I stopped drinking coffee on January 1st. It wasn’t a New Year’s Resolution per se, but it was definitely a conscious decision. I get terrible caffeine headaches and was tired of the addiction!

So the coffeehouse did have coffee, I just didn’t drink any. Drink for me people… drink for me.

This is one of my favorite coffeehouses ever: St. John’s Coffeehouse in Downtown Covington. It has great windows facing the street so it immediately popped into my mind when I saw that today’s task was to “draw a view from a window.” My window in my bedroom currently has giant bushes in front of it, which I absolutely love because of the green, filtered light that makes me feel like I’m living in a jungle, but it isn’t much of a “view.”

From my window seat, I could see several buildings including H.J. Smith and Sons General Store, still owned by some Smith sons and an incredibly neat place to visit. Yes, that’s a snippet of a canoe you’re seeing on the side of the building.

Here are a few reasons why drawing vs. taking a photograph is important that I discovered while sketching today:

1.  You actually see the detail in your surroundings.

When I first sat down to draw with my iced herbal tea I thought, Ugh, this is going to be boring to draw, I can’t see any people. However as I started to draw I noticed things I would never, ever see in a casual glance around. I saw just exactly how the back of a stoplight looks and connects to its support, how the power-lines make a cross in the sky and parallel exactly the lines of the buildings like virtual, 3D drafting lines. How the wooden sign for the coffee house is aging from being outdoors, and oh! I never noticed the coffee cup on it! My appreciation that “they” left a tree growing beside the hardware store and how it leans toward the front of the building like it wants to see the customers and tell them hello.

2.  You can edit things, or fill in stuff, unlike you could in a photograph

There was a photo or sign that they had leaning in the window which I had to keep looking around. If I had of taken a photo of the scene it would have been mostly obstructed by the sign. Also, my luck, I’d probably just get a really good picture of glass glare.

3.  You remember better later what it actually looked like.

Even while I’m writing this (which is about five hours after drawing the sketch and I haven’t gone back and looked at my drawing), I can still see almost every detail of the scene in my minds eye. Sure, I could look at a photo I snapped mindlessly on my iPhone, but chances are I don’t really remember what I was taking a picture of.

I had to cut my drawing session off a little short, so I think I missed a couple of things. Yep, just checked, I missed a few stop lights and a banister. Oops!