Coffee shop drawings for the weeks of August 2nd - August 15th

It's interesting when I realize that I've gone to a coffee shop like Casbah often enough that I can recognize people that I've already drawn, like the gentleman with the beret (in the fifth drawing from the bottom). The minute I saw him, I remembered drawing him way back in 2007, because, for one, there aren't that many guys walking around with berets in this country, and also because I remember being so rusty in my drawing skills at the time that I felt super self-conscious as I drew him. So, the experience of struggling to draw him kind of stuck in my mind. And, indeed, when I looked at my sketchbook from that time, I found the drawing of the same guy (possibly in the same beret) that I've posted here at the bottom. His hair was shorter in '07, but it's the same man. By looking at that old drawing, I can see how worthwhile it has been to keep drawing - you can tell how much my skills had slipped at that point by the amount of hesitation in the line, which isn't so apparent in my more recent drawings, due in part to the fact that I've been drawing consistently since 2007. I find it encouraging to see that I have made some sort of progress in my skills - and if I did plateau, at least I would continue to enjoy drawing...

These drawings are from Casbah, Intelligentsia, and Aroma in Studio City. I don't remember drawing at Aroma before, or if I have I've only done it once or twice, but it was a cool experience. The patio that surrounds Aroma is a great place for surreptitiously drawing people.

By the way, if you've been wondering whether or not I've been tending to that comic that started me on this drawing path in the first place, fear not, for I have been, for sure, without a doubt, working on it. I have a schedule of roughing out the pages that I've been trying to stick to and everything. I'd like to actually post a bit of the roughs that I've done at some point, so look out for that in a post sometime in the future.