Sunday's at Nina's Cafe

Nina's Café on Selby has easily become our café of choice for a Sunday morning "relax over coffee, but get something fun done," session. In my case, this often means spending some time with my sketchbook, and in Chris's case, this means working on his business plan for the brewery. Ok, it also often means ARE study time too... But seriously, we need to have some fun too:) In the winter we find ourselves here more often then not these days as we look to get out of the apartment.

And important lesson was learned on this morning is if we don't want to be sketched while we are working on the business plan, then we should sit at a table more a the perimeter of the space so Jodi can draw the architecture and other people instead (see sketch above).

Sometimes we don't get to stay for too long, just enough time to have a quick cup of coffee and be on our way.

Back to the very beginning, this was one of the first sketches I did this summer on one of our first business plan/sketching outings.

Claddagh Coffee

 

Here is a place I have been wanting to try out for quite a while... Claddagh Coffee! I was able to stop in for a bit to eat and a coffee with the thought in mind that I was going to sit down and study for my up and coming test.  Needless to say, the temptation of my sketchbook got the best of me, thinking, "oh, I'll just do one quick sketch and then I'll study." Plus, I had some new micron brush pens that I have been looking for a good excuse to try out and this small coffee shop in a historic building looked like just the right place.

 

Media: Micron brush pen, graphite

Memorial Day Weekend Road Trip

One extra day off the work week?  Oh my gosh, what to do! We quickly hatched a plan to do a one day road trip visiting the small towns of St. Peter, Mankato, and Janesville in pursuit of Coffee, Beer, Wine, and a Waterfall. I was eager to bust out my sketchbook on this outing and test my travel sketching skills. To my disappointment, those with me were not nearly as eager to sit and wait for me to finish my sketch.  Thus, this sketch was done roughly half on site, and half staring at a photograph on my iphone.  The sketch on the left hand side was our first stop at a local coffee shop in St. Peter, and the fermenters on the right are at a brewery in Mankato. I had visions of doing a sketch collage of every place we stopped at, perhaps a bit ambitious, but I am glad nonetheless that these still made it into my sketchbook.

Media:  Micron Pen, Watercolor Crayon, and Graphite

Below are some process photos:

Looking back, the woman in front is what I probably spent the most time sketching, while the man kept shifting and moving - being difficult. This half of the sketch I focused on being more "freeform" while the fermenters I drew in elevation with drafting lines etc. are more "architectural" in nature.