Coffee Shops and notepads

I first wrote this by hand at a Starbucks where I do a great deal of my brain storming. The nearby coffee shop is conducive to working out ideas, reading contracts or printed matter, doodling on a napkin, drawing in a sketchbook, or just taking a breather from a hectic deadline. That Starbucks is my office, too, where I meet clients and a group of fellow, very talented artists, designers and writers (Bill Frymire, Larry Macko, Fraser Hallett, Corey Sigvaldason, Chuck St. John, Garry Gottfriedson… just to name a few).

The noise of my kids, constant phone calls, tela-markets, door to door sales people and over-eager religious enthusiasts are left behind for an hour or two, while I go to a place where I can get away from my real life and have a look from a distance. Don’t get me wrong, I love my household and my life, and really have a good thing going, but when working at home, the overlap between family and career is blurred and I firmly believe I need to get away for a bit to clear my head, refocus your attention, make to-do lists, journal, and return to the studio with my head on straight.

When I go to coffee shops, or sit in the car waiting to pick my kid up at school or something, I use pen and paper to write or draw. Of course, I have a laptop on which I do all my writing and some digital art, but I have yet to get used to bringing it out in public. I find that the set up time, and risk to the device by spilled coffee, and lack of privacy are all counter productive. Furthermore, I guess I like the feel of a pen or pencil, the scribbled, almost illegible notes and doodles, the smudges and blotched ink, the coffee stain and oat bar crumbs. Writing by hand also demands that if what I created is worthy of a second look, that I will need to sit down, at home, and type it all in again, thus editing it at least once before I add the text to my web site, blog, or important email.

Besides the appeal of writing by hand, there is the fact that increasingly these days, I am doing more and more digital work, answering more emails, and sitting in front of the computer more than my drawing table. The thought of going for my coffee break with yet another screen doesn’t appeal to me at all.

Well, my break here is over, time to head home and get back to a starship illustration I am doing for a Science fic- errr, I mean ‘Speculative writer’ from the eastern United States.

WM