Maddy's Favourite Toys

Every year I like to draw something special for my daughter's birthday (you might remember last year's illustration featuring Maddy soaring on the back of her Alphapup over a city of blocks). This year I thought it would be fun to create a yearbook page featuring her toys. Just like classmates, some of them will be forgotten immediately, while a select few may be a special part of her life for a long time. I created this print so that she could look back on her toys later on and say, 'I wonder whatever happened to that guy?'.

If your kid has any favourite toys, send me a photo at the Land of Le Beef Etsy shop, and your child can have their own illustrated version.

IB Learner Profile Posters

If you're an IB teacher, then these IB learner profile posters will be right up your alley. I made these for my wife's classroom because wanted a fun way to remind her students of these qualities, and because I like drawing animals. 

Can I buy these in your Etsy Shop? Sure, if you want. They are available in two sizes as physical prints, or as digital downloads so that you can print them yourself. 

Three Blind Mice

Here's another project for my picture book course - illustrate the story of 'Three Blind Mice'. Drawing is fun. Drawing mice with sunglasses and scarves - even more fun.

Another Six Random Things

It's time for another exciting edition of 'Six Random Things Happening in My Life Right Now' (if anyone has a better name for this, please let me know).

1) This past week my daughter celebrated her first birthday. The day before her birthday she said her first word (it was 'cat'), and took her first steps. It was a great week.

2) My wife just bought a fancy sewing machine (anyone who knows my wife will be surprised by this; she's not always the most domesticated woman). I'm secretly excited about attempting to make my own pants.

3) Once again I'm back in Hong Kong for a couple of weeks for work (my actual work, not this cartooning business. However if anyone wants to fly me across the world for cartooning, be my guest).

4) This week I was one of the millions of Canadians who voted in the national election. The voting station was in an charmingly outdated school gymnasium which reminded me a lot of the elementary school that I went to (shout out to my Graminia School peeps).

5) On the plane to Hong Kong I finally got to watch Jurassic World. The movie itself wasn't that great, but I do love seeing dinosaurs come to life. Fun fact about me: I used to be a designer at a palaeontology museum (shout out to me Royal Tyrrell Museum peeps).

6) I make these iron-rich pancakes for my daughter using baby formula, and they taste even better than regular pancakes. Last time I made them I got distracted and left one on the frying pan for over 10 minutes.

Doodles & Stuff - a Javier Perez Inspired Class Project

I host a weekly illustration class with students at a school in Hong Kong, and last week I had the brilliant idea doing a class inspired by the work of Javier Perez. Basically we just grabbed a bunch of random stuff and turned them into other random stuff. Here's some of their pieces:

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