Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Weekend Ritual

What with last weekend being a long one due to MLK day, I thought I'd take full advantage of the three consecutive days off to spend them sitting in my favorite espresso bars in the city, working on some backlogged personal work. I'm lucky in that I live within walking distance of Blue Bottle, Ritual Coffee Roasters, and 4Barrel coffee; all of which take coffee very seriously, so I'm in good. In fact they've sort of spurred an obsession in me about espresso which I'm slowly pursuing and may bring up again at some point.
Anyway, I managed to get some much needed quality sketching time in, amid the deluge of cappuccinos. I spent the majority of my time at Ritual, right around the corner from me, so most of the sketches and photos are from there. It's a great place with a great energy, lots of interesting people that one can easily while the day away sketching. I spent most of time sketching the barristas, who were non-stop action.Process and Result

I managed to finish a drawing for a friend, to whom I was endebted an artwork. I hope this pays it!

For Stef

The patrons, either working on their laptops, or waiting in the long, long line.




When not at Ritual, I was at 4Barrel with Dani. We got breakfast and sketched. It was wonderful.


I also got a new toy! I've not been as happy with my pen drawings as I want to be lately, so I thought I might try something new. An auto-rotating pencil. With every stroke it rotates always keeping the sharp side of the pencil to the paper. Neat! We'll see how it goes.


Until next time!
James

16 comments:

  1. These are spectacular, man! Uncanny, and to use another Marvel titles adjective, Amazing! I like the expression/pose of the guy behind the counter in the one labeled 'for Stef'. This inspires me to get out there and draw more.

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  2. beautiful stuff as always! Keep em coming!

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  3. Superb James!!! thank you so much! I can't wait to frame it and hang it on my wall.
    Can you put this magic pen in the package too? ;)

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  4. ?! These are awesome!! Wow, what a great place to hang out. Beautiful!

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  5. That's a LOT of coffee! Great sketches my friend!!!

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  6. I just love these! They have such personality & style - Love it!

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  7. Dude, I'm not going to even comment on how stunning these drawings are, except to ask you, "where's mine?" :) Funny, I did the exact same thing with a friend on the weekend. Except I was at Intelligentsia and Priscilla's. I've yet to find another stellar one.
    Amazing, amazing stuff. There. I said it. Keep it up and keep being an inspiration.

    Also...a little something I photocopied today you might be interested in...

    R.

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  8. I think it's really cool how all your sketches have this cartoony style. That's something I lways find hard to get and in your sketches it seems to be just there, without you even trying!

    A true inspiration...

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  9. this is a perfect world:
    ggoodd cappuccinos and great sketches.

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  10. you've captured the atmosphere beautifully...

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  11. New posts!!! These are really wonderful James! Looking at these just gave me a great start to the week ^^. Now all I need is a coffee hehehe

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  12. [a] The slices of life from the espresso bar are wonderful. Makes me want to find one here in Ottawa. ;)
    [b] Self Rotating pencil? WOOT? How is it performing for you? Lemme guess - it's a Japanese product - you were always good at finding out all the kewl materials from overseas..

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  13. hello i like a lot your blog, has very good information. thanks by sharing this information

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