Sketching on Coffee Cups, at Australia’s Cafe Capital - Urban Sketchers (2024)

Have you ever wondered how a simple paper coffee cup could become a canvas for capturing the vibrant life of cities’ coffee shops?

I believe it was a cool October afternoon when, during lunch, I was sketching with my friend Gate. We were at Flinders Lane, sketching next to a little coffee shop nestled into an old stone arcade, part of St. Paul’s Cathedral, in Melbourne’s CBD.

I ordered a takeaway coffee and was curious how the paper cup would take the ink from my pen. I gave it a go, and it absorbed the ink pretty well. I kept going and ended up with a little sketch of the Chapter House Cafe, arcade, and gallery.

I enjoyed it so much that the following day during lunchtime, I went to Centre Place, a few blocks away from the location from the day before. There, I sketched a coffee shop in this little buzzing lane that makes Melbourne’s heart beat.

Since lunchtime was over, I had to run back to the office, so I took the now full-of-inked-lines paper cup from the 3 Monkeys Cafe. I came back later that afternoon to finish the sketch and used some markers for color. Red was the dominant color in their roller doors, so I went ahead and added that vivid touch.

I sketched many times in Centre Place. One of those times, I drew over Little Den’s brown paper cup. I love to draw on these because you can use acrylic pens over them. You have to wait a little bit for it to dry and then draw your ink lines very softly to avoid disturbing the paint. On this cup, two European tourists wearing pink and light blue sweaters were walking by as a young fellow carried some heavy boxes from the floor above to the street level and placed them on the floor, then carried all of them to the restaurant across from Little Den. I think they were cans of root beer.

On Saturdays, I would meet the Melbourne Urban Sketchers to capture many places in Melbourne, mostly in my sketchbook. Once the session was finished, those of us who did not want to stop drawing (I expect you to raise your hands in the comments down below!) would go for a coffee and something to eat and continue to chat and sketch. There, I would ask the barista for an additional paper cup, and sometimes I would just draw on the cup I was drinking from. The sound of the espresso machine would soothe me into the drawing. The paper cup would have the perfect texture for using a fineliner or inkbrush. A fat marker would be a bit of a challenge but not impossible when using the chiseled side. The acrylics would be easier since the tip is rounded and glides perfectly over the cup. I just had to shake the acrylic marker first, making sure I didn’t send acrylic paint over anyone nor spill my coffee.

It was always exciting to look for a little cool coffee shop near where we were urban sketching or just during my lunch break and take on the challenge to draw what I saw on the cup.

Some coffee shops would be in a crowded place in the city, like the Degraves Street coffee shops, where getting a place to sit might be almost impossible. I would almost feel the urge to draw faster from all the movement around me, but then I would get into that “flow” state we urban sketchers get into, and time would pass differently. It’s just the drawing and me.

On Degraves Street’s paper cup, I focused on capturing people’s business despite the large amount of seating; most people were moving. A gentleman with a fashionable walking stick caught my attention as he walked in front of a window full of pastries. I quickly captured his walking pose and colored the windows yellow as, to me, a successful coffee shop front radiated that welcoming warmth that incandescent light bulbs emanate. While there, I talked to Ro and Mic, and they taught me about Melbourne’s first-ever bowling alley hidden underneath us!

In places like Greville Street in Prahran, where people walk by to get a record, grab a bite, a coffee, or something that catches their attention, I would find myself chatting and drawing while I sat on the sidewalk and made sure my coffee was not kicked by someone’s distracted shoe. I thoroughly enjoyed those conversations. The sky was blue, and so were many of my acrylic or marker blues near the south of the city.

I sketched on cups all over the Melbourne CBD, also towards the north near North Melbourne, Fitzroy, Collingwood, and nearby Abbotsford. The south towards South Melbourne, Windsor, Armadale, and Prahran, to mention a few.

Some cups would have only black lines and black inked windows on them, and that was enough for me. Others would be full of color; it all depended on how the coffee affected me or how the vibe of the place felt, whether it was inside or outside the cafe.

In Gertrude Street, for example, it was cold when I sketched Archie’s. My coffee cup grew colder rapidly, but I had the great advantage of having a great art shop at my back, so whenever I wanted to warm up my fingers, I would go into the shop and browse and inevitably exit with a newly bought black ink pen, as any urban sketcher would do in my place, right? I enjoyed doing some punchy details with acrylics over the dark windows, like Archie’s signage.

If you sketch in Federation Square or its vicinity, like where Cento Mani Cafe is, be ready for a lot of chatting. Tourists would engage happily, curious and excited to see the end result. Each cup always took a little longer than expected. Some would require a second visit, and lucky for me, I was so addicted to drawing on these paper cups by then that the easy navigation of the City of Melbourne would aid my returns to any corner, kerb, stool, or wall I was leaning on.

At each location, I spoke to baristas or frequent coffee drinkers about their favorite thing at the coffee shop, and for most, it was not only the great coffee. Some people love their thoughtful baristas, and some baristas love to light up the day for their favorite customers. Some of these people had interesting things to share, and others frequented these places for the sense of community and art. Others had life moments happening there, like Caitlin at Duke’s Coffee Roasters. She mentioned, “One Saturday morning, I walked into Duke’s with a friend and saw my (now) husband sitting having a casual coffee. My heart began to race with excitement to see him sitting there…” Caitlin usually drinks a flat white with a sweet treat on the side.

It was a privilege to listen and learn about these stories, and it definitely gave me a different perspective of the city and how to look for places I wanted to sketch. These places had an atmosphere that is hard to describe but fun to draw, full of texture, quirky details, and loud espresso machine noises.

Melbourne runs on coffee, and seeing so many of these coffee shops, baristas, and owners light up whenever someone would come in daily or for the first time was a great sight to ponder upon. I learned that many of these coffee shop owners are dreamers who worked hard to get these shops from a simple idea or sketch to a tangible space where the sound of the espresso machine and the coffee aroma greets every avid drinker, local or traveler, and where we can all dream, work, study, or simply sketch what is around us peacefully yet caffeinated. This sometimes makes my lines jittery, but that’s okay because it’s part of the experience of recording these spaces and events.

Julio sketched over more than 80 paper coffee cups in Melbourne. They are all captured in his book “Cafe on my Coffee” along with the micro stories he gathered from the people he talked to at each location. Originally from Costa Rica, Julio moved to Australia and lived there for many years, sketching with the Melbourne Urban sketches. He now sketches in Atlanta, U.S, with his young family. Find more about Julio’s art at drawthatout.com

Sketching on Coffee Cups, at Australia’s Cafe Capital - Urban Sketchers (1)

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Julio Brenes Bolanos

Sketching on Coffee Cups, at Australia’s Cafe Capital - Urban Sketchers (2024)
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