caffeinated drawings

Isa makes a perfect cup of cafe com leite.

Most mornings I start with a romp on the beach and then go up to Varandas Bar for a cafe com leite. As soon as Isa sees me trotting up from the beach she makes it for me and leaves it sitting on the tiles. By the time I get there it has cooled down to the perfect temperature. I used to drink galao but it comes in a tall glass and my tongue isn't long enough to reach the bottom of the glass so I switched to cafe com leite. I love coffee but it does tend to affect my drawing.

As you can imagine, finding ways to hold a pen steady can be challenging at the best of times. But I've practiced enough by now that I can make pretty smooth marks. But when I've had too much cafe com leite my steadiness goes out the window. The problem is I love the mental buzz I get from coffee. Coffee makes me feel smart. And creative. Ideas flow and tumble and dance and I feel confident that I can make marks exactly how I see them in my head. Unfortunately this isn't the case in practice. The caffeine makes my paws jumpy. If I put the pen in my mouth I find that even my jaw is jumpy. But I can't suppress the urge to create, so I make the most of the situation and embrace the jumpiness of my mark-making. Here are a few caffeinated drawings from my sketchbook.

caffeinated sketches

Lively drawings, but can anyone but me see that these are dogs?

I think I'm starting to get the hang of jumpy, caffeinated drawing.

I suppose they have a certain lively quality to them. I wonder if I can make drawings like this without caffeine? Hmmm. That will be an exercise for another day.