INKing Out Loud

Hey Jennifer, cheers from Arizona. Hope you're doing well. Cheers from New Jersey. Always good to see you. Hope you're having a good day today. I always appreciate you joining and saying hello. Hey, Heather's in. Heather, good to see you. Having a bit of a, uh, block tonight with my creativity. I get it. I totally get creative block. Um, maybe if you watch on, you know, for— I'm only gonna be on from 15 minutes or so, but maybe if you watch on and, um, maybe I can provide a little relief from your creative block. Maybe you'll see something I do that gives you an idea, or Maybe someone in the chat. One of the things that helps me with creative block is actually music. I love listening to music. I'll switch up different types of music when I'm working. If I get stuck on something, you know, I could listen to anything from Neil Diamond to Metallica and Different music inspires me and can help me break creative block in different ways. I get it. Sometimes we need to just maybe step away also for a few minutes or a day or two. Yeah, thanks for joining in. So I'm just adding some more colors. I'm working on the same sketch as last night. So I just want to add another round of colors on here to start to take it home. I showed the current version to the person I'm painting it for, and she, she's on board. She's liking it. That's really cool. And she's gonna be giving it to her sister as a kind of a late birthday gift. So how cool is that? So fun. Hey, Jennifer, I love your attitude. Every day is a good day. I'm still here, guys. Give it up, some thumbs up in the chat, some hearts out there. Jennifer, you have the right attitude. I love that so much. Love your thinking. I know it's not always to think that way. The more you do, the better off it is. So awesome, awesome. Love, love what you said. Really cool. That actually, that actually made my day. So thank you. That's so cool. You guys are awesome. This is so fun. I do appreciate it. So yeah, I'm having fun throwing down these colors. I'm loving the way it's looking. I want to leave— I do. I feel like I want to leave some— a lot of white in here, and I feel like I want to pop on— I'm going to work in some of the, um, the Preppy Yellow. I love Preppy Yellow, one of my fave, fave colors of inks to bleed. So we're going to throw some of that on next just to give some freshness, a sense of brightness somewhere on here. I know I have these pops of pink, which I love, but I feel like I need a little of this yellow, and it's almost like an orangey yellow, which is really fun. And I'm going to splatter some on here too. So we're going to do that. I hate wasting this. I love this color ink and I hate wasting it. So I have a scrap piece. Actually, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to grab a scrap piece. It's not even a scrap piece of— it's Kilimanjaro. This is, uh, the real thick, I guess, 300-pound that comes in the front of the Kilimanjaro pad. I'm just throwing down this, brushing my brush off because I don't want to waste this ink. So we'll see, this will eventually turn into something, I'm sure. So I'll just keep it over here. Cool. Hey, Linda's in the house! Linda, good to see you. Welcome back, Linda from— Linda, I'm Linda with an I. I'm not sure where you're from, but thanks for joining. Sometimes we have Linda with a Y from Ohio. DB's in the house! Give it up for DB. I haven't seen you in a while. DB is awesome. Oh my gosh, this is so fun. DB, how the heck are you? DB and I go way back, a couple of years, I think, right? We must have known each other online for maybe 2 years or so. Um, really, really cool to see you in here. We got— we got— we need to do a Zoom. I say that all the time. I just haven't got my act together, but we need to do a Zoom with all the, uh, Inklings and just hang out for an hour and just whatever— paint, sketch, draw, talk about food. You guys always talk about— and I learned a lot about plants and flowers from you guys. Um, so cool. All right, so this is the Preppy Yellow. It's kind of orangey. Let me show you what it looks like on this sketch. Let's see if I can find it. So I'm going to have used it here. Um, it's kind of hard to see, but this is, this is the Preppy yellow. I, I don't know why they call it yellow. To me it's orange yellow. But here, I love that color. Uh, and I think I literally took the cartridge and shook it on there, so I got a big bladder ink, which we might do, but let's just throw a little bit on here. DB says, I like the white. Awesome, awesome. Linda is from NYS, New York State, I'm guessing. All right, NYS is New York State because NYC is New York City. So cool. Here's that one. We're gonna zoom in, guys, a little bit here. So I'm throwing out some of that preppy yellow. Let's bleed some, bleed some of it. I love New York State, it's so beautiful. I am helped to work on a project up in— man, Copake. I think it was Copake, if I remember. Copake, New York. I hope to, um design a house up there years— I don't know, maybe like 7 years ago now. And I would make— made a bunch of trips up to Copake, New York. Pretty fun driving through some small towns and stuff. All right, so I'm just throwing down some of these yellow guys. I'm drawing it on and then I'm bleeding it. Again, I am intentionally going to leave a lot of this white space here, but I'm liking the way that's looking. But I like this even more. I'm going to be— I'm going to live on the edge, guys. Watch what I'm going to do. Might not be the most economical thing, but this is what I love doing with this color. I'm going to take the ink cartridge out and I'm just gonna— we're just gonna splatter on. Let me zoom out. Just splatter some on here, see how it looks. Oh, it's a lot came out, but that's okay. I like it. And I might blow some of it a little bit. I don't have a straw. But look at that. Look at that color. I love that color. Isn't that amazing? I'm not going to blow. Actually, I'm just going to kind of let gravity pull it down a little bit. There we go. I'm going to leave it. Leave it at that. I wish I could buy big bottles of this color. It's so beautiful. Yeah, we need to— DB, yeah, so DB, I agree, we're gonna— I am doing— I've committed myself to doing a workshop this summer. So we're gonna have— I'm gonna do an architectural sketching workshop. It'll be online. I don't know the subject matter. I know it'll be architecture, but we'll see. I'm always open for suggestions. Maybe we'll do some bridges, or I'm not sure. I'm up for ideas, but there will be a workshop this summer. DB says, I have learned a lot from Jason Nicholas Nicholas. Oh, thank you so much. I've learned a lot from you too. DB is a guru when it comes to— I think when I think of DB, I always think of DB's pencil graphite sketches and drawings. Absolutely incredible. So I'm going to actually— let's just dip in and grab a little bit of that color and spread it around here, just kind of touch it in some places. So I'm not really brushing it into the paper, I'm kind of dabbing it. And I just like the way it puddles up, and I like the way pools of ink and pools of color dry when they're puddled. So that's why you don't, you don't see me a lot of times doing this. You know, like brushing it straight on. Lots of times I'll just kind of dab it in places. I might brush a little, I might dab a little more. So don't think whenever you're doing watercolor or ink washes you have to paint it on, put strokes. You can dab it, just kind of, you know, It's just another technique. Linda, just above NYC. Oh cool, just above, very, very cool. Love that. And as you guys know, I love NYC. I'm definitely going to be going there in May, if not once, probably once or twice, do some sketching. I want to get back to the High Line. I want to go— actually, my first thing I really want to do is I want to go, I want to go and walk across the Brooklyn Bridge and sketch and photograph. That's been on my bucket list for years, so I'm hoping in May to do the, do the Brooklyn Bridge. That would be so cool. But New York City inspires me. The energy, the architecture, the public spaces, the plazas, Central Park. I mean, a lot of people always associate negative things with New York City. It has its issues like everywhere, but I see the beauty in the city. I totally love the beauty. There are some places you can literally escape and be quiet in a busy, busy city. It's a fascinating place, guys. This is drying amazingly. I'm loving it. So cool. I'm gonna pop on some yellow watercolor, I think. Boom. DB says great. Oh, the Cloisters. You know, that's a place I have not been yet. I have, I have to check out the Cloisters. And then another place I would love to go to is, um, the Botanical Garden. I'm trying to remember where it is. Brooklyn. I don't remember where the Botanical Garden is. I'd love to get, get there. I'm throwing down some some of this yellow. I'm starting to think this is getting pretty close to being done with, um, colors. I just want to add a little more. This is a little flat for me, so that's why I'm just stacking on, layering on a little more yellow here just to give it a little differentiation in the surface. I do want to throw some more turquoise down now. So let me grab some turquoise out of here and just put it on. I love this palette, by the way. This is just— it's such a cool palette. I've had this for a pretty long time. Winsor Newton has this cool little thumb area built in, some mixing palettes up there. You could even hang— I don't know where it is. Oh, it's right here. You could actually even hang a little pan of water there. Pretty small, but it's doable. Just a really neat little palette. I do feel like we can mix a little gray on this maybe. So I'm going to just take— I like to make my own gray DB loves Payne's Gray, but I'm actually going to take some blue and some brown over here and I'm going to mix my own gray color. Yeah, I just feel like I need some dark patches on here. I'd love to get this done tonight so I can bring it into school tomorrow.

Cool.

There we go. I like those touches of the dark. The gray area. I'm feeling— there we go. I'm actually just going to— can use it for shadows if you want. So this is a staircase, this zigzag line. So maybe I'll just throw a little bit of shadows under there. Sometimes I have more blue in the shadows. It depends. It's pretty blue right now. Throw a little more brown in there. There we go. And I'm just gonna— just draw— sketch in some shadows here. Just kind of do this. There we go. Just to make those stairs kind of pop a little, that's all. I think that's good for the I think that's good. DB says, I know I've said it before, however, you need, you need to have a showing of your work. DB, you are, you're way too kind. I appreciate that so much. I would love to display my work in a little like a café or something. That would be really cool. Maybe a local café or coffee shop. That would be so fun. But thank you so much. My nose is itching. Allergies.

Sorry.

I'm just dipping into some turquoise right now. I'm going to go heavy on the— I'm really loading up the brush here. Not a lot of water. I'm loading it up with this turquoise because I want it— I want the turquoise to kind of really pop. I feel like I just need a little more turquoise happening in here. So I want it just really thick so it pops out. All right, cool. I'm getting to the point where I think I'm going to start overworking this, so I'm going to leave it. I'm not going to add any more color. After it dries, I'll come back with, um, probably my Pilot pen, and I'm just going to sketch just some more details. I'll sketch in some rivets, put some contours, maybe hatch lines for shadows. And I do want to pull out— actually, I'll do that right now with my Lamy. Where's my black Lamy pen? Here it is. I want to just pull these shapes out a little bit, so I'm going to take my Lamy ink and we're going to just pull these out here. I'll show you. And I'm using Lamy ink because I can bleed it, so if I do want to soften this edge, I can. And I'm just kind of going around, just want to pull these shapes here a little bit. Maybe the outline here, kind of, I actually want to curve this a little more. There we go. And I want to pull this out, this pipe across here. My Lamy pen isn't liking sketching on this paper too much right now. Might be the texture of it. So you can kind of see, just— I'm just going over this edge. It's pulling it out a little bit more. It's keeping that really loose sketchy look I like. I'm not trying to stay— if you look here, I'm not going to stay exactly over the lines that are there already, as I almost stay out exactly on the lines that are there. That's the opposite of what I wanted to do. But I'm just going to kind of— there we go, pull that down. Let's pull this edge down a little bit. And this piece, there's kind of a— I don't know what this is, kind of round knob or pressure gauge or something there. I just want to continue this over a little bit here. There we go. So there, so you can kind of see just going over those lines, I was able to pull that out a little bit more. Hey, Linda's in the house. Linda, great to see you. You should frame a few and give to a local coffee shop. Hey, that's a cool idea. If I lived close to this place, uh, it's not that far. It's like an hour and a half maybe. Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. It would be cool if I, uh, yeah, load these up and bring them on over. That would be fun to do. Cool idea. I'm gonna sketch, and these are railings for stairs. I'm just gonna kind of sketch them in a little bit. Just add some verticals here. It'd be really cool if, um, if They had— they— I think they have a visitor center or gift shop down there. Be cool to, to be able to sell some prints in their gift shop. So you guys have watched this sketch from the beginning. I haven't done anything since last night other than tonight— last night and tonight. So you can see how long these sketches can take. And I'm not really showing a lot of detail, right? There is something that's bothering me a little bit here. I kind of want to— there's something about this I'm not digging right now. I'm gonna re-wet it. I think I want to— I just want to pull it back a little, maybe.

That's okay.

Um, those are nice pens. Hey, thanks, Linda. Yeah, so this is, this is a Lamy Safari. Lamy Safari. I don't know if you could read it on there. L-A-M-Y, Lamy. Safari. Um, I probably have had this one since 2018, maybe. This one I think I've had since 2015, '16. So I have two different ones only because two different colors in here. So I love the sketching with these. So I would totally suggest using a Lamy pen. And these are the Lambie Safaris. This is drying really, really nice, guys. Check out this area here. Let me zoom in. Boom! This I'm loving. I am loving. I'm loving this right in here. There's actually like an iridescence in person. It's not coming across on screen. There's a little shimmer when I move this. A little shimmer. I do not— it's really, it's really cool. This looks awesome. I'm loving this here, loving this color here. So I definitely think this one is done with color other than the man says, um, I will add blue, I will add some light aqua in this after it's all dry. These will be the last two things.

Cool.

Let me see if there's any Qs in there before I wrap up. Hope you guys have been enjoying this series of Inspired by the SteelStacks. Um, not done. I'll be sketching a lot more of these because I kind of found a wheelhouse I really am having fun with. Yes, you have a teal one. Oh, Linda, cool, you have a teal one. Awesome. Yeah, they come in really cool colors, right? This, this one came with a really cool ink color that I think was limited because I haven't been able to find it. I always forget the name of it. I have to always go back and look, but it was like an electric lime or neon lime or something like that. It was a really neat color. I think I have a little bit left. Alright guys, 10:37. I do have school tomorrow. It's been a crazy day today, in a good way. I'm tired. I just love sketching at night. It helps me to just get ideas out of my brain. It helps me to relax. Settle in for the night. So it's just a really, um, for me it's just a really good way to wind down. Very nice color. Yeah, I agree. I'm going to throw some colored pencil on here. I'm actually just sketching in some contour lines just to give it a curved look. I don't want to cover all the color. We'll do the same thing here. So you can do some curved lines. Um. Let's see, maybe I'll throw some up here. Alright, I think that's good with the light aqua. And I'm just thickening up this, um, neon pink colored pencil. I'm just kind of layering it on really thick there so it pops a little more. Boom! Very nice color, Linda said. Thank you so much. All right, here's my cap. Where's my cap? Oh, I have a cap that's MIA for this. It's here somewhere. Hey guys, I think that's, um, that's going to be a wrap for this one other than me throwing down some ink stuff, but I'm going to wait for this to be totally dry before I do that, so it probably won't be till tomorrow morning. Um, I appreciate you guys watching, the man says as he lays down some ink. Actually, I can— it's dry in some places. I do appreciate you guys watching so much and commenting and liking and sharing, so thank you. So I'm just sketching some kind of like rivets on here just to give a little more character. Um, thank you again. Good evening. Hey Linda, have a great night. Good to see you. Linda with an I, the lambi lines were the perfect touch. Oh, thank you. Yeah, I feel like they're not dark enough yet, so I agree with you. I feel like I really want to pull this edge out more. What I might do is I'm going to actually bleed this a little bit on the edge. Something I was thinking about as I was sketching here. So I'm just kind of just adding a little water to bleed this, and it's going to make the edge a little bit darker, and it'll dry lighter than you're seeing right now, but I think it'll help just to pull this out a little bit.

Right?

I don't know if you can see that. Hopefully it— I can kind of see it popping out a little bit more. Maybe even this edge I want to just pull out. A little bit here. So I think that pulled it out a little bit more, maybe too much here. There we go. Yeah, that's better. Cool. Boom! Hey guys, it's a wrap! I think this one's done. Just has to dry and I'll sign it. and I will bring it in school and hopefully I have a happy customer. I don't usually, uh, do like commissions, but, um, this is a fun one. Let's just, for the heck of it, let me bring out the original sketch that inspired this one. I want to see them side by side. So let me move that over. Let me get the sketchbook. And I'm still missing the cap, and I just dropped my brush. Down there. All right, where's the other one? Let's take a look and then we'll end up—

we'll wrap up.

So the original one, here we go. Let's do this. Can we zoom out more? There we go. So you can see the two side by side. So this is the first one I did, and then here's the one I just did. Two different types of paper. This is more vibrant, absolutely. Colors are popping a lot more, but I like them both. If I had to pick one, I kind of, I kind of like the colors on this one better just because they are popping a little bit brighter. DB, the darkness really adds to the painting. Oh, thank you. I'm glad. I'm glad so. Linda says very cool. I'm glad so. Yeah, that's why I don't teach language arts. I'm glad so. I don't even know what that means, but I am glad so. I'll stick to teaching architecture and CAD. I wanna see if I can pop this pink out on this a little bit more. Really just grinding this down here. Part of me wants to— I don't know what you guys think. Part of me wants to do pink here on this zigzag, but I'm not going to. It's colored pencil and it won't come off. So I'm gonna leave. I'm done putting everything, tools down, finished. You like them both also? Very awesome, very cool, Linda. Yeah, DB, yeah, good thing I don't teach English. First of all, I don't— I'm a bad reader, so I wouldn't be able to teach literature. I like them both for different reasons. Yeah, Linda, I, I agree with you. Linda says no, don't, no, don't. Yeah, with the pink, I'm not— I agree, I'm not going to do it. Hands are empty, all the pencil— pens— pencils, man, I'm tired. Pencils, not a penzel. I like them both too, Linda. I I'm liking the shapes more on the one on the right. I like the proportions here. I like the fact that this is a wide, um, stack and they're kind of narrower. Almost has a little more perspective. These are very similar in width, so I do like the variety. I kind of wish I had this ink sketch with these colors. I think if I mash those together, it'd be incredible. Maybe that's the next one I do. Maybe that's the next one I do. But yeah, so there's, there's pluses and minuses to both, both of them. Hey guys, thank you so much for watching. I'm cracking myself up. I appreciate you guys. I will probably not be on tomorrow night. I have a engagement I need to go to tomorrow night, so that'll be fun. And Thursday, I'm just thinking ahead, what's Thursday? I don't know if I have anything Thursday, so I'll try to be on again later this week. Thank you guys, have a great, great night. Remember, keep paying it forward somehow with creativity or positivity. Even if you just nod and give someone a smile, um, it's the simple things in life that can make a huge difference. Take care, guys. Peace and live creatively. I'll see you soon. Have a great night. Linda has two comments I'm going to read before I sign off. Uh, yes, the newer one is more flat, but the colors pop. "and the sketch, I like that one flat, but the colors pop. And on the sketch, I like that one tower on the left is not enclosed." Yeah, here, right? Yeah, this one kind of finished it. I should have left it open. I agree. I should have left this line out. I'm totally on board that train. Like the fatter pipe on our— yeah, love that. This right here, I agree. The silver lining. Yes, there's always a silver lining, guys. Take care, peace out, see you soon. There's the camera.