Coffeeshop drawings for October 10th-15th

Sigh, I love drawing. For me, there's nothing like it - I can't think of anything that relaxes me more, or makes me feel as focused. If I've had a bad day/week, sitting down and drawing for a few hours is sure to pick up my spirits.

I drew a lot this week - I kept finding myself not too far from Casbah and Intelligentsia for various reasons these past several days. On Thursday I drew people at Intelligentsia until I lost complete track of time and my right hand started cramping up from holding a dangerously short pencil for way too many hours straight. Friday afternoon I happened to be close to Pasadena, so I decided that this would be a good time to check out the new Intelligentsia in Old Town that a friend mentioned to me recently. I walked in and was immediately struck by the airiness of the space which lends itself very well to drawing people, and the fact that it's a cafe/bar. Yup, not only do they serve coffee, but they also serve alcohol, which reminds me so much of the cafes/bars I fell madly in love with as a student in Madrid. I'd go to these places, sit at the bar, order tea, and talk to the bartenders and the patrons. One of my favorite cafes in Madrid was called La Ida - it was tiny, so you were presented with one of four choices: 1) sit at the bar, 2) grab a stool at a table the size of a postage stamp, 3) drink outside, or 4) see the amount of people spilling out from La Ida onto the sidewalk and go to another cafe/bar in frustration. Oh, La Ida, fond memory of my Malasaña cafe-hopping days... The bartenders played awesome music, the regulars were super nice and the vibe was welcoming. Anyway, I loved that bar/cafe format and missed it when I came back to the States. But now, with this new Intelligentsia, I don't have to hop on a plane to fill that void - I just have to sit in some good ol' San Gabriel Valley traffic...

The Intelligentsia in Pasadena has two separate bars - at one bar you can order coffee and tea and stand there while you wait for your order and/or chat up the baristas (who wear vests and ties and, in some cases, suspenders!), while at the other bar you can order alcohol and sit on one of the stools. Most importantly, there are a ton of people to draw! Almost all of the choices for seating have clear views of the whole space - it's fantastic.

I've been trying to be a little less precious and draw people faster - sometimes my drawings look a little wonky as a result of making drawing decisions more quickly, but sometimes wonky is what I want. Or at least, that's what I tell myself.