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FireFlyz | 41
“I run, and have completed two full
marathons, plus some half marathons
and various other distances. My time
is nothing to shout about; I’m not fast.
But I find long distance running to be
somewhat meditative. Sitting for long
hours at your desk working on pages isn’t
good for your health, I’m told.”
We reckon that, when one has a satis-
fying career doing something one loves,
the balance may come easier as priorities
are more easily visualised with a clear
goal and aim. Of course, for someone
as talented as Mimi, she looks forward
positively and aims her wings high while
keeping her head to the ground.
“So far, things have been going better
than I thought it would be, and I love
what I’m doing. But at the same time, I
want to get better and better as an artist.
There are so many areas that I still need
to improve on.”
As the day wore on, we asked her to
share some advice for aspiring artists.
“When it comes to art, I think the
trial and tribulation part is mostly in the
artist’s mind, where you try not to get
bogged down with the feeling that you’re
not good enough to produce good work,
and then try to overcome your weak
aspects.
“If you want to be good at drawing,
spend the bulk of your time drawing. This
applies to any kind of endeavour.
“Some people say ‘do what you love’.
I’d like to add something to it, ‘do what
you love, but there will be days that
you’re going to immensely hate it, when
even doing what you love feels like a slog,
accept this and push on.”
that Mimi decided to draw a full-blown
travelogue-comic. She took six months
off and focussed on making
Beijing in 5
Days
, her debut travelogue-comic.
When a friend informed her about
the MDeC IPCC grant, Mimi sensed an
opportunity and used
Beijing in 5 Days
to
pitch for her next travelogue-comic, Kuala
Terengganu in 7 Days
(KTi7D). With the
grant secured, she then spent the first half
of 2014 working exclusively on KTi7D.
KTi7D, Mimi says, is about her mom’s
hometown, Kuala Terengganu.
“I don’t go to Kuala Terengganu as
often as my mother, so I’m still a bit of a
tourist there. My mom, my aunts and my
cousins, all featured in the book, provided
the insiders’ knowledge for the place.”
We were intrigued with the platforms
that Mimi chose to make the comic
available to the public, especially the
Apple App Store application. It is an
interactive version of the physical comic
and contains extra travel information
as well as nifty features like finding the
places described using Maps on your
iPhone.
As a kicker, there is also a ‘translation’
feature, where the (oft-times baffling)
Terengganu dialect can be translated into
both English and Malay. Unfortunately,
as the focus is exclusively on the printed
comic book for now, there are no plans
yet to see it appear in the Google Play
Store for Android OS users.
The Artist and her Inspiration
Aside from Dato’ Lat, she cites Guy
Delisle as a huge inspiration in terms of
travelogue-comic art.
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“I feel like one can learn a lot about
a place via this medium, and in a non-
boring way.
“Dato’ Lat is my hero; the way he
captures kampung and Malaysian scenes,
nuances and sentiments – nobody can do
it like he does.”
The Tools of her Trade
It came as quite the surprise as she used
pencil, pen, ink and paper – the tradi-
tional kind of art media, for her work.
“I am mostly a pen and paper kind of
artist, but I do dabble with digital art on
the iPad. I love sketching apps such as
Paper by 53, Procreate and Sketchbook
Pro.”
We presumed that she is a digital artist
and took to the stylus and tablet to create
these wonders, although she did admit
that most of the colour work was digitally
done, with the rest originally coloured
with watercolour.
Mimi Beyond The Canvas
The youthful and accomplished comic-
artist is not just artistically gifted, but also
athletic, which she modestly deflects in
her words.