MALAYSIANS KINI | In recent years, there has been a marked increase in the number of local publishers featuring talents of home-grown writers and artists.

For author and illustrator Emila Yusof, however, there is still a lot that can be done to expand the market now pre-dominantly targeted towards teen readers and older.

Her area of interest is children’s books.

Her own experiences growing up in an army camp by the seaside in Malacca and school holidays spent at her grandparent’s house in Raub, Pahang, eventually went on to form the background for her illustrated trilogy - My Mother’s Kitchen, My Mother’s Garden and My Father’s Farm.

It was then that Emila said she discovered the joys of eagle feeding, collecting clams, collecting wild fruits and many other activities virtually unknown to children nowadays.

“From as early as 10 years old, I learned how to cook as my mother will go out and work.

“So I know how to cook curry, masak lemak, and few others from my mother. This inspired me to write My Mother’s Kitchen,” she said.

The last book in the trilogy was however inspired by her late father-in-law’s farm, combined with her own father’s farm - featuring chicken coops, goat pens, fish ponds and even a swiftlet house.

“The goose from the book, however, is based on my experience living in a squatter area in Kg Pandan in 80s,” she told Malaysiakini in a recent email interview.

In 2015, the mother-of-two provided illustrations for the best-selling 'Legendary Princesses' series, featuring local legends including Puteri Gunung Ledang and Puteri Santubong.

Other elements in her artworks were also inspired by her travels across the globe, covering places including China, Germany, South Africa, Italy, Japan and many others; aside from all the states in Malaysia.

Most of her unpublished works were uploaded on her public Instagram account @emilayusof which has 4,636 entries to date, ranging from snapshots, doodles and even poetry inspired by some of her favourite writers - national laureate A Samad Said, Indonesian poet Chairil Anwar and Australian author Lang Leav.

The self-taught artist shared her inspirations and challenges faced in her current role as creative development director at Oyez! Books - a local publishing house behind a growing range of illustrated children’s books.

Here is Emila’s story in her own words:

I LOVE ALL MY BOOKS WITHOUT DISCRIMINATION. I can’t pick a favourite one.

I have so far published 40 titles, of which 10 has been translated into other languages such as German, Vietnamese, Chinese and Indonesian.

THE IDEA FOR THE 'LEGENDARY PRINCESSES' SERIES CAME FROM THE PUBLISHER. Oyez! Books provided me with the basic stories of all the princesses for me to illustrate.

At the same time, they also let the author retell the stories in his own way.

MY INSPIRATION FOR THE SERIES CAME THROUGH RESEARCH ON TRADITIONAL COSTUMES. However, the final illustrations were not really 100 percent accurate in terms of the designs.

I just played with more traditional patterns to make it more Malaysian.

ALTHOUGH MANY GIRLS ARE INSPIRED BY DISNEY PRINCESSES, I DON’T WATCH MUCH OF DISNEY MOVIES. I like to watch more of the award-winning short films available online.

I did watch two Disney movies that I think were executed in a style that I like: Brave and Mulan. Merida from Brave is my favourite character.

I like that the characters instill the ideas that women can be empowered and fight their own battles and create their own happy ending without the help of a man.

WE NEED MORE AUTHORS AND WRITERS TO COME UP WITH NEW STORIES OR RETELLING FOLK TALES IN NEW WAYS. And we certainly need more illustrators to come forward and illustrate.

We also need publishers to come up with more books with good quality.

WE HAVE QUITE A LOT OF ORIGINAL AND ADAPTATION NURSERY RHYMES IN MALAYSIA. I found there are quite a number of nursery rhymes but the quality of illustrations needs to be improved.

ANOTHER RECURRING CHARACTER IN MY ARTWORKS IS THE LITTLE GIRL NAMED DINA. She was actually inspired by my inner child. The girl I refuse to let go as I grow old.

When I was small, I would always braid my hair. The character Dina also has pigtails.

My hair style stayed that way until I was in Form Three because after that I didn’t have much time to braid my hair every day to school.

I PLAN TO HAVE MORE IN THE DINA SERIES AND THE NEXT ONE WILL BE "DINA GOES TO ART CLASS". Children’s picture books are important to the children in a number of ways.

Illustrations in picture books entice children to read and interact with the text. They motivate young readers to find and name hidden objects or characters, or to predict what is going to happen next.

Young children love to play hide-'n-seek and look for hidden objects in pictures.

ONE OF MY LATEST BOOKS, HEARTS, IS A WORDLESS BOOK. Hearts is the first of its kind in Malaysia. In Europe, wordless (picture) books have been around for many years.

The artwork is different too as I use a collage technique combining several medias; watercolour, acrylic, colour pencil and pen.

Hearts is also different as it can be categorised in two categories - art and novelty, and children’s books.

Whereas all the other books are more to the clean and direct storytelling style of children’s books.

PARENTS SHOULD BE MORE ACTIVE IN ENCOURAGING YOUNG CHILDREN TO READ. I have a 14-year-old son and a 26-year-old stepson.

I normally seek opinions from my 14-year-old son as my stepson lives with his birth mother.

My son would tell me what he thinks, how I should improve my illustrations.

He has been my advisor ever since he was five.

I HAVE MANY STYLES. For children’s picture book, the style of my characters tend to be round and cute and full of colours.

Otherwise for other types of books (such as poetry and travelogue), I like to maintain between two or three colours only (sometimes monotone) and the characters are more for adults.

I also paint on canvas and I always work on surrealism theme.

WATERCOLOUR IS MY FAVOURITE MEDIUM. It is easy to control (with practice, of course). I’ve been using it for seven years now.

For the painting process, I like to do sketches first before I start drawing on canvas or art paper.

This is important to determine if I need to add more elements or subjects.

MY BIGGEST CHALLENGE IS TIME. Home is the best place to work. I mostly work from home and juggle my art works with house chores.

For one spread-page, it will take me around two or three days because I work in between house chores.

The longest time I spent was for the My Mother’s Garden book. I took a year to finish all 28 pages.

AS OYEZ! BOOKS CREATIVE DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR, MY RESPONSIBILITIES INCLUDE TALENT SCOUTING AND TRAINING OF NEW AUTHORS FOR PICTURE BOOKS. I am also in charge of product development to expand our existing intellectual properties across various mediums including merchandise, stationery and gifts.

I am also the art editor for the picture books.

THE MARKET FOR CHILDREN’S BOOKS IS STILL SMALL. An awareness program has to be done to promote local picture books; to really let people know the existence of local picture books, how to read it to children (beyond words/using pictures) and what are the advantages of children’s picture books.

MALAYSIAN ANIMATION FOR CHILDREN HAS GAINED POPULARITY IN NEIGHBOURING COUNTRIES. The series often have a universal message.

I believe Malaysian children books publishers can also achieve the same level of success if the books are developed into TV series or movies and merchandises.

MY ADVICE TO YOUNG MALAYSIAN ARTISTS, KEEP ON DRAWING AND PRACTISING. Think outside the box and get inspiration from many versatile artists whose art works can be browsed on Instagram.

MALAYSIANS KINI is a series on Malaysians you should know.

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