Drawing On Location: Let's Draw at a Cafe!

1. Introduction: Hi there. My name is Michelle Tab eras. I'm a cartoonist, illustrator and traveller based in Sunny Tampa, Florida And today I want to explore the concept of going out of your home and drawing in various locations. And this class in particular is gonna focus on drawing at a cafe. Cafes can be a great place to not just get your favorite drinker desert, but toe also stretch yourself artistically. In this class, we're going to focus on drawing five different elements. While you're at a cafe, we're gonna talk about drawing the environment, drawing drinks, drawing food, drawing people and drawing objects. The purpose of this class is to let loose a little bit to go to a new place and draw things that are outside of your comfort zone. Each video will include different suggestions and considerations for what to draw while you're out at a cafe. And this is, I think especially good if you find yourself may be stuck in a rut or you just want to really push yourself to draw things that maybe you normally don't draw. Not only is it kind of fun to go to a new place and spontaneously just sort of draw what you see. The other benefit of this class is that it will help with your observational drawing and to hopefully also garner a deeper appreciation of getting outside of your home and your familiar environment, going someplace new and seeing how that affects your creativity. This class is meant to be fun and experimental. Also a fun thing to try if you happen to be traveling. So if you're ready, Teoh head on over to your favorite cafe or a new cafe. Let's head on over to the next video and get started. I'll see you there. 2. Packing Your Art Supplies: Now let's briefly talk about packing your supplies for your cafe visit. Ideally, the tools that you should bring would be portable. No fuss and waterproof. I would avoid bringing any tools that can be stored in a purse, backpack or tote bag, any fools that require any kind of preparation or mixing like certain paints. I think that using waterproof inks, pens or other art making tools is a good idea, since you never know when accidents can happen. It's also a good idea to use a sketchbook or sketch pad rather than bringing around loose sheets of paper, which could easily get lost or disorganized. So to give you an example of what I brought for my cafe visits, I brought along my mole skin sketch pad and my pencil case. And inside my pencil case, I brought that eraser pencil sharpener two pencils in case I lost one and a variety of different pens and a small selection of colored pencils. The art making process here should be spontaneous and quick and funds, so it's not necessary to bring every single art supply you have. What you can do is make a pencil sketch while you're there And then once you get home, use any supplies that would be otherwise too messy or heavy to bring along. Now that we've talked about the art supplies, you should pack. You're ready to head over to your cafe. 3. Drawing the Environment: in this video, we're gonna take some time to talk about drawing the overall environment and atmosphere while you're at a cafe. So even though in most cases it would be easier to prepare your coffee or tea at home, a big reason why cafes exist is because they give us a new place to explore and to refresh and recharge. Sometimes being in the same environment day in and day out can make a person feel stagnant . So there's something kind of refreshing and exciting about visiting a cafe to get your caffeine injection for the day. And I think this is largely attributed to the fact that cafes are often times very interesting environments to be in. So before you sit down with your drink and start drawing everything in sight, I want you to take a couple of moments to take it all in and reflect on the environment around you. Try to determine what it feels like to be in this space. Is it calming or chaotic, invigorating or mellow? What are some of the predominant colors that you're seeing throughout the core and pay special attention? Toothy walls, flooring, ceiling and just envision yourself being encapsulated in this place. Pay attention to any architectural details like the doors, window frame, flooring and walls. And what's on the walls is there may be a mural framed artwork. What kind of colors are you seeing? And how does this make you feel? Is the environment new and modern, or is it more traditional? And conservatives paying attention to these kinds of architectural details will help ground all of the drawings that follow in a place and in a moment in time, which is another thing to consider, since being at a cafe early in the morning is not the same as being in a cafe late in the evening. Once you've taken some time to consider your environment, start picking out structural elements or maybe a specific corner in the room that appeals to you and draw what you see. Don't be afraid to let your drawings be a little bit more interpretive rather than realistic. I think that going to a cafe, ideally, should be largely experimental and exploratory, so feel free to also adapt or change elements to, and finally I want you to also consider what your ideal cafe environment looks like. Is it noisy or quiet. Are there bright old colors or soft, muted colors? How old is the building? And what is the interior design look like? And consider also sketching out your ideal cafe and feel free to let me know what your ideal cafe looks and feels like in the comments. Things for watching and whenever you're ready, let's move on to the next video. 4. Drawing Drinks: Let's talk about drawing drinks. The great thing about drawing cups that makes it really accessible for even beginner artists to draw is that for the most part, the form of the cup can be broken down. Teoh a circle for the top rim and then a sphere or cylinder for the body, or for the rest of the cup. That's it. Now, of course, there's some exceptions to this rule, but by and large I find that the vast majority of cups are made up of either spears, circles and cylinders. Depending on the cup, mug or glass that you draw, you can still experiment a lot with various designs, colors and patterns. The rise of cafe culture has also lent itself to some really creative innovations to the drinks themselves. Arista's have now become artists, and there's a growing trend for drinks that have an aesthetic quality to them now. It's not that uncommon to see pictures within your coffee cup, along with the tried and true classics off with cream, chopped nuts, spring goals and so on. Some cafes will also introduce limited edition novelty or holiday themed drinks, a swell that tend to be particularly festive and also really fun to draw. So if there's a major holiday coming up, whether it's Patrick's Day, Halloween or Christmas, be sure to take advantage off. This time. Teoh draw any specialty cafe drinks. It also helps to pay special attention to the surface or the texture of your drink. Is your drink very dark in color and reflective of light? Or is it lighter in color and more absorbent of light? Also consider that if you are ordering a T, your drink might be more of translucent. But if you add things like cream or milk, this will alter the appearance of your drink. So pay attention to those sorts of things, too. And don't forget to include any accessories that might come with your drink. Anything like coasters, saucers, stirring spoons, straws and even food can be considered an accessory, but we'll talk about that more in the next video. So with that, let's head on over to our food video, and I'll see you there 5. Drawing Food: Let's start this next video by talking about drawing cafe food if you're new to the world of food illustration, food that is found in a cafe is a perfect starting point for you. And this is because typically you don't find whole meals at a cafe, and you certainly wouldn't find a three or four course feast that would be really difficult to draw, since there would be so many components. Cafe food tends to be more simple and can usually be broken down by one or two based shapes , typically through a square or cube shape, a spear or circle shape and also triangular shapes. The other great thing about cafe food is that it tends to be kind of fun, since it's an accompaniment. Teoh, perhaps a sweet or bitter drink. Many cafe food items tend to be sweet themselves and are often times beautifully decorated . So pay attention to any kind of special garnishes or the decorative elements that are attributed to a lot of cafe food items and particularly at the deserts. I think that drawing food in general and particularly cafe food since it tends to be simpler, is a great opportunity to study texture. So pay special attention to the differences in texture that you might notice from smooth to glossy and shiny. Two cracked, powdery and even spongy. These are all textures that could be found in a variety of different cafe foods, ranging from cookies to cakes, sandwiches and so on and observe how you can replicate these textures yourselves. So, for instance, with this cake that I drew, I went ahead with a white help. Had to add some highlights to make the jam on top appear more glossy. It's also fun to draw food that has a bite taken out of it, and you can also use this opportunity. Teoh. Draw yourself reacting to the food. What are some of your favorite food items to order at a cafe? Let me know in the comments. Thanks for watching. And whenever you're ready, let's move on to the next class. 6. Drawing People: now it's spent some time talking about how to draw people while you're at the cafe. Cafes are historically known for being hubs for artists, musicians, academics, students and so on. There's so many interesting people that you'll find at a CAF bay, so it's only natural that you would be inclined to want to draw these people while you're there. But there's a couple of things that you should keep in mind before you go ahead and draw everyone that you see while you're there. While some cafe goers may not mind being drawn by a stranger, there will be some that will feel uncomfortable. And it's important to be considerate of that. You could ask for the person's permission to draw them, but you could still run the risk of making them feel uneasy. So this begs the question. Is it even possible to draw cafe goers without making them feel uncomfortable? And I found that the answer is yes. But there are a few caveats to consider rather than openly staring at a person at a cafe and trying to get the most painstakingly accurate likeness of them. What I like to dio is glance at a person for no longer than maybe a second or two and then focus on the one element that stands out to me the most. I could range from anything Teoh an article of clothing. Maybe the way they position their hands or hold their drink. Maybe an interesting hairstyle, or in this case, but this person. It was their big, flowing full beard. The key here is to look for things that stand out to you, things that maybe you wouldn't ordinarily draw on your own accord. And you can certainly do that by closely observing someone for just a couple of seconds. The purpose here is not to get a perfect likeness of them, but instead pick one thing. Use it as a source of inspiration and allow your imagination to fill in the rest of the details. Another thing you can do is rather than drawing out the person right then and there at the cafe mega No to mentally record things that you find interesting about them and then draw them later, either when they leave the cafe or when you go home. So, for example, here's an image of a barista that I drew inspired by one of my latest cafe visits. This is by no means an accurate representation of this baristas, face or or even body type. The thing that stood out to me the most about her was her clothes. I made a note to remember the cut of her sweater, the color, the pattern of her skirt and the type of shoes and socks she was wearing. In this way, I was able to spend as much time as I liked on the drawing, but without constantly looking up at her and potentially making her feel on easy. If you want to have more than a couple of seconds to observe your drawing subject, there is another method that I can recommend to you. As you enter the cafe, pick a seat that faces a busy street. Once you're seated, peer out the window and look for subjects that are across the street. Drawing people from a distance not only minimizes the chance that they will notice you as you're drawing them and potentially make them feel uncomfortable, but you'll also be able to capture their full form from head to toe. And this is a particularly good exercise if you're trying to capture silhouettes and gesture or experiment with different types of poses or get a sense of what people might look like while they're walking. Now, if you insist on being able Teoh, look at your drawing subject for a long as possible so that you can observe every detail and get an accurate likeness. There is one other option for you. In this particular case, I would opt to invite a friend or a family member to your cafe trip and in exchange for being your model, treat them Teoh a drink or a desert of their choice. And in this way you have a friend that is consenting to being drawn. So there's no awkwardness or uncomfortableness, and they're also getting a little treat as a reward to Do you have any other ideas for how to draw people without making them feel uncomfortable? Let me know. I'm curious, And now, whenever you're ready, let's move on to the next lesson. 7. Drawing Objects: Now let's take some time to talk about drawing some of the various objects that could be found around a cafe. While it's great to take in your environment and draw your surroundings, it's also a good idea to look for specific objects of interest and draw those as well. You can start by keeping an eye out for any particular objects that really appeal to you or catch your eye. So, for instance, during one of my last cafe visits, I saw this interesting, modern sort of sculptural looking light fixture. I really liked this light fixture, even though it's not the sort of thing that I normally draw, So I took the time to sketch it out. If for whatever reason, there's no specific objects that appeal to you, Another thing you can try is taking a few objects from your table, whether it's your drink utensils or even your art making supplies and arranging them to draw a still life. Which is great because still lives are good practice for things like composition, form and lighting and shadow. You can focus on drawing small, simple items like maybe a stirring spoon or a packet of sugar or If you prefer, you can focus on drawing larger and more complex items, like a coffee or espresso making machine, or perhaps a large table or other piece of furniture. You can also group objects together to try to fit a particular mood or theme. So, for instance, all of the objects in this particular photo give off sort of a vintage and nostalgia quality because of the color palette and because of thesaurus of older feeling of some of the objects, like the radio, the Rose Flower Arrangement and the antique teacup, which is a stark contrast compared to the objects in this particular picture, which give off in much more clean, minimal and modern sort of feeling. Now I'd like to hear from you. What kind of objects do you like to draw while you're at a cafe? Thanks for watching. And whenever you're ready, let's continue on to the next video 8. Assignment: Hello again and welcome to your assignment video For your assignment. I watch it ahead over to a cafe and complete one drawing for each of the five categories. Environment, drinks, food, people and objects. And you can complete these drawings by following the various suggestions that are given in each video and feel free to create more than one drawing. If you feel compelled to, you can complete these drawings with a small set of art supplies that you bring with you to the cafe. Or you can sketch out your drawings in pencil and then complete them once you get home with art supplies that are maybe a little bit too cumbersome or Messi to bring in the project section, I'll include a list of all of the suggestions that we went over, and I'll even include a few extra ones that aren't mentioned in the videos. There should be two goals here, the first being that you should creatively push yourself and try drawing things that you typically don't draw and then secondly, try to view. This is experimental and fun. Don't take it too seriously. This exercise is more about taking chances and trying different things It's not about making the most perfect, refined, beautiful drawings ever, and hopefully through this process you'll learn a little bit more about yourself and the kind of art that you like to make. It's definitely a good idea to draw from observation and from life, since that will be the best way to improve your overall drawing skills, but also feel free to reinterpret and re imagine what you're seeing. If you want Teoh, change the color palette. Or, if you want Teoh, make something more modern or traditional or whatever. Feel free to do that. Don't forget to share your drawings with class, too. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to leave a comment, letting me know Good luck with your drawings. I can't wait to see them and have fun. 9. Closing Thoughts: congratulations on making it to the end of this class. I really appreciate you joining me on this cafe exploration, and I hope that the next time you head on over to get a cup of coffee or tea that you bring your sketch pad and draw what you see or even reinterpret reimagine some of the things that you're seeing there. The exercise that we talked about today will work whether you're going Teoh, an old favorite cafe that you've been going to for years, or if you're going to a cafe that's brand new for the first time. And don't forget Teoh. Just let loose. Let your pen flow and have fun. The drawing suggestions that we went over today are not about getting everything perfect or exact. It's about just opening your mind creatively and taking chances. I hope that with this class, you've been given the opportunity to creatively stretch yourself, draw things that are outside of your comfort zone and hopefully also create a connection to a real life place. Thanks again for joining me, and I hope to see you around soon by