Loose Style Sketcing : Maine Inspired Lighthouse

Hey, Jason from The Inspired Life. Hope you're doing well. It's August 25th, 2026. Um, here live doing, uh, some sketching tonight, so I want to continue working on this Maine-inspired mixed media ink and watercolor So, uh, join me for a few minutes as I work on this and feel free to say hello, ask any questions. Always great being here, always great creating, and we're just gonna have fun. That's what it's about, having fun.

Fog drifts over weathered path, a lighthouse cuts through silence. To questions waiting inside me. The tide comes in, the tide goes out. The ocean never rushes now. Where the ocean keeps its promises, where the wind remembers every name. Wave rewrites the shoreline. Somehow nothing feels changed. These weathered rocks, these quiet waters teach more than words have ever done. I came looking for the Every harbor light burns slow. The sea asks nothing of tomorrow, only that you learn to let go of your one wins up against the tide. You simply learn to walk beside it. Where the ocean keeps its promises, where the sky and water meet. Every sunrise feels like mercy. Every silence feels complete. These weathered cliffs, these open horizons hold stories older than the sun. I came searching for the coastline, but found where I belong.

Thank you.

With me, the rhythm of this timeless shore. Because the ocean doesn't change you, it reminds you who you were before.

Hello, Tim. Good to see you. Hope you're doing well, man. Long time no see. All right, this is, um, so I am sketching and painting in an accordion journal tonight, which is really cool. So it's one of these deals that— Opens up, and I thought it'd be fun just to, I don't know, kind of start somewhere in the middle and then let the sketch kind of drift off— no pun intended— but drift off onto the side. So just kind of being playful. Um, I'm not sure if it'll be the entire accordion journal or not, or just a part of it, but that's okay. That's why I started in the middle, because I have space to grow. So let's just— right now I'm just going to do some background, some green, um, for some trees. I'm going to turn the music up a little bit. I know it's hard to hear me with the music louder, but I want to hear the music. I'm gonna mix in just a couple different types of green on here.

Name. Harbor ropes start singing warnings. Nothing here will stay the same. Fishing boats pull hard on moorings. Gulls write circles in the air. The sea has stopped pretending. That today it even cares. You don't bargain with the tide. You learn how small you are. The storm doesn't ask who you want it to be. It speaks in waves and a language older than me. Hold your course, hold the line. The sea remembers every time. The storm doesn't ask for your courage or your fear. It only asks if you'll still be here when the clouds break, when the wind lets go, when the quiet It finally returns to the rocks below. The storm doesn't ask, it simply arrives. Wind, water, stone, light. Stand, breathe, hold fast. Beyond the breaking glass, the lighthouse still burns, the tide still turns, and morning always finds the shore. Not because the storm was gentle, because the coast endured it once more.

Come closer, boys. Sailors, fill your cups. There are things beneath these waters older than the maps, older than the names. And if the sea ever grows too quiet, pray it stays that way.

I'm Jason Nicholas.

We sailed before the morning with the stars still burning low. The harbor lights behind us where every fisherman must go. The gulls were riding eastward, the wind was steady clean. Then every bird abandoned sky like they'd already seen. The ocean held its breath and even the waves Forgot to speak. Heave away, hold her fast. There's something moving beneath the mast. No man aboard could name that sound. Just the sea turning all around. Heave away, hold the line. Leave your fear to the tide.

Back!

The oldest hand just whispered, boys, don't chase your luck today. His eyes were fixed beyond the bow where the water changed to gray. No storm above, no wind below, yet swells began to rise like some great heartbeat underneath the belly of the tide. No prayer, no chart could tell us what was awaiting. Heave away! Trim the sail! Whatever follows, leave no trail! The sea knows secrets, we never will! And every soul aboard went still! Heave away!

Aye, aye!

Hold her true!

Aye, aye! There's something ancient passing through!

One deep drum, then the ocean opened. Not with anger, with power. One impossible back rose from the sea. Water poured from skin older than kingdoms. One eye met every man aboard. No hunger, no fury, only knowing the giant breathed and the whole world breathed.

I'm not afraid.

Raise your voice, lift your eyes. We witness something older than time. Not a monster, not a ghost, but the ancient keeper of this coast. Tell your children, tell their sons, some stories cannot be outdone.

The creature of the deep.

Run, for we return with empty nets but richer souls than when we left. Heave away, homeward bound. Leave your pride where the deep is.

Morning arrives without asking. Fog drifts over weathered pine. Lighthouse cuts through silence. One slow heartbeat at a time. Old lobster boats leave the harbor before the sun has found the sea. The girls already know the answers to questions Waiting inside me. The tide comes in, the tide goes out. The ocean never rushes now. Where the ocean keeps its promises, where the wind remembers every name. Every wave rewrites.

All right, cool. I hope you guys are liking this lighthouse, um, kind of Maine-inspired scene. Yeah, it's fun just kind of getting kind of lost in it tonight and, uh, the music and the painting. And that's one of the cool things about, you know, one of the things I love about doing this, it's a great way to, uh, great, great for me to just kind of get lost in a different world for a little bit of amount of time. Um, you know, in this kind of creative zone, it's, uh, very— I don't know, it's very zen. I guess that's the— maybe that's the words, very zen-like. Um, I see Tim on YouTube and My Quiet Awesome to see you. I hope you're doing well. And Finn was on Instagram, and I am sorry I missed Finn. I would love to have said hello to you. It's been a long time. It's pretty cool. I'm enjoying this, um, the scene. It's an amazing painting. Oh, thank you. You're too kind. Uh, you are too kind. I am, I am practicing and, and kind of learning, um, how to do these Maine-inspired landscapes. And, um, shout out to my friend Mr. Han. He, um, gave me some pointers and lessons when I was visiting him last week. So here, I'll kind of show you where I started. So these are some of the early Well, here's the very, very first one, I think. Uh, let's see. Yeah, so here's like the very first one I kind of worked on, was messing around with. And then here's another one. So I've just been playing around and practicing something very different, you know, for me, because I'm used to doing buildings and architecture. And, um, these have been a lot of fun just to challenge it myself. I've been wanting to do like landscape stuff. So that's kind of where I'm headed right now. See, these are just kind of— thank you for the thumbs up out there. These are some small practice ones. This one actually goes vertical. So I went, I went from those and moved up to some bigger ones here. There's another one.

Because—

And this is the current one. So I'm just, you know, it's really about being playful, having fun. The only expectation I am really setting myself up for is to get something on paper. That's it. I'm not looking for any spectacular end results. Um, I'm trying to capture landscapes in what I think is my style, kind of quick Or maybe not always quick, but at least loose style and kind of playful colors. So it's very hard for me to not want to grab some neon yellow or neon pink and throw it on these sketches. So I'm kind of resisting. I will throw some chartreuse on there at some point in time. Um, yeah, but thank you. If you have any questions, feel free to let me know. This one's getting there. It's not quite, quite done. I'm gonna add some more, I think, landscape colors on this side. Let me move this over so you guys can kind of see it. That's what it's looking like right now. Yeah, but I appreciate you all watching. Um, if you're watching on YouTube, I would love for you to hit that thumbs up so we can share out the stream. Believe it or not, just like like this, and it'll, it'll hopefully share it out there. I'd love to just spread more positivity through creativity. I hope you guys— I hope the music is cool as well. All right, I'm gonna take this accordion journal, open it a little bit more here. I'm running out of room, um, on my tabletop. I want to work on— we're going to slide this over a little bit. So a little adjusting. I think what we're going to do is we're going to focus on kind of this side right here a little bit. Maybe we'll continue it. I want to bring some of this landscape down on this side. So let's work on this for a few. Oh yeah, I just dropped my brush on the floor.

All right, cool.

All right, so I'm just kind of rearranging things here. Got this cool little palette, some more paints. All right, I think we— you guys can see that. We'll hit this side a little bit. Um, yeah, you live in the Rocky Mountains and want to do more landscape painting. That's awesome, the Rocky Mountains. That's incredible. I'm sure it is, uh I'm sure it's spectacular, beautiful country out there. That's really cool. Yeah, I mean, just go for it. That's— just go for it. I don't know if you do art or you sketch or paint or not, um, But don't be intimidated, just go for it, you, you know. Do I love everything about what I'm creating here? Uh, no. Am I having fun? Yeah. Am I being playful? Yes. Those are kind of— those are my goals. I just want to create and have fun. Some things I'll like, some things I won't like. But I'm learning. I'm just learning. You know, stay curious. I have, I have my sketch framework, which I talk about on the show, um, sketch framework guide. My— the S in my, in my sketch framework is stay curious. So, uh, nothing is ordinary, just See the world with like a childlike sense of wonder, you know, whether you're seeing shapes or colors, light, shadow. Maybe, um, you're seeing silly monsters or faces and things. Um, just be curious and open-minded. Let's throw some Fishing boats pull hard on you. Kind of some more kind of earth on here, earth it up a little bit. You're in Alberta? Yes, I love watercolor and mixed media. Oh, awesome, very cool. Yeah, I've never, never have been to Alberta. I would love to visit. I'm sure it's— I am sure it's gorgeous there. I'm located here in northern New Jersey, which I, I love where I am. I love my location. I'm pretty close to New York City, about an hour, just over an hour away, so I can go into the city if I want. About an hour and a half maybe from the Jersey Shore, so we got the beaches nearby. And I'm lucky to be in an area where I have some, um, just some nice parks to get out and walk around in. But my heart is always, always in Maine. I love Maine so much, so much that I do want to move there one day. It's a very inspiring place to me of natural beauty. There we go. So see, I just kind of added a little bit, extended this here. Um, I kind of like how it looks a little unfinished. I might even end up keeping it that way. The building's not done. I'll come back and throw some A little bit of texture, some stone on here at some point. I'll draw some more rocks in here as well on that bottom corner. Sorry, I keep banging my chair into my cabinet here.

Oops.

All right, let's throw some of this here. So if you want to know the colors I'm using, I'm going to throw up a little graphic here. My mom used to live in Elizabeth. Yeah, I know where Elizabeth is. Yep, I know Elizabeth because that's where IKEA is. It's right near the Newark and the Newark Airport. I've never— I haven't been there. I haven't been to IKEA once or twice. But here, um, here's a graphic showing color, the colors I'm using, if anybody's interested. You might have to take a screenshot, but these are the colors in that palette you see in the picture. I'm never good at remembering names, but here's a I've had some people asking me what colors I've been using, so that, that is what's in my palette right now. I'm going to use this color here. See, I have to look up that color, the picture again, because I don't even remember the names. I gotta make it bigger. Let's see. Oh, Pat's Coastal. Okay, this is Pat's Coastal Blue. That's the one I'm grabbing right now. Finn, I wish you'd pop back in on Instagram. I'd love to say hi to you. Finn was a student I had in— I never had Finn in class actually, but I met her when I was teaching about— oh my gosh, when did Finn— when did you graduate? 4 years ago, maybe 3. So it's always cool when I see like, uh, students pop, or former students pop in on the live streams. It's always fun to say hello to them. See what they're up to. I hope they're doing well. And I actually head back to school on Tuesday. I am due back— teachers are back on the 1st of September, September. So next Tuesday I am back in action, back teaching. Summer flew by. I've never tried American Journey. So American Journey is, um, I love American Journey. My friend got me hooked on it. He, um, uses pretty much— that's all he uses. And it's just a nice rich kind of watercolor, and you can get it through— I think the website is You might want to look up Journey Arts. Journey Art. Um, but yeah, I like— I really like using this. Um, I also like just using it in here. I have a lot of Winsor Newton Cotman watercolors. So this is one of the very first, if not the first palette— might be the very first one I've ever got with watercolors. So it was a Winsor Newton set. So I really— those are the 2, um, I use. Uh, and honestly, I'm— watercolor is— I haven't really done too, too much of it. I'm more of an ink sketcher, Sharpie creative markers, a little bit of mixed media. So definitely you can check out some of my stuff On YouTube, different videos. My website, I have a few things on there. I need to update that. Yeah, I like the way this is turning out. I'll throw some more gray on some of these rocks, I think. Hey, My Quiet Corner started following me. Thank you, on Instagram. I appreciate that. Very cool. Thank you for the follow. It's pretty quiet in the chat. It's because I really just kind of pop on randomly. I should— I always say I need to have a set schedule, and I try it, but I never stick to it. So I think if I had a set schedule, I could I would have more consistent viewers. But you know what, it's okay. I feel like whoever's meant to watch me will find me. For me, it's not about the number of viewers, it's really just about the quality of person watching. Just toning down some of this white a little bit. There we go. I like that. What time is it?

10:03.

Very cool. Yes, I, I appreciate the follow. Thank you so much.

Come closer, boys. Fill your cups. There are things beneath these waters older than the maps, older than the names. And if the sea ever grows too quiet, pray it stays that way.

Stay still.

I stream on Wednesdays and then upload and do impromptu Lives in between. Awesome, that is cool. I will, um, I'll be sure to, to check, check that out. Thank you.

The oldest hand just whispered, boys, don't chase your luck today. His eyes were fixed beyond the bow where the water changed to gray. No storm above, no wind below, yet swells began to rise like some great heartbeat underneath the belly of the tide. No prayer, no chart could tell us what was waiting.

Yeah, I'm liking this one. All right, let's see, kind of pull it over. How big is this right now? This is— let's see, so right now this is about 15 inches Here, so it's about 15 inches long. That's cool. That's one of the fun things about these accordion journals. I just love that they can go on and on and on and on. I've done a couple of Statue of Liberty torches on, um, these accordion journals, and I love— I just love them. They end up being about 2 feet long. Pretty fun. All right, let's see. This one, this one's close to being done. There might be one more, um, short session on it. I might need— I want to add some, uh, I want to add some black ink, maybe some Sharpie or a fountain pen here. I want to add a little bit of texture to the building and maybe do some more Kind of stuff with the trees here, just real quick scraggly lines. I don't want to plan any of this out. I'm just, I'm just winging it, trying to be kind of scratchy. I'm just being, just scratching these suggestion of branches. I I'm not trying to do lifelike trees here, just want to suggest that we have some trees growing back in here.

Pretty cool.

Um, I haven't used an accordion journal. Yeah, I love, I love accordion journals. This one happens to be, I think, an Etchr. This is actually the first time I've used this brand for an accordion journal. Etchr. I'm sure you've heard of Etchr before. Um, I like it. Moleskine is my go-to Trying to see if I have one I can grab here. Moleskine is my go-to accordion journals. I don't think I have, uh, I don't think I have one right here handy, but I like the Moleskine ones. I can actually grab— I can grab the one hanging on the back wall. Let me go grab that.

Okay.

Okay. All right, cool. So this is, um, this is my go-to accordion journal. It's a Moleskine. Um, here's— here's— it's gonna be hard to show it vertically, but here is the Statue of Liberty torch I did on here. Really, it goes vertically. I love this sketch, one of my faves ever. I'm gonna fold this up. Yeah, so this is just a, just a Moleskine accordion journal. Um, this is mixed media here. This is creative marker, colored pencil, no watercolor on this. Um, some highlighter on here I see as well. And definitely Sharpie. So depends that they make these hot press, cold press, depends what medium you want to use. So yeah, check them out. They're a lot of fun. All right, cool. Yeah, Moleskine. Yeah, they have accordion journals. Yep. And I'm just gonna be on for 5 more minutes. I'm gonna play some more music, but I'm just going on Spotify. Um, I need music when I'm sketching, painting, creating. I love music. It fuels me. Um, it can inspire me, it can energize me, it could calm me down, right? So let's just put a little bit of music on here. As I wrap up, I can't play it over the live stream because it's copyrighted music, but I'm going to put it on my AirPod here and just listen to it, um, as we kind of wind down. Perfect. Yeah, you use black platinum carbon black. That's awesome, I love that. The ink I use— so when I say ink, I'm typically referring to the ink like in a Sharpie.

Pen.

Um, I have— I use ink as well to kind of bleed. This is a company I haven't bought from in a while. What is the company? Well, this is one of my favorite colors of ink. It's called Apple Snail Ink. Oh, Birmingham Pen Company. Um, I like their— you know, here's like a bridge, uh, in Central Park. Uh, and white gel pens. I've been using white gel pens like crazy lately. Um, I have a page if you go to my website, theinkspiredlife.com/tools. Ink, I-N-K, inkspiredlife.com/tools. You can see a list of all my favorite current sketching tools and gear. Um, and there's some discounts also. If you— I love Lockbee. If you don't know what Lockbee is, Lockbee makes these great EDC, everyday carry gear, and I use their Lockbee Quattro to kind of carry my pens in. I have— I'm starting— not trying to sound like a commercial, but this is stuff I love using. This is my Lockbee folio. This goes everywhere with me for sketching. All kinds of paper and pads in here. I even keep, uh, Statue of Liberty torches in here to give out. Um, so check that out. There's a discount code you can use on my page for Lockbee. And also for these ugly books, I started using these maybe 2 or 3 months ago. I love ugly books for sketching in, so that's what these cool color pages are. They have all different color combinations.

Go—

if you go to uglybooks.co/theinkspiredlife, you can get 10% off for first-time buyers. So check it out. I only talk about the stuff I love using.

Cool.

All right, enough of that commercial. Um, all right, I'm gonna throw— I think I'm gonna throw some chartreuse down in here. We're gonna call it a day after I do that. Yes, definitely check it out. That'd be amazing if you like that stuff. Yeah, let me know. Again, I really— I only talk about the tools I love using, so I'm liking this. I really like the way this is looking over here. I'm gonna— we'll do a close-up and then we'll wrap up. Come get close, you can see it. I'm debating whether or not I should throw some sky on here. I probably should throw just a little bit of blue or something for the sky, or maybe do a sunset type of sky, some— a little bit of orange or yellow. I'm not sure, but this is turning out to be a really fun, uh, sketch. I like to call them sketch paintings because a little bit of sketching, a little bit of painting. All right, so I'm about to wrap up. If you have any final questions, comments, let me know. Please be sure to hit that thumbs up on YouTube. I would love that. If you're watching on Instagram or Facebook, I would love for you to like it as well there. And, um, let's just spread the word and spread, you know, positivity through creativity. Um, that would be amazing, amazing. And I think that's a wrap. I'm lying, I am lying, because there's one last thing. I always say that, I always say that, um, I'm done but I'm not done. Now that I pulled this Apple Snail ink out, throw some of this on here. It has a nice like caramelly color to it. Oh, that's nice. And I am a messy ink— inker and watercolor person. I mix colors here and within the colors and not always in the palette, and I dip things in other things. And yeah, it's kind of how I roll. So I'm literally dipping in this brush right into the ink here. I don't even know how clean it was. And that's okay. I don't mind. Where do I want to throw this? I'm thinking too much. Don't think too much. Let's just throw it on there. I love this. This color ink is my favorite color ink of all time. Yeah, let's throw some in here, maybe a little darker. So it has— it definitely has a caramel. It's like, uh, when you eat an apple and the— and it starts oxidizing, right? If you let the core sit out and the apple starts changing colors. Check that out, it's really cool. It's a really cool color. Actually, this would look good back here. Let's grab some more. Yeah, I like it. That looks really cool. All right, I think that's good for now. Oh, we got a little apple snail rain splatter on here. It's all good. All right, it really looks great. Thanks for streaming. I'll definitely try and catch you again. I've been collecting inks too. Oh, awesome, very cool. Well, thank you for joining. I appreciate that. I'll check out your stream as well. And I hope to see you again. Thank you for watching. Until we meet again, sketch boldly, live creatively, and embrace imperfection. Awesome. Oh, and I have to say— oh, I saw Sebastian pop in on Instagram and he's off. All right, have a good night.