Changes at Zoka Coffee

 

12/1/21 Zoka Coffee, Green Lake neighborhood

I had been thinking for a long time about going back to Zoka Coffee – one of my favorite winter sketching haunts for many years in the Before Time. Now that I’m boostered, and since I knew Zoka requires proof of vaccination, I felt more confident about spending time there.

As I always used to, I arrived before 7 a.m. to get the best choice of tables. People using the free wi-fi to work on their laptops and even conduct meetings usually start filling the tables by then, but to my surprise, only a few other patrons were there.

“So – what do you have planned for the day?”

“Getting my booster. Exciting, huh? How was your Thanksgiving?”

The counter chit-chat between the barista and an apparently regular patron might have seemed unusual during ordinary times, but not now. Some tables had been removed and others rearranged to allow for more space between them. Well-worn stickers on the floor helped patrons to space themselves in line (by now, don’t we all intuitively know how far away six feet is?). Everything is served in disposable cups and bags, even if you are staying.

I chose my favorite corner table. The sun would not come up for at least another half-hour, and it seemed much darker inside than I remembered. Without natural light from the large windows behind me, I could barely see the two women deep in conversation about their Thanksgivings and home renovation plans. Instead of struggling to draw facial features and other details, I decided to use the colored pencil techniques I had learned from Sarah Bixler’s workshops and focus only on large shapes and color temperature changes. It was not at all my usual style for sketching people in public, so it felt fresh, foreign and not entirely comfortable, just like being back at Zoka.

Zoka no longer served my favorite coffee cake. When I asked about it, the barista said she didn’t think they had ever had coffee cake. She obviously had not worked there in the Before Time. As soon as I bit into the croissant, I remembered that I don’t like them there (they leave a film on my palate). By the time I finished it, the sun had come up, and more light filled the space with familiar shapes and shadows. I used my “normal” style to draw the young woman in the beanie working at her laptop. A nice touch: Every large table had a bottle of hand sanitizer, like a café condiment.

These COVID changes are probably things most people are used to already, but I didn’t get out much pre-vax, and I’ve only recently started slowly tiptoeing back to indoor venues.

Has Zoka changed, or is it mostly me who has changed?

Coffee, Coffee Everywhere, But . . .

12/28/15 ink

One thing Seattle is well known for is plentiful coffee. One statistic says that we have 35 coffee shops per 100,000 residents, putting the total at more than 200 in a city of 84 square miles. (Actually, I was surprised to read that the number was that low – it feels like we have one on every block.) With that many choices, you’d think I would have no problem finding dozens of coffee shops I could sketch in on a cold, rainy day (the second thing we are well known for).

The problem is that I’m picky. For the best sketching, the ideal coffee shop is relatively large (plenty of “victims”); has good interior lighting (preferably natural); has tables arranged at various angles so that I can see profiles as well as fronts and backs; has tables that are sufficiently close together so that I can see people well but not so close that they can see what I’m doing; interesting interior decoration or architecture would be a bonus. And of course, they all have great coffee – but do they have fresh scones? I’ve walked by many of those 200 coffee shops and rejected them outright for not qualifying in one way or another. Up until now, only Zoka Coffee fit the bill perfectly.

12/28/15 ink

Cloud City Coffee, within walking distance of home, is probably my closest coffee shop, but I’ve sketched it more often from the outside – either standing on the street or from one of its outdoor tables when it’s warm – than I have from the inside. Although it was the first place I ever dared to sketch in public four years ago, I’ve only been inside for the purpose of sketching a couple of times. The tables aren’t arranged ideally as they are at Zoka, which is also much larger. Architecturally, Cloud City’s interior isn’t as interesting, either. But the last time I sketched at Zoka, the lighting was different, and the interior was much darker than before. I decided it was time to look for a new regular haunt.

12/28/15 ink

This morning I gave Cloud City another try. People waiting in line had to stand right next to me and my sketchbook, and I couldn’t hide in the corner as I usually try to. But maybe that’s just a habit and not really a preference, because I found that I didn’t care if I was seen sketching. The interior lighting is bright, and I also like the natural light coming in from the front windows. Bonus: I could smell scones baking. Maybe it’s a keeper.

12/28/15 ink

12/28/15 ink

12/28/15 ink

Tina’s Top 10 Memorable Sketches of 2018

3/27/18 Amazon Spheres

I have a few year-end traditions on this blog, and one is to review my most memorable sketches of the year. As always, these are not necessarily my “best” or “favorite” sketches; they are ones that evoke the strongest memories and remind me of what I love so much about sketching. (Click the title of the sketch to go to the original post and full-size images.)

Here are links to my most memorable sketches from past years: 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2013.

March 27, inside the Amazon Spheres:

Exploring and sketching inside Amazon’s remarkable Spheres was certainly one of my most memorable experiences this year. It lived up to all the curiosity and wonderment it aroused during the years that the facility was being built.

5/3/18 Dutch Colonial

May 3, Dutch Colonial:

This sketch is one of my favorites in the neighborhood architecture series that I started this year. While sketching, a contractor working inside spotted me, came out and chatted me up, making it also one of the most memorable.

5/15/18 Aaron Draplin

May 15, Aaron Draplin:

At the risk of revealing my fangirldom, I went to meet designer Aaron Draplin (co-founder of Field Notes) when he was in town giving a workshop. In addition to getting his autograph, of course I had to sketch him.

May 22, El Capitan, Yosemite National Park:

El Capitan was the first of many wondrous sights I saw when I first entered Yosemite National Park, and I couldn’t resist making a couple of quick thumbnails. I intended to eventually get back to El Cap for a full-size sketch, but I never did. The thumbnails, however, are enough to evoke the memories of seeing that spectacular monolith.

5/22/18 Thumbnails of El Capitan

7/19/18 Bajzek workshop, Porto

July 19, Porto USk symposium workshop with Eduardo Bajzek:

I’ve mentioned his name often enough since July that you won’t be surprised to hear that Eduardo Bajzek’s workshop at the Porto symposium had a significant influence on my sketching. He changed both the way I understand values and the way I use graphite.

7/25/18 Coimbra

July 25, Coimbra:

A few days after Eduardo’s workshop, I was relaxing in the small college town of Coimbra and got to practice what I had learned. After all the excitement of the symposium, this quiet sketch turned out to be my most memorable and evocative of my time in Portugal.

8/18/18 Mammoth at Bell Museum

Aug. 18, Bell Museum, St. Paul:

During a very short trip to St. Paul, I squeezed in a visit to the brand new Bell Museum and met up with a few sketcher friends there. Chatting with hilarious Roz Stendahl as I sketched this humongous mammoth (which was made of the same fur as Chewbacca!) made the morning very memorable, indeed.

10/5/18 Zoka Coffee

Oct. 5, Zoka Coffee:

Although there is usually nothing particularly memorable about sketching at Zoka Coffee, my usual neighborhood coffee shop, this was the first time I attempted this type of scene in ballpoint. Sketched on the fifth day of InkTober, it made me realize that I could love ballpoint after all, despite my doubts – and I ended the month with a whole new respect for the lowly Bic.

Oct. 11, Green Lake:

I walk around Green Lake at least weekly year-round and, during the good-weather months, I also sketch there frequently, so it’s easy to take for granted the sights I see so regularly. On this fall day, I felt like I was seeing its beauty with fresh eyes, and I was grateful to live so close to such a treasure.

10/11/18 Green Lake

Nov. 13, Cannon Beach from Ecola State Park:

Whenever we visit Cannon Beach, Oregon, we stay right on the beach in front of monolithic Haystack Rock. From Ecola State Park a mile or two north, that ancient boulder looks like a tiny pebble in the context of the mighty Pacific, and if I had seen myself standing next to Haystack, I would have been smaller than a grain of sand. That trip to Cannon Beach was a celebration of my 60^th birthday, and sketching this scene made me feel both whole and utterly insignificant in the larger picture. Life is good.

11/13/18 Cannon Beach from Ecola State Park

Warming Up at Zoka Coffee

11/23/16 ink

I’ve been itching to get back to life drawing sessions at Gage, but the school takes a long winter break between Thanksgiving and New Year. With no other nearby options, I’ve been going to the second-best life drawing opportunity: Zoka Coffee in my neighborhood.

Noticing that my coffee shop sketches tend to lean more heavily on male “models,” I made a conscious effort this morning to give equal time to women. During actual life drawing sessions with nude models, I find female bodies easier to draw than male models, but for portraits, it’s the other way around. The softer facial structures and more delicate features of women’s faces are much more challenging for me to draw than those of men. Another difficulty is that women seem more aware of their surroundings and look up more often, so I have to work harder to avoid being caught when I’m sketching them. (The young man, below, working on his laptop was so oblivious to his surroundings that I managed to sketch him twice – and he hardly changed twice either time!)

12/2/16 brush pen, colored pencil

It was fun sketching at Zoka Coffee this morning, but that was just a warm-up for the main event: tomorrow at Gage Academy’s 17^th annual Drawing Jam! It will be my fifth consecutive year (here's last year's post) attending Seattle’s biggest art-participation event, and I’m looking forward to it as much as ever!

12/2/16 brush pen

12/2/16 brush pen

12/2/16 brush pen

12/2/16 brush pen

12/2/16 brush pen

Zoka Coffee

 

2/5/21 Zoka Coffee, Green Lake neighborhood

After dropping off a library book in the Green Lake neighborhood last week, it was almost as if I were in a driverless car: Inexplicably, I found myself on the all-too-familiar route to Zoka Coffee. Ever since my first months of sketching, Zoka was where I worked on my people-sketching chops through all the cold, rainy months. I haven’t been inside in more than a year. I miss it dearly. Wistfully, I parked across the street to draw it from the outside. (Ironically, despite the many, many times I have sketched its interior, this was the first time I sketched its exterior.)

I was happy to see that Zoka was open. Now that cafes and restaurants are allowed to serve indoors at 25 percent capacity, I hope it will do OK until we all make it to the other side. I will be there.

Zoka Coffee – Before and After

11/5/18 Zoka Coffee (after increasing the contrast)

The only benefit of turning the clocks back is that the early mornings are a bit brighter again. Despite the overcast sky and promise of rain, a nice light was coming in through the windows at Zoka Coffee.

The earlier version.

What you see above is what I now consider to be the finished sketch. The version at right, however, is the one I took home from Zoka. I thought it was finished at the time, but after scanning it, I looked at the image on my screen and realized that I needed to increase the value contrast between the wall and the furniture. I used a cool gray to help differentiate the wall from the furniture, too.

Looking at a photo or scan of a fresh sketch is often a helpful way to see things like insufficient contrast. Something about putting it on a screen seems to give me a more objective view.

New View of Cloud City Coffee

 

6/7/22 Maple Leaf water tower from Cloud City Coffee

Less than 2,000 steps from home, Cloud City Coffee is where I cut my teeth as an urban sketcher. For people sketching, I later favored Zoka Coffee because its large interior and unlimited free wi-fi encouraged Internet squatters to become excellent (though unwitting) life models. But one thing Cloud City has that Zoka (or any other coffee shop) doesn’t have is a fabulous sign – one that I have sketched many times.

The first time was early in my sketching life in 2012. A couple of years later I sketched it from across the street instead of from the café itself. Most recently was in 2016 when the sign was repainted and the logo redesigned.

Now that the weather is finally becoming hospitable, I’ve been thinking about cafes with outdoor seating, and Cloud City sprang immediately to mind. I’ve sketched the entire sign often enough that it was time to try a different composition. Surprisingly, even though our neighborhood’s iconic water tower stands right behind the sign when viewed from the outdoor tables, I’ve never sketched the two together (I deftly avoided the tower in my 2012 sketch). It was tempting to include the entire tower, especially with that nice sunny spot on the left, but this tight crop was the one I had liked in an initial thumbnail, and I wanted to try it.

Hardest to resist were the sign’s colors (bright yellow and sky blue), but the entire sign was facing away from the light, so I kept the colors subdued. I gave in, however, to a few letters in Cloud City’s name as homage to the best coffee shop in Maple Leaf.

Virginity a Fond Memory at Cloud City (and Last Chance for the Hero)

12/6/13 Diamine Chocolate Brown ink, Sailor pen, Canson XL 140 lb. paper

Ever since I discovered Zoka Coffee near Green Lake, I haven’t frequented Cloud City Coffee as often. Zoka’s spacious interior and high windows make it more appealing for sketching. But I have a soft spot in my heart for Cloud City, and not just because it’s right in my own Maple Leaf neighborhood: Cloud City Coffee was the first place I ever sketched in public.

12/6/13 Private Reserve Ebony Brown ink, Hero pen, Sketchbook Project sketchbook

That day I had brought with me a nearly new, handbound, leather-covered sketchbook that I paid $160 for shortly after I had made the commitment to draw regularly. I had filled the first several pages with a few still lifes at home. But even back then, I knew in my heart that I wanted to be an urban sketcher. So on the morning of Oct. 14, 2011, I walked the few blocks to Cloud City, bought some coffee, sat down at a table and took the sketchbook out. I was certain every person in the room was staring at me. Before I could lose my nerve, I hastily picked out my first victim (the man on the left in the sketch at the bottom of the post) and started to draw. And thus began one of my now-favorite cold-weather activities: sketching in coffee shops. (When I look at that two-year-old sketch now, I still recall the rush of anxiety and paranoia!)

Today I was on my way home from running errands when I stopped at Cloud City on a whim. After a quick one in my Sketchbook Project sketchbook (only one more page to go!), I got tired of being blasted by frigid air (we’ve had temperatures in the mid-20s all week) every time the door opened, so I moved to the other side of the room. Men in Seattle – at least those who frequent coffee shops in the middle of the day – tend to wear sweaters and crewnecks, so I rarely have opportunities to practice sketching a dress shirt (that pleat in back is challenging). Today I did (top of post). And as I sketched, I felt nostalgic fondness for this place where I lost my sketching-in-public virginity.

(Technical note: After generally rejecting it back in September, I thought I’d give the Hero pen another try. I do like the nib on it, which is similar to those on my beloved Sailors. But I can’t seem to get over the Hero’s significantly heavier weight. And it’s not just the weight; it feels unbalanced in my hand, like the weight is in the back half. OK, Hero – you had your second chance. You’re coming out of my bag for good.)

10/14/11 Pencil

Retreat at Green Lake

 

11/17/22 Retreat, Green Lake neighborhood

In the Before Times, Zoka Coffee had been my favorite wintertime sketching spot for years. Last year after I got vaccinated, I went back eagerly, but somehow, it just didn’t seem the same. Now freshly boostered again, I was ready to get back into coffee shop sketching, and it was time to find a new venue.

Retreat is a newish spot at Green Lake where we enjoyed al fresco lunches or coffee several times during the summer. In the afternoon, it is usually mobbed with the queue overflowing onto the sidewalk. I had noticed on my morning walks, though, that it isn’t crowded at all in the early hours. Compared to Zoka, it’s much larger, it has a more interesting interior, and it also has a very different vibe with a wider range of music genres. I decided to give it a shot last week.

As I’d hoped, it wasn’t crowded, so I had my pick of tables. Unfortunately, I chose a spot that left most patrons backlit against large windows with their faces difficult to see. (Before I left, I cased the joint thoroughly, so I have a better idea now of where to sit next time.) Fueled by good coffee and a decent (but not perfect) blueberry scone (yes, I’m picky about scones), I filled a few pages in my orange Uglybook, trying to get my people-sketching mojo back. Making all those portraits from photos the past couple of months was good practice, but it made me crave sketching people from life all the more. It felt good to be back at it.

Speaking of Uglybooks, the sketch at the top of the page is the first time I opened one up to sketch across the gutter. When I did, I realized that it is only a tiny smidge smaller than an A5 page! Often while sketching at Zoka, I had wished I’d had a toned sketchbook in A5 size so that I could use white pencil or gel pen for the window light. But I knew that as soon as I brought one instead of my usual white sketchbook, I would want the white one (and I had no intention of lugging around two A5 sketchbooks). Now that a color Uglybook is a daily-carry, it gives me the option of toned paper that is nearly as large as an A5. Sweet! Uglybooks are becoming more versatile every day.

P.S. Happy Thanksgiving to my American readers!

National Caffeine-Fueled Sketching Day

9/29/14 Pilot Iroshizuku Take-sumi ink, Caran d'Ache Museum water-soluble
colored pencil, Zig marker, Canson XL 140 lb. paper

Today is National Coffee Day! With a blog called Fueled by Clouds & Coffee, how could I not make my favorite coffee shop my sketching destination on this drizzly, overcast day?

Settling into my favorite table at Zoka Coffee, I was feeling rusty; I hadn’t sketched in a coffee shop since April. I decided to warm up with a couple of sketches using a twig and India ink. KK’s technique is starting to grow on me. When I sketch people, I tend to focus on the details of their faces and stances, and it makes for great life drawing practice. But working on facial details can also make me lose sight of strong values. My twig, as slender as it is, won’t allow me to scratch in any level of detail, so I’m forced to see and sketch only the darks and lights plus some texture. It’s a different kind of practice that I’m starting to really enjoy.

9/29/14 India ink, twig

That done, I took out my favorite Sailor pens and went for the kind of sketches of people that can put me in the zone immediately. I’m sad to see summer’s sunshine and outdoor sketching weather end, but today is as good a day as any to celebrate going back to Zoka for more than one kind of fix.

9/29/14 Diamine Chocolate Brown and Pilot Iroshizuku Take-sumi inks

9/29/14 India ink, twig

A Third Place

5/11/25 Chocolati, Greenwood neighborhood (For the record, this brownie drenched in hot fudge sauce was so huge that I could eat only a quarter of it at a time!)

For most of my adult life, I have longed for a “third place.” Traditionally, the third place is a pub or bar where people stop after work for a pint with familiar faces before heading home. Rather than an evening pint, an afternoon coffee has always been more my vibe. When I was single, I enjoyed taking my journal out to cafes on lazy Sunday afternoons before the next work week began. As a strong introvert, I wasn’t necessarily seeking conversation or community, but I liked the feeling of recording private thoughts in a public space. And people watching was always fun.

Throughout my working life, I continued taking occasional breaks from work and home chores by seeking out coffee shops, but I never really found a place that had exactly what I was looking for. Maybe I’m too picky: The shop couldn’t be too small nor too large. The music couldn’t be too weird or too loud. Ideally, it should be within a 15-minute drive and with easy parking. The ambiance had to be comfortable in just the right, difficult-to-articulate way. And it goes without saying that the coffee and snacks had to be good. Is that so much to ask?

5/17/25 Revolutions Coffee, Green Lake neighborhood

When I started sketching, the requirements became even stiffer. I still needed all of the above, plus the tables had to be set at angles that made it easy to sketch other patrons. And good lighting, preferably from big windows. Back in the day (spoken with that familiar tone of everything-was-better-in-the-past old fogeyness, emphasized with a deep sigh of resignation), people read hard copy books and wrote in paper journals, so cafes with good lighting invited such patrons. Now, most patrons use screens, so lighting isn’t important or even welcome.

And speaking of those people on screens, some are using those potential third places as their actual work places – occupying tables for hours, conducting meetings or job interviews, and writing their PowerPoints, all for the price of a latte. Zoka Coffee, one of my favorite indoor spots when I first began sketching, became impossible in later years because seating became so competitive. (Not to mention that their pastries went downhill. Pfft – that put an end to that.)

5/26/25 Macrina Bakery, Maple Leaf neighborhood

Most recently, I had high hopes that Macrina Bakery would become my third place. When it first opened, it seemed to check all my boxes with the added benefit of being within (too-easy) walking distance. Fairly quickly, though, it became too popular. I’ve stopped in many times lately when I couldn’t find a single seat available.

As you know, I visit many coffee shops in my own ‘hood and outside of it, hoping one will feel just right and become my third place. I’m still searching.

Nice Light, Bad Pastries

3/4/19 Zoka Coffee

When I’m in the mood for café sketching, my first choice is always Zoka Coffee in the Green Lake neighborhood. For a coffee shop, it’s huge, and large windows on two sides bring in a lovely natural light all morning. The warm wood interior, over-stuffed leather furniture, tables at various angles, and lots of victims staring at their devices make for an ideal indoor sketching location.

Unfortunately, I don’t like their pastries. The scones are so hard that they require a fork to penetrate, and the croissants leave a film on my palate, which leads me to believe they are made with shortening instead of butter.

Another first-world sketching problem rears its ugly head.

Rusty at Javasti

 

11/8/22 Cafe Javasti patron

Sketching at coffee shops used to be an inclement-weather routine for me (that’s one part of my blog’s name, after all!). I spent many fall and winter mornings happily sketching people and interiors at one of my favorite spots, Zoka Coffee. The pandemic changed all that, and the first time I ventured back to Zoka post-vaccine was last December. Then the delta and omicron variants made me skittish again.

Greg and I sometimes stop at our favorite coffee shops along our neighborhood walking route, and we enjoyed taking a break outdoors all summer and early fall. Last Tuesday was the first time it was too cold (barely 40 degrees) to sit outside, so we had our coffee inside Café Javasti. I pulled out my pocket-size Uglybook for a couple of quick sketches of other patrons. Whew – did I feel rusty! Freshly boostered, I hope to get back into more regular caffeine sketching this winter.

Not Enough Coffee Shops

11/5/14 Platinum Carbon and Noodler's Brown 41 inks, Caran d'Ache Museum
water-soluble colored pencils, Canson XL 140 lb. paper

You’d think in Seattle, of all places, that I could find a place to sit and sketch at any of hundreds and hundreds of coffee shops at any time of day. Apparently not at 2 p.m. on this particular rainy Wednesday (OK, I admit, I didn’t try hundreds). My intention was to practice more sketches of people for Veronica Lawlor’s Sketchbook Skool lesson, so first I tried my favorite place for that, Zoka Coffee. Not a single open seat! (All that free Wi-Fi that makes patrons so easy to sketch is a double-edge sword – no one leaves.) Frustrated, I drove back north and tried what was formerly Forza Coffee and has recently been reincarnated as Fix Coffeehouse. It, too, was full, but I was tired of driving around Green Lake. Fix’s outdoor tables were protected from the drizzle by an overhang, and it wasn’t too cold, so I took my coffee outside.

I’ve sketched this scene of Spud Fish & Chips twice before – once in May 2012 and again in August the same year. I prefer the composition and angle I had used previously; today’s sketch didn’t come out quite the way I wanted. I felt like I got distracted by the one tree’s colors and didn’t pay enough attention to the rest. Anyway, I was muttering to myself about my dissatisfaction, feeling like I should have stayed home and done more metasketching instead.

Just then a young woman named Michelle approached me. She had spotted me sketching and said she sketched a bit herself, too. We chatted about watercolors and Urban Sketchers, which she knew about, and I encouraged her to join us. Our brief conversation was a good reminder that the result – the way my sketch came out – isn’t nearly as important or meaningful as the process of getting out into the world to sketch. It’s about making a connection with my surroundings – something that rarely happens in my own studio.