Rich aroma coffee shop mural
The Story
Back in July @racs_o asked if I would be open to creating a mural for Rich Aroma Coffee Shop, his new venture in Honduras.
My initial reaction was "Hell yes, let's GO!", I was beyond honored.
That quickly turned to fear - The wall inside the shop was 20' x 9', how the hell was I going to create something that would scale to 180 sq ft?
After a lot of trial and error with design options and testing different ideas with Racs, the final version you see here started to come together.
I couldn’t be more proud to showcase this as my first official project after receiving a Made By Apes license. Even more special is the opportunity to create art with amazing Apes from some of my favorite people. I’ll forever be grateful and honored to have had the opportunity to create this piece for the Rich Aroma Coffee Shop. It pushed me to create at a scale I had never attempted before.
Read more below to learn about each of the 7 individual images.
The Idea
We wanted to show the steps of the coffee making process from planting to enjoying it in the shop, with Apes of course!
We settled on 7 individual pieces:
- Planting
- Harvesting
- Processing
- Milling
- Drying
- Roasting
- Brewing & Serving
Planting
The start of my training to become an expert coffee plant leaf illustrator… My first time creating the blue dress trait, there are more details in the dots than I knew. Since these apes are owned by @bored_nene & @SeraStargirl i had to add some feminine touches.
Harvesting
@Zech3D ape was perfect for this step. Picking coffee cherries by hand is hard work, you have to make the best of it. Fun fact, drawing 1000 half circles more fun than you might expect.
Processing
Maybe it’s the gym, maybe it’s all that manual labor sorting through 1000s of cherries to find the ripest of the bunch. Either way, @bailey_tattoo is showing off the guns.
Milling
We needed two apes for this step and I had to go with the dynamic duo of
Best friends, @OTHERspaceFM co-hosts, and part time coffee millers.
Roasting
@Ape1926 Sailor Gary is in the back of the shop roasting, he’s looking forward to his appointment at 4:20 with some fellow Apes. Drawing individual coffee beans is just as tedious as cherries and leaves!
Brew & Serve
@racs_o wanted this to be a photo op spot on the mural. He sent me pics of the interior of the shop and this is actually pretty close to the real thing. Of course we had to have his ape as the focal point for the picture spot. Artists choice of a Reaper photobomb!
Brew & Serve
With @MeiravHaber & @JavierLovato127 it was only fitting for them to be on a coffee date, enjoying some espresso in the shop.
Added @NFTPrince in his new Tesla truck cruising away in the drive thru line!
The Finishing Touch
Tying all the pieces together took a few iterations. Finally settled on coffee tree leaves for the outside border - it gave some buffer for printing/installing if things were off by an inch or two. Added coffee beans between the images to break things up a bit.
