INGREDIENTS FOR LIFE: Coffee and Motorcycles Together in The Artwork of Your Dreams

Coffee and motorcycles: You need these things for life; artist and illustrator Carter Asmann needs these things for art. (Which, to be fair, is also life, but I’m not trying to blow your mind at 8 in the morning.) Twin coffee-cup rings form the wheels in Asmann’s brilliantly detailed series of motorbike masterpieces, and one look at his creations will convince you that no couple is hotter than graphite and caffeine.

Whether he's rendering a Ducati 900SS, a See See custom Triumph Scrambler, or an oh-so-solidly cool (like achingly cool, if we're being honest about it) '80s BMW GS, the way that Asmann's precise, fine-grained illustrations are forked atop foundations of warm, messy, coffee rings is a truly beautiful thing—a contrast and a comfort, all at once.

Things that will not surprise you about Asmann and his process include 1) this series began as a literal accident; 2) he drinks a lot of coffee ("black, no sugar, no cream," as he told art and culture magazine The Plus); and 3) "learning to control coffee" has been the most difficult part of his process.

I'm short on the kind of bravery required to control coffee (I'm just grateful it visits once in a while, bestowing some small measure of grace along with the means to survive until noon), but I'll happily race you to Asmann's full portfolio of illustrations. Even better (from a materialistic perspective at least) is his dreamily diverse web-store—especially if you, like me, happen to also love wolves and 911s.