Texts, Coffee, and Cassie Cortado

As an illustrator, I rarely begin with a pose or a costume. I start with a story.

Every character I draw has a little life happening behind the scenes — a personality, a routine, maybe even a favorite coffee order.

Those details might seem small, but they’re what keep an illustration from feeling like just another drawing. They turn it into a moment from someone’s life.

That’s exactly how my latest character came to be.

Her name is Cassie Cortado, and she’s a regular at the neighborhood coffee shop.

The Idea Started with an Everyday Moment

Some of my favorite ideas come from ordinary places. Coffee shops are full of them.

If you sit in one long enough, you’ll start to notice the little scenes happening all around you. Someone typing on a laptop. Someone lost in a book. Someone laughing with friends. Someone quietly scrolling through their phone while enjoying a carefully crafted drink.

That’s where the idea for Cassie started.

I imagined a modern urban coffee girl — someone stylish but relaxed, confident but approachable.

The kind of person who treats the local café like an extension of their living room.

In the illustration, Cassie is doing something incredibly simple: she’s texting on her phone while enjoying a fancy coffee drink from the neighborhood coffee house.

But even a small moment like that can tell a story.

Designing Cassie Cortado

When I start designing a character, I focus on personality first.

What kind of person are they?

How do they carry themselves?

What kind of energy do they bring into a room?

Cassie needed to feel casual, confident, and a little playful. She’s not posing for the viewer — she’s just caught in a natural moment.

So I designed her with a relaxed posture, one hand holding her phone while the other balances an over-the-top café drink. Her expression has a hint of amusement, like she just read a text message that made her smirk.

Moments like that are what make characters feel alive.I want my drawings to feel like the viewer has walked into a scene that was already happening.

Why I Love Everyday Characters

Not every illustration needs to be a superhero or a fantasy epic.

Sometimes the most interesting characters come from ordinary life.

Someone sitting in a café. Someone enjoying their favorite drink. Someone sending a quick text while the world moves around them. Those small slices of life are relatable.

They’re familiar. And because of that, they’re full of personality.

Characters like Cassie exist everywhere — you’ve probably seen someone just like her at a coffee shop without even realizing it.

That’s what makes drawing them so fun.

Cassie’s Coffee Order

Of course, Cassie doesn’t just order any coffee.

Today she’s enjoying one of the café’s most over-the-top specialty drinks — The Triple Velvet Vanilla Stardust Cortado.

It’s a dangerously fancy mixture of espresso, velvety steamed milk, vanilla cream, whipped topping, caramel drizzle, and a mysterious dusting of something the barista simply calls stardust.

At this point, the coffee might be the least important ingredient in the cup, but Cassie doesn’t seem to mind.

She tends to order drinks like this mostly out of curiosity. If the name sounds ridiculous enough, she’s willing to try it.

The Story Behind the Character

In my mind, Cassie is a freelance creative who spends far more time in coffee shops than she probably should. She tells people it helps her focus.

In reality, she just enjoys the atmosphere — the music, the conversations, the quiet buzz of people working and living their lives around her.

The baristas know her by name. They sometimes invent new drinks just to see if she’ll order them.

And most of the time, she does.

Right now she’s texting a friend something along the lines of:

“You will not believe what they put in this coffee.”

Why Story Matters in My Art

One thing I’ve learned over the years is that story gives drawings personality.

Even if the viewer never hears the full backstory, it still shows up in the pose, the expression, and the small details of the design.

Whenever I draw a character, I ask myself a few simple questions:

Who are they?

What are they doing right now?

What just happened a moment ago?

Those questions help guide the illustration. In Cassie’s case, she’s not just holding a coffee cup and a phone.

She’s in the middle of a moment — reacting to a message, enjoying her drink, living her day.

That little bit of story is what brings the character to life.

A Peek Behind the Pencil

Technically speaking, this illustration follows the same process I use in most of my cartoon work.

I start with a loose sketch to find the pose and personality. Once that feels right, I refine the drawing with clean digital inking in Clip Studio Paint. After that,

I add a subtle gray watercolor-style wash to give the illustration some depth while keeping the linework clean and graphic.

It’s a balance I enjoy — simple cartoon design paired with just enough shading to give the character some dimension.

The goal is always the same: create characters that feel alive, expressive, and memorable.

More Characters Are on the Way

Cassie Cortado is just one of many characters living in my sketchbooks. I’m always building little stories around the people, creatures, and personalities that show up in my illustrations.

Because to me, drawing characters isn’t just about design.

It’s about capturing moments.

And sometimes those moments involve a phone, a coffee shop, and a drink called The Triple Velvet Vanilla Stardust Cortado. Which, if we’re being honest, might contain more whipped cream than actual coffee.

But Cassie seems perfectly happy with that.