Printing - Brownies Packaging (Failed - refer Pantone colour code for printing). It didn't came out as planned. I realized that everything on Mac looks way nicer than on desktop pc/printed, so the printing result usually goes different that what I see on my screen. I need to re-do the colour and do several more test-print :

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Thursday (3/3) :

• Packing - Etsy stuffs + Tokyo Guide - not much of buyers this month as before. And I also posted the Tokyo Guide book to the next borrower :)
• Packing - ESKP car stickers. I custom made the envelope from our hundreds left-over wedding card envelopes. 
• Illustration - 2 templates (15 x Washi Tapes and 15 x Paper Crafts projects ). :

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Friday (4/3) :

• Photo Editing - Wedding Izah
• Colouring - 2 templates
• Illustration - Didikan Sakura - redo old illustration :

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Second week :

Monday (7/3) :

• FA Printing - Stickers for Aja's birthday
• Mockup - 3 templates illustrations fro Didikan Sakura
• Illustration - 1 template (Reading projects - 15 items) :

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Illustrations added into my Dribbble :

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Tuesday (8/3) :

• Cutting - Stickers for Aja + ESKP mini :

• Illustration - Japan travelogue Map (4 items)

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Wednesday (9/3) :

• Illustration - Japan travelogue Map (5 items) - PTSOne
• Potential client : Cakenis

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Thursday (10/3) :

• Illustration - Japan travelogue Map (5 items) + Detailing - PTSOne
• Colouring - Japan Travelogue Map started - PTSOne
• Freepik - First exam (due 15th March)

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Friday (11/3) :

• A meeting with new potential client : CelebrateTV
• A meeting with the old lawyer
• Colouring - Japan Travelogue Map - PTSOne

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Saturday (12/3) :

• Finalize - Japan Travelogue Map - first draft - PTSOne :

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Sunday (13/3) :

• Video Shoot - assist Af at the wedding :D But I only recorded the voice while they were giving out their speeches. Ha.
• Illustration : Cakenis's first draft for illustrated tutorial. She sent me this ! But I don't really wear shawls, so I haven't wear it out yet. It is supposed to be the easiest shawl to wear. Here it it :

• Example of this week's schedule & to-do list :

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Third week :

Monday (14/3) :

• Illustration - 4 designs for Freepik's first test (spring, love, anniversary, shop). I managed to complete all first drafts in 1 day, submitted at 3 am the next morning, while having the dateline that 7 am :F 

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Tuesday (15/3) :

• Compiling : Travelogue Japan, sent the first draft to PTSOne
• Compiling : Cakenis's Tutorial - Illustration
• Freepik - I'm finally in !! :D

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Wednesday (16/3) :

• CelebrateTV : Wushaf's Illustration (1/18)

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Thursday (17/3) :

• CelebrateTV : Wushaf's Illustration (4/18) - submitted drafts and timeline visual. Comment from them : make the stroke thicker and cuter (?)
• This is the initial ideation and solid stroke illustration that I sent to them :

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Friday (18/3) :

• CelebrateTV : Wushaf's Montage draft (x3 options) - Very odd random options that I did. I personally like the third one, but after a while it feels very amateur, even though they did specifically requested something cheeky and cute :

• Update : They really like the second one. They asked me to something like that and meet them up for a meeting on Sunday, at Chawan.

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Weekends (19+20/3)

• Sketch for the latest Freepik tasks
• Help Kadok (KL > Semenyih > Shah Alam > Home)
• Freepik - Task 1 can be downloaded for public in Freepik ! :

• Meeting with CelebrateTV team, brainstorm from the sketches and drafts at Chawan, Bangsar. They want more test illustrations :

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Fourth Week :

Monday (21/3) :

• CelebrateTV : They opted for the sketchy illustrations. So I had to re-do the whole things and additional character as well. Another draft & tester sent :

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Tuesday (22/3) :

• Freepik Task 2 - in progress (5/10)- I was so packed with the #wushaf project last week, I didn't have time to do this task. Today I tried cramming these illustrations task. I promised not to take too much time to start on tasks after this T^T

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Wednesday (23/3) :

• Freepik Task 2 - in progress (10/10) + amendments. I managed to submit that night, but only 6 of my assigned task were approved before my Art Director went on a 1 week holiday =.= The other 4 remained on-hold until he comes back.  I worked from 10 am - 1 am for 2 days straight, my shoulders are in uncomfortable strain.
• One of my favorite illustration came from task 2. I used this style before finalizing to much more modern clean 1-stroke style. This looks like Af :

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Thursday (24/3) :

• Freepik Task 2 - All of those 6 illustrations were submitted and compiled. My assigned art director is currently on leave until the 30th.
• CelebrateTV - Wushaf updated content. Discussion with the assistant director through Whatsapp, I was too busy with other things and can't afford to meet up.
• Freepik Task 3 - Assigned (0/10).
• Update PTSOne : Travelogue Japan, put on hold. They need to wait for the writer to keep up. April project : Travelogue Turkey. 

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Friday (25/3) :

• CelebrateTv - Illustrations for the first few scenes. 
• Cakenis - I think I'm failing this. I submitted the updates illustration to Keknis. But I don't think I'm reaching her expectation. She responded with more improvements to be made on the illustration, especially about the style. 

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Sunday (27/3) :

• Product photography : Shooting at BeadsNBorders - Assisted AF. We took the whole day for around 130 little items. Our back, and thigh were both in pain by the time we got back. It was such a tough little thing, we definitely weren't expecting that. 

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Fifth Week

Monday (28/3) :

• Aisy Abaya - Photo editing to add size measurement in IG picture.
• BeadsnBorder - Minimal editing for scarfs lighting. Needed to share the raw files to the client by tonight
• CelebrateTv - Wushaf illustrations to be submitted by the end of the day. I submitted half of the scenes in the afternoon and another half at night. I worked from 7am until 10pm, almost straight the whole day. It was such an exhausting day. My back was still in pain because of the photo shooting the day before. This is what they sent me from the production team afterwards :D Exciting ! :

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Tuesday (29/3) :

• CelebrateTv - Tiny amendments for the submitted illustrations and another extra additions.
• Zanubah - Amend the logo to fit the new label structure.
• Freepik 02 - (1/10)

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Wednesday (30/3) :

• Freepik 02 (6/10) - I sat in front of the iMac for the whole day, from 5 am - until 7 pm. I actually woke up around 3.30am, when Af was about to go to sleep after he did his freelance works *because now we shared the same iMac - until I send my MBP to the doctor =.= 
• CelebrateTv - There were some new illustrations they needed me to do while shooting. New addition, I had to cancel my working out session and finished it up in an hour. 
• Today was the shooting day. I couldn't join because I was too busy finishing up my Freepik task. So they sent me this :F Too bad I can't watch the whole process :

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Thursday (31/3) :

• Freepik 02 (10/10) - All freepik tasks finally ready and submitted to be reviewed by my Art Director. Wuhuu ! I am so relieved ! :D

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Summary :

• I did several types of projects in this month. Some of my clients/bosses were : Brownies Packaging, PTSOne, Didikan Sakura, Cakenis, CelebrateTV, Aisy Abaya, my Mom and Freepik. 
• Scope of works : Mostly illustration, some minor designing, photo editing/retouching, and product photography. 
• The thing I hate the most is meeting with clients, because I am forever awkward. The second thing are preparing for invoice and ask for payment.

Work Related : I'm a Backpacker by Halian Azurin

Months and months ago, I got a freelance job to do illustrations for upcoming Travelogue Korea by Halian Azurin. As this would be my third time working for a book company but first time to be finally on print, I am super excited :F 

The first one was with PTSone, but I only did the coloring part - they cancelled the whole finished illustrations due to the similarity of every characters T^T but I got full payment nonetheless so I got no complains just frustration. The second one was with Karangkraf, it was for a children book on traditional games in Malaysia - I hired my ex-collegue to do rough sketches for the whole scenes because he worked as a sketchboard artist and he did it super fast. But I never found the book at any the bookstores - it was printed but I just never found it at bookstores. So this is my third and official first time :D

The project started even before I got married, I've been keeping the excitement in secret and I finally got to see the physical copy after so long. Last week I just received the book from them :D Thank you Miss Jann ! It is a nicely detailed book on backpacking in Korea. If you are a fan of travelogue, or will be going to Korea soon, you should try this book.

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I only did some of the illustration parts like : map, clothes, seasons, foods and several more items. It's not much than what I think can be offered, but I'm still excited to combine two of my personal interests : illustration + travel in one project. Hope to get more of this in the future :)

Some examples :

PS : I got a whole lot copies of travelogues in my keeping and this is a nice addition.
Hope you guys will support them as well, you can go to these links to buy it :

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Wesite PTS | Putehpress

You can buy it here : Bookcafe

Buy the e-book here : Im a Backpacker - Korea

Book : Memento Bento by Alessandra Criseo

I followed Mais on Instagram and on Behance. 

I loooooove her clean-simple-stroke. 

So when I saw that she has started selling Memento Bento, I bought it right away. It is her Tokyo - Kyoto travelogue *coincidence? mihmihmih. I also bought Tokyo on Foot by Florent Chavouet several years back but never did any review on that :p I also have Craig Thompson's visual travelogue.

Price - I didn't notice it was £15(RM82) instead of $15usd, so with additional of postage fees £4.50 (RM25), the total was £19.50 (RM107). It was over my budget for such a tiny travelogue, usually I put a budget of around RM60+ for this smaller type of visual books. But because I bought it on paypal and converting isn't automatically done, I just assumed. I assumed it was in USD, my mistake. Anyhow, past is past, I received the book last week. 

I kept telling my family about it "did the expensive book arrived"?, "I bought a really expensive travelogue". Hah. Padan muka.

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This is the stamped envelope :

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I received a nice postcard as well :

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And this is the book :

She drew things like : clothes to wear, places she went to, interesting things that they found, food and people with tiny cute stickers and images. I wish there were more doodles and stories, the book consists with 60 pages of doodles and all. I want moooore.

Anyhow, it's a wonderful book. 

I'm glad it's in my travelogue collection now.

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Homestay : Doodle Travelogue

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Hello !

Note : I've finally finished my doodle travelogue for the home-stay program. This doodles are mainly on my summarized experience while I was there. It's just a rough fast doodle, ignore my hand-writing. Enjoy ! I had to make a clickable link below to the page because of the 9 pages post of illustrations.