three letter word for art

When you have important things to do, it seems as though the only correct thing is to go somewhere and sketch. Which I did, at Common Grounds coffee house in the Sunnyside neighborhood of Denver. While listening to the Doug Loves Movies podcast. I really gotta make a book of Denver coffee house sketches.

On a 90+ degree day, after walking around over a mile through downtown Denver looking for a place to sketch, I decided (wisely) to go indoors and get an iced coffee.  And whaddya know, there was this view.

..but still semi-in-progress sketch from a coffee joint.  Tombow markers, Staedtler pigment liner in Stilman & Birn Alpha series sketchbook.

Yesterday I sketched this pano in Dazbog Coffee on 12th and Speer.  It was pretty quiet so I had an opportunity to work without creeping too many people out.  The frienly barista there, Ara (I think that was her name) loved the sketch and showed the employees at the adjoining tanning salon (the hallway of which can be seen on the far right.)  At the end of the hallway, if you look closely, you might notice a mirror with a tiny little sketcher in it.  That's right, this pano is my "Las Meninas," or perhaps "Arnolfini Wedding portrait."  Or something. Technical aside: I used a bigger pen on this one, a Staedtler .5, and I think I like the chunkier feel.

There's two ways to interpret that title.  One of these sketches is not a coffee shop.  And one of these sketches was done with markers.  Um, that's it. Ziggi's Coffee, Westminster, CO: Reference room in the Denver Public Library: Another Starbucks for the pile: Bonus video: Linda took a short vid of me sketching in the library.

From 2 Starbucks and an Einstein Bros, I give you three panoramas on three (almost) consecutive mornings: Pano #1, Starbucks: #2, Einstein Bros: #3, different Starbucks: The first two are kind of straightforward panos with vertical verticals.  The third I was also experimenting with a vanishing point below the horizon.

I dropped by Wash Perk today to drop off a print of my previous sketch for the owner (who saw it on Facebook and loved it, I'm happy to say), and stuck around to do another sketch.  Good day.

Hadn't posted these Moleskine sketches.  So now I have. Got a good parking spot outside the groomers, so I didn't want to leave.  This is what the inside of a Honda Fit looks like. In the hall/waiting area outside Crafsty Studios, where my wife works. At Washington Perk At Starbucks on Federal and Speer.  Sorry. Did this one while taking a break from the Denver Panorama sketchbook.

Obligatory coffee shop sketch post for the month. At Stella's Coffee Haus Tenn Street Coffee and Books Bardo Coffee on Broadway Dazbog Coffee on 17th and Browning The soon-to-be-relocating Common Grounds at 32nd and Lowell. Inside Caribou Coffee on the 16th St Mall. More soon!

This is my first ever Starbucks sketch, I believe. There are a lot fewer (as a percentage) locally-owned coffee houses here in San Antonio than there were in Bozeman (which didn't have a Starbucks). This is one is near San Antonio College on busy San Pedro Avenue. As has happened at least a half-dozen times now that I'm back in SA, I was approached by a panhandler while sketching. I must look like I'm not from around here, as they never seem to hassle other folks sitting near me (that or they think someone sketching is more likely to give them money?). And while there are just as many lookie-loos here as in Bozeman, folks here aren't as free-flowing with praise. Most just grunt a brief "huh" and move on. Maybe they don't want to bother me. Maybe they've seen better. In any event, I seem to warrant the same amount of curiosity here as in Bozeman (with the exception of being especially appealing to the aforementioned panhandlers.) A final commen...

Got a Koi watercolor kit the other day, and a Hand Book clothbound sketchbook in Portland that I tried out for the first time today at Rockford Coffee.

Free time is drawing time... Every thing one can see from the Rockford Coffee back booth MSU Creative Arts Library Rockford facing the other way

Bozeman's coffee shops usually have good interiors to draw and, if they have seating near a window, are good places to draw from, especially in Bozeman's lingering winters.  The only bad thing about the omnipresence of Bozeman's java joints is I'm becoming a coffee drinker again. looking out the window at Rockford Coffee, my new favorite hangout Wild Joe's is in the middle of downtown, though window seats are usually taken our Borders cafe is a actually a pretty quiet place.