Roastery’s Complexity Still Challenges

4/13/18 First Covenant Church

When we planned our sketch outing at the Starbucks Roastery and Tasting Room, it was impossible to know if the weather would allow us to sketch outdoors, too. Our dry-weather contingency plan was Plymouth Pillars Park and the First Covenant Church, both within a block of the Roastery.

4/13/18 One of the Roastery's several tasting bars

Rain was in the forecast, and it was already spitting when I got off the bus. Since I had arrived a little early, I ducked under an overhang across the street from the church and grabbed a quick sketch of that beautiful golden cupola before the rain got worse. And worsen it did, so I gave up my plan of grabbing the pillars, too.

I spent the rest of the morning inside the Roastery enjoying my Costa Rican pour-over and marveling as I always do at all there is to see there. As many times as USk Seattle has visited the Roastery (most recently just about a year ago), I haven’t yet tired of the complex, overwhelming interior of warm copper colors, snaking pipes and tubes and people everywhere.

4/13/18 Interesting lines, shapes and contrasts all around

Our turnout today was triple what it was a year ago at the same location!

Roastery Still Dazzles

3/24/17 Starbucks Roastery

I think today was my fifth time in two years visiting the Starbucks Roastery and Tasting Room, all but once with USk Seattle. You’d think by now that I’d be done with it, but it is filled with so many amazing and challenging things to sketch that I remain dazzled. I may do my share of eye-rolling at the marketing copy – “Zesty lime citrus notes and brown spice accents with a chocolaty mouthfeel” is the description of my cup of Costa Rica Bella Vista F.W. Tres Rios – and my rolling eyes may pop out of their sockets when I see how much I paid for that cup, but I can sit just about anywhere and find something interesting to draw.

3/24/17 First Covenant Church

For a Friday morning, the place was mobbed and noisy, and I think we lost one or two sketchers because of that. I generally don’t like loud music and crowds either, but once I decide on a view to sketch, I get lost in drawing and hardly notice the buzz around me. The enormous copper vat with the Reserve logo was a popular spot for selfies.

Finished with that sketch, I got up to look around for the next one when something rare and astonishing caught my eye – the sun! I grabbed my coat and dashed outside for the view I was hoping to catch – the domed top of the First Covenant Church just up Pike from the Roastery.

The sun stayed out long enough for us to take a group photo outside the Roastery, but by the time I caught my bus ride home, it was pouring again.

Welcome to Roxanne (second from right), a visitor who
sketches with Urban Sketchers in North Carolina!

Starbucks Roastery

I got to the sketchcrawl early to scope out a view, but it wasn't until Steven Reddy pointed me in the direction of an upstairs view--once I saw it for myself, I knew I had to attempt this. As usual, I get about 10 minutes into these complicated views and ask myself, "What was I thinking???"  But I plow ahead and hope for the best.

This is the initial blocking out of the sketch--can you guess what vertical corner I drew first?

And this is the completed pencil and watercolor sketch. I think at least half of the pencil work
ended up on the back of my hand, so it all got a little too gray and murky!  
Got very dark in the space too, so while I painted 95% at this spot, I did take it outside near a window to add the last bits...while I sipped a green tea latte next to Sunil's talented family of sketchers!

Click on this view to see it larger!

For anyone interested, I have some Seattle Urban Sketchers workshops coming up called Good Bones in which I teach basic perspective sketching made easy and also an intro to watercolor the next day. If you are interested, please read more on my website www.stephaniebower.com or on the Urban Sketchers workshops page (thank you, Gail Wong!)

You can also find a 50% off discount link on my website for my Craftsy course, "Perspective for Sketchers"...Craftsy offers several really great classes taught by a cadre of familiar Urban Sketchers.

And finally, I'm also very, very honored to be teaching in Manchester at the symposium this July! Hooray!!!

Starbucks Reserve

A bit late, but here are the photos from our January outing at Starbucks Reserve.

January 2016 Sketchcrawl-Starbucks and Melrose Market

Click here for closeup

1/24/16 Sunday's sketches from USKSeattle Sketchcrawl -- I sketched here with USKSeattle in February, 2015

Last time, I spent the day outdoors. This time, I decided to come inside more often.

I started out on the corner across the street from Starbucks Roastery, drawing the logo sign on the roof corner, (if you zoom in, top right, you can see Gail siting her sketch) then I followed the bronze coffee beans embedded in the sidewalk in front of Starbucks' front door.

A trail of bronze coffee beans and a rain-soaked leaf pointed the way downhill to Melrose Market

I ended up half a block down the street at the Melrose Market. What a wonderful place! From the main corridor, you can get an overview of the entire marketplace, but it was fascinating to watch the busy chefs at work in the kitchen at Sitka & Spruce. A beautiful tray of fresh baked scones loomed tantalizingly on the butcher block counter, tiny flowers were placed at the chef's table. I realized my sketches were mostly brown and grey, so I was happy to find a red chair with two fresh baguettes sitting in it and the red door at the end of the hallway.

A pair of sketchers, an "evergreen" sticker, a red door, and pussy willows in a vase atop an old oak barrel.

Harris was kind enough to let me get this shot with her cell phone camera. Thanks, H!

I counted 36 sketchers on the sidewalk outside the Melrose Market sharing their "catch of the day", but I know several who were not able to stay the entire session. I'm sure Jane will soon post up one of the group photos she got in front of Starbucks.

Jittery Roastery Redux

1/24/16 My tasting and the "Experience Bar" on the lower level.

Since I was planning to spend the morning with Urban Sketchers Seattle at the Starbucks Roastery, I reduced my usual caffeine intake at breakfast to half a cup. It’s a good thing I did, because by the time I finished the sketch above (during which I enjoyed a fun Origin Flight tasting of three Starbucks Reserve coffees), my lines were getting a little wiggly!

1/24/16 Baristas at the Experience Bar.

Jitters notwithstanding, I had a terrific time sketching at Starbucks’ flagship location. The coffees, food, décor, furniture, cups, even the napkins are different from any other Starbucks I’ve been to. The biggest difference, though, is the customer service. Although almost all Starbucks baristas are friendly and service-oriented, the Roastery people are a cut above. They really made me feel special there (and OK, I paid top dollar for that specialness, but I still feel like going back for more!).

Since this was my third sketching trip to the Roastery (the first was in January last year, and the second was a month later, both times with USk Seattle), I decided to focus on different challenges. After sketching my tasting experience, I captured a couple of the knowledgeable and hard-working baristas busy at the “Experience Bar” on the Roastery’s lower level.

1/24/16 Roastery exterior

Thoroughly buzzed by then, I walked across the street for some fresh, cold air (a little too cold – I didn’t last long) to make a quick sketch of the Roastery’s exterior. I made a note to come back in warmer weather to spend more time on the exterior – it’s a really beautiful old building.

My favorite was Pantheon in the center, followed closely by Sumatra.

Huge crowd, Amazing sketches!

So fun to once again join the massive crowd of Seattle sketchers at the flagship Willy Wonka-ish new Starbucks Roastery and Tasting Room.  Thanks to the Good Bones Workshop sketchers who joined us, the sketches at the end were all just utterly amazing. What a talented crowd!

Testing out a new 6x18 watercolor block at the Tasting Bar in the new Starbucks. Thanks, Sunil,
for keeping me company!

coffee and crows.

A good morning at the Stabucks; full of activity and coffee.

So great to see all the Urban Sketchers out and working so hard. 

A great urban scene with accompanying crows.

Working in soft pencil and concentrating the urban form into shapes.

Pike & Minor

I was feeling a little bit under the weather when the Seattle USk group met this past Sunday but I managed to do a couple of sketches. Here is a view, standing in front of the new Starbucks Roastery and looking up Pike Street toward the domed First Covenant Church.

Sketchcrawl from Starbucks Roastery

It was great getting back into it from a long hiatus.  I haven't been to a sketch crawl since the August, so it was nice seeing everyone on Sunday.  It was a great turnout!
The Roastery was pretty overwhelming with a lot of stuff to sketch and a lot of people.  I found   a nice place to sit by the window and sketch, getting an over view of the interior space by the coffee bar.

I tried to watercolor on site but the Noodlers Ink needed more time to set on the paper.  I just decided to sketch in ink the rest of the time and wandered outside to sketch the signage on  Melrose St.  and then found the entrance to Melrose Market.  It is hard to find because it looks as if you are entering a private restaurant but is really just one of the establishments in the Market.  I feel that we just scratched the surface of places to sketch in the area.  This is definitely a great place to hang out if you can find parking.

Inside Starbucks Reserve Roastery

Melrose Market

Melrose St.

Talk about a coffee buzz...

It was definitely happening Sunday morning as out 35+ urban sketchers milled about inside and outside. I thought I'd approach this month's location by perching myself on a street corner, but when the morning's blue skies and warm sun were replaced by clouds and cool temps I adapted to the indoor climate and buzzing atmosphere. I started trying to draw accurately, gave up and went for the feeling of activity and busyness. It was all pretty complicated and somewhat overwhelming and yet it was interesting ... and warm inside.

 

... waiting for their lattes. 

February Outing

It was great to go out again with the Urban Sketchers, especially to the new Starbucks Roastery which I hadn't yet had the chance to visit. It was very busy, but I was lucky enough to snag a seat with a great view of the main bar, in the center of which were these copper-and-glass apparatus containing various coffee beans, which were connected via these gracefully twisting copper tubes to the giant hammered (what else, copper) tank that is the roaster (in the background, with the star-over-R logo).

After a while, I took a step outside to get some fresh air and came across this house, whose siting was so peculiar that I had to draw it. I tried a different technique in pen.

A photo for reference:

What a crowd!

Though the new Starbucks Roastery on Capitol Hill was quite full of people, it wasn't the crowd with a line out the door and down the block we'd be warned against.  The Crowd today was the number of sketchers.  We were combined with a few people from Stephanie Bower's workshop.  The group was around 40.  It was hard to count with everyone moving in and out to look at sketches.

I'd previously sketched inside the Starbuck's so today I sat next to the window and sketched the McMenamins Six Arms and the street up to the dome and facade of the First Covenant Church.



My plan for the main sketch outing was Melrose Market, as I've never been there.  However, by the time I got there, I was quite full of sketchers!  I found this quiet corner at a back stairs.  The cart had what appeared to be old arrangements and containers.



The day was sunny and 55 degrees.  I learned later that the wind chill in my home town area of Michigan was minus 24 degrees!  I'm glad to be here.  I sat for a few minutes outside on the street to sketch the facade of Starbucks.



By 1:30pm, Starbucks was too full to find a table big enough to share our sketches.  So we lined them up along the outside of the building.  They extended nearly half way down the block!









More photos here.

Melrose and More

Today was a wonderful "winter" day for outdoor sketching in Seattle.  Our location was the neighborhood on Capital Hill around the Melrose Market and the Starbucks new Reserve Roastery at the corner of Pike Street and Melrose Avenue.  The turnout was fantastic with 30-40 sketchers.

I started out at the NorthWest School on Summit Avenue.

The next sketch was looking up Melrose Avenue trying to capture the whole facade of the market.

I had many curious persons stop and ask what was going on with all the people creating art today. 

The sculptural urns from the old Emerald Palace Theatre that was demolished in 1991, was my next stop.  A pocket park was created on Pine Street @ Minor Ave. with three of the salvaged urns on display.  I have a sketch of the Emerald Palace before it was so wrongly demolished in my archives.

The last sketch was a quick one as we were about to gather and share our sketches.  I had to add the color at home, not my first choice for capturing sketches "en plein air".

Roastery Redux Plus Melrose Market

2/22/15 Starbucks Reserve Roastery

After biting off way more of a composition than I could chew the last time I sketched at the Starbucks Reserve Roastery, today I took a smaller view. This time I think I managed to both chew and swallow – though barely.

In any case, it was an especially fun gathering of Urban Sketchers Seattle this morning with a huge turnout – at least 40 were counted! Sketchers were scattered all over the Roastery as well as on surrounding sidewalks. I didn’t have quite the fortitude to sketch outdoors like some brave souls, but I admire those who did.

After my sketch at the Roastery, I walked down the street to Melrose Market, a small collection of cafés and retail shops housed in a cool old building. It, too, was filled with sketchers! I climbed the stairs to the upper level, and when I looked down over a railing, I got a bird’s-eye view of Bob sketching.

2/22/15 Bob sketching at Melrose Market

The View from the new Starbuck's Roastery

When the Ad Hoc Urban Sketchers explored the new Starbuck's Roastery  at the corner of Pike and Melrose Streets in Capital Hill, I had started a second sketch, of this view looking east, up Pike Street, where it curves and heads uphill slightly.  So when I had an errand in that area this week,  I went back in to finish my sketch.  Notice that the Six Arms, another favorite Ad Hoc sketchers haunt, sits right across the street.  And that domed structure is First Covenant Church.

Starbucks on Steroids

I have to admit, I was a bit overwhelmed visiting the new Starbucks Roastery with the Ad Hoc group last Friday. It's an immense space, with beautiful gigantic vats and shiny copper tubing. It's quite a busy place with lively music and bustling people. Much more so than your ordinary coffee place. I couldn't settle on a sketch so I warmed up by painting the bright tower of cups in the gift section. This was done on a company advertising postcard sketch of the building.

Then I settled in to draw some of the folks waiting in line. (Pondering the extensive coffee menu, perhaps?)


 It's an experience to try this Starbucks out but I think I'll continue to be a fan of our local coffee stops..