78 - Coffee to stay

... or to go?

👋 Hello, readers.

Last week, I re-introduced my work to new readers. If you’re a first time reader too, visit here to read it. I have been drawing a lot inside cafes lately, so today I want to share another cafe-drawing.

☕ To go or to stay?

I took recommendations for interesting cafes from Vancouver Coffee Snob (website), and decided to visit the Gastown neighborhood which had 3 out of their top 10 in 2020.

A light rain had begun to fall when I got off the bus in front of Nemesis Coffee. But there was a long queue outside. I don’t do queues, so I kept walking. Only a couple of blocks away was Revolver Cafe. Unfortunately it was also full.

It’s that time of year when cafes are full more often than not.

Meanwhile, the rain had become more … expressive. I decided to take shelter in a book store next door. It’s called EC Rare Books and is full of all sorts of obscure old books as well as first editions of popular classics. They re-bind and repair books at the same location, so I hope to visit again one day to draw them at work.

After the rain had let up, I walked to Prado Cafe, at the corner of Abbott and W Hastings. They had a couple of open tables, one of them at the corner. Perfect.

The subject of my drawing was a person at the counter, figuring out their order. But they paid, grabbed their coffee, and left just as I had drawn the head and torso. So the rest of the figure came from the next person in line, wearing shorts with a similar jacket on top, and running shoes. So it goes.

Once I had my subject, I spiraled outwards in a clockwise direction to draw the counter, the decor, the espresso machine and the staff-members. I love to draw baristas at work. There’s something about their methodical, careful work that I really admire. It is outrageous that such jobs get classified as “unskilled labour”.

I completed the page rather nicely, and settled back to enjoy the rest of my coffee. But after a few minutes, I began to wonder if I should draw the rest of the counter too, with the different food-stuffs labeled on trays.

A part of me hesitated to get into it. And over time, I have come to better identify this part of me. It’s an instinct for laziness, and it likes to kick back after achieving the smallest thing. I like to say that I am a 90%-er, not a 100%-er. There is a voice inside me saying - “Ehh, this is good enough. You’re allowed to relax now.”

There’s a popular saying, useful for creatives, which has helped me re-frame myself on several occasions -

“Don’t let the perfect become the enemy of the good.”

But there’s a line I add to it, to combat my particular inclinations -

“Don’t let the good become the enemy of the better.”

So this was my victory of that day. I did not leave. I stayed and finished the other page too. It’s only a drawing, and that doesn’t matter very much. But I stayed, and I pushed in a positive direction. And that makes me happy. 😁

Coffee to stay.

🎨 Whose Drawing is it Anyway?

There are five people in this drawing, but only one face. I drew him almost as an afterthought. But now I feel like it is his drawing, and my job was only to be there and record a part of his world.

It often happens this way with me. I make the drawing as I wish in the moment, imagining one thing to be the subject. Then another thing pops in to the page, and takes over, and suddenly the whole piece is about them.

Hi there, person who works at Prado Cafe. I think this drawing belongs to you.

💭 Why is a Cafe?

Here are three questions I posed recently to SneakyArt Insiders. I would love to hear your thoughts too:

☕ If the city is an organism, what is the role of its cafes?
☕ Does the role of a cafe change with the seasons?
☕ Would we need cafes even if they didn’t serve coffee?

⚡⚡ Sale!! ⚡⚡ For the next week, I am offering a special discount on prints and books. To check it out, visit here!

Thank you for reading. I’ll see you next week with a new episode of the podcast and some more art!