Christmas Eve - Sketching

Hello, happy, uh, December 24th, 2025. Hope you're having an awesome Christmas Eve. Happy holidays. Um, wishing everybody the best of peace, love, joy on this Christmas Eve. And, um, yeah, I can't believe it is here. Holy cow. This year has like flown by so, so fast. Um, popping on tonight, Christmas Eve, just for a few minutes. I want to just— I think we'll do a little sketch here tonight. And, um, yeah, we'll see how you guys are doing. I wanted to check in, and let's get this rolling and put some music on.

Let's see. Boom.

And hopefully you guys can hear me okay. So I have to be honest with you, this day really has, uh, has snuck up on me. The whole year has gone by in the blink of an eye. It's just crazy to think about how fast this year has blown by. Um, yeah, mind-boggling. I am not even— I, I'm not even ready for Christmas Day. Um, I love it, love Christmas, but I am not ready for it. Maybe, maybe you kind of get what I'm saying.

Um, cool.

All right, let me just hit this over here and we're gonna sketch. We are gonna sketch a Rockefeller Center inspired Christmas tree sketch. I've done a few of them. I posted a reel on Facebook and Instagram and TikTok earlier today, so check it out. Just some of the past ones I've done. I thought maybe just create another kind of new sketch tonight. How fun would that be, right? And it looks like I'm live. Love it. Right, cool. All right, so in this box it says Sketchology. More on that in 2026. I am working on something, uh, cool, big kind of a step forward for me in a different direction, and Sketchology has a lot to do with it. So this is a box I actually printed, designed, and 3D printed yesterday and today, so it's a prototype. But in it I have Dun dun dun! Some Sharpies, some mechanical pencils, and some multicolor pens. Let's just dig in the box and sketch with a Sharpie to start with. A cool thing I put in this box— I don't know if you can really see it on screen, we'll see— I kind of put like on the front of the box what's in there. And it's a prototype, so things aren't great and some pieces are broken, but that's part of the design process. And that's what I love about designing and sketching. It's the journey, it's the design part, it's the journey between A and Z. Not always, not always about the end result. For me, that's the joyous thing. The joyous thing is that journey.

I know I'm chatting a lot.

So, um, the sketch is, is inspired from the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. I was fortunate enough to go there this year and see it again. I went one day really early in the morning, about 9 o'clock or so, and it wasn't too crowded, so I was able to get some good pictures of it. Yeah, it was awesome. And I have a little cold going here, so you got to bear with me for a sec.

All right, we're back.

But yeah, um, I love going to the city, and Christmas time is fun.

It's—

the vibes are really unique and different. Um, seeing the tree in person is always fun, especially when it's not so crowded. So, uh, I just got lucky with the timing when I went this year. So I got kind of the tree in the foreground. I'm sketching some of the buildings, some some of the architecture in the background. The sketch is really about the tree, not so much the buildings. The buildings are really just going to be a kind of a backdrop in this, in the sketch. So yeah, this year has flown by for me. Has it flown by for you? I like to start reflecting this time of year about what went down during the year, what challenges I had, what things I learned, what progress steps I made. And I'll be posting a reel on that shortly. I did a Hike and Mike walk today where I just kind of did a little brain talking. Is that a word? Brain talking? A little bit of brain talking, just walking and talking. Whatever popped in my brain, I just riffed off of. So, and I hope that had to do with a little bit of reflecting about the past year. It was definitely an interesting year for sure. It had its own challenges and Uh, let's talk about the word challenges for a second. Challenges often have a negative connotation. The word has a negative connotation. But yeah, challenges, when we're going through them, can be rough and difficult and tiring and frustrating, right? Um, but that's part of the, part of the growing process, the process of becoming the best you, you can be. I look at challenges, um, as a learning experience. What can I get from the challenge I'm going through or I went through? What can I take from that, build on it, and move forward? Yeah, and like I said, challenges could be tough, you know, but when you look back, there is a reason for them. So Don't be hard on yourself if you have challenges. It's okay to feel frustrated, but don't let that frustration stop you from, from learning something, moving forward, making some kind of progress. But yeah, so in my walk and talk video, I just share some of the— my challenges I had this year.

Cool.

All right, so you can kind of see we have a tree here, a background happening as well.

I think I'll throw down some colors.

It'll be a quick sketch. I don't, I don't have my watercolor out, so I'm not going to break out any watercolor. I have Creative Markers here, I have some colored pencils here, so we're just going to grab and go. With what I have. Normally, on when I usually do my Christmas tree sketches, I'll start with throwing down some ink and watercolor, but I really wasn't planning on coming on live, so I didn't prep and grab all this stuff. So we're going to do some grab-and-go creativity. Hopefully the music was not too loud when I was talking. If it was, I am so sorry. All right, let's put on some color. Like I said, I'm just gonna grab and go. I have some, uh, pens here. Oh yeah, in my little box here I have some multicolor pens. We'll break out too. I think this is a multicolor color pencil thingy. I'm able to bleed some of this marker if I get it before it dries.

Let's see.

Ah, no.

It's okay.

7 listening in on accidental confessions. Holiday chaos wrapped in quiet, and somehow he's okay. Snowed in at Table 7 Stories, drifting like powdered heaven. Strangers sharing warmth in their mildly caffeinated way.

Bunch of weary humans till they soften where they stand.

Snowden at table 7, not alone, just unexpectedly present. All these messy little lives crossing for a day. Snowden at table 7, he felt the world get slightly gentler. Sometimes the sweetest moments are the ones you never choose to make.

Steam rising slow from my cracked paper cup, but outside the window they're already at it, a choir of elves who never shut up.

They're harmonizing like their lives depend on waking the dead, and my last nerve is Away from losing it now.

My light stays warm but my patience is thin. Someone just hit a high note that rattled the bin. A kid with a bell keeps shaking it wrong. The timing's a crime but he thinks it's a The barista shrugs like, man, what can I do?

I swear the drummer's got something to prove.

All the carolers outside are too loud. It's not even noon, why are they so I'm begging the universe for a silent reprieve, but they rode up in costumes I didn't believe. Yeah, the carolers outside are too loud. Someone save us, please. I'm tapping out now.

Look, I love some holidays.

So this is, uh, fun trying to do without having some watercolors nearby. Um, sometimes you get used to doing things a certain way. Like, my, my Christmas tree sketches usually have watercolor and ink on them, so I have to think differently, which is good. It's true. It's just making me think a little bit, uh, outside the box of how I normally would do something. We'll see how it turns out. I'm just having fun. Fun, and that's what it's about. Just want to have— wind down this Christmas Eve evening with a little bit of sketching. I've had a pretty chill day today. I went for a nice 2-mile walk earlier. It was sad though, my dog, my pup, didn't want to come with me today, so I had a nice quiet walk. And I watched some of my favorite New York City live streamers. That's always awesome to do. That's fun. I moderate on one of, one of them, so it was cool to be a mod in the chat. So that was fun. I just kind of chilled, and, uh, I don't do that enough. I always get guilty when I sit around and I'm kind of doing nothing, chilling. And, uh, definitely wanted to make more time to do that in 2026, but still get stuff done. Got to find that balance, right? Is there such a thing as a balance?

I don't know.

I don't know about that.

Feel free to say hello in the comments.

Let me know if you have any questions or just want to say hi. I'd love to say hello to you. Don't be shy. Be great to hear from you guys in the chat tonight. I see a few people watching.

Bye.

I can see, I can see how many people are watching, but I can't see who's watching unless they comment. But thank you, thank you for tuning in, and happy holidays to you and your family.

We're all just killing time with cracked red cups and shaking hands. Try to rewrite—

maybe not that much.

We all feel a little accidentally Merry Christmas!

I had fun giving away, um, one of these sketches when I was in the city last time. One of my Rockefeller Center Christmas tree sketches to, um, an employee at one of my favorite donut shops in the city. Um, so shout out to Rocky if you're listening. That was, that was so fun. And, uh, he took it, he hung it up on the wall while I was there, and he's like, I don't think my manager is gonna let us keep it here that long, but let me hang it up now. So he hung it up on the wall. Taped it up, and it was just cool just to kind of give a piece of, of me, a little bit of me, this sketch, uh, to someone. They work hard at this place and they're always so friendly. Yeah, so shout out to, uh, shout out to Rocky and Willie who work at this, the donut shop I love in New York City.

To be like it's lore. Says my aunt cried when she tasted these. No pressure standing near the door. The table's full of crumbs and hope and one suspicious biscotti. I came for a coffee stay because leaving now feels rude. Probably it's a cookie swap at the coffee shop where strangers trade desserts and small talk. Someone says you have to try these, someone else says no, really don't. It's imperfect, sweet, a little loud. Holiday chaos, but honestly not bad. Yeah, cookie swap at the coffee shop when nobody Hey, let me know what you think.

I think it's starting to come together. I'll show you, um, I'm actually looking at a reference of one I've done previously. I'll pull that one out, it's right here. So this is one I used ink and watercolor on, then some Creative Marker. This was done in 2024. So here's kind of where this one's headed. I really— I don't think I'm gonna do the buildings yet in the background. We'll see, we'll like, because I want to do a really light wash. Maybe, actually, maybe I'll just use pencil and shade that in.

Now I'm thinking about it, maybe I'll try that.

I don't have the gray. I have a— do you have a gray? Let's try this. I have a gray pen here.

This might work.

This gray pen might work as a just a way to kind of do some stuff in the background here.

Big gestures, not perfect scenes, just crumbs on tables, warm hands, and being human between caffeine.

Let's try to just gonna do some vertical shading and see how this looks.

Yeah, it's cool. So I'm liking this gray pen to get some kind of just shading in the background. I don't want the buildings to be the star of the show. It's really about the tree. I have some people kind of in the foreground, so I like the way this is looking. You don't know unless you try, right? Just go with what you have nearby, give it a shot. I'm gonna put some brown on this. I like the— I like gray and brown together. Um, it's pen, so it's not really gonna mix, but we'll see if we can overlap and see what happens. It's working for me. Yeah, I like this gray color pen a lot. I love these pens for sketching, by the way. Uh, this is not sponsored, just me talking about something I love using here. So Zebra Sarasa Clip, and they're just— I believe they're just gel pens, retractable point, comfortable to hold. I like the clip on them, they have a little springy mechanism. I keep them in my Lochbie Quattro pouch right here, which is fantastic for carrying pens and then colored pencils as well. Um, well, they can't be full-length colored pencils, it won't zip. I'll show you, but I still like putting them in here to organize them. Yeah, so Lockbee, check out their— there's a Lockbee code at the bottom left of your screen if you're interested in like their Quattro or other products. Check it out, you can use my link, you'll get a 10% discount. Go for it. I, I love their products. They did not sponsor that, but if you do use my link, I get a real small little, real small little commission out of it. Cool. Um, yeah, what else do we want to add to this? Orange. I need some orange on here. I hear my pup outside the door.

It's—

I'm usually in bed during the week. I'm usually in bed by this time at night. She's like, what's going on? You're still up? She's funny. Let's break out some— all right, we're gonna use some pink on this. We're gonna go all out. We're going all out tonight, guys. It's Christmas Eve. What could possibly go wrong? I know Santa. Santa's got my back. I hope, I hope, uh, you all have a great holiday, and whether you're hanging out with the family or it's quiet Christmas, it's all good. We're having a very quiet day here, just the three of us tomorrow. 4, including our pup. Um, not going anywhere. Um, yeah, not seeing anyone, so it's kind of a first for us, but I'm looking forward to a nice kind of chill Christmas day. All good. And then I have to— I'm chilling. One of the reasons I'm chilling is because I'm leaving, um on my, my whirlwind trip to Paris, um, end of the week. So I need some time to get that going, get ready for that. And I don't want to run around. I usually get run down this time of year. I need to kind of lay low. I gotta sharpen this bad boy. This one's not working. What else do I want to add on this? I'm looking, I'm looking. I'm running out of this one. This pen is— this marker is dying on me. It's because it's my fave color and I use it so much. You hear my dog barking, it's cuz they're just playing in the hallway. I, I think this one's had it, guys. Um, let's see if we do have a darker green pen. Let's check out my multicolor pens here. I love these like 4-in-1 pens. They're so awesome. Um, I like to carry one with each of my like sketchbooks, and some of them even have like lead holders in them, which is cool. Like, uh, do I have it here? Would be one of these. No, I don't think any of these have lead holders, but I do have one that actually has lead in it as as well as pen, which is really cool. I want to try this green. Oops, it's got a little protective coating on it.

There we go, there we go.

I was just looking for another kind of green shade I could throw on here.

Doesn't really like This pen does not like writing over color pencil, so—

want, want, want— strike one on that one. Want, want, want— that one doesn't like writing over color pencil either. That just means we're Gonna use what we have. That works. Awesome. Let me know if you have any questions. Great to see you out there in social media land. Merry Christmas Eve. I hope you're doing well wherever you're watching from. Hope you're enjoying this evening, just kind of winding down maybe with me and chilling out. That's cool. If you have any questions, comments, let me know. Love to say hello to you as I get ready to wrap up in, I don't know, 5 to 10 minutes maybe. And the music stopped, so I'm going to put some more music on.

There we go.

Yeah, I like the way this is looking.

It's coming out pretty cool.

I'm just looking, do I have—

can I—

I'm just grabbing with whatever is in front of me here. Do I have— you know what I'm going to do? I want to kind of give a wash to this and I don't have any watercolor with me, but I do have dirty water. So I'm going to just literally take this dirty water, give a wash to the background here. Maybe I will see— I'll do the buildings or the sky, I'm not sure. Let's just put some color on there, grab some water, and listen to I'll just put that list on again. D-Ray, it's always great to see you. Hope all is well. Hope all is well with you. Um, thanks for saying hello. I hope you've had a good day and you're well rested. It's always wonderful to see you pop on. I guess I decided to do the sky.

That works.

So this is just dirty water I'm throwing on here.

And just enough doubt to stay caffeinated. He's merry and mildly overcaffeinated, trying to make sense of the season.

He's never gated.

Holiday cheers on sale, but he still hasn't located a way to feel less merry and mildly I also usually work with my paper at an angle because I like the way the water runs down. It kind of puddles up in places. I love that look, but I am working on a flat surface today, so I'm holding—

I'll hold it up.

That works.

This is fine, I'm fine. In that tone where you know it isn't, but he keeps sipping like it's medicine. Warm hope in ceramic form, because sometimes joy just needs a spark and sometimes it needs to be poured. Outside the world looks perfect, inside he's still updating his feelings depending There we go.

I like that dirty water brown sky I have going there. It's kind of nice. It pulls the outline of the buildings out a little bit more.

Cool.

Pretty dang cool. PDC, pretty dang cool. Should I go for it and use this one? And what the heck, I might as well. I have this cool multicolor color pencil, just a rainbow of goodness on there. Let's do it. Why the heck not? This is just a fun sketch. That's what it's about, having fun, winding your brain down. No wrong answers, no right answers, because I'm not trying to answer any questions right now. Just, just having fun. Oh yeah, I forgot, this is the water sign. Soluble color pencil. I think I found out on a livestream by accident when I was playing around with it. So how cool is that? And actually, like, the green that is happening when it— when, uh, it's like melting, melting on the page, the colors. You can kind of see it there, maybe that green happening. This was a good, good grab-and-go decision. I just found it here. The pup's barking. She doesn't usually bark this time of night.

I don't—

I'm guessing maybe the neighbors have some people over and she sees cars out on the street.

Cool.

All right, it's looking kind of cool. Well, Sky, it is using dirty water. Oh, I like how it is turning out. Good, thank you so much. I appreciate your feedback and your comments. Thank you, love that. I'm hearing myself on the other computer, so I got to turn the, uh, the volume down. Why am I hearing an echo of me? I am echoing.

That's weird.

All right, cool. Gonna wrap up in a minute or so. I'm getting pretty tired.

There's my Sharpie. Um, get a different Sharpie.

I just want to pull these outline of these buildings out a little bit more, but not too boldy. And I definitely want to pull the outline of the tree out a little bit more.

Here we go.

Kind of wish I'm missing my taxi cab yellow color. I got my watercolor color, so let me see if I can get it with this pen. Kind of want that yellow.

Let's see.

Yeah, let me try in a small area here, see if it looks—

if it works.

It's close.

Table 7, listening in on accidental confessions.

Holiday chaos wrapped in quiet, and somehow he's okay.

Snowed in at Table 7, stories drifting like powdered heaven. Strangers sharing warmth in their mildly caffeinated way.

I'm sorry, sorry if that was off camera.

They both agreed on Blitzen, but only because he seems the sassiest.

A man with earbuds half in muttered about late-stage capitalism while a barista wiped the counter like she regretted every decision. And through it all, Table 7 gently tore it up.

It wasn't part of the story.

Yeah, excuse me. I think that works. Merry Christmas to you as well, D-Ray. I always appreciate you hanging in there. Just wishing you, wishing you the best of health both in peace and joy and happiness. Is that the same? Joy and happiness. Wishing you all the best as the year ends and as the new one begins. Yeah, I like it. I like it. I like it. Like it.

That's cool.

This This is, uh, the edge of a building here, this yellow orangey color. So I just wanted to add that color to help frame what's going on in here. Um, I'd like to add more gray in here. I definitely think the wash looks much better on this, the watercolor wash. And I, I could do that next time I hit this again. I could pull out the watercolors. I just didn't have them out right now ready to go. But this, this is a better backdrop effect on here than on here, than just the pen. Just, it's too white, too much white going on. But yeah, this is— I'll come and add some watercolor, but I'm kind of liking this one, guys. Yes, yes, yes! Let me use this color blue, this blue Sharpie. I love sketching with this blue Sharpie. Um, it is such a fun color. It kind of reminds me of a, I don't know, like a technical blueprint type of drawing. And I've done a couple of sketches with them in school as demos for students. But yeah, it's a fun one. Let's just throw some in here and see what it looks like. So I definitely am going to be getting more of this color blue for future sketches. So just shading into silhouette. These are just kind of silhouettes of people kind of looking at, at the tree. So we're looking at the back of their heads. Yeah, I like it actually. How would this look? Oh yeah, all right. I definitely have to grab more of these Sharpies. I'm going to burn through this one really quickly, but I like this for the backdrop here, for the shadowy kind of gray, gray, grayness of the buildings. What's the greatness? They are great. They are great buildings. I'm talking about the grayness, and I'm Doing vertical lines just to give some height to the buildings. I just want to take away some of that white backdrop. No, don't stop working, Santa. Santa, can you leave? Some more Sharpies. And leave these in my stocking, please, please, Santa, please, just some Sharpies. You would think, you know, my last name is Nicholas, you'd think I'd have a connection with, you know, Saint Nick. I'm just saying, you'd think I have a connection. There we go. Yeah, now we're taking up a level. I like it, I like it. Cool. All right, let me know if you guys have any final questions, comments, thoughts. It's 10:58 PM. I mean I don't have school tomorrow, so I can stay up as late as I want. But I have learned this year, um, this has been a year I've been focusing on my health a lot. Started off as a pretty rough health year for me. I'm in much, much better shape than I was at the beginning of the year, and, uh, so Some of that was just being run down, not sleeping enough, right? And I just was not— have not been sleeping well, wasn't sleeping well a lot this year. I mean, I was averaging— I hate to say this, but I was averaging 4 to 4.5 hours of sleep. Yeah, that's it. Not because I've been staying up, I just couldn't sleep. And sleeping is essential. Sleeping is essential, um, for rebuilding, regenerating, rejuvenating, right? So I've been working on that a lot lately and sleeping. I've gotten up, I'm averaging like 5 and a half. That's a huge difference. I'm working my way towards that 7 to 8 magic number. Cool, that blue took this up a level. Level up! I wish I had like a level up sound effect from a video game. What would that even sound like? Like a level up, like I'm thinking like coins plinking together or something. Um, if anybody knows what a level up sound effect would be, let me know, because insert level up sound effect. Ding ding ding ding ding. Like a pinball machine sound maybe. Um, this is cool. I really like this. Last thing I'm gonna do on here is I'm gonna break out the white creative marker and throw some specks of white on here, make it, make it look like snow. We are expecting 7, 6+ inches of snow here Friday into Saturday. Yeah, 6+ inches of snow, big snowfall coming our way Friday into Saturday. I'm being selfish and I'm hoping everything's cleared up by Sunday when I have to head out on a trip. Um, so yeah, we're getting ready for a big one coming through. Oh, actually the biggest so far we've had this winter. Yeah, so New York City is gonna get, I think, some snow as well. All right, here's what I'm gonna do. I just want to do some Zoom in. Like he says, Blue took it up a level.

Ding ding ding ding.

Up a level.

By the way, these songs, uh, I have a playlist on suno.com where I Yeah, these are— I know these are AI-generated songs I'm listening to. I created using prompts and lyrics and stuff, so kind of fun. They're all about Christmas in a cafe.

There you go.

All right, we got some specks of white on there. Maybe it's snow, maybe it's lights, whatever the viewer wants it to be. Let's throw some in the sky here. It may not show up that great against the brown background. It's just to give you the idea. Right, it's kind of cool, that snow. You put some snow into people here, maybe. Yeah, maybe not. I don't know about the people. I don't know about those peeps. All right, put my stuff away. I'm gonna wrap up. Boom. Am I looking in the right camera tonight? Or this one, right?

Yeah.

Thank you, thank you. Whether you're watching live— well, especially if you're watching live right now— thank you for taking a few minutes of your evening or morning or whatever time you're watching this live with me. I do appreciate you in the chat. Um, be sure if you're watching on YouTube to hit that thumbs up, subscribe, all that cool stuff. I'd love to grow my audience, um, definitely want to grow the audience. So I'm going to be focusing a lot on YouTube coming up in 2026. Facebook peeps, thank you for also for watching and liking. D-Ray, thank you, you're always a positive force in the chat and, um, a pleasure to have along on this creative journey. So thank you so much. Yeah. All right, guys, here it is. Tonight's Rockefeller Center-inspired Christmas tree sketch on 12/24/25. Oh wait, tomorrow's gonna be 12/25/25. Look at that. I wonder how many people played that lottery number. Probably a lot. Um, Interesting. That's kind of cool. 12/25/25. I don't know when— when would that happen again? In 13/25/25? Wait, no, wait, no, 12 is the month. Yeah, I'm tired. Well, uh, we'll worry about that another time. All right, thank you everybody. Uh, peace, love, positivity, hope. Prayers, just general good vibes to you. Enjoy upcoming days. Enjoy friends, family. Enjoy solitude. Wherever, wherever you're at, I'm enjoying a nice solitude, quiet day tomorrow. Just a few of— 3 of us here. And, um, yeah, do something fun, do something creative. I appreciate you. It's hard for me to say goodbye when I'm having so much fun. All right, until we sketch again, sketch boldly, live creatively, and inspire endlessly. Thank you so much. I'll see you.