the Buildings of Hong Kong

Today is Hong Kong's National Day, so I thought it would be a great time to finally finish up a project that I started a few months ago.

Inspired by the work of Roger Hargreaves, the Land of Le Beef presents the 'Buildings of Hong Kong'. One thing that fascinated me about Hong Kong when I lived there was forest of great architecture that made up the city. Together they create the shape of the city, but individually they are each contain their stories. This is far from a complete list, but it contains a some of my personal favourites.

If anyone happens to be interested in owning piece of illustrated Hong Kong, prints of this will be available for purchase for a limited time -www.landoflebeef.storenvy.com

Six Things

Introducing a new Land of Le Beef segment: Six Things Happening in My LIfe Right Now

1. This summer my wife and daughter and I moved from Hong Kong to Vancouver. Since being here I have re-established my love of trees and mountains.
2. I have been growing my hair out for the past year or so. I don’t have any plans for how long I’m going to let it grow; I’m just going to enjoy the journey and see where it takes me. Part of me has always wanted long hair.
3. My neighbour offered to lend me his stepladder so that I can install an electric door opener in my garage.
4. Madeline (my daughter) has been getting very close to taking her first steps. She also just learned how to wave, and she loves dancing to funky music. 
5. Most of my electronics don’t fit in Canadian outlets. I might try pounding them in with a hammer. (update: I went to Chinatown and finally found some adaptors. Life is a little bit better now) 
6. I bought a composting bin. It lives at the end of my lawn, and loves it when dump my food scraps in his mouth. We have a good relationship.

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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Octographer

I recently watched a video online of an octopus taking photos at an aquarium in New Zealand. His name is Rambo (I really regret not drawing him with a red headband on), and he is now known as the Octographer. My first thought when I saw this was, 'where do get one of these?' (as you know, my full time job is as an award winning wedding photographer). As it turns out, not only do most pet stores not sell octopuses that can take pictures, most of them don't even sell octopuses! I had to buy a goldfish instead, but without tentacles it lacked the capabilities to operate a camera. Oh well, I guess this cartoon is going to have to do.

32 Bottles of Beer | part 2

This is part 2 of the super popular Land of Le Beef exclusive series, "32 Bottles of Beer". Basically it's a loose, illustrative review of some random beers that have been delivered to me through the Beer of the Month Club at the Bottle Shop in Hong Kong. Since the first review, I have grown an appreciation for hops and IPA's, I have discovered a few breweries that are awesome, and I have learned how to draw a clown riding a really short unicycle.

Wells - Sticky Toffee Pudding Ale

When I first saw the label of this beer, I was expecting not to like it. Not that I have anything against sticky toffee pudding (and I certainly don't have anything against beer), but the combination of the two just don't interest me much. In fact, it is not a bad tasting beer. There is definitely a toffee taste in there, but it lingers for just a moment, and sits amongst a light refreshing beer taste. Although I probably wouldn't order this at a bar, I could imagine drinking one of these at a seaside carnival while watching a clown on a unicycle juggling bowling pins - it’s like the grown-up version of eating a candy apple. 

Moonzen - Moon Goddess Chocolate Stout

This beer comes from a small brewery in Hong Kong. It took me a while to actually taste it because I carelessly poured it into a glass and  gave is an inhibiting amount of head. With the first sip (several moments later), I found it refreshing, slightly sweet, and a pleasant amount of bitterness. There is also a hint of vanilla somewhere in there. None of the flavours seem to scream for my attention - they are perfectly unified, living together in harmony. I feels like a night time beer - a quiet reflective, staring up the night sky beer. Perhaps that’s why they called it Moon Goddess.

St Austell - Big Job

This is a big manly-sized beer (a full half-litre), with a very proud label. It claims to be a ‘massively hopped cornish double IPA’ - this means that it should be the hoppiest beer that I have ever encountered. It smells excitingly hoppy. The taste is fresh, light, full of flavour, and just mildly bitter. It is well balanced. The flavour comes in with its full size - like a cowboy kicking in a saloon door. It holds nothing back. At 7.2% alc, it packs a fairly heavy punch as well.