Friday Night Sketching

So good afternoon, I am Jason with The Inspired Life. Hope you're having a great, great day today. It's, uh, February 20th, Friday, 2026. I hope you can hear me and see me well. We're up and running. I was doing a little test before I started. It looks like everything is going, so we're gonna hit this with the ground running. Um, it's good to see everybody. I'm starting with this kind of face-to-face kind of conversation here. I want to start off with a chat, a creative chat, a mindset chat, before we hit the, uh, the sketching tonight. So I'll check the comments. Feel free to say hello, and, uh, I I wanted to kind of start off with this, this chat here. I'm noticing something that's becoming more and more common, especially in school since I'm teaching and I'm kind of around this, but it's also outside of school. I feel like we're living, we're living in an on-demand society. Where we just want to go from point A right to Z and skip all the letters in between, right? It's like click the button, get the answer, and it has to be the right answer. Um, it's kind of sad and it's unfortunate. I feel like by living in this instant satisfaction, gratification society that we're missing the whole journey of self-discovery, the, uh, personal development, self-growth, facing challenges, problem solving, creative problem solving, um, in that in-between space, right? And that kind of carries over into art and creativity in a way where people are afraid to even create something or even try to sketch something or paint something. Insert your own hobby or creativity in the blank there. But because we're afraid to get the wrong answer, and it might take time through discovery, a lot of people don't even want to start. And that's really— that's kind of a sad thing. So I'm not preaching, I'm not on a soapbox, It's just an observation I've been making, and I'm hoping to keep, uh, I want us to keep in touch with ourselves, our human connection, and not rely on— I love tech, I love AI, I have nothing against it, but we need to remember that we are humans and we need to explore that journey from A to Z, the letters, the space in between. That's where real life happens. Real growth happens, real discovery happens. Um, it's the fun part, it's the challenging part, it's, it's awesome. So that being said, I want to start off with the kind of a little connection there. Hope you're having a great day. I'll check the chat, say hello, and we're going to do some sketching. Let's switch to desktop view. Boom, there we are, desktop view. Thanks guys for listening to that. Hope Hope that was cool. Jen says, I can't hear you. I hope you can hear me now. Yeah, I was messing around with the microphones and stuff. It looks like we're up and running. Love it. Hey Mickey, great to see you. Hope all's well. Mickey on Facebook says, I love your drawings. Jen, great to see you. Gigi, great to see you guys as well. Hope you're doing amazing. Uh, K KDK GDKG. Voice is a tad low, let me fix that. Testing, is this better? Can you guys hear me better? I hope so. My computer had a whole major reboot yesterday or the day before. All my software, everything was kind of updated and it lost connections to my Ecamm, to my microphone. Hopefully we're back up and running. Hopefully you can hear me. Let me know and I will decipher the KDK GDK. I love that. You guys are so fun, so great to see you. Um, also, yeah, let's, uh, let's do a sketch. I, I want to sketch the Brooklyn Bridge today. I'm in, in favor of it. In favor of it? I don't know. I guess that's a good way to put it. My brain is tired. I wanted to come on just a little bit earlier tonight, um, before my brain got too, too tired. Yeah, let me know. Is it still low? Let's work on the tech here. I'm usually really, really good at tech, so I don't know what's going on. Can you hear me better? Testing, 1, 2, 3, testing. I got, I got the microphone like right here. All right, I'll keep talking. Let me know if it's too low. And some people kind of like when it's low and don't have to, don't have to listen to me. I'll definitely work on it. Mickey says, I have heard something about the space in between on Between One This AM. Oh, awesome! I love that. Yeah, let me sketch and we'll kind of talk, and this will be fun tonight, guys. We'll have a good time. Yeah, it's, it's It'll be more fun if I get a Sharpie that works. Um, you know, let's do blue again. I used a blue Sharpie yesterday. Let's go for blue again. Why the heck not? Yeah, it's really— it's very interesting for me to— and I'm guilty too, you know, I love going on Netflix and being able to watch any— anything I want to at any time. That's there's nothing wrong with, with that. But I feel like it's the part where we start turning off our, our thinking brain, um, where we really— and I should speak for me, you know, my point of view, I guess. I shouldn't say we, but I feel like my brain needs to always be in— not always, but be engaged in problem solving, creativity, thinking, challenges, uh, challenge it, problem solving. I don't want to become a zombie. I, I think what we have up here is one of our, if not the greatest gift we have. And it's kind of, it's really challenging in, in a school environment Um, and it's not across the boards. I mean, there are amazing, amazing people, but it's just— I'm gonna use the word lazy. It's just I feel like a lot of this is coming down to laziness. And, and it's, you know, it's tech, it's technology. And we— there's a way I think we can live with tech and keeping the amazing, creative, awesome, kind, loving human beings that we're meant to be. It's just finding that, that kind of balance, right? We don't want to lose that. We don't want to lose the balance. Wow, I am kind of— I am— I am— I don't know what I'm talking about. I'm all over the place, but sometimes on the Inkspired Life, I— we just got to talk, right? Let's put it out there. It's all good. All right, I'm just doing a quick loosey-goosey, maybe Brooklyn Bridge inspired sketch here. We're going to throw down some color on it, just have some fun and see what it ends up looking like. Feel free to ask questions, say hello, give me a thumbs up, a smile, hearts, whatever. Let's share this out there. I YouTube, I was up to 996, 996 people, and then I dropped 2 today. It's all good, can't, can't take it personal. But it was so close, I'm like, yes, 1,000, we're almost there, and bye-bye 2 people. I know it's All right, cool. Have you got some Brooklyn Bridge happening there? No typos, typos, no worries about typos. I love that we're just communicating in the chat. That's what's, you know, and that's a— this is a blessing of technology, just connecting here online with you guys is awesome. You know, it's a, it's a real blessing to be able to do this, and I've connected with so many people here online and not even met most of them in person, but you just feel this really positive vibe and connection, which is so fun and amazing. Through the intro— the interwebs, is that the word? Through the interwebs. So yeah, tech can definitely bring us together, but let's not let tech make us stupid. That's maybe a kind of blunt way to put it. Don't let tech make us turn into stupid people. All right, cool. We've got an outline of a Brooklyn Bridge kind of happening here. I'm gonna have fun. Let's just throw some color down on this tonight. Uh, difficult to balance tech when we are spoiled by it. Could we ever? Gigi, you're 100% correct. We are, we are spoiled. We are spoiled. Um, take— we take it for granted. It's, it's, it's a hard, it's a hard, um, issue, right? And that's why I really love coming online here and just showing, you know, we can maintain that human, that mind, heart, hand creative connection by just doing things like this, or dancing, or playing an instrument, or singing, cooking. It doesn't matter what it is, but I think we need to continue doing those things, and even more so now, because it could be really dang easy to sit in front of that TV and just watch, watch, watch, watch. I'm guilty. I have some times and some days where I love doing that, but it can't be for me a 24/7 thing. All right, I'm just grabbing some ink over here. Uh, this is called Mus— Muskrat. It's really like dark. Oh wait, you— I got a color you guys are going to like. It just popped in. Let's see. I have like mega, mega ink here. It's all dusty. I have not used this stuff in a while. Yes, here's the color, guys! This color popped into my brain. Hey, Andrew is on, uh, Instagram. Good to see you, Andrew. Hope all is well. Ted, I saw the name Ted Pomodoro. Ted, I recognize your name. Ted Ted. I don't know, maybe from back in the Ray Edwards days. All right, this is a really cool color called Dragonfly. We're gonna throw some on here. Hope you guys are having a great day today. I think we're getting snow here Saturday— I'm sorry, Sunday and into Monday here in New Jersey, at least in northern Jersey. I haven't looked recently, but last time I looked there was some snow headed this way, and it— I think it just keeps changing the forecast, but we'll see what happens. All right, I'm going to prop this up because I want the ink to run down. Andrew says, sup, Mr. Nick, everything is good. Andrew, I'm so glad everything is good, and, um, thank you for just being— you're an awesome human being, and I appreciate you. And when I say I feel like you're a good role model for other kids in class, other students, you are. So just kind of keep that up, all right? All right, I'm throwing on this Dragonfly color. I'm just gonna go crazy. We'll see what happens. This may look— well, again, see, I'm not worrying about perfection here. I just want to throw this color down. What's cool about this color, when it dries, if I remember, it'll have kind of an iridescent look to it. Hope you guys can hear me better now. All right, so that's called Dragonfly. What a— isn't that a great name for a color? What else we got? Bonsai. What color, what color do you think Bonsai is? Before I open this This color is called Bonsai. I don't even think I opened that at all, so I've never used Bonsai. Distressed Leather. Electric Patina. What? Ice— how do you even say this word? Icterine. All right. I'm going to break open this Icterine. I don't know what it looks like, but we're going to open it, use it. We're just going to go for it. Icterine. It has the word ick, so hopefully it's not icky. It looks greenish. Speaking of greenish, check out my water. I think it is due for a bit of a cleaning out. It's really dirty green water. It looks kind of like, um, oh my gosh, who's the green witch in Wicked? Looks like the green witch kind of color. Elphaba? No, I don't remember. I don't remember if Elphaba is the Wicked Witch. Ooh, I like this. It actually looks to me like, um, Kind of like chartreuse, chartreuse. I find it really therapeutic to just kind of dab on the colors and let it— watch it roll down the page. And I'm going to let it try to dry like this where it puddles up. Yeah, this is starting to have like an iridescent look. I'll— we'll do a close-up before I wrap up tonight. You can see what I'm talking about. I love the Brooklyn Bridge so, so much. A lot of you guys know that I always talk about it. All right, this is a fun night, guys. I am now grabbing a color called Salmon, Salmon Hors d'��uvre. I'm making up salmon. It's like a, it's like a meal salmon hors d'oeuvre. Let's put it on, assuming it's going to be a salmon, salmony color. Is that a word? Salmony? Damn. Okay. Oh, I got to, I got to shake this one up. Oh yeah, this is like— it's salmony. So this is cool. This is— I, I like where it's just kind of bleeding down. Going to let it do its thing, not going to fuss around with it. Alright, that's salmon. Saltwater taffy. We went from salmon hors d'œuvre color to— now we're going to saltwater taffy. All right, so this is called Saltwater Taffy. Let me shake it up a little bit. These inks have been sitting here a while, so let's put this on. Now we're getting super crazy. It's going to be some kind of pink. Uh, what do I want to do? Let's throw it in here inside the arch maybe. So the Brooklyn Bridge has these gothic pointed arches, which are iconic right here. Boom. So that's that Salmon color— I'm sorry, that's Saltwater Taffy, which I really like. These colors are going to transform as they're drying. I'm going to show you a close-up of what's happening here. Feel free to let me know if you have any questions or comments. All right, here's how this is drying. Let's zoom in with the camera. Let's see, do a little zoomy zoom. So you can kind of see, um, here is that it's becoming kind of iridescent a little bit as it dries. I think it's enough color I'm going to throw in here. I do need yellow. I do need some yellow. Um, maybe we'll throw some yellow on and then I'll let it dry for a smidge, and then we'll come back, we'll throw in some details with a Sharpie. I love how this is looking down here. So this is where it runs down, and I'm just going to let it puddle and kind of dry and do its thing here. This is kind of cool how this is kind of bleeding together. So if you were to go to the Brooklyn Bridge, if you were to go, um, do you think you'd actually see these colors? No, definitely not, right? This, this is not— these are not the colors of the actual Brooklyn Bridge, and that's what makes this fun for me. I am honestly, I am just grabbing and going tonight, throwing things down and seeing what happens. I'm not trying to make a photographic representation of the bridge, it's just a creative interpretation. And that's, for me, that's when I was talking about the journey, the points, the journey between A and Z. This is the journey, the journey of being playful, the journey of discovery, the journey of trying things out. It's a creative sandbox for having fun, for learning. Do I like everything I see here? No. Will I use some of it moving forward? Maybe some of the colors or techniques or overlaps, maybe. But the point is, I'm loving doing it, and I'm exercising my brain, I'm exercising my eyes, my hands, my heart. My heart's coming out, my soul's coming out, and just as I'm reaching and creating, um And that is powerful. And I am thirsty. I do need some yellow, so we're going to grab— I like to call it Taxi Cab Yellow. We have Taxi Cab Yellow in here and Lemon Yellow. These are coming— isn't there a drink called Lemon Jello? Lemon, Lemon Cello? Lemon— I've heard of Lemoncello. I think it's alcoholic drink. Um, I like lemons. I love lemonade. So anyway, so we're gonna throw down some Lemon Yellow right here to add that kind of pop of freshness, pop pop of brightness on our sketch here. Just like in cooking, when we throw in some lemon, lemon zest, you get that tangy kind of pop of brightness. And that's what, for me, that's what this yellow does on my sketches. It just kind of lifts everything up a little bit. Hello, Juanita is online. Juanita, good to see you on the Insta. I'm trying to sound cool by saying the Insta. It's good to see you on the Insta. Lemoncello. Okay, it's called lemon— limoncello. All right, I was close. Is that made with lemons? I think limone means lemon in Italian. Limón. For all my Spanish-speaking friends or Italian-speaking friends, am I close? I don't even know. Is— I don't know if lemon is the same in Italian and Spanish or if they're close. Limoncello. Uh, we appreciate you sharing a special such moment with us. Yeah, yeah, Gigi, I know I love doing this and I love that you, you guys are sharing your time. So thanks for hanging with me. I love when people hang with me, whether you're watching or multitasking. I'm in the background, it's all— I just love If I can be a small part of positivity in your lives, I have done my job. I just did my job mixing these colors in here. Oops. Yeah, my water is like way too dirty. All right, I think I'm going to do something I've never done on livestream. Yeah, I think I'm actually going to use some clean water. I'm going to put it right in this cap. I have a Gatorade bottle with water. I'm just going to put a little bit of clean water in here. Just make sure I don't, don't kick that over and spill it. And then The reason I'm doing this is I really want that lemon yellow, but it's mixing too much with the green. So I am being a little fussy. Not usually this fussy, but I know what I want. Hmm. These are some really fun colors happening on here. Di Marcello, yes, hello, hello. And when you go to Italy, try it. Yeah, you know, maybe I should. Yeah, I am so excited to be heading to Italy. We're going to be heading to Rome, Florence, Vatican City. I think those are the big— yeah, that's where we're going to be in Italy. And then we'll be heading over to Madrid, Barcelona, and maybe, maybe Toledo. I am so excited. This is looking cool. I might put it aside to let it dry for a few. We'll just whip out another— we'll do a quick sketch of something. I'm going to let this dry. I want to come back to and add some detail on top of it, but it's, it's looking fun. It's looking fun. All right, what do we have? Um, I have this right here, so let's— we'll just do some sketches in the Soho Urban Artist Sketchcraft paper. Yes, limón, both same in Italian and Spanish. Well done, ding ding ding ding! 10 points for me. Thank you so much for letting me know. Um, I know they say lime verde. Limón verde, verde for green limes. For lemons, limón amarillo. I— thank you, Juanita. You guys are awesome. Yeah, let's throw down some fun stuff in here. We'll break out some creative markers. Maybe we'll do an abstract thingy. Does anybody have any fun weekend plans? Anything coming up? Any projects you're working on? Anything creative, non-creative? Any cooking, baking, just chilling? I'm kind of hoping I don't have to do any shoveling. I mean, I wouldn't mind it like a delay Monday morning to school, but I'm not up for shoveling. All right, let's just throw down some— we're gonna just throw down some blocks of color. That's kind of how these sketches start. I just throw them the blocks of color and I come back later and add Sharpie or white gel pen on top. So let's just throw down some random blocks of color. Sounds like a song. Random, random, or a band. Sounds more like a band name. Random Blocks of Color. This is kind of where I'm just letting the music take over what I'm doing. All right, cool. A little bit of a quiet time there, a little focused. Um, these are fun to do, these kind of really abstract cityscapes. I'll zoom out a little bit. So I was really just letting the music kick in and sketching to the music. Um, started off with some, some Shinedown, and it switched over to Nirvana, and this is what, this is what happens. Um, so an homage maybe in New York City-ish, you know, we, I kind of see Empire State Building vibes. Brooklyn Bridge vibes here. Um, I, I almost— I was starting to see the copper building, which looks like the letter H. I could, I could play around with this to make it more copper building-like. But, um, pretty fun. Let me check and see if you guys have any questions or comments while I was in that creative zone. Uh, Ski Winter Park Ski. Mickey's going— Mickey, you're going skiing, it sounds like. That's awesome. I've never skied. I always wanted to try snowboarding. Um, I— that's something that always intrigued me with snowboarding. I was actually talking to one of my students today who— he snowboards. I— and he was talking about— I asked him if he's been snowboarding lately. He said no because he has to sharpen his board. I'm like, what? He's like, yeah, you have to sharpen snow— snowboards has like a metal edge or a steel edge on it, I guess, like skis, right? You sharpen skis. I had no idea. Um, so that was kind of cool. Um, but yeah, snowboarding always intrigued me. Hey, Paul is on! Paul, great to see you. Hope all's well. Gigi says, when you sketch the city like that, it reminds me of happy moments of your childhood back in the '80s. Freestyle music, kid— kids playing outside. Oh, can I— I'm going to share that in the— I'm going to put that one on screen. Let's put that on screen because I think that's, uh, you, you're saying something there that's really connecting with me, and I'll tell you guys why. Here we go. So Here's what I like about this. Um, I love when artwork connects things, right? It's one of the reasons I love sketching bridges, right? Here's Brooklyn Bridge. I love sketching bridges because they connect things. So I love, Gigi, that this is somehow reminding you and connecting you to your past. Uh, it's even awesome awesomer. That's a new— now a word. Awesomer. More awesome. That's bringing back these happy memories. So that's really cool, uh, and that makes me feel— that makes me feel cool, to be honest with you, because, because it's just, you know, I believe in creativity for positivity. So it's making that connection. So thank you. Um, I love when you guys share this kind of stuff, so thank you. This is looking really cool, the opaque colors on the kraft paper. Yeah, Paula, I love, love, love, love— one more time, love— and they are not a sponsor, but Sharpie, if you're listening, Sharpie, I am a huge, huge fan of your creative markers, and I especially love your creative markers on the kraft paper, they really pop. So Paul, you nailed it. Yeah, I love this technique. I mean, I mean, even for simple things like lighthouses, uh, I mean, I'm not gonna go through all these, but you can just see I use them all the time. This is one of my favorite lighthouse sketches I've ever done, actually. It's pretty simple, but look how the colors pop with those Creative Markers— the red, the white, and the black. So I love that you said that. Were you sketching from reference or from memory? This, this sketch here is, um, this is from my imagination. So I— there's no reference I'm using at all. This is off my brain. Blocking out colors. As an architect, as a city— New York City lover— I love all cities. Um, I'm— I often see buildings in abstract shapes and colors, so I'm usually able to pull out some kind of cityscape after I throw down color. So this is just from my imagination, just, just having fun, being playful. MSG on the— oh, you see MSG on the lower left down here? Yeah, I actually see that. This is another good point. So, um, this kind of brings us back to the whole tech thing I was talking about. And again, everything I'm talking about, I'm guilty of. So when I'm in New York City walking around, and it's pretty much anywhere I'm walking around, this is what I'm seeing. Here, we're going to, we're going to switch cameras. Ready? I'm going to do— we'll do a live demonstration. This is what I see a lot of, and let me know if you guys see this. Pretend we're walking around the city. This is what I see, and I'm, I'm actually like walking around the city, right? I'm looking at this. Bumping into people, tripping over sidewalk. Um, did you like that? Did you like that live demonstration? Yeah, so our heads are down on our devices. If we look up, look what's around us— I think I've been in the city so many times looking around, it just sinks into your memory, into my brain. Sketching helps things to lock in also. But I'm able to, to just generate these kinds of forms because I've looked at them, observed them, enjoyed time with them, and connected with them in my brain, in my eyes, and in my soul. So I have an internal kind of library that I can tap into and put on paper. So, but yeah, do I— yes, I look at my phone in the city. Yeah, I'm not— I am not a perfect human. I'm like you guys, we're all human, right? But we're losing that beautiful sense of world observation and just noticing things around us by having our, our eyes down on that screen, right? Am I right? It's kind of, it's kind of sad to see, um, you know, it could be in a garden, it could be in the city, it could be in your neighborhood, it could be with a person you're having dinner with or a conversation with. Um, yeah, so that goes back to the tech thing, kind of. I know I'm all over the place, but I think that's— this is a really— that's what this forum is for, right? It's about sketching, creativity. I love to talk about mindset, positivity. Personal growth. Um, it just all ties together, guys. Am I ranting? Let me know. I feel— am I ranting? I'm trying not to rant. I'm not really a ranter. 100% awesome, thank you. This is cool. Let me drink some water. I appreciate you guys so, so much. All right, so we have our little cityscape. We're gonna— I'm gonna bring back that Brooklyn Bridge painting, sketch painting, see how that's drying. And we'll, we'll wrap up at 9 o'clock the latest. So if anybody— if you guys in the comments want to put, put in there like it's getting close to 9 o'clock, or let me know. That'd be awesome. Not that I need to wrap at 9, but I don't want to tie you guys up too long. Oh, you know what I didn't do yet? I'm not done with this one. Eh, I gotta come back. I like to come back and add some black Sharpie to pull out details, so let's do that. We're gonna switch, um, I so wish you guys could hear the music. I think it would just connect even— that's a big word tonight— connect even deeper, because you, you can see what I'm sketching to based on what I'm listening and how music and sounds really impact my thinking. Music really impacts me on so many levels. I need music playing pretty much all the time, um, when I'm in thinking creative mode, and it really does affect what is coming out onto paper. So maybe I'll just put my playlist up and you guys can— I'll share my Spotify playlist and you can listen along if you want, or see what I'm listening to. Um, what am I looking for? I'm not sure what I want to listen to. I can randomize it. Uh, how about some Fall Out Boy? Let's put some Fall Out Boy on. Fall Out Boy, here we come. Immortals by Fall Out Boy. Winston Chen, if you're— Winston, if you're on, it's great to see you. Winston, you— I love, I love your artwork, and, um, I'm hoping to see you when I attend some more sketching meetups. It was— I was in the Met last— I don't know if you were in the Met last Saturday. I was there for a little bit, a few hours, but I kind of got lost in the Met because I was exploring. Well, I literally got lost. But I was exploring and walking around because I hadn't been there, so I did more looking around than sketching that day, and it was so fun. It's good to see you. All right, just looking for a Sharpie. I'm having trouble parting— there's a confession, here's an artist confession— I'm having trouble parting with pens that aren't working. I know this Sharpie in my hand here, this is not working, and I keep putting it back in my box over here instead of throwing it out. Do you ever have trouble parting with pens that aren't working, or a spatula that's not working? I don't know, a Mixmaster. Do people still call them Mixmasters? There's another word for it. Mix-aid. Oh God, what are those things called? I am— my fact— my factual brain turns off after 8 PM. It's true. I'm not going to remember facts after— anything factual after 8 PM. This one doesn't work either. Maybe I should make a— maybe I can make a sculpture out of all the Sharpies that don't work. All right, am I tight? Let me get tighter on this, you guys. We're going to do a little ASMR sketching to wrap this sketch up. Going to move the mic down. I am not making this up. None of those Sharpies are working. What the— what the beef? I need a water tower. Water tower, another one. All right, cool. All right, um, so yeah, I just want to add some detail on there. As I was sketching, I could have— I could have— I had two options for this building here, and I didn't do either one. One is I could have If I wanted to be more New York City-ish, I could have made it into, um, the, um, the JP Morgan Chase headquarters, but I didn't do that. Or, um, you guys might know— oh gosh, I don't know the name of the building. I'm having trouble placing it. Where the heck is it? Brooklyn? Or Long Island City. I'm sorry, I can't think of the place. I think it's Brooklyn. There's a building that looks like the tower from Lord of the Rings. I think it's Brooklyn. I could have turned this into that, I guess. What is it, Saruman's Tower? It could have turned it into that tower. From Lord of the Rings. So those two images popped into my brain as I was, um, throwing Sharpie on here. So that's kind of fun. I like the way this turned out. This is, um, I have to be honest with you, I like this more than the bridge we're working on. Let's pull the bridge over. I'd love to know your thoughts. Maybe let us know, uh, the song and we will play it privately. GG, that's an awesome idea. I will do that. Yeah, I could do that. I could even share my playlist as well. I like that. Um, spritz the drier pens with water in case that is all it needs. I am the exact same way about dry pens. Oh, Paula, thank you for the pro tip. You know, I have, I have never done that with my Sharpies, and it's a great idea. It could be because it's just so dang dry in the house. I mean, it is kind of odd that— I know two of these, one of these is at least dead, but it's odd none of these are really working. It might be just the dryness in the room. So thank you for that pro tip, very cool. All right, I'm going to bring over the bridge we started with. We'll take a look at how it's drying and we'll We're out of here in 8 minutes. I could go all night long, but I am sure you guys don't want to hear me drone on and on and on and on. And on and on. All right, let's break out that sketch. Where'd I put it? Here it is. All right, here's how the Brooklyn— how the Brooklyn Bridge is drying. You know what, we're going to throw some Sharpie creative marker on this one. I do, I do like it. It's fun, it's different. Um, it's not speaking to me yet, but but this, this speaks to me. I don't know why. It might be the energy. I'm feeling a lot of energy into this, and I like the energy. Cool. I am talking a lot today, guys. Do I always talk this much? I'm not really good at talking, to be honest with you. So feel free to talk as well in the chat, and we can hear what you have to say. All right, let's zoom out. All right, so the next song I'm going to listen to is— I will show you. Here's the current song I'm listening to. So it's We Pray. We We pray. Um, I do believe I have it shared. This is shared. If you guys are on Spotify, you can— I think I have this playlist shared, the Inspired Life-1. Yeah, let's throw some stuff on here. Um, I actually like this. I like throwing through the purple down. I like that purple on there. This is actually looking very cool. See, once you start adding, um, I feel like, I feel like all of my sketches go through an ugly duckling phase. Um, there's a part where I'm just like, what the heck is this thing? Um, right, I call it the ugly duckling period where you're like, it's just a big question mark, like, I don't really— whatever. But if you keep working at it, for me, if I keep working at it, um, there's this— there's a point where it just changes, it transforms into something that I connect with more. Connect is the word. We should be playing the connecting game. I don't do drinking games, I don't really drink, but we could do hot chocolate. So every time I say the word connect, take some hot chocolate. Um, anyway, um, I, I think, yeah, I like where this is headed. So it took that, it, that point, it flip-flopped, and for me that's where I added the white gel pen just to create the idea of some kind of guardrails on the side of a bridge. Um, I love that level of detail. If you've watched Bob Ross paint— Bob Ross, for me, this is what I remember watching him as a kid. I'm a PBS kid. I loved— I grew up on PBS shows and Bob Ross and Mr. Rogers and Sesame Street. Electric Company. Oh, what am I missing? What am I missing? Reading Rainbow. I think Reading Rainbow was that one. Was that kid Reading Rainbow? Anyway, when I was watching Bob Ross paint, I would sit there and watch and then it'd be like, uh-huh, what? And then there's that moment where it just clicks and the whole painting just transforms. That I remember as a kid, you know, 7-year-old kid watching these shows, or it was like magic. It was like this guy was doing magic tricks with paint and a canvas. He took this nothing and then it transformed into this beautiful landscape. And I'm having these, these vibes right now, like these flashbacks of just being like, wow, like, how did that happen? How did— and there's that moment, that kind of trigger point where it just changes. So if you're sketching something, drawing, painting, whatever You will have that ugly, that ugly duckling phase. I'm still going through mine right now, as you can see. No, um, but you will have the ugly duckling phase in your creative work. Give it a chance, and I find you'll find, you'll find it hits a transformation, a a point where it just— yeah, it'll transform. I've seen it happen. It's happened to me so many times. And I'm not saying it's going to be always a spectacular transformation, but it will change. And, um, and it just happened tonight with this piece when just these white lines brought it home for me. We're deep tonight. We're getting deep on the Inkspired Life. The show is much more than about sketching and watercolors and ink and New York City buildings and architecture. I like to think this is a show about simply being human, sharing what lights me on fire, and connecting with you guys in the chat. Who knows where we're gonna go, but it's always gonna be positive. Yeah, I love this. I love these scratchy white lines on here. This is what's crushing it for me, guys, right here. These lines— I am geeking out over white lines on this paper. This is, this is crushing it. Wow. And I have to sneeze. Um, let me sneeze and then I'll come back, answer some questions. Excuse me. All right, let's go in the chat. Um, looking at these buildings, have you ever done a sketch of a building you wish you could build, have built in New York City if you had the chance? Yes. Yeah, you're talking about a building that I would— I wish I had designed. Yeah, 100%. I mean, there's a lot. Um, the first one that comes into my brain is the Copper Building. There's something that I love about the design of the Copper Building. It's the material, the shape of it. It's sleek, elegant. Yeah, I wish I would have designed the Copper Building. Um, and it's a no-brainer for me. Of course I wish I, I wish I was the designer of the Empire State Building or the Chrysler Building. They're spectacular, gorgeous Art Deco structures. Um, if you look at the Chrysler Building and the details, the ornamentation on there, um some of it was inspired by cars, right? Chrysler was a car company. Like the hood ornaments of cars, the tires of cars. If you look at the Chrysler Building, you'll see these details on it that relate back to automobiles. And I think that's fascinating. That's so, so cool. Yeah, um, There's a, there's a space I love, and Gigi, you might know the name. I think I'm drawing a blank. I think it's 34th Street down towards the East River. It's an interior garden atrium space. I'm drawing a— I can't think of the name of the building. If you walk into this space, it is a full-out landscape garden inside a building. It's spectacular. I mean, to go from a busy, busy city to walk into this building with this garden is, is amazing. So yeah, I love— that is a great question. What are some of the buildings that you guys connect with? What are some of the art— what is It could be anywhere. I'd love to know, are there any buildings or— do you guys connect with architecture? Um, the name of the playlist— yes, yes, is, is it shared? Let me see if I have it shared. This is the name of my playlist. I, I think it's shared. If not, I'll share it. It's called The Inkspired Life. That's my, um, also guys, I do— I have a podcast. I have like 8 episodes. I haven't done any in a long time, but if you go on Spotify or iTunes in the podcast, just look up The Inspired Life. I have, I think, 7 or 8 episodes. I'm going to revisit that again and start doing them. I missed the podcast, um, but it's the same name, so So I'm just saying that if you look up The Inspired Life, you might come across either a playlist or even the podcast. Let me know if it's shared or not. How can I tell if it's shared on here? Reading Rainbow, yeah, do you remember that show? Iconic, right? I just listened to a, a podcast with, um, LeVar Burton. He was a guest on it. He's— LeVar Burton is an amazing human being, so Yeah, that was a good podcast. Um, this is therapeutic reason why we love your streams. Oh good, I'm so glad you love it. Thank you so much, Gigi. Uh, if you get me the name of that Discord group, let me know. I could— I'd love to join it. I have it. I have a Discord channel too, The Inspired Life. I'm not really active on on it, but I do have one set up. Guys, are you liking this one? I know it's past 9, but I'm gonna keep going a few more minutes because I'm in the groove. And I understand if you need to step out, it's all good. But if you want to stick around, I'm going to continue. I want to— I like where this piece is headed, and I don't have my iconic red on here. I've— I feel like this is a huge announcement, guys, but I feel like I feel like red is becoming more iconic than the pink I always use. Red is starting to replace neon pink. Oh, this is a good song. Lightning Crashes by Live. Lightning Crashes by Live. Yeah, I'm finding red is starting to take over a little bit in my I was gonna say art kingdom, but it's not really— this is not a kingdom, is my art practice. And I just love, I love using red outlines around my sketches, almost like a red ribbon. I'm actually— I'm going to be bold. I'm going to— I want to use a red creative marker. We're going to really punch it out. If you look at my Statue of Liberty torches, you'll see I do that a lot with the red around the outline of the sketch. Where the heck's my red? There we go. I do want to pull out these cables as well, and I do know the last thing I'm going to do on here is I'm going to use white, and I want to pull out the cables on this part of the bridge. There we go, that's enough. I have to buy bigger mats, but this would look— I think this would look really cool in a black mat. Mickey says, got it. Awesome, Mickey. I'm so glad you're watching over on the Facebook. Thank you so much for tuning in. I see your playlist but not your podcast. You have good taste in music. Oh, thank you, I appreciate that. Oh my, really? My podcast isn't showing up? The Inkspired Life? That's weird. Huh. No, actually, I'm curious. Let me— I'm going to look at my phone here. My library. If I go to my podcasts, yeah, I did. Here, I did subscribe to my own podcast. So if you go on, this is my pod— the podcast here on Spotify. I have 8 episodes. I haven't done one since— oh, 9. Last one I did was August 2024. I think I need to get back on this train. Oh, I just— I don't want to listen to myself on the podcast. I hit the wrong button. Oh, I used to have music on the beginning. All right, sorry, I'm going down a rabbit hole. I'm— oh, the sound quality is no bueno. All right, let me go back to my music. I'm listening to my voice. I don't— I'm like in The Matrix right now. I'm hearing— or is it Inception? I'm hearing myself, hearing myself, hearing myself. I think that's Inception. I will, uh, Put Tom Petty on. Okay, much better. All right, let me throw down some, uh, cables. Mm, I might leave those out. Actually, I want to do those in white. I'm getting to the point where I, I don't want to add too much, so my gut is saying My gut saying, okay, mister, might be time to stop this one. Almost. All right, cool. Hey, Juanita says the details look amazing. Thank you, I'm glad you like it. So here it is, this is the, uh, I think this one's done. I think it's done. I wish I had a bigger black mat, but I think this would look really cool with a black mat around it. This would look really cool if I cut it out and put it on black paper, so kind of like I cut this one out. I did a collage last week with this, so feel free to go back on my YouTube and look at the replays. Uh, you'll see where we cut this out, put it on a collage. I could see doing something similar to this, cutting it out, putting it on black paper. I think it's really going to make these colors pop even more. I'd cut out the openings here like I did with this one, cut these out, and then the black would show through. Uh, I'm not gonna do that tonight, but I think that would look really cool if I did that. Awesome. Oh, it's 9 o'clock. Thank you guys, appreciate it. But it's also 5 o'clock somewhere. Yes, it is. You guys are funny. Hey guys, thank you so much for kind of this, uh, interesting journey tonight, right? A to Z, it's a part in between. So we're at the Z part, end of the show. But where did all the magic happen? Where'd all the fun happen? Where did the learning happen? Where did the conversation happen? The space between A and Z. And Tim, for me, that is the key. That is the part of life that I just love and look forward to, even the bumpy parts, because there's always something we can take out of it, uh, no matter what life brings at us. Thank you guys for being with me tonight on The Inspired Life. Until we meet again, Sketch boldly, live creatively, and inspire endlessly. Look for me over the weekend. I will be on this weekend, probably Saturday night and Sunday. But yeah, take care. Thank you so much. I don't think I— should I do a cheesy wave at the end? I, I need— maybe I just say what I say and click off, right? What do you think? All right, I appreciate you guys. Take care.