In this live/recorded YouTube session filmed on December 24, 2024, artist Jason Nicholas greets viewers and announces a holiday‑inspired sketch based on his recent visit to the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. He begins by blocking the composition with a Sharpie, then experiments with an unconventional color workflow, mixing blue and brown to create gray tones and applying Inferno Orange ink for accent. Throughout the session he explains his material choices—Sharpie, various inks, colored pencils—and demonstrates how he builds depth by adding building edges and foreground details. The sketch is presented as "part one"; Jason promises to return for a follow‑up to finish the piece. He engages the live chat, wishes viewers a happy Christmas Eve, and encourages using creativity for positivity.
Chapters
Happy December 24th, 2024. Hope you guys are having a, um, great day. Actually, happy Christmas Eve. Um, holidays are here. Christmas is tomorrow. And how exciting and cool is that? Had some snow here this morning, just a little bit, but at least the ground's covered. So I guess you can say we're gonna have a white Christmas here. Um, yeah, so I wanted to pop on on this Christmas Eve, just do a holiday-inspired sketch and stay on for a few minutes. So if you're joining live, feel free to say hello in the comments or chat. Or if you're watching on replay, do the same. Always like to connect with you guys. Again, happy holidays. So this sketch is inspired by, um, Rockefeller Center, the Christmas tree there. This isn't your iconic view of the tree, but it's still a very beautiful view. Was fortunate enough to be able to see the tree in person, um, this past week, and it was really crowded. But you know what, it was just still fun to be able to get a glimpse of the tree in the crowd. Um, a lot of people, a lot of energy in the city. It was really cool. So there's just a quick, um, sketch using my Sharpie just to kind of block things out a little bit. And I'll just go in and add a little bit of color as well. Let's see, let me see if I can just get in a little closer.
Maybe that's cool.
I'm actually starting with colors I don't usually start with. I'm actually— I'm using blue and brown. I'm just mixing up some grays here. Usually I would throw these colors on when I use them. I would throw them on, um, probably towards the end for shadow type, types of things. But I don't know, my paintbrush, that's where it wanted to go, so let's do it. Alright, cool. I'm gonna zoom in so we can see how these colors are drying. All right, I'm gonna get a little crazy and I think I'm gonna grab some of this Inferno Orange ink, put some of this, um, on the tree area. All right, cool. I like it. I'm gonna let it dry. Let's see, what else do I want to add? A little more blue gray— not blue gray, some blue and brown to make gray. I guess bluish gray. And I'll throw a little bit more of this on and we'll wrap it up for now and we'll let it, um, gotta dry. Maybe I'll revisit it. I don't know if I'll revisit tonight or tomorrow or the next day, depends how things go, but I will be back at some point to finish this up. And we'll add some, uh, probably some creative marker on here, some colored pencil as well. Definitely will break out the Sharpie again, add some details.
There you go.
I like this brown, brownish gray color. It's kind of nice. I'm going to add some on here also. I'm gonna pull this— this is actually a building edge here. It's in the foreground. I'm gonna pop it out more with ink, probably Sharpie, um, after it dries.
Cool.
All right, cool. All right, I'm gonna zoom in one time and we'll, uh, wrap this up for now. This is just part one. We'll be back at some point to finish this up.
I mean, I'll be back.
I don't know why I'm saying we for me. Who the heck knows? It's all good. I'll be back to finish this up. Awesome. Thank you guys so much for watching. I appreciate it. Stay tuned for part 2. Have an incredible Christmas Eve, whether you're visiting, whether you're chilling, whether you're just having a quiet day at home. It's all good. Remember, you are loved. Peace out, everybody. Use your creativity for positivity. See you real soon. Um, Merry Christmas Eve, and tomorrow will be Merry Christmas. See you guys real soon. Take care.
