Embrace your creed

   I wrote a song! It's called water my heart.  I usually come up a tune in my head but since I can't play any instrument, I often forget.  So, this time, I just refer to any unpopular songs and rewrite it's lyrics.  I know, it sounds...pathetic to say the least but it's a start nonetheless.  Besides publishing my stories, I also aim to share and expand ideas with people; Insya Allah.

I was listening to a playlist from another youtuber that contains loads of Nathan Johnson's The Brothers Bloom scores (hehe) and all of a sudden, this song appears.  I instantly fell in love with it! So soothing and meaningful.  And so, I rewrite the lyrics of this song...sort of.  Well, I just wrote a few lines of a song and here it is:

No, it's not done.  Heck, I'm not even sure when it is going to be done.  Having some problems with inking though.  I really need photoshop now.  I'm going to London soon and of course, I will not have much time to draw and the drawing part takes loads of time.  I'm pretty confident that I'll have time to write there though; Insya Allah.  At times of distressed, I would usually write love songs (Haha!) but as of right now, I have no tunes nor words in my mind that could be written in a song.  I do, however, have a title for a love song.  It's called water my heart.  I vision the song to be about a young man's understanding of a greater and more mature love.  A shift from puppy love to real love but that's another story.  The idea is there but I can't think of rhymes to describe it.


And at times when I have writer's block (Well, I'm not sure if my lack of ideas would be considered as writer's block), I would find inspirations.  Melodies of inspiring films would be my main source of  peace; giving me the mood of writing stories. And on rare occasions, caring for a soul would inspire me to write songs.  Whatever it is that is need to be written, I would always find inspirations first.  The video above is a score or soundtrack (Whichever you prefer to call them) is from the film Everything is illuminated.  A lovely film.  I smiled all the way while watching it.  The film is somewhat different and beautiful.  I wish that I could buy the soundtrack album though but alas, it's not a very popular film in Malaysia.  To be honest, this is my 2nd favorite soundtrack album.  The first being The Brothers Bloom (Oh, the very thought of this film's score makes me very...well, at peace, to say the least).  The film made me fell in love with women with bowler hats; all thanks to Rachel Weisz.  It is my dream to actually watch this film together with my wife; crying together (Bapak jiwang sial/ oh silly me).  Well, a man can dream can he?


Penelope's theme...6 times out of 10, this score can get me all emotional :')

If I would ever have plans for a romantic dinner or any romantic occasions; this song would definitely be the soundtrack!


Well, that's it for now.  Funny, I plan to write about my current problems with writing but it turned into a man's confession of love.  At least I gave links to inspirational songs :p


Embrace Your Creed: Nurul Shakira is still on the works...
Insya Allah, I'll finish it as soon as possible.  Salam and have a good day everybody!

   Episode one of Embrace Your Creed: Nurul Shakira is still in progress but until it's finished; here's Aara's husband's debut, Saifullah bin Omar.


I was jealous with my friend, Zabran, when he drew his own version of Nurul Shakira and Aara.  Why? Because he drew them in cool poses while I've been posting drawings of my characters standing still.  And so, with envy and passion, I tried to improve my drawings.  I've even drawn pictures of my lovely friends for practice and posted it on Facebook.  I really hope they like it though and their kind a hard to please too; especially the girls..Haha.  So, what do you think of Saifullah's look? At first I wanted him to look like Jeffrey dean Morgan from Watchmen but in the end, screw it, I just drew him randomly; trying to make him look like a Persian or an Arab but he's Arab though while Aara is half Persian and half Arab.  I like this drawing because it's cute and simple.  Well, that's all I have to say about this and Insya Allah; episode one of Embrace Your Creed: Nurul Shakira will be posted.  Salam and have a good day everybody :D

To get things clear, Embrace your creed: Nurul Shakira will be written straight forward and short; no distinctive elaboration or strong vocabulary.  It will be nice and short as possible because I have to make time for my short comic which is called 'The Annoying Preacher'.


Here's an updated version of Nurul Aara Ameera.  I wanted her to be more fashionable because a simple abaya just couldn't do for me.  Honestly though, I don't think most women during the Ottoman Empire wore this kind a clothing but hey, it's close enough.  Last night, I went to KLIA with my family to fetch my grandparents and uncle who arrived from the holy land; Mecca.  Alhamdulillah, they arrived safely and seemed at peace.  Another thing I've noticed though, I saw a lot of different styles of wearing the hijab.  One particular style that grab my attention was there's this one woman who used a brooch to hold up her big scarf around her chest.  Maybe it's a common style but it's tremendously interesting and unique to me.  And so I updated Aara with that style.


And here's Nurul Shakira and Nurul Aara Ameera in a different version drawn by my friend, Zabran :D.  This drawing kind a gives me hope because it makes me feel like there's actually someone thinks that my ideas are good.  Thanks Zabran.  Insya Allah, Embrace your creed: Nurul Shakira will be publish here in this blog.

-Embrace Your Creed: Nurul Shakira-

I now know what to name her and also what the plot will be; Alhamdulillah.  As you can see above, there's another character I've added and she's going to be a vital role in Nurul Shakira's story and yes, that's her (left side) name.  The 'Nurul' still stays though but throughout the story, people would refer to her as Shasha.  Thankfully, I mange to come up an idea to combine all of the plot ideas I had before and hopefully it would be as good as I want it to be; Insya Allah.  The title of the story is Embrace Your Creed: Nurul Shakira.



     Nurul Shakira is one out of four parkour teachers of a club.  She's passionate about it; loving the adrenaline and action that the sport offers.  Recently, she decided to be more dedicated to her faith which is Islam.  She decided to wear the hijab as she realizes that it is needed to prove one's level of faith.  Of course, she was ridiculed by some of her friends; being a tomboyish girl herself, they could of never imagine Shakira wearing the hijab or even considering it.  Besides praying, she bears all of this underestimation by reading the history of Saifullah Bin Omar's wife; Nurul Aara Ameera as inspiration.  She was the wife of one of the greatest warriors during the Ottoman Empire.  'Embrace Your Creed: Nurul Shakira' shows the story of both Shakira and Aaara trying to embrace Islam in different times.  How will they bear all of the obstacles that their time had to offer? Follow this blog to find out!




So, what do you think? You might be wondering why Aara is holding a helmet? Heck, you might even say 'what the heck is she holding?'.  Well, it's her husband's war helmet.  I vision the drawing being both Shakira and Aara doing, holding or wearing something that symbolizes their struggles.  For Shakira, it's her putting on the hood while wearing the hijab because it symbolizes her struggles as a Muslim and an avid parkour enthusiast.  As for Aara, it's her husband's helmet.  It symbolizes Aara's struggles as a wife of a warrior; constantly worrying about her husband's safety while being a good Muslim wife.  By the way, I would like to tell you the meaning of Aara's name becaues it sounds kind a cool to me :).  Nurul Aara Ameera means light, adoring princess.  I'd like to add 'the' in the pronunciation though; sounds cooler :p.  Light, the adoring princess.  Wanted to name her 'the queen' but I think it's kind a cliche'.


The drawing of Shakira is again based of Irma Hasmie :p while Aara is based on some random pictures I found while googling the word 'burqa'.  As for the helmet, it's based on a Persian war helmet.  Honestly speaking, I'm really excited about this idea of mine.  Hope you guys like it and tell me what you think :D

I've written down a draft but only time can tell whether it's the best plot idea for the story.  Recently, I've stumbled upon a new show; a sequel to The Avatar: The Legend of Aang.  The new main character is Korra; a 17 year old girl.  Here's the preview of the show:

To me, it's very inspiring :')

Why is it inspiring? It's because I was a huge fan of Aang's saga; the action scenes were breathtaking and the storytelling was very inspiring.  Even though the show is meant for kids, it manages to balance it's quality for adults as well.  The kids could enjoy a funny cartoon with really good action scenes while adults embraces the depths of the story; on how all of this conflicts affects Aang, his friends and the world.  To see Aang's great legacy being continued is just awesome to me (I don't know why but the idea of legacies just inspires me).
    This show gives me the feeling that the events in it is very important and that's the kind a reaction that I want when people reads my story.  I want to write Nurul (still pending on the name) as a Muslim woman who tries her best to make her love ones happy just as Aang tried for the world.  And she's going to do it by wearing the hijab while carrying on her responsibilities as a ninja.  Yep, I think I'm going with the ninja plot because my friends told me that it was a better idea than being a history student who loves Cosplay.  But I'm not entirely sure on the whole being a ninja thing.  It sounds corny and ninjas in Malaysia? That sounds kind a lame and so here are new plot ideas I've come up with:

1. A Muslim woman who's a member of a small group of ninjas; a local vigilante group that stops crooks.  Things change when she finally decided to wear the hijab.

2. She's a member of a local parkour club; a teacher and a master parkour artist in training.  Beeing that the club teachers always wear black shirts and a pair of Katanas is seen hanging on the clubhouse wall, most teens dubbed them as ninjas.  Secretly, She and three other club teachers are vigilantes at night.  Her commitment to parkour becomes complex when she decided to wear the hijab.



    I'm still not giving up on the Persian helmet thing though (the first plot idea from the previous post) because I'm still convinced that it somehow can be a great story line.  Who knows, maybe I can combine it? So, give me your thoughts on which one of the above plot ideas is better; ninja or parkour dubbed as ninja?

-Embrace Your Creed-

The drawing still could be improved and I really need to name her; Nurul doesn't clicks somehow.  This time, I referred to Irma Hasmie (not Zooey Deschanel :p) for the hijab shape and design.  She's a local artist who spreads the words of Islam through media from time to time.  I'm a fan of hers :p

We all know Kamen Rider, the bug-like hero from Japan that has fill our local television network for years.  It's really fascinating how they came up with all of this transformations ideas; from cards and cell phones, they can make the sillies ideas look cool.  Recently, I've found some other armored heroes that resembles Kamen Riders and their from Korea and China.  I think they call these type of heroes tokusatsu, am I right? Well, I don't really care. It's just that I've been trying to draw an original superhero since 12 and I've never even thought of exampling Japan.  I drew heroes with capes, tights and so on; all referred to Western superheroes.  And it got me thinking, I should of example Japan more dang it! Now I know why Tun Dr. Mahathir always tells us to refer to Japan.  Well, I don't think that we should example Japan in every aspects, just the good ones.  Inspirations and ideas can come from everywhere and I believe, a good idea can become a great idea when we refer and learn from all types of cultures.

When the time is right or at least when I do have time; I'll post short comics on my blog.  But until that time comes, I'm thinking of posting short stories in written form and of course with a bit of drawings.  The difference? I think it would be very fascinating to show you a development of a character from scratch; sharing plot ideas, looks and inspirations.  So, what do you think of the sketch? I was in the 'zone' and drew her spontaneously...sort of.  She was suppose to look like Zooey Deschanel but it turned into this (weird huh).  I decided to call her...let's just call her Nurul for a while; to get things started.  I've come up with a few plot ideas and I'd be happy to hear yours.  Here are the ideas: