Dropped Dear Wife at LAX this a.m. With this sketchbook project in mind, I drove to my old haunt, the fancy SBUX inside El Segundo Plaza at Sepulveda and Rosecrans. Found the place still doing brisk business, but with a staff I didn't recognize.

This fancy stand-alone store had just been built when we moved to the area back in '06. I was looking for a way to replicate my old Paris routine of going to Paul for coffee and drawing my fellow patrons while I sat...nothing new or revolutionary in that. Thought it would be a good way to get back to the brushpen, and to get out in the morning. This is where Brushpen Breakfast started.

In the very beginning, I played the naif as long as I could, asking if I could get a refill on my latté--which the girls working the bar usually allowed, taking pity on this old man and his sketchbook (these were the famous "Starbucks Sisters"--I never had the courage or skill to capture them properly in brushpen, DANG-IT), (and honestly, I wasn't familiar with how SBUX did their beverages, so I wasn't being a total skeez)(not totally, anyhow).

Very fun to sit and give the interior a sketch. I should do more of these....