Monday Sketching

Hello, it is Monday, April 13, 2026. I'm Jason with the Inspired Life where I live. Love sketching, especially architecture, and especially sketching on days where I just finished doing my taxes. Yeah, um, sketching's a great way for me to reframe my day, reframe my state of mind, get me from a state of meh and, uh, to a, to a positive kind of vibe, uplifting, upbeat. It fires my synapses. Is that the word? Synapses? But anyway, thanks for joining me on the Inkspired Life. I like to just kind of share my creative brain process with you guys, do some sketching, do some talking, and overall just spread positivity through creativity. So let's do a sketch here. I'm looking for a Sharpie right here. Boom. Um, So I'm gonna do— I don't know what I'm gonna do. I'm lying, I know what I'm gonna start with. I'm getting my energy back, I'm starting to recover from all my jet lag, so, uh, bear with bouncy me. Hey, Edie is in the house already! Great to see you, hope all is well. Always good seeing you, thanks for joining. So let me, uh I'll show you what I'm going to sketch. I'm going to sketch this scene here inspired by the city of Toledo in Spain. Check this out, bring it closer. You can see the Toledo Cathedral there. So let's just do a quick little cityscape, loosey-goosey sketch. And I like to take my watch off when I'm sketching because I feel like it's kind of annoying and cumbersome, so I forgot to do that. So let me take that off. Boom shakalaka! All right, let's do some sketching. Feel free to ask questions. Um, congratulations getting your taxes done before 11:59 PM on the 15th. Well, let's just say they're done, but I didn't file them yet. Uh, so I used TurboTax this year, not a sponsor. I didn't want to pay like $600 or whatever, $700 I paid last year. So I said, you know what, let me try to do online myself. And I went through the TurboTax process on and off for the past 3 weeks, so I put about 7 hours of time in. And, um, well, let's just say the numbers are done and I need to sell some artwork. Let's put it that way. Um, I owe money, unfortunately. Not complaining, it is what it is. Let's just kind of sketch here, get kind of loosened up a little bit. I am looking for suggestions, so in the chat let me know. I want to do— I want, I want to add a New York City building-inspired sketch tonight in my that right here that we've been working on. So let me know in the chat, give me some suggestions. I may or may not use them, disclaimer, but I'm open for ideas because I do want to add something in that sketchbook tonight. If you want to follow along with me with what I'm listening to, just go to Spotify. This is the Cranberries. I think that's the name. I think that's the playlist, and you can hear what I'm hearing. I'm just listening to the Cranberries right now. I love the Cranberries. I love Dolores. Her voice is probably my most favorite female singer voice ever. Turn it up here. Online filing is a godsend. Yeah, it is a godsend, I agree. Um, so I have to file. I have my architecture business and my, you know, personal taxes and my art stuff as well. So I have a few different things I need to file for. I mean, it seemed to walk me through it okay, the steps. I just was not— I'm not as organized as I should be with all the info, but we got through it. I love doing these kind of cityscape sketches with nothing but a Sharpie and some paper. There's just something really simple about the aesthetic. And I love— I'll just— I love the way the lines, the lines slash mark making, how that just looks when I do these kinds of— I'll call them simple sketches. Can you guys see that okay? Sorry, I tend to always slide my sketches. I don't know why. So I apologize for that. This sketch reminds me of, um, I do my Booth Bay Harbor sketches like this, some of the, uh, townscape. Buildings kind of layered and stacked on top of buildings. So I'm looking forward to this summer just doing some Boothbay sketches with you guys. And I'm looking, I'm hoping, praying, wishing, whatever you want to say, I, I'd love to get to Boothbay Harbor this summer. It's been a few years. That place calls my Seoul. So I'm hoping I can get there this summer. We'll see. All right, cool. I like where this is headed. Feel free to say hello in the comments, guys. I'll be checking in during the live stream. I saw Art by Terry Nye. Art by Terry Nye popped in on Instagram in and out. Instagram peeps, why do you pop in and out? It's really bizarre. It's a mystery to me why, why people pop in and out on Instagram. I don't know if the stream lags. I know Gigi checked last time and it was working. So I appreciated that. Am I even more boring on Instagram than YouTube and Facebook? I've lost my Facebook peeps too. No one shows up, or they're lurking. If you're lurking out there, it's okay. You can lurk in the background. You could be a ninja viewer. It's all good. I hope you're enjoying the show, but feel free to say hello. We're a friendly bunch here. And speaking of friendly bunches, we have Edie and now Gigi NYC popped in. You guys are friendly. Gigi, how the heck are you? And also, how are those cherry blossoms? Are they still blossoming? Let me know. If I go into NYC this Saturday, will I see blossoms, or did I miss them again this year? I caught the tail end last year. All right, cool. All right, so here's like a little quick Toledo scene. I love it. You were missed at CFOTS today. We thought of you while riding the ferry and passing by various— oh yes, you've Um, I appreciate that I was missed, and the timing just hasn't been good for me to watch the live streams. By the time I'm either taking the, you know, cooking dinner or taking the dog out for a walk— um, today I was bogged down doing some tax stuff. But I, I really miss, miss y'all, and I hope, uh, I hope to join sometime soon. It's just been That is, like I said, the timing kind of has sucked, so just a timing thing. But thank you, I appreciate you letting me know. All right, cool. All right guys, I think this one's looking good. Quick, loosey-goosey city, city escape sketch. Um, and if you're watching, let me know, give me a suggestion or two in the chat. What NYC building should I sketch tonight? I'm looking for ideas. Um, here's a sketch I did the other night and I want to add to it. I'll show you what I bought at Michael's yesterday. Hey, see, see, La Prey joined on Instagram and left. What's up? Some are still blossoming, especially on East Side. Tulips too. Oh good, thank you for the pro tip. I'm— yeah, I'm thinking Central Park this Saturday. Um, no worries, our friend Jen told them to join us here. Oh, I would love that, please. Thank you for the shout out. And Jen, I miss Jen. I haven't seen her in a while. I would love for that, you guys, to join us here. That'd be amazing. It'd be awesome to see if I tuned in too. It'd be so cool. All right, here's what I bought. I went to Michael's yesterday, and you know what? I bought this neon orange color pencil. I want to throw some down on here, like a Spanish tile roof. I think that'd be— look kind of cool. What else did I buy? I bought chartreuse. I stocked up on a neon yellow. I also stocked up on— I bought another one of these bad boys, white. And, and, and, and what else? That's it. Oh, I also bought air drying clay, but that was for school. All right, let's zoom in. Let's add some color on this, and we'll hit an NYC sketch in celebration of me getting my taxes done, although it's not officially filed, and I do owe— I owe money. So I better— I need— I better start selling some, some artwork. All right, but I don't do this for that. Let's zoom in closer. Let's give you guys a close-up special. There we go. So my favorite color pencil brand, and they are not sponsored, but I love Prismacolor color pencils, um, the Prismacolor Premier. They're not cheap. I want to say, and I don't remember exactly, this was a— it's like $2 and something per pencil. But for me it's the best quality that I've used. But just check that out. I don't know if the orange is showing on camera, but it's pretty vibrant. But I think it adds a little bit of interest there, a little pop, a little bit of— I can't make a popping sound— a little bit of pop. I got some really good feedback on this sketch, so If you gotta add a little bit more to it, give it a little bit more life. Guys, am I talking a lot? I'm so sorry if I am. I'm hyped today. The jet lag's finally wearing off.

It—

the jet— the travel and jet lag kicked my butt. In a good way though, in a good way. That's cool, look at that. I think that orange makes a nice difference, right? I like you, like you. And then this was the tea, remember? I painted with tea if you were watching live, so we have some tea on there. Guys, am I free? Am I freezing again? Weird. Why am I freezing? I don't have— trying to see if I have anything on, on in the background. I don't see anything unusual in the background. Let me know if I'm freezing, por favor. If I'm freezing, I am so sorry. Edie says it's frustrating. I'm gonna give you guys a sec. Let me know if I'm freezing, please. Everything looks okay on my end.

All right, you guys, I don't know if I'm freezing or not.

If I am, please let me know. I'm going to keep moving forward. Kind of stinks when I freeze. All right, no freezing, thank you. Thank you guys so much. All right, cool. Let's do an NYC sketch. So we have, um, this— you know what, I'm going to throw some, throw some color on here too. This is— so this is like a terracotta roof. Just throw some colors on here.

All right, cool.

Now let's just write Toledo so I don't forget, and we'll move on to our New York City sketch. Let me know if you have questions, comments. Give me a topic if you want me to riff on something. I'm creating a little bit of texture for the clay tile roofs. And all I'm doing honestly is, um, I'll do a close-up here. You just kind of see here, I'll do it right here on the COVID Boom. Just like making the letter M. So that's kind of my shorthand to do the barrel tile roof. So you see here Sometimes we can sketch using letters, so M's, O's. All right, cool, this looks good. I like it. All right, let's move on. Oh dang, I don't have water, do I? I did not bring water in here to drink, to drink with. All right, all right, so here's my NYC calendar sketchbook. My next step is to figure out how to scan these and to get some decent prints out of it, whether I do in-house or I send it out to get prints. Hey Sketches and Some, I see you on Instagram. Hope all's well. Always good to see you, my friend. So I still didn't put the Pepsi-Cola sign in here. You guys want to watch me glue something down? I don't have a glue stick, so never mind. So I'm going to trim this out, use a glue stick, and just throw this on this page. I think it'll look really cool there. So that's the Pepsi-Cola sign. So what should I sketch tonight in this book? On the last thing we did was here, GCT, the Pershing, um, bridge here, GCT in the background, MetLife building there as well, and little tiny Chrysler building. Thanks for the thumbs up, I appreciate it, Mel. I hope to see you sometime soon, man. I love your sketching and, uh, I miss sketching with the group. All right, so I have this blank page. Give me a suggestion. If not, I am going to sketch. Hmm, maybe I might do The Met. The Met. Let me get my reference. Looking for my reference sketch of the Met. I don't have my reference— my reference sketch of the Met.

Let me just look in my drawer here.

Um, actually, I'll show you this. There's another— this is another inspired by the same view that I just showed you, right? So this GCT sketch right here, this is a— gosh, I did this in 2024. This is another version of that same that same view. So if you look at it, it's much bigger scale. This is watercolor, mixed media, graphite stick. But there's something really intriguing about— I just love the diagonal lines in this perspective. So when you're in New York City, don't be afraid to look up. Looking up sometimes gives you the most interesting views to photograph and to sketch from. Right? And then I tried to capture that same thing here. You see the kind of the angles happening. So I'm always looking at the lines in the city. I don't have my reference. I don't think I have any references. I'm going to have to, uh, go on my camera. But always look up in the city. I have some scratch paper here. Postcard from Paris. Copper Building. Uh, this was a street in Paris. And I have my Rock Center tree sketches. All right, cool. All right, we'll just— let me look up— look at a photo. Domino building. Have you done that yet? Yeah, the domino building, I have right here. So I— so Mel, you know me well. I love the Domino Sugar Refinery, so this is my take on it in this sketchbook right here. Love that. Thank you for the suggestion.

All right, let's do it.

Let's just start sketching. Sorry guys, I'm flipping pages. Sounds like the name of a band, Flipping Pages. I've lost my mind. Here we are. All right, I'm gonna pull up a sketch here, uh, photo. All right, so let's go Met. I did the Oculus. I'm just looking through some photos here. What was that skit on Saturday Night Live? Coffee Talk. Coffee Talk. Talk amongst yourselves. Talk amongst yourselves. I'm trying to find an image. Um, so this brings up a point. So I've had people ask me, like, when you look at a photograph to sketch something, is that cheating? My answer is no. Looking at photos and reference pictures are not— it's not cheating. No one is expected to remember, um, the details, um, of buildings, or the lines, the shapes, right? I take so many photographs and I use them for references. I also love photography, but it's not cheating. So don't be ashamed to pull out a picture and use it to sketch from. It's totally valid. And that's something I learned in school with my students. They're, they're afraid to look at images sometimes to sketch from. All right guys, I'm not finding pictures of the Met. I have thousands of pictures. I'm going to sketch this building. We're going to do St. Nicholas's Right here, we're going to do a sketch of Saint Nicholas's. Boom, let's throw that in here. Why not? My last name is Nicholas, but I am not a saint.

All right.

This is a beautiful structure designed by Santiago Calatrava, the same architect engineer who designed the Oculus building. You all know how I feel about the Oculus. Some, some of you guys out there don't like it, but I like, I like it. I like the modernness of it. He's the same architect that did this building. Um, what else did he do? I'm trying to think what else he's done in NYC. Has he done any other NYC projects? So I'm catching myself thinking too much. When I think too much, I'm trying to pre-plan, and when I pre-plan, it's not going to turn out loosey-goosey. So the goal for me is to not pre-plan, to just get in the flow and go for it. That's kind of the vibe I like. I have a cool story about this, about sketching here at this building. So I think it was last year, um, I was sketching and I went inside. It's it's really cool inside. So I went inside, and one of the security guards, a very nice lady, um, and I started talking. And the reason we started talking is I gave her the sketch I did of the building. And by giving her that sketch, we connected. I learned about her story and her family, and I forget exactly where they were from I want to say somewhere like Haiti or something. And it was just really nice to talk about her and her love of her family and the love of New York City. And all that started from, from handing her a sketch. All right, so I'm going to do the, uh, bring out some purple here. So sketching is a really powerful way to connect and communicate with people that you don't know. I've connected in the city with some of the workers at Dough Donuts in Rock Center. Um, I know a couple guys there by name. When they go in, they see me. Um, I gave them— I've given them a couple sketches, so it's really fun. Shake Shack, I've connected with one of the employees at Shake Shack, the one that's in Chelsea under the High Line. So for me, that's one of the fun things about sketching is being able to just give them away. I've had the opposite effect on the High Line where I did a sketch, I tried to give it to a family And the dude, the guy, thought I was trying to scam them. Um, so he was a little skeptical and did not want my free sketch. He thought I was going to ask for money. And I get it, it's New York City, it's a self-preservation thing, especially if you're like in Times Square. All the fake monks and the costume characters are scamming people. Um, I felt bad because I was just trying to do something nice, but I understood.

All right, cool.

This is looking fun. I like it. Gigi says, is it hard to let go of your sketches? Um, some— for some sketches, yeah. For some, it is definitely hard to let go of. Maybe one day I'll do a kind of favorites— favorite sketch livestream. I'll show you some of the ones I've— I don't want to let go. Um, it's a great, great question, but yeah, it definitely is hard sometimes to let things go. I have a paint— I have a painting on my wall here, um, that— I mean, if you guys are interested, I can— we can— I can pull it off the wall, we can talk about it now. Just put yes in the chat, or if not, that's okay. Um, it's a very, very special painting that I will never let go, and there's a, there's a story behind it. But yeah, it's a great, great question. All right, let's pull out some gel pens. I love this. I love this song, Zombie. Zombie. I get goosebumps when I listen to the Cranberries. Her, her, her voice just gives me goosebumps. Ashley photo was on Instagram. Sketches and some— thank you. I saw you on Instagram before. Thank you for watching. I know you're gone now, but that's okay. I still appreciate you, man. So if I didn't say this, this building, St. Nicholas— and part of me, I don't know if it's a church, and we'll call it St. Nicholas's Church— um, is in the World Trade Center area, which I guess construction will be starting soon on World Trade 2, which is going to be the American Express headquarters building. So it doesn't look like anything spectacular to me in the pictures I've seen. I just— it'll be a cool addition. I think it's the final— is the final building they need to construct there. But cool. Yeah, I like the way this looks. Uh, it's great here in NYC. The lefty politics stinks, but hey, you got to take the bad with the good. Uh, it's true everywhere, right? True with everywhere, with everybody in the world. There's good, there's bad. It's— I see it in school. I saw it in when I was away in Europe. Definitely home. So I agree. You have to— you need to have a filter. We just all need to have filters built in and filter whatever you want to filter. I can't tell you, but for me, I definitely want to filter positive vibes. Um, I don't function well when I am surrounded in groups of negative people. When I'm surrounded by negative people my first thing I try to do is I try to overpower the negativity with over-enthusiasm, over-energy, over-positivity. And that's tiring. It's tiring. So then I find myself just withdrawing, separating, isolating from the negative, negative vibes. So I wonder how to get on this path. But yeah, I kind of know what you're saying. Hey Kiko, you're on, uh, great to see you. Kiko is on the YouTube. How you doing, Kiko? Always great to see you, man. Kiko is one of, uh, he's one of my fave peeps that has graduated from our school. I miss you, Kiko. It'll be awesome to get together with this summer. I was saying to M, maybe this summer we could all get together and go bowling or something. It's great to see you, my friend. Thank you for always being an inspiring person for me. And Kiko is— when I was talking about positive vibes, Kiko is— Kiko is one of the most positive, energetic people I have ever met. You, you inspire me to this day, even though you're not in school anymore.

You—

I think about you often, and thank you for your just positive, positive vibes, man. I appreciate you. I like the way this is coming out. Let's get out this pen instead. And I'm going to say that about everybody that's live in the chat right now. You guys, even though I haven't met you in person, I get nothing but positive vibes from you guys. And it's one of the reasons I just love showing up here. So thank you so much for bringing your positive energy to the chat. It means so much to me. And I hope I'm just paying it back. Yeah, I like this. This was a good choice. I done something good today. I done something good. Yeah, I like this one, guys. You're welcome, Kiko. It's true. I had seen Dr. T. Jung had joined on. The Insta, but they're gone. What's up with that Insta? Kiko, I know you watch me on Instagram sometimes. Is it— does it lag? Is it— am I more boring on Instagram? Is it possible for me to get you— get more boring? Um, he says you strike me as a nice guy, Jason. Thanks, I try to be nice. I think I'm a nice guy. I try to be. Um, I used to be that really, really nice guy that people would take advantage of. Not anymore though. I used to be that really, really, really nice guy that said yes to everything. Not anymore though. Yeah, thank you. I try to be nice, and I, I don't, I don't know how to live to be mean, and I could thank my parents for that. So I was noticing in school, actually I was commenting on it today, um, there is, there are two words 2 words that are lacking, I'm finding, that are lacking big time in school. Can anybody guess what those 2 words are? These 2 words are just lacking. I like this one, guys. This one might be done. Kiko says, no, I'm not more boring on Instagram. Thank you, I appreciate that. Wait, am I just boring in general? No. All right, cool. Look at this with a frame on it. This looks pretty sick. Did I just say that? I like that. That looks really cool. I didn't do my hair. Eagle Scout. I see Eagle Scout Kiko on Instagram. Hey, thanks. You're on both channels. I love that. Hey, ding ding ding ding ding! 2 points for Gigi. Yeah, thank you. Thank you is so— it's such a rare thing to hear in school. I don't know how, I don't know when or why thank you has gotten lost in modern culture. Is that the right way to say it? In modern culture or in younger generations? Uh, there are a few, but like, I have kids that are like expecting me to get up and go get them scissors. Yeah, I'm talking high school. Um, or I'm having people— I, I just— there's— thank you is so hard to hear. And I was brought up with thank you and please. And am I perfect? Not 100%, but most of the time I would say my manners are really, really, really good. It is really sad for me. A little commentary: it is really sad that we have lost— and maybe I'm wrong— but that we've lost the thank yous and pleases. Um, we live in such an on-demand society. I'm going to keep sketching. I'm just going to put this here. I'm just going to randomly doodle and talk. I don't— we'll see what comes out on the page. Actually, you know what, guys? I want to make some backgrounds. So let's do some abstract backgrounds because I need to add some more in here. So I'll do that while I'm talking. But it's just really sad not to hear those words and Yeah, by the way, I scored this cool $2 bamboo brush in Michaels. It was in the clearance bin for $2. Here's the one I usually use, smaller. This is a bigger brush, but I figured for $2, I couldn't go wrong with it. All right, let's break out some acrylics. I need some paper towels. Boom. Yeah, I think the on-demand society we're in is just— it's taking away the humanness. All right, let's just throw some colors down, guys. We'll wrap this up at 10 o'clock, so I'm going to be on for a little bit longer. All right, enough of that. So we're just going to throw down some random colors. This is a fun way just to let loose, not pre-plan, just kind of go with it. I love this fluorescent red color. I need some blue. Let's go with this one. That's not being nice, that's being a people pleaser. Yeah, exactly. Yes, yes, I agree with that comment. People are not humble anymore. Oh, are you finding that? That's interesting. Yeah, I kind of see what you're meaning about people not being humble. So I'm just lifting some paint off to give a little bit of texture here. Yeah, it's, um, a lot of it's a me, me first kind of I, I'm not trying to be negative, but I think there's a lot of me first out there. Me first, me first. You know what, guys, we can just put out what we can put out. Just keep being awesome human beings, putting out positive vibes. Let's remove some color. I'm gonna start pulling some colors off a little bit here just to see through. You know what, there are nice people, and I think nice people gravitate towards nice people and positive, positive, positive Um, what am I thinking? Positive is like attracted to positive.

All right, here we go.

We got some fun colors on there. Oh, interesting. Um, Every time you talk to someone new, you have to reinvent the wheel. Yeah, I kind of see what you're saying, and that could be tiresome, right? It takes a lot of energy to do that. I want a punch of something on here. I need a punch of something. All right, I'm gonna do it. We're gonna do it. I'm throwing down some fluorescent pink, and I think these might be good as backgrounds for upcoming sketches. Oh, look at that color! Who doesn't like this color? Oh my gosh, wow, this color makes me so, so happy. Happy camper, happy camper alert! Ding ding ding ding, we got a happy camper in the house. Oh, look at that color. Oh, I hope that light is not, um, too bright online. I hope you guys can see this. This color is incredible. Oh yeah, now you're talking. Yeah, that's special. OMG, love it, love it. Uh, this is why we're addicted to these streams. It's nice to know someone with a good heart. Oh man, are you trying to make me cry? Wow, seriously, that— you, you— that made my day. Thank you so much. How do we do the heart thing? I'm not good here. Is that the heart thing? Boom! Let's do over the pink. That's supposed to be a heart. Oh, thank you so much. That was— I feel the same. Thank you so much. I appreciate that. That was awesome. All right, we'll zoom in, we'll check out some of the details, and we'll wrap up, guys. So here we go. Sometimes it— the light washes out the real colors I'm seeing, but this is spectacular in person. This is going to be so fun to sketch on top of. I actually love what's happening here also. I kind of love the colors, right? Where's my frame? Be more dramatic. Boom. I love the colors right here. Check that out. I'm feeling like I want to do some flowers, sketch some flowers. This might go from NYC sketches to some kind of spring flower sketches. What do you guys think? Would that be cool? I'm loving the colors on here so much. Oh, cherry blossom tree. Um, I have never sketched one, but I'm up for the challenge, so I would love to. Yeah, maybe I'll try to sketch cherry blossom tree. I have an idea that just popped in my brain. I think what I would do is a pink background and then pull out the shapes with a white gel pen or a white marker. So I love that idea. Maybe, um, if I hit Central Park this weekend, maybe I'll be inspired. I'll take some pictures. Is that a bug on there? It's kind of a bug on that. Cool. All right guys, I wonder if there's any final questions or comments before I wrap up. I am super hungry, but I need to go to bed. I am noticing Instagram is a little behind, a little behind the, um, the delay. Oh my gosh, that's— sorry about the yawn. Holy moly. Um, this has been a fun day, from school to doing my taxes to live streaming, and I am wiped out. All right, let me go back to do a recap here. All right, so in the future we'll sketch on these. Yeah, so tonight we did, um, St. Nicholas's Church down, um, in the 9/11 Memorial area. I think it came out kind of cool. I like it. We did some funky abstract backgrounds for future sketching and we did— oh, my light went off, so it's 10 o'clock. And then we started off with a quick— put that there to dry— and we start off with a quick loosey-goosey sketch right here that I am going to throw some pink paint on and wrap up. Hey, thank you so much, Gigi. Have a great night. Great seeing you. I appreciate you so, so much. Get some rest. Have an amazing Tuesday, everybody. Edie, thank you so much for watching as well and commenting. I appreciate you guys. We're all sleepy. Thank you for staying up with me a little late here. I appreciate you all so, so much, um, guys. You're awesome. Until we meet again, I'm gonna throw some pink down here. Until we meet again, sketch boldly, live creatively, and inspire endlessly. I'll see you soon. I just gotta throw some pink on here because I'm— because I'm crazy.

All right, cool.

That was fun. All right guys, remember, keep paying it forward out there. Put— use your creativity for positivity. Give a smile to someone, say hello, give a silent blessing. It doesn't matter. Positive vibes are positive vibes. Until we meet again, sketch boldly, live creatively, and inspire. Endlessly. See you soon. Don't forget to hit that thumbs up and like and share on all social media platforms. Thank you so much.