Mixed Media Sketch - Fall Harvest Scene - Livestream

Hey there guys, happy Sunday! This is Jason Nicholas Nicholas with The Inkspired Life. It's Sunday, October 23rd, a special day for me. It's my birthday today and I am just so psyched to have a Sunday and a birthday on the same day, I can chill out and do what I want. Although there is some schoolwork calling me. But I hope you guys are doing well. So today I want to pop on and do a quick sketch. Also, I want to, um, kind of doing something simultaneously. I want to use some of this for my podcast episode this week. And I have a note I want to talk about. And What is this podcast about? So this podcast is about just me sharing some tips on creativity, sketching, and just a positive, inspiring podcast. So hope you guys are doing well. So it's fall. I love the fall, autumn. The colors are amazing. We had a beautiful, beautiful day here yesterday, and I think I want to sketch a, um, some kind of autumn harvest scene, maybe a barn. And some trees or something. We'll figure it out. But let's start sketching something. And I see Chip is on. Chip says, "Happiest of birthdays, brother." Thank you, Chip. I appreciate that. Always good to see you. So for this week's podcast episode, I want to talk about focusing on what do you like with what you're creating. Sometimes we are so quick to go into a negative mindset when we're sketching and drawing and painting something, that we're so critical of ourselves, it could be halting, it could be frustrating, it could actually set us way, way off the rails. Um, instead, I kind of want to put this out there for you guys to flip that around and always try to find something that you like about what you're doing, what you're creating. So you guys know I like to sketch, draw, and paint. So my responses are going to be focused on what I love doing, but it can apply to whatever you guys are doing as well. So a couple of things that I'm doing as I go through the sketch today, I'll try to focus on this and we'll see what happens. But one of the things I like to do about when I'm sketching and creating, one of the things I like to focus on is the process itself. I love the process of creating. I'm not concerned about the end result. It's gonna be great or not great, but it's just enjoying and embracing the process. So let's go through some of that now, and I'll share some other tips, and, um, you'll find some of this will make its way onto my podcast episode this week. All right, so let's see. So I wanted to do a barn, um, sketch And I kind of actually blocked something out yesterday that if you see me looking off screen, if you're listening on the podcast, you can't hear me off screen, you can't see me looking off screen. But I do have a little sketch I'm going to kind of use as a reference. I rarely will use a reference, but let's go for it, see what happens. So I do, I want to do a barn and maybe a harvest scene. You might see here on my drawing table area I have some colors out, some oranges and yellows, greens, pinks. And of course I have my Lamy pen, Pilot pens as well, and my Sharpie, which I'm gonna— I'm gonna start with the Sharpie because I do want to do some ink wash on this. So I'm gonna sketch some kind of loosey-goosey barn up here. So let's do it. And I think, I think I want to kind of up in this corner. Sorry if my head is blocking some of this. Some people say I do have a big head. Nah, I'm just kidding. So let's do some kind of wonky barn up here, maybe. Quick, loose. We'll get a little bit of some kind of little bit of perspective on it. What I like about sketching old barns is that they're loose, they're wonky. You know, you can see the wood as it's aged over time. It's warped, it's bending, it's twisting. It's telling its own story about how it's aged and weathered over time. And they're great for sketching because you can't make a mistake. You know, sometimes I know when people are sketching architecture buildings, they want everything to be precise and perfect. And that's not my sketching style. And sometimes it's hard to not want to sketch something perfect. But when you go to a subject like barns, old wonky barns, you are so free to sketch as loose and crazy as you want. So I guess a tip would be, you know, the subject matter you're sketching. If you're trying to start and create and develop a loose, wonky style, select a subject that lends itself to it, like old barns or old industrial buildings. I mean, if you look at this, the barn is really wonky here. Not a straight line. And we'll do, you know, I'm going to do some kind of a cupola back in here, make it kind of wonky looking. Throw that off the back of the barn. So we have a very loose, wonky barn happening. It's kind of up on a hill. And I want it— I want to create like a harvest type scene, so I want the barn to be up on a hill. We'll do some kind of landscaping down here. I gotta shift my sketchbook a little bit. And I see Patty's in the house. Hey Patty, good to see you. Hope all is well. Checking to say happy birthday. Date with a lawnmower. Oh, I understand. Well, go enjoy your date with the lawnmower. I get yard work. We had a beautiful day yesterday here. I was able to catch up on some yard work. So, Patty, thank you for checking in, and I appreciate the birthday wishes very much so. You'll also notice when I create loose style sketching, I will go back over lines more than one time. That just kind of adds to me the interest and the interest of the lines I'm sketching. It helps to create that wonky feel. Let's see, maybe we have some kind of wonky tree. I'm imagining a tree over here with some kind of fall colors. Very loose tree. I'm going to try to capture a lot of it with just some colors on it. But I kind of want some, some kind of tree or something happening maybe here. Maybe happening there. And then we have some kind of foreground happening as well. Let's see what else. Um, let's see. So fall, when I think fall, I think barns, I think bright colors, I think pumpkins, right? So maybe we have Some kind of pumpkins happening here in the field. Pumpkins are great because they're wonky shapes as well. I've never seen a perfectly circular pumpkin, so you can be really funky with those. Maybe have a few pumpkins happening there. Uh, what else do we have in this scene? So you might also notice I'm creating different kind of layers of ground. I have this line here, another one here where the pumpkins are, another one down in the foreground, just to add a little bit of depth to the sketch. Hey, Stephanie's on! Good to see you, Stephanie. Hope you're having a great day today. Thanks for popping on. Let's see, and then what else do I want to do? You know, I'd love scarecrows. So maybe we have some kind of scarecrow happening. Loosey-goosey scarecrow maybe happening back in here. It's gonna look like the Whistling Cowboy. I think I just sketched the Whistling Cowboy scarecrow. Maybe just kind of loose, loosey-goosey scarecrow happening back in here. Notice I'm not sketching a lot of detail, very, very loose line work. 'Can't wait to see this painted.' Oh cool, yeah, me too. That's gonna be fun. We'll definitely add some color to it. All right, now the brave part. I want to sketch a cow or some kind of cows on here. So you guys know me and animals, we— and sketching animals, we don't get along so well. Real animals, yes. So I am just going to try to create very, very few lines. And maybe we'll add— have the colors create the cows. Let's see, maybe there's a cow kind of hanging out here. You guys are much, much, much better at doing animals than I am. Something I need to work on and practice. But I don't know if there's a cow or sheep, but we have something here. As long as it looks kind of barny. Maybe we have some kind of cow or something happening here. Again, very, very, very, very abstract. And again, they're cows or sheep. I don't know what they look like to you guys, but we'll see if we add color what happens. So I kind of want to go back and talk about my topic this week on— for the podcast. So if you guys haven't checked it out, I have a new podcast. It's called The Inkspired Life. You can find it on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. You can also find it on my website as well, where I just share maybe 5 to 10 minutes of of tips on creativity, creative mindsets, and other fun things and positive motivational things that I feel, uh, I just want to talk about and share. So this week, um, I kind of want to help crush the negativity factor when we're judging and looking at our own creations. So when I look at my own sketches It's really easy for me, if I wanted to, to sit here and focus on what I don't like. So I could sit here and say, okay, I don't like this line for the roof, I don't like my cows, I don't like the scarecrow, this tree looks like an apple. Um, which is okay, and it's okay to, to be realistic, but you can't let those negative that negativity set you back and stop you from creating. Sometimes we put so much negative out there that we build a wall and we can't break through that, that creativity wall, right? It just stops us. A couple of things if you're going to do that, if you put negative things out there, like, okay, I really dislike this barn window here. Flip it around, make it into a positive and say, okay, I dislike this barn window. So what did I learn from it? Maybe next time I draw one, I'll change the shape. Maybe I'll make it more rectangular, or maybe I'll make it circular. But don't just say something negative and stop there. Take it and turn it into a positive for a next action. Alright. Another thing I like to do about when you're looking at your sketches or paintings is focus on what do you like. Do you like— what do I like about what I just created here? So I like the really loose lines. I like the pumpkins here. And I just like the process. I'm just having fun in sketching. So focus on your likes as well. Cool. So maybe we have an overhang here for the barn doors. Maybe we have some windows on the side of the barn. Oh, actually, you know what, I'm gonna do a nice— let's do a barn door here on the side. So maybe it's here, kind of goes this way. We have a track that hangs out past the building. And I'm just gonna sketch some vertical lines to indicate maybe the barn door happening there. Cool. So let's add some color to this thing. So I think I'm gonna bleed some ink so I have some yellow and pink. I actually have some colored pencils here as well. And I have an aqua brush I'm going to use to bleed the ink. So I'm going to— I think I'm going to create some yellow here in the landscape in front of the barn. Seth just threw down some preppy ink and I'm bleeding it now. There we go. So I'm just throwing down some areas of yellow. And what I love doing is I love actually taking some of the pink Preppy pen and putting on top of the yellow. And we'll get some really interesting oranges happening. Hopefully my preppy is going to work. It's been giving me a little bit of grief. Let's see. It's just giving me a little bit of grief. Let's just try to clean it off. Let's see. All right. So I am using a different paper today, and it's, I think, a Fabri— what is it? I have to look. Artistico Fabriano, I think it says. There's some kind of watermark on here. It's in a nice sketchbook, nice thick paper. I can get the specs on it. Later and post them. But I like the paper, it's thick, I like the ripped edges on it, so these sheets can hold a good amount of water. You know what I'm doing? Actually, I am going to— I also have my fluorescent ink right here. We're going to break out some of this. So this is Fluorescent Pink and then Reflex Rose. I love these colors. Let's break out some Reflex, Reflex Rose. So this is, um, this is acrylic ink by Amsterdam. Really fun color. So I'm going to break some of this out. If I can get the top off. Holy cow, holy cow. See what happens when you turn a year older? You can't take the COVID off your ink. Wow, this is really on here. Maybe we won't use this one. I, I cannot take the COVID off this ink. I must have been so paranoid that I was going to spill it, I put the top on so, so tight. I need like one of those gripper things. I am looking for pliers. Oh, I think I got it. I got it! Holy cow, that was on there super duper tight. I like these inks, they have drop— eyedroppers, which are great because I don't like to use a lot at one time. So I can just drop some out here on this watercolor pan, and I'm going to use a— I want to be really loose with this. I'm thinking a little too much about what I want to do, and I want to be quick and on the fly. And I'm also going to break out some Apple Snail ink here. And this is a really— this will be a beautiful color as it dries, it almost has a caramel kind of look to it. If anybody's a caramel fan like me, I, I love eating anything with caramel in it. So this ink looks really cool. I'm gonna let it dry like this. I love the darker edge here against the building. I think it's gonna look really awesome when it dries. Bottle this up so I don't spill it. All right, let's throw down some of this pink. Where do I want it? I don't know, maybe in the barn. So you have some pink down there for the barn. Um, I want to— I want some oranges, I think, for the foliage here. So we have some kind of tree happening, and I'm going to break out— I have some watercolor paint here with orange in it, so I'm going to take some of this orange. I'm just going to throw it on here kind of as a background. I think I want to mix some yellow in with that orange, just to make it a little bit, a little bit brighter. So let's throw some yellow. Yellow and orange probably will make black, right? I'm going to let it pool like this, and I'll zoom in in a minute. You guys can see what it looks like close up. So I love doing these kind of mixed media paintings. Acrylic ink. I'll throw some watercolor— not watercolor, some colored pencil on here, I'm sure, after it dries. There we go. Just pop some of that orange down. We have some pumpkins here. I'm going to blot some of this back a little bit. There we go. That way the color kind of— the pigment just stains it a little bit. So I'm going to pull some of it back. I think I want to make it like a gray sky. Let's make it like a fall, gray fall day. Let's see, what do I want to use for the gray sky? I have some cast iron color ink. We'll throw some of that down. Maybe I think I'm going to wet kind of— I'm going to wet the area behind the buildings here. So this is actually my sketch for my Arctober prompt I did last week. I posted it last Sunday. I am just doing my homework today in front of you guys here. It's been a busy week and I posted the prompts, so I figured I should probably do a response to it. So this is my response for the prompt last week, was to create a fall harvest scene. I got this black. Let's see, I think this color is really going to be strong. Let's try it. Oh yeah. So I'm just touching down— this is called Cast Iron color ink. I'll zoom out, you can see what we got going here. It's pretty interesting, I had dirty ink water here. It's kind of a greenish color, so if you see a green happening in here, that's just the dirty water I'm reusing. You may just heard a little ding. I forgot to turn my notifications off. And you know, I was saying I wanted to make cows in the foreground, so I'm going to add some of that cast iron color down here, maybe to indicate some cow colors happening here. So maybe we need some black and white cows going on. And I'm just going to try to indicate it with the color. I'm not going to do details. I'm going to leave them very loose and abstract. And hopefully they'll look like cows. We'll see. So I have a couple of cows going on, just the black and white spots there. See, I think I'm gonna throw some of this kind of in the tree here, this color. I wanted the barn door look like it's open, so I'm gonna throw some of this black color here so it looks like there's an opening here where the door is. Slit open. I'm going to use this black maybe for some shadows, give a little depth to what we're seeing. I like to create shadows under overhang areas. Even though it's kind of a dark sky, we'll still, still show some depth on this. Cool. I'm gonna let it dry for a second. Awesome. So hope you guys are enjoying this harvest scene on October 23rd. I love having a birthday on this day. Not— well, not only because it's my birthday, but I am in the company of famous people like Johnny Carson. He was born October 23rd. And Weird Al Yankovic, pfft, October 23rd. What's really cool is Weird Al actually was going to college to be an architect, but we all know where his path went, right? He didn't head down the architecture path. He's known for his brilliance with mostly his parody songs, but Weird Al is a really, is a very accomplished musician in his own right. So besides his parody songs, and I'm looking forward to a Hulu movie about him that's coming out in November. I guess it's called Weird Al, or I'm not sure exactly what it's called, but I think it'll be fun to watch. But it's just so fun to have my birthday on the same day as those guys. And I— it's interesting because I've always had a fantasy to be a talk show host like Johnny Carson. Old school, old school, good vibe talk shows. And I just love Weird Al for his creativity. So, uh, born in good company on those days. This is looking really cool. I'm gonna actually pop some of that Reflex Rose, I think, that— oh, right here, I already had it in here. And I think I'm going to pop it on these pumpkins, add a little bit of brightness. So we're going to pop these out a little bit. So cool. And I'm actually going to add a little, I think, uh, maybe a touch in the landscape here. Help tie some of these colors together. Let me know if you guys have any questions or comments. I'd love to answer some questions today while I'm on. It's 1:03. I'll be on for probably 15 more minutes, wrap up. I do have some homework to do today. Which is good. It's actually— it's stuff I need to do and stuff I want to do. Scarecrow back here, just a little pink on him just so he pops a little bit. Awesome. I'm gonna let this dry. I will do some details. Let's see, Stephanie says, 'This looks amazing. The process is fascinating to me.' That's so cool. I'm so glad, Stephanie. Thank you for your feedback. Really, really awesome. And, uh, And the process is fascinating to me as well. I know I sound like a broken record, guys, but for me it is the process. That is what I love. That's what makes— brings the joy for me when I'm sketching, when I'm painting. It's the process. I love watching these colors mix together. I love seeing how the line types come out. I love watching this stuff dry where you get the hard edges. You have some white spaces as well. So that is what I love about doing this. It's that— it's the process. This goes back to what I was saying earlier. Think about the things— what do you like about what you created? The process for me is usually number one. I love the process. Um, D-Ray is on Johnny Carson. Weirdo birthdays. Yes, D-Ray, good to see you. Hope you're well. I am in great company with those two. Absolutely. Can anybody guess what color I feel like I need to throw on here? There's absolutely color that I feel is missing from this palette. Let me know in the comments. Um, hey Jennifer, good morning from Arizona, from cooler Arizona. Arizona is definitely It's cooler than New Jersey. Well, New Jersey is pretty cool too. I think you mean temperature, right? Yeah. Well, hopefully things are going well in Arizona. Thanks for tuning in. Good to see you. Uh-oh, the Scarecrow. Jennifer says purple. Ooh, good guess, Jennifer. I wasn't thinking purple, but great suggestion. And I think for the purple, I'm probably going to throw down I'll throw down some violet colored pencil. So excellent. I wasn't thinking purple, but I agree with you. I could definitely use purple. Where this would look really cool is using it, using it to add some shadows. Or maybe even throw some in the tree here. We can do it while we're talking, right? So let's throw down some of this. Purple would be great with this. So usually I'll come down, I'll come and throw watercolor pencil down towards the end because it doesn't really like mixing with the paint too well. And then if I put the pencil down, the paint won't stick. But thank you for that awesome suggestion. Zoom out, you guys can see what I have going on my desk. I think it's always cool to kind of a behind-the-scenes peek. So you can see my, my pens over here. Here's that dirty water I was talking about. I have a little scrap pad that I'm kind of cleaning my brush off on. Here's my watercolor palette down here. And of course I have my Lockbie pen case, which I love, which I'm actually going to be going to New York City next weekend to do some urban sketching. For a workshop I signed up for, and my Lockabee stuff will definitely be joining me. I love it. I know it sounds like a commercial, but guys, I love, I love Lockabee products. This is so cool. I can fit 1, 2, you can definitely fit 4 pens. Sometimes I could fit 8 if I put 2 small pens next to each other. Great case. If you're interested in Lockabee, check out my website. On the homepage or my tools and materials page, you'll see a discount link you can use for the purchase of one item, non-discounted item. So if you're interested in Lockabee, check them out. I suggest it. All right, that was a commercial plug, sorry. But it's true. I wouldn't talk about a product unless I didn't use it. Yeah, Stephanie said teal. So Stephanie, yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Blue, turquoise, teal. So that's exactly what I was thinking. So that's gonna throw some of that down on here. Um, Linda's on. Linda, how are you? Can't stay. Oh, happy birthday! Thank you, Linda. Enjoy your grands. It's so great to see you. So, Inklings, I think I want to do— I think I'd like to do a November sketching workshop. Let me know in the comments if you'd be interested. I'll— we'll do a sketch— a November sketching workshop. It would be fun. Um, of course I'm thinking something architecture-related, buildings. I'm not exactly sure what the topic would be, and I'm open for suggestions. I miss our workshops together. But it's been a time thing. I've been so busy. I have a really exciting project at school. My art— actually, both my architecture career and school, and it's a project that's tying both together, which I will talk about more detail at some point. Kind of want to make an announcement about it, but it's been taking up a lot of my time in a good way. Cool. So I threw down some of that teal on that roof. Love using teal, especially if I want to create old metal roofs on buildings. I love using teal. Gonna blot a little bit out here. Pretty cool. This tree I know needs more work. I'm going to— I think I'm going to come back. I feel like using colored pencil, I think, for it. Let's throw down some teal somewhere else on the painting. Maybe a little bit in this roof here. Kind of let it bleed together. Here we go, just throw some teal there. Actually, I'm going to use some of this Sap Green watercolor. Just add some touches of green. Maybe on the tree here a little bit. This tree I'll come back with ink. Probably my, my Pilot pen, and I'll sketch some more squiggly lines on it. Make it look like it has some leaves. I don't want to draw, you know, paint individual leaves. So I'm gonna do that with a pen. I'll just kind of give it some scribbly marks on it. Hopefully that makes sense. You got the green. I know Linda loves, loves her green colors, so Linda, the green is for you. Here's what it's looking like, guys. Hope you're liking it. Um, Stephanie says hooray! DB, hey, DB's in the house! Good to see you. Stephanie says yes. DB, look at this. This isn't Payne's Gray color, but it's looking Payne's Gray to me. So this is for DB who loves Payne's Gray. Guys, look at how this is drying. Let's zoom in again. This comes back to the process and what I love about this. This is what charges me up. Look, look at the colors happening. Let me move down. I don't know if— hopefully the camera's picking it up. Look at the colors happening here. Uh, this in person looks really beautiful. We have some of that cast iron color mixed with some of the— looks like some of the brown color here. We have some of the pink as well. That's looking really, really, really amazing. Where else do we want to zoom in on? I'll just leave it here for a sec. You can just see how this is all drying. I have to say, I am absolutely in love with what is happening here. Got this apple snail color. It has a— some of it looks like caramel to me. Who doesn't love caramel? I love anything caramel. Well, maybe not chocolate-covered caramel ants, but I love caramel stuff. Beautiful colors here. Scarecrow. That's the Scarecrow, guys. That's all. I'm not doing details, but My hope is that it conveys the idea that there's a scarecrow here. I might just want to maybe sketch more of a pole or something in the ground, maybe a couple of things, more branches sticking out for hands, a little nose like that. That's it. That's the scarecrow, very loose and abstract. These pumpkins, I just want to Kind of just do some pumpkiny lines on here like this. Better stems happening. We'll kind of zoom here. You can see what's happening. So my idea is that these are cows, very, very loose abstract cows. Um, I might come in after it dries with this pen, my Pilot pen. Where my Sharpie? Just define the edges. Something just flew past my window, some kind of big bird. Not sure what it was, which looked pretty cool. Maybe define the edges a little bit more of these, of the cows. But hopefully it's getting across what I'm thinking. DB says, love this painting. Thank you, DB. Stephanie says, DB, me too. Awesome. Stephanie says, "Love, Lutz." Hey, you guys are awesome. I love your positivity. So amazing. But let me know in the comments, do the cows work for you? Can I— if I didn't tell you what they were, would you see cows there? I'm curious. Don't be afraid to get feedback on your art, guys. That's another Pro tip: ask a friend, ask somebody what they think. And you could take their suggestions for what they're worth. You know, I'm asking you guys and I value your feedback. Do you see cows or not? I'm so connected to this painting because I'm creating it that I definitely see cows, but I don't know what anybody else might see. And that's what's fun about keeping these things loose, is that everybody may see different things in the same scene. I want to actually— I feel like I need to pop some more yellow, some brightness. And when it— so when it dries, guys, I don't think I have time to show you today, but these are the colors, pencils I'm going to throw down. I'm going to throw down some chartreuse, some orange, maybe some neon yellow. What else? I may break out my light aqua, which is my— this is my number one favorite colored pencil color, light aqua. Might use that. I have some really other fun colors here as well. Rouge quadra— I can't say that word. Quadratic chrome. Quadru— Rouge quadrichrome, something like that. Some fancy name. And then also the violet here. And I do have neon pink. So these, you might see these colors go down afterwards for this mixed media sketch. Uh, Stephanie says, I see cows for sure. Awesome. Fantastic. Pardon me while I get a drink of— it's actually a little macchiato that my wife treated me to this morning on her way home from church. So it was a very awesome little birthday treat, like a peanut butter infused macchiato. Pretty delicious. So I'm kind of waiting for this to dry. I feel like the next step for me is going to come back to be to come back with probably my Pilot pen, sketch some more details after this dries. Let's see what we can do while it's— while it's still wet here. I definitely want to throw some more lines on the barn. Maybe I can sketch some vertical barn boards here. So I'm just creating— sketching some vertical boards. Again, this goes back to what I was saying earlier. If you want to learn to sketch loose style sketching, wonky style sketching, Pick a subject matter that's loose and wonky to begin with, like old barns, right? I'll zoom in so you can see a little bit better. You know, I'm not drawing these barn boards perfectly straight, and that just helps to go with the character. Hope that makes sense. Let's break out some of that violet colored pencil. We're going vertical. Hey, let me know, guys, if you have any questions in the chat. That'd be awesome to answer. If you have any suggestions, maybe about a future workshop you would like to take with me, maybe, maybe a topic. Pardon me, I got to use the pencil sharpener here. I think this, this is a great color for popping in here into the shadow areas. So my I think this tree definitely needs some of that purple. So here's some of the scribbly lines I was kind of talking about. So if you've taken workshops with with me, I talk about different line types when you're sketching. These are kind of jaggedy line types here. Different line types can help you to tell different stories when you're sketching. I'm just doing some jaggedy lines or zigzaggy lines here. Sometimes we call them the Charlie Brown shirt lines. You guys know Charlie Brown has that zigzag pattern on his shirt, right? Right, if this is his shirt, we have the zigzags going on. I'm not looking at it, but Charlie Brown has some kind of zigzag patterns on his shirt. So I'll call them Charlie Brown lines sometimes. We definitely need growies too. I haven't done any growies on here. So I think it'd be fun to sketch some. Maybe we'll do some Purple growies happening on here, guys. It's not art unless what? Quiz time. Not art unless what? Unless you wear it. Boom. So I am creating art. I got it on my hands. Got it. My left hand— whoop, trying to get in the camera. You can kind of see it there. There we go. So I'm definitely wearing some of this. We got some scribbly, some growies happening here, very loose. I do want to finish this tree trunk, do something with it. I'm not sure what yet. I want to bring it down, so I'm going to leave that for now. Cool. Growies! Yeah, we got the growies! Yes, until I'm wearing it, D-Ray says. Ding ding ding ding ding! 10 points for D-Ray. It's hard to have questions when you've drawn us into your world one wonky line at a time. Aw, thank you, D-Ray, I appreciate that. I'm glad you guys are enjoying this one. I feel like I want to throw some pink on the tree. Let's do it. Let's put some pink on there. I need a paper towel, so give me a sec. I have my cloth here. Yeah, I want to put some pink on this tree trunk. Not sure why, but it's kind of what my gut was saying, just throw some pink on there. I'm think— I was thinking maybe the— we have a lot of pink here for the barn. Throwing some of that pink down here might help balance those colors kind of diagonally. I guess that would be the reason. And let's do something really fun. I'm just going to take this pink. Zoom in, go to the tree. One sec, let's move this down. I am just going to take some of that pink and I am just going to dab it on here and see what it does, see how it blends in. And maybe we'll get some of that kind of foliage happening for the tree. This is really drying beautifully here. So cool. I feel like I need some more green on this tree. So I think my favorite green watercolor is I think this is Sap Green, so I'm going to throw some of this Sap Green on here. I believe that's what it is. I could be wrong. It's been in the pan here for a while. There we go. I love how that green's kind of combining with the pink. Get some browns happening in that tree. It's a little muddy in here. I'm gonna tap it out a little bit here, blot it out a little bit. There we go. Let me see if I can get this orange on here. I'm going to see if I get some orange to pop on here. I feel like I need some yellow in this tree also. I know, I guess I'm getting a little crazy with the tree. Hopefully it doesn't turn into a big mud pile, but you know what, this is fun. Just tapping these colors on, seeing what happens. I'm learning. So I'll pull that back a little bit so the color is kind of just staining the paper. Sorry, my big head I think was just covering the painting. Um, Stephanie says, where are you coming to us from, Jason Nicholas Nicholas? Oh, I am coming to you from the state of imagination, the great state of imagination and creativity. I am in New Jersey, northern New Jersey. That is my home state. Love it, love being here in New Jersey, or as people say, Joisey. I don't know who says Joisey. But I have never said that, so I am here in New Jersey. There we go, throwing down some of this aqua on the tree. State of Imagination, I like that. Sounds like a cool place to be. Oh man, under the sea green is a pretty shade of green. Thanks, DB. DB's loving the green. Um, D-Ray says, um, so great to be part of your sketching world. Thank you for sharing. So fortunate to have, to have finding way back in the day. We'll post that. I'm gonna post D-Ray's comment on here. Why the heck not? Hey D-Ray, so my pleasure. I— you guys are the best, and I have to apologize. I, uh, I was on more during the weeknights. I've been so exhausted from school, um, to be honest with you guys. I am so drained at the end of a school day that I haven't been coming on too much at night, and doing live streams, and I do miss it a lot. So that's why I haven't been popping on as much. But I'm exhausted in a good way. It's not a negative way. It's just putting my heart and soul into what I'm doing, you know, from whenever I get school, 6 in the morning to 3:30 when I leave in that afternoon, if not later. So thank you, Dure, for saying that, and I'm glad you guys can find time to join me, especially on a Sunday. So thank you. Good stuff. This is fun. I could put quotes up here. Hey Deborah, good to see you. Happy birthday. Thank you so much. Hope you're doing well. It's great to see you, Deborah. Deborah creates amazing, amazing artwork as well. Um, correct me if I'm wrong, but is it, um Is it alcohol inks? I think it's alcohol inks. Uh, Deborah creates beautiful, beautiful alcohol ink paintings. Um, something I haven't tried yet and I would love to try. So thank you for tuning in, really great to see you. Stephanie says, I appreciate this fall look being in the desert. Oh, I'm so glad. I'm glad you like the fall look here. That's one of the really cool things about sketching, painting. We could transport ourselves anywhere in the world we want to go, any season, any time. Sketching is one of the reasons I love doing this stuff, is we can transport ourselves anywhere we want to go. Henderson, Las Vegas. Oh, very, very cool. Very awesome. State of imagination. Stephanie says, "Happy I caught you." Oh, thank you, Stephanie. I appreciate it. D-Ray said exhausted, but I look— D-Ray, you're a trooper. Thank you so much. All you guys are incredible. So this one's drying. We'll, uh, give it a sec here. I feel like I want to pop some yellow on here. You know, some— do some neon yellow. Let's change the tunes up. Let me switch music a little bit here. What do I want to listen to? Let's go to, uh, I have— let's call this the World playlist. So this is Neon Yellow, and I think this will be the last thing I do for now. So guys, let's, uh, if you have any final questions or thoughts, let me know and we'll wrap up. So let's see where I want to pop some yellow. I feel like I do want some yellow. Zoom in, you guys can see it's a little bit closer. I do love yellow over the pink. You really get amazing orangey colors like here. For me, that's a win-win color combo. Win-win color combo. I need to put a list together. What are my top, top 3 winning color combos? I need to do a lot of things, actually. Also, actually, I have another— I'm asking a lot of you guys today. If you have any suggestions for podcast topics, let me know. What are some questions or topics you might want me to respond to on a podcast? A short 5 to 10 minute podcast. I would love some ideas. Um, I was going to try to use this livestream as a podcast, but I think I'm going to go back and record a separate podcast. And that podcast is going to be about I have a— I'm looking at my notes here. I said, what do you like? What do you like about what you created? That's going to be my topic for today's— this week's podcast post. Let's share. I'd love for you guys to share ideas with me. That would be so helpful because I'm here to support you guys and give you feedback and help encourage your art and creativity. So it would be helpful for me to know what you guys want to hear about. Ah, man, I love this. I love this right here. Wow. This hard edge, this color is beautiful. So you can see I'm just popping in some yellow here and there. You could do this with a highlighter if you wanted to. I'm using a neon. Color pencil. Definitely want some yellow in this tree. I might have to wait for this to dry more. This is pretty wet right here, so I can't really add color pencil on top of that. Wait for that to dry, I think. I do want to add some contour lines on this just to show that these hills are kind of gently rolling towards us or away from us. So I'm going to actually take my Sharpie and just really loosely hold it. And just by kind of putting these— these are called contour lines. It shows the contour or the shape of the landscape. So it just creates kind of a rolling look. For your eye, you see the hill's kind of rolling this way, and then maybe back here this one's kind of going up this way a little bit. It's still a little wet. My Sharpie— Sharpies don't like to write on wet areas, so I can use my Precise for that if I'm impatient. The Precise pens don't mind the wet areas so much, and they might bleed a little, which is cool. I feel like I want to throw some growies here in front of the barn. Maybe some hatching to make this a little darker. Just gonna bring this roof edge out a little bit here. This— and I want to show some metal roofing on this overhang. So I'm going to just sketch these lines to show the idea that there's metal roofing on this roof here. Maybe down by this tree. Oops, sorry guys. You know I like to zoom in and out. Sorry if I'm making you dizzy at home. Here we go. So I just want to kind of sketch— maybe this actually looks like a little pool of water down here. So show like a little vertical edge here to show like the edge of the ground kind of coming down a little bit. There. We have our loosey-goosey cows. This cow's kind of laying down here. That's a door. Alright. I think this one's almost done, guys. Sometimes I like to draw little heart shapes for leaves. So I'm kind of sketching these real quick abstract heart kind of shapes as leaves, and it adds a little bit of texture. I'll zoom in, you can see what I'm doing closer. There we go. This looks like a pear. Looks like my tree is a pear with a stump coming out the top. I'm cool with that. This sketch is not about the tree, it's about creating a scene, a fall harvest scene. Right, just going for a vibe on here. So this is another pro tip: draw little abstract heart shapes for leaves. You don't have to draw every single one on a tree. You can see just by adding that, it's given some texture to it, right? I think that was pro tip number 3 today, or 4, I lost count. Something like that. And I want to do some I like this music. All right, there we go. All right, cool. Uh, Stoney says, I really love the sporadic white space. That's so cool, right? White, um, white space is important. It gives your eye and your brain a break in some ways, right? It's a resting spot from all the lines and the colors. Um, also, it's also a way that you can fill in the scene with your imagination, fill in the white spots. What do you think would happen there? Deary says we're zooming. Yes. Yeah, I have a bad habit when I'm doing these livecasts, I zoom in and out. I am always moving the paper, so I appreciate you guys sticking with me. It's just part of the creative process, how I how I work. Oh man, I think everything shifted back here. There we go. Cool. Um, kind of looks like maybe I would leave burning fire glow behind the barn. Oh yeah, yeah, maybe. I mean, like back in this area. That's kind of cool. Yeah, maybe the fire— maybe the farmer's burning some leaves back here. That's cool. I'm glad— that's so cool you see that. Facebook user says fan-shaped leaves like ginkgos. Facebook user says yes. Awesome. Facebook user, hi Jason Nicholas Nicholas. Hey Facebook user, good to see you. I don't see a name, but um, you're awesome. Thank you for tuning in. All I see is Facebook user on there, and that's cool if you just want to be anonymous, or I don't know if it's a tech glitch, but I thank you for your comments. I appreciate it. So I'm getting another drink, guys. DB says a little yellow in the tree maybe. Yeah, DB, I totally agree. So I'm waiting for this to dry. It's still a little too damp for me to put colored pencil, but I agree, I definitely want to add yellow, and I'm eyeing up, um, the neon yellow pencil for that. So I'm so glad you said that. I knew yellow was coming. It's dry time and we're zooming in. I am jumping through the comments, not in any particular order. Oh, Facebook user is Janice. Hey Janice, how are you? It's good to see you. Janice is awesome. Janice does some pretty cool live streams from NYC. Janice, I always love seeing what you're sharing, your photos as well. I'll be in NYC, Janice, next Saturday I will be there doing some urban sketching. So, um, I will be in your home, your hometown, home city, I guess, next weekend. So I'm looking forward to being there. Hopefully the weather is going to cooperate. We'll see. I'm so excited to be going to NYC and doing some sketching. Let's see if I can— I think it's drying up a little bit. So let me show you the back side of this paper. You can see how it's— I'm curious to see if it's bleeding through. So it is not bleeding through. Here's the back side. This is a cool— this is a watercolor sketchbook I bought on— through Etchr, etchr.com. I don't remember the name of this sketchbook. Well, there's some Well, actually it's on the back. It says Etchr, the perfect sketchbook, limited edition 2021. Um, it was not cheap, to be honest with you. This is— this was not cheap. I'm gonna— if I remember, it was around $60, $65. A lot of money. Um, but I had been saving up because I like to try different papers, so I spent money on it. This is only the second thing I've ever done in this book. I really am loving this paper in the sketchbook, and there are some watermarks in here. Let me see if I can find it. See one? Called the Perfect Sketchbook. I like the deckled edges, the rough edges on it. That's fun. You gotta take— here's another pro tip. Pro tip number something today. I like to use binder clips. I always carry binder clips with me with my art stuff. So many different uses. I have to do a TikTok video. Hey, if someone can make a note, I need to do— I want to do a TikTok video of the uses of binder clips for sketching. That'd be a cool TikTok video. Sorry guys, I'm putting you to work today. I'm having you take notes, respond to questions. So I'm just looking. I know there are watermarks in here. Here's the first thing I did in here back in May 2022. I did some cathedral sketch. What the heck is this paper? I know I've seen the watermarks in here. Oh, here. So the paper in this sketchbook is— I don't know if you can see it— it's Fabriano Art— Artist— Artistico Fabriano, something like that. I have to get more specs on it. Um, here I can see it better. Here it's Fabriano— it's Artistico Fabriano. I like the weight, hold a lot of ink and water as you can see. Good stuff. There you go. All right guys, I think this one might be a wrap unless I could add some color pencil on here. Let me zoom in on tree. We'll add some more color. Um, happy birthday! Thank you, D-Ray, I appreciate it. Yes, it is. Today's my b-day. So happy. You know what the best birthday present I got this year was? I'm not about presents. It's not what it is for me. I'm not a very materialistic person, except for when it comes to art supplies. Um, my best present was in school this past week. Kids were trying to guess my age. Let's just say the highest age they guessed was— purposely pausing, I'm building up suspense— the highest age they guessed was 38. 38. 38. That is the best gift I could have gotten from kids in school. So I will take 38. How nice was that? And they were legit too. They were being serious. All right, so it's dry enough. I can start throwing down some yellow in here. So DB, here comes the yellow. Definitely needed some yellow on here. Pop a little yellow on the Scarecrow's face there. I want to do with some— what brush do I want to use? I use this brush here. Just clean it off a little bit. I need some intense, some intense pink on here. So I'm just dabbing some, some pops of pink on here. Here we go, guys. I think this one's done. I think this one's finished. I have my gut saying let's stop this one here. And I think we're going to leave it. Maybe I'll add more lines to it after, but not now. So this one's good. Let's sign it up. Sign it up. Binder clips give some space if paper is still damp. Oh yeah, there you go. Love that. Good, good point. I love that. Paperless good, holds the water. Love the edges, binder clips, and watermarks. Happy birthday! Thank you, Janice. 30, I'll take 30. A bit more orange somewhere, maybe. Yeah, Janice, I agree. So I have an orange colored pencil here ready to go, so we definitely could pop some orange on here. There's some more orange in the landscape here to help give contour again. So I'm sketching, adding the pencil in the direction that this little hill would be going to give the illusion of contour. Alright, there we go. So we got— I threw down some orange pencil in here. I hope this says fall to you guys. I hope it says autumn. We got 30, we're going 30. Yes, we're sticking with 30. All right guys, I'm going to wrap up. Let's just sign this one and we'll call it done. Um, thank you, thank you for allowing me to share some of my birthday time with you guys. I really appreciate it. Where do I want to sign this? I think I'll sign it over here on the edge. Yeah, let's see, sometimes I usually just put the year, but I'm going to put the day so I remember this was a birthday sketch. There we go. Excelente! So this one's done, guys. I hope you enjoyed this harvest scene. Um, if anybody's interested in this week's Arctober prompt, I didn't post it yet, but it is to sketch a favorite spooky or scary building from maybe a movie or a TV show. Um, yeah, that's what the prompt's gonna be: a spooky building, spooky house from a TV show or movie. And it could be— it doesn't have to be a spooky TV show or movie, it could be whatever you want it to be. But that will be this week's Arctober prompt if anybody wants SketchIt. This is my contribution for last week's prompt, which was a fall harvest scene. Yeah, that's it guys, so let's wrap up. So today's main theme or takeaway that I want you to have is, um, don't let— don't— after you create artwork, let's start over, take 2. I'm going to see if I can use this for my podcast. I'm going to turn the music down a little bit. So bear with me. You guys are watching behind the scenes podcast here in action. So pretend like I'm starting new. We'll see how it goes. Um, here we go. Hey guys, this is Jason Nicholas Nicholas from The Inkspired Life. Welcome. Hope you had an awesome, awesome week. Um, this week I want to share with you a tip about creativity, a tip that actually can help get you past blocking yourself or preventing yourself from creating something, whether it's a sketch, a painting, macramé, it doesn't matter, sculpture, whatever you like and whatever creativity means to you. So for me, as you know, it's sketching, painting, ink wash sketches or mixed media sketches are my favorite. If you're watching the video, you can see an example right here that we just created on my Inkspired Life Facebook livestream today. So if you ever find yourself looking at your artwork and criticizing yourself and just finding things you hate and don't like about what you're making, that could be dangerous. That could lend itself to building a block or barricade from your brain to the paper, right? That barricade could stop your creativity. So if I'm looking at this, for example, I could sit here and find things I really don't like, which can be good and bad. Let's talk about the bad thing. If you're just sitting here looking at a sketch self-criticizing and saying, oh, I hate the way my cows look, this scarecrow is horrendous, this tree looks like a pear, it's not really great at all, and then leave it at that. If you just— so if you just critique yourself and put bad thoughts in your head and stop there, that's the danger. That's where that barrier starts building. Blocking your creativity. Now, to make that a positive thing, I could go back and say, okay, you know, I really don't like the Scarecrow because his hands aren't big enough, or the body shape is wrong. So maybe next time I sketch that Scarecrow, or sketch a Scarecrow, I'm gonna change it. I'm gonna focus on the hands. I'm gonna focus on the body. So that's the difference. I'm critiquing, but then I'm giving myself an action step to move that forward, to learn from it and move forward. Creativity is a learning process. It's a skill we can always continue to develop. So that's one thing about critiquing yourself I think can help you to keep moving forward with your creativity. Another thing is looking at a sketch or painting and finding the things you like about it. So for example, as I look at the sketch that we just created, some of the things I really, really like about it are the colors. I love the color schemes happening. We have some pinks and yellows and oranges and aquas going on. So I love the colors. So that's my one plus. Now that I know I love those colors, I can build that into like a library, either physically jotting it down, making notes, or a mental library, and use that tool set again. So maybe another thing I like about looking at this is maybe I like the abstract idea of these cows. I'm— I've always been afraid to sketch animals. I'm really I'm not great at it. But I'm finding a way that I can express or show animals, and these abstract cows I like because I think it's getting the point across. So I like that about this. So maybe I'll continue doing abstract animals in future sketches. And the thing I always, always like about creating, no matter what the end result, is the process. I love the process. I've said it many times, it's like a broken record, but it's true. It's the act of creating, putting pen to paper, watching colors mix, watching lines be wonky and sketchy, um, watching how the color dries on here. I just love the process. So those are two different kind of mindsets when you're creating artwork. Is if you're going to look at it and see what you don't like about it, critique yourself, but come up with action steps of how you can use that as a lesson and move forward. And the second thing is write down, make lists of what you do like about what you're creating so you can continue to use those in future sketches or paintings. But more importantly, you can actually use those and teach those and share those with other people. Right? For me, creativity is about positivity and sharing. So that's this week's podcast episode, guys. I hope you liked it. I hope you found some good tips here today. Feel free to check out my website at theinspiredlife.com. I have a list there of the tools and materials that I like to use when I'm sketching. So if you want to know what I use a lot, please check that page out. Also, if you're listening to the podcast and you like it, I would love for you to subscribe either on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. If you go there, find it, subscribe to it, follow it, even if you could leave a comment or rating, that would be so cool. Something new I'm trying is trying another format just to get good stuff out there. Alright guys, thank you so much for listening today and I appreciate you all so, so much. Have an amazing week. Do something creative, spread some positivity, even if it's a simple smile or hello to somebody. Just keep doing good things, guys, because that's what it's about. That's what keeps life going, right? All right, thank you so much. Take care, everybody. Have an awesome, awesome rest of your week. Peace and live creatively. I'll see you guys real, real soon. Take care. Or, or You'll hear me soon on the podcast, whatever medium you're watching or listening to. All right guys, take care. Have an awesome, awesome day.