NYC Architecture Sketch Fearless: Loose Lines & No Apologies
In this hour‑long live stream, architect‑artist Jason Nicholas (The Inkspired Life) guides viewers through a spontaneous sketching session that blends flower illustration, architectural studies, and personal reflection. He begins by sketching a garden iris on Lockbie paper using Sharpie, orange background, white gel pen scribbles, and layered acrylic markers, explaining his choice of colors, the role of music, and the therapeutic value of “scribbling” without a predetermined plan. Throughout the session he interacts with chat participants, acknowledges friends (DB, Edie, Kiara, Gigi) and shares anecdotes about recent workshops, a renovation project he’s working on, and his philosophy that sketching is an expressive, imperfect act that can boost mood and positivity. He then shifts to his NYC sketchbook, blocking out the United Nations building, discussing its flags, and recalling visits to Hudson Yards, the Vessel, and the High Line. He provides quick facts (e.g., Hudson Yards as the most expensive U.S. real‑estate development) and demonstrates his technique of breaking architecture into simple shapes, using dot‑tip acrylic markers, and layering abstract acrylic‑ink backgrounds. He reviews a series of upcoming 2027 calendar sketches of iconic New York landmarks—Brooklyn Bridge, UN, Guggenheim, Grand Central, Chrysler, One World Trade Center, etc.—and solicits viewer input on framing, color choices, and future subjects (Little Island, South Street Seaport, Tin Building). The stream concludes with a reflective monologue about overcoming fear of color, embracing imperfection, and using sketching as a personal voice, encouraging viewers to “sketch boldly, live creatively, and embrace imperfection.”
Chapters
Hey, how you doing? Jason Nicholas Nicholas from the Inkspired Life. Hope you're having a great day. My camera is crooked. Um, hope you're having a great day today. I have not sketched live in a few days, so I am here Um, yeah, looking forward to spending a little bit of time sketching live with you guys and, um, hanging out just for a few. We'll talk about sketching, creativity, maybe a little bit of positive mindset and whatever else comes our way in the next— oh, we'll say 20 minutes. Um, we'll do a quick sketch in here. I think I'm going to sketch an iris tonight., and then maybe if we have time, we'll jump into our NYC sketchbook here. And, um, well, I think I know the building I'm going to do tonight that was suggested on the last live stream. Uh, building? No, we're gonna do a structure, not a building. All right, so stay tuned. If you don't know who I am, I'm Jason Nicholas Nicholas with The Inkspired Life. I love sketching architecture. I love sketching in general, but architecture is my, my jam. I connect with the built environment, being an architect and a teacher of architecture. I just love the power of the built environment, how it could change our mood, our vibes. It shelters us, it can enlighten us. So really cool stuff. And that is what sketching does for me as well. It does all of the above and more. All right, so I'm rambling a little bit. I like to ramble, and this is unrehearsed, unrescripted. Unrescripted. I think I made that up. Unscripted. So stay tuned. And I'm a little distracted because I'm trying to find some music. I love to sketch with music. So let me hit this button and, um, feel free to say hello in the chat. I will check in with y'all. With y'all. All right, all right, here's what I'm going to sketch. This is I'm a huge fan of irises, especially this iris. This is, um, in my own yard here. I am fortunate enough to have grown these for a few years, and they're growing really nicely. I just love this picture of the iris and how the sun's kind of coming through a little bit. So let's do a sketch just kind of loosely inspired by this and see where it takes us for a few minutes. I am sketching tonight in, uh, my Lockbie folio, Lockbie folio, and on some Lockbie, uh, River Tomoe paper here. And I'm going to start with this Sharpie. Let me zoom in closer. Woo, that's mega close. All right. Alright, there we go. Very cool. I love, I love sketching these, um, irises. They're so beautiful. Um, yeah, so I'm gonna add some more things to this. I think I'll do a— we'll do a background on this as well. And let's see, let's see, let's go, let's do a background now. I'll come back to the flower. Um, I'm gonna go orange. I'm gonna put an orange— yep, background on here. I, I'm not kidding, I'm gonna go for it. Do I want to do that orange or— let's see, uh, let's see, I'll try this one, I guess. All right, let's just throw some orange on here, and I'm hoping the orange is going to pop out the purple a little bit more. We will see. Pretty cool, huh? So we add some more on here. Boom, boom, boom. Yeah, I like how the orange is kind of popping out that flower a little bit, right? Kind of cool. Throw some more on here and then we'll come back and I'll show you what I'm gonna do next. If you like this iris flower sketch, let me know. Give me a thumbs up, put something in the comments, say that's cool. Uh, if you like this sketching stuff, feel free to like, subscribe to YouTube. I'd love to have you join us here on the Inkspired Life. If you're watching on Instagram, like it there. Wherever you are, Facebook, It doesn't matter. I'm just trying to put creativity, uh, using creativity for positivity. That's something I'm— I just want to spread. Uh, for me, expressing creativity is— it's just, I don't know, I just love doing it. And especially when we can put a positive spin on it. So there we go. So we got some nice orange in the background. I'm gonna let it dry for a quick sec, and then we'll throw something else on there that'll be Awesome. Let me take a picture. Sometimes I take a picture as I'm working just to document different stages of my sketches. Um, it's really, really helpful to document to see the process, how it's going. Um, it's— I just love doing it so, so much. All right, let's see. I got a quick, uh, I am texting while I'm on a live stream. I rarely do that, but I just kind of— I got a nice text. I just want to respond real quickly. It's actually about sketching, um, which is really cool. I love how sketching can bring people together. Um, it's really, really incredible. Alright, so I'm going to take a white gel pen and I'm going to do some scribbles kind of in this sky here. I like the orange background, but I want to break it up, give it a little bit more character. So what I like to do is take my gel pen and just Um, just kind of go like this, and I just like the energy that this creates. I've been doing it— well, here's an example. Um, so here's something I did with my workshop, the workshop I went to this past Saturday. But I just like taking orange or whatever color the background is and then scribbling, um, the white on it. I think it gives an energy to this guy. It's kind of fun in the background. So that vibe, this vibe really translates well in, in New York City where, you know, there's a lot of energy for sure. So you'll see it in those sketches, but let's try it on this background of this iris and just kind of see what it does. So I'm just throwing down these lines and, uh, honestly, I'm just, I am scribbling. There's no rhyme, no reason to where I'm putting these lines. I also like making marks like this. Let me zoom in here. Even these kinds of marks right here, that's what's fun for me. Sketching, yeah, I love the end product. I love, you know, the completed building or flower. And for me, when I say completed, sketches are never 100% done. I leave a lot of space on the outside. To let you, let the viewer kind of imagine what's happening around it. But I just love these marks as well, like these just throwing down lines and dots here and there. Um, actually, I'm going to try something. I just got these new pens and I did a livestream the other day, so go back, check out my livestream from last time. And I'm looking for the cap. I lost it. Oh, no surprise. It's here somewhere. Um, I did a livestream about these, these brushes the other day. It's, they're really cool. And the company is called, it's a really interesting name. It's called like Brew Sarth. Sorry if the camera's blurry on it. Uh, love 'em, love 'em so far, but they have a really cool, let me show you. Let me just show you. I'm excited. Hey DB, I see you on Facebook. Good to see you, hope all's well. Um, I love this, it's called a dot tip. Let me see if it focuses. Come on, focus. It's called a dot tip, and well, I'll just show you in the sky. I mean, literally, it's— you can just do stippling. Stippling is kind of throwing these dots down, but you can do fat ones, you could do small ones. Um, I am in love with this dot tip point. I've never seen one before, so kudos to, uh, these markers. So far so good. But let's— maybe we'll do some on the flower. Let's throw some more— I'm gonna layer some more purple on top. One of the fun things I love to do with it, with these acrylic— acrylic, yeah, I said that right. I am so tired. When I'm tired, I can't speak. Um, my brain is like 10 times faster than my mouth. But one of the cool things I like with acrylic markers is just layering them on top of each other because they're— they have a transparency to them. So layering is really a fun technique to just get different effects with these. So I'm adding purple on top of the purple just to make it a little deeper, a little bit richer in color. DB, I hope you're doing great. It's always, always a pleasure to see you. DB is— has been a friend for, uh, I don't know, 5 years maybe, a Facebook friend. DB, I'd love to meet you in person sometime. It would be so cool, and I appreciate you, and I appreciate your positivity that you put out there in the world. And I love what you're doing, um, teaching those workshops at this, I think, the senior center. So thank you for using your creativity for positivity. Much needed. So you can kind of see I'm just going to go over the black outline, and I think I'm going to take the white gel pen and I'm going to pull out the shape of the iris with the white gel pen. And I'll zoom in a little bit closer. Let me zoom in even closer on this. Ah, there we go. That's better. School's almost over. June 19th is our last day. Yippee! We're getting so close. As much as I love teaching, summer is going to be really nice. Um, starting— I had a really awesome meetup today with a, with a friend of mine. I'm going to call her a dear friend because she's an amazing human being and, um, was so great hanging out and having some coffee. And she is also— she's, man, she's an artist. She does some really cool sketching. So that was so fun meeting up. Maybe we'll, uh, meet up again one more time this summer. That would be awesome. And maybe do some— even do some sketching. So summer— summer's off to a good start. I hope your summer is off to a good start as well. Even though I know it's not officially summer yet on the calendar, it's starting to feel like it. All right, so We got some more purple on there. I'm going to play around with that white gel pen. We'll see if it pulls it out like I wanted to. Let's layer some pink on here. So I'm going for a purple-pink kind of color combo tonight on this. Just going to touch pink in some, in some places here and there. I could sketch these. When my irises grow in my garden— well, it's not really a garden, they're planted along the front of my house, and I have some in the back growing. Um, I feel like a proud father of these flowers. I know that sounds weird, but I just love going out there, propping them up, watering them, looking at them. I take pictures of them, so Bear with me if you see me posting a lot of pictures of these. They're lasting pretty— they're lasting pretty good this year. I'm gonna guess I have another week with them before they say bye-bye. There we go. How cool is that? All right, so we're gonna break out that white marker, and then here's the white gel pen. Let's see, DB says, I agree, it would be nice to spend time with you too. Wow, that's amazing. Yeah, it would be awesome. It would be so cool to do a meetup with all of— with you and all the Inklings. It would be so fun too. I love our Zooms. I'm sorry we haven't done them in a while. Um, but I miss you guys, and I miss our Zooms. We had— we have fun doing that. So I always say I'm gonna do it again, and then I, I don't do it. So maybe this summer we'll do it. It's not that I'm lazy, just get so crazy busy sometimes and tired sometimes. It's called life, right? But here you can see the dot. Oh yeah, pretty cool. PC, pretty cool. And then it has a brush tip. Uh, here's what I wanted to try with the outline. Let's see if it works. I'm purposely leaving some of the purple, right? You see how that— you see how that white kind of showing through a little bit? So it is transparent, but I don't mind that. I think it looks pretty awesome. Pretty cool. And we'll just throw some more boom boom boom, some more dots on there. Cha-ching! This looks cool. I'm— I need yellow on here. I don't know why my gut is saying yellow. I usually listen to it. So we're gonna throw on some neon yellow. Let's do it. Is there neon? Is there yellow? Neon yellow on the actual flower? Nope, not the flower I have. And I want to throw some blue on here, um, darken some of this up. But my heart, my gut is saying throw some yellow on here. There's nothing wrong with that. Go with your gut when you're, when you're picking colors. I have the photograph that documented exactly what it looked like the time I took the picture. This is my interpretation. This is my gut, my soul, my heart kind of talking through the marker, through the colors, through the sketchy lines. That's what's so fun about sketching, especially for me, loose style sketching, is It's all about creating a vibe. Yeah, so I like the blue because that dark blue makes the purple look even more purple. I don't know if that makes sense. All right, here it is, Neon Yellow. We need— I wish I had like a theme song for like colors. I know this sounds weird, I'm a little— I'm way— I don't know what I'm saying tonight. Um, like some kind of cool song. So when I introduce neon yellow, boom, because this is a powerful color, so we're not gonna use a lot of it. Edie's in the house! Edie, good to see you on the YouTube side of things. Love that you're out there. Always, always good to see you. DB says, I love the touch of blue. Thanks, DB. I love that touch of blue too, right? It really did something to the purple. You can kind of see, see it there, right? Um, let's throw in this neon yellow too. I, I, I want to leave some white space though, so I don't want to fill this totally in, but we'll just pop some yellow here and there. I'm going to change this light a little bit because there's a lot of glare. Heck yeah, I'm loving this, guys! This is so fun. I have to say, the music is influencing me big time. When the song changed, I'm like, boom, got some Coldplay going. I love me some Coldplay. All right, let me zoom out a smidge, see what you think. Zoom, zoom, zoom. Unzoom. I guess we'll unzoom. Yeah, look at this. Let me tilt it up so that— so, uh, the light is not glary. Bring it up a little closer. I like the touch of red. Um, I don't know why I— you guys know, for the longest time Neon pink right here is a go-to color, right? Like a signature color I would pop on. I, I feel like— and this is kind of a weird transition— I feel like I'm— I think I feel like I'm defaulting to red these days. So yeah, it's kind of strange. Edie says the yellow is barely visible. Yeah, it's the glare from the light, 100%. If I hold it up— actually, let me turn this light off. Maybe let's see if that's better. Hold on, let's turn this light off. We're playing with the lighting, guys. Um, do you guys like that? It's kind of dark for me. Let's see. I don't know, can you guys see the yellow better? I don't know. If not, my bad. I'm trying to— I need to find a better lighting level in here. I literally turned the light off above me, so it's hard for me to see when I'm sketching. I will work on lighting, guys. I'll make that a goal. I always appreciate your feedback out there. Anything audiovisual, let me know so I can always improve and make things more fun and clear to watch. If you want me to put a cat filter on my face, let me know. Oh wait, no, that's Snapchat. That's my Snapchat filter. I, I don't really have, have a Snapchat. I'm kidding, um, I'm not a snapper. For anybody that uses Snapchat, are you— are you guys called Snappers? I have no idea. Yeah, this looks really cool. Um, I do want to try this pen here and pull out the edge, see if it pulls it out a little bit more. Yeah, so this pen's a little more intense. Or Ink Tents. See what I did there? Ink Tents. I know, I know. So I've been a little MIA lately. I'm sorry, guys. I've been, uh, I've actually been working on an architecture project at night, so I haven't been live streaming as much. And I always appreciate you when you do pop on, so thanks for your patience with my schedule. So I'm gonna do— if you guys are liking the iris sketch, iris, iris, I could sketch another one right now. That was a bad pun. I'm looking for— I don't like the green on here that much. I want to do something else to it. Oh yeah, I'm looking for a chartreuse. Let's chartreuse it up. All right, let's throw some chartreuse on here. Do you swear to chartreuse, the whole chartreuse and nothing but the chartreuse? That just popped into my head. Um, there we go, pretty cool. What do you guys think? Let me know in the comments. Say yes iris or no iris. Should I do more irises in the future? I'd love to know. Edie says, what architectural project are you working on? I I'm working on a project, um, we're taking a, uh, basically it's a renovation project. There's an existing building that we're keeping the footprint of. We're going to change the roofline of the project. It's a residential project and we're going to gut the interior of the building and just kind of rearrange some of the walls so it's kind of a has a more open space inside. So it's a cool, cool project. Um, over the summer I'll show— maybe I'll show you guys just some sketches of some of the stuff I'm doing architecturally. That'd be kind of fun. Yeah, good question. It'd be cool to come on here and, um, even just do architectural sketching. I'd love— it'll be fun. I'd love to do, uh, some sketches of my house, some concept sketches and stuff. Maybe I could walk you guys through the architectural process using my own house, you know, layout as an example. So maybe I'll do something this summer. Like an architecture series. Kind of fun. Let me know, should I do a— you guys think I should do an NYC sketch today? Is anybody up for me going to NYC here and doing a quick sketch, uh, in the NYC book sketchbook. Let me know. What time is it? 9:35. 9:35. I don't know if I'll finish the sketch tonight, but maybe I can start it. Oh, this looks really cool. I'm loving— let me zoom in closer— I'm loving the red on top of the yellow. Thank you, you like my chartreuse? Do you swear to tell the chartreuse the whole chartreuse and nothing but the chartreuse? I just made that up off the top of my head. It's a tongue twister. I know I have a student in school and she's like— I forget what she says exactly, but something about me, my dad jokes. But yeah, notorious for my dad jokes. Oh, I'm loving this red pen on the neon yellow. OMG, let's get closer, let's get closer. Check this out. I love the colors. I love what's happening right up here. DB says yes to the Irises. Thank you so much, DB. Ta-da! Iris, you were there. That's how I usually sign these Irises. I'll write it on here. I usually write my Iris sketches. I usually sometimes— oh, I read a couple things. All right, Iris, Iris, you were here. I'll write it here. Or sometimes I write, I, Iris, you would last forever. Iris, you were here. Ta-da! Isn't that cute? Did I just say my sketch was cute? Oh my gosh, I, I don't think I've ever in my life I think that was a first, guys. You just witnessed a first. I have never said my sketch was cute. I don't even know why I said that. Sweet, right? That's pretty cool. All right, let's take another pic so I can document it. All right, let me take a pic. We'll document this bad boy. Wait, I think I need the light on it for the picture. I'm gonna put a clip on here too. He says, uh, it's going to rain this weekend, Jason, here in NYC, but it'll be beautiful tomorrow and Friday. That is so cool. I didn't know it was going to rain this weekend, so thanks for the heads up. Um, I was in there last Saturday, it was rainy, it was cold, and then Sunday was beautiful. So I don't know, I think I'll be in NYC not this weekend, maybe the following weekend. All right, cool. So that's our Iris for tonight, guys. I'm good with more drawings. Iris drawings. All right, cool. Yeah, I'll definitely do more Iris drawings in the future. Um, I didn't do— I didn't do my hair. Um, I never do. Um, maybe I'll pull out at some point as well, late, not tonight, but some other Iris sketches I've done. I've actually sold a few too, which has been fun. Pretty cool. All right, I like it. All right, let's look into the NYC Sketchbook. We're going to switch gears. And 9:39, I don't know how much I'll sketch in there. I'm kind of tired. I don't even remember what is the last thing we sketched in here. So I definitely have enough sketches for the 2027 calendar. Now it's just me figuring out what— how to lay it out. Which I write on the calendar, which I not write on the calendar, how should the format be, fonts, all that, um, all that cool graphic stuff. Oh yeah, all right, so the last thing I did was the, um, Wall Street— I'm sorry, yeah, Wall Street and, uh, NYSE, the New York Stock Exchange. This page was going to be reserved for the last thing we talked about was the UN building, United Nations building. I will try to— I will definitely be in NYC more this summer. There's so many places I want to go to, so many places I want to sketch. I want to shoot vlogs there. I— there's so much stuff my creative brain wants to do. All right, let's, uh, let's start laying out the United Nations building. I've never, never sketched it. I have a photo I'll pull up. So here's the— here's the, uh, here is the United Nations building. Let's maybe block it out and see how it goes. We're gonna block it out. We're gonna use one of these new acrylic markers. Last week when I was in the city, it was— even though the weather kind of sucked, I loved being there. I loved going to Hudson Yards. First thing in the morning when I got into the city, it was just so quiet. I felt like I had the whole area to myself, so I took a lot of pictures of the Vessel and the Shed Building. Uh, just a couple. I just started the High Line walk. I didn't get that far on the High Line because I had a workshop to get to, but it was just so New York City is such a great city. It, it just, it changes so much within the same day, and it changes so much from area to area. I'll never get bored of it. And Edie, I'm sure you know what I mean about how it just is always— it's such a dynamic city, always, always changing. That might be one of the reasons I just love it so much. All right, so I have like the UN kind of building blocked out a little bit here. So we're gonna block out some more here. Um, has a lot of flags here, but this might be the only silhouette I need to kind of ID the building. But let's fill in some of, uh, you know what I want to do? Changing my brain up here. I finally restocked on some markers. I have purple back again, but I think I'm gonna use blue. Let's try some blue. I think I went— I think I went to the UN on a field trip when I was— oh man, high school, middle school. I remember going there on a field trip. I don't remember what year though. It's kind of cool. The UN is a Cracker Jack box and a hat box. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I like how you're breaking the building down into shapes, right? So that's a great way to think about architecture, breaking it down into, um, shapes. Um, Edie has a fun fact: Hudson Yards is one of the most expensive real estate developments ever built in the US. And the largest private development in the country's history. Wow, I did not know that. Um, one of the things that fascinates me about Hudson Yards is the engineering and design because it's literally over the, um, the trains. So underneath, basically Hudson Yards is an elevated platform with trains running underneath it. That's a simplified version. So constructing this I think is an engineering marvel. Um, has a built-in water collection system. It's fascinating design. There's some— there's a lot of videos— not a lot, but there are videos on YouTube. You can learn about the history, the engineering of it. I just— I like, I like the futuristic vibe of the area. So as an architect, I'm fascinated by that. All right, so there's some more lines on here and we'll wrap up in a, in a few minutes, guys. Again, I don't think I'm going to finish this one today, which might be the first. Usually I finish these sketches in one sitting. Edie, thank you with the fun facts that are always interesting to see. Yes, what I think I'll do is, um, I definitely want to show some of the flags. How do I want to do that? I gotta think about how I want the flags to pop out. I might have to color some of this background more solid. Yeah, I think I'll do that. Let's just make this more solid blue. Um, I'm actually planning— I rarely plan when I sketch this stuff. I was debating in my brain if I want this background to show the abstract. I'm going to leave that, or do I want to cover it all? But I'm going to leave that little strip there. New York is a city of superlatives. Yeah, 100%, I agree with that. It's a good comment. I think I'm going to leave this one here for now, and next time We'll do, um, all right, I'm lying to you guys. I'm gonna do some of it now. It's gonna block in some of these flags. My brain's saying I'm tired, but my heart's saying go on. What do I listen to? My heart? My brain? My health meter? My health meter says Get ready for bed. Should probably always listen to your health meter first. Uh, but here are the flags, right? So we got a row of flags. They're kind of in perspective, getting a little taller as we're going to the left, a little further away from each other. So we got some flagpoles happening. Maybe we'll do another one here. And in the distance, we have Boom. So we have kind of the flagpoles happening. And then I thought it would be interesting to, um, for the colors of the flags, maybe just let the background color show through. So let me— I'll sketch it in white for now, like a white outline. We'll see what happens. So we'll just show kind of flags kind of waving a little bit here. Overlapping, that's fine, right? So we got some flags happening. So for anybody that's seen the UN building, I hope you're getting the vibes of it and you can tell it's the UN building. Let me know, let me know in the comments. Can you tell this is— can you tell this that this is the United Nations? I kind of like the flags just being like this and the color showing through, although, you know, I do— I want to pop some, uh, red I'm gonna do some red on here. Let me take a picture of this where it is as well. So I guess pro tip tonight: take pictures as you're sketching, right? Document the different steps. So, and then sometimes I'll even put the materials I'm using just to remember them. Now, what did I use to create the sketch? All right, cool. All right, I like to, um, I like to label pictures after I take them so I remember what— why I took them, what they were about. Let's throw some red on here. I think I'm gonna break out the red acrylic marker, and I just want some contrast, some against some of the blue in the background. Looks like the UN. Thank you so much for confirming, I appreciate that. You know, it's always easy for me to know what I'm sketching, so it's— if it's always helpful for me to have you guys identify, you know, confirm that it looks like what I want to look like. So I'm just popping red on here. Let me zoom in. I definitely will wrap it at 10 for sure, and I'll just put some here as well. I didn't like that flag so much. We can cover it over if we need to, but I think you get the idea, right, what I'm trying to do here. Boom, it's kind of cool. Awesome. Have I been on for almost an hour? Where the heck did that time go? Part of my gut is saying just leave, leave this. This maybe is, is done, the man says as he adds some yellow. Um, you know, maybe, maybe this is all I want to do. Just like the Guggenheim. Let's look at the Guggenheim sketch. Uh, the Google— the Guggenheim sketch, really simple, just blocks, mostly blocks of purple. And we got white scribbling on there. But it, it, um, it's iconic, right? The shape's iconic. I think it pulls out, um, like an emoji, right? It pulls it out. You know by simplicity what it's repping. And I guess my favorite Leonardo da Vinci quote is, "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." Simplicity 'Is ultimate sophistication.' Love that quote, and that's something I try to live by sometimes. Even though this is such a complicated background, the building itself, I'm trying to make it really simple. And I think this does the same idea. It's just blocks of color, in this case blue, right? But I like that simplicity of the form, and I think it works on this. So let me know what you think. All right guys, I think I'm gonna wrap on this. Pretty cool. Thank you so much for your feedback on this one. Let's put a frame around it and we'll wrap up. All right, so where are my frames? Boom, got two different sizes. Let's start with the smaller frame. So the small frame would be interesting if I did a vertical format, maybe, you know, something like this, possibly. Now I'm not digging that so much. Maybe, maybe if I did it this way. Let me get my head out of the way there. I kind of, I kind of like it this way. It's really abstract. If I did it this way, I'd pull out the flags a little bit more. I definitely want to clean this up. I might still do that at some point. What's interesting though, if you look, do you guys see a flag here? This almost looks like a flagpole boom and a flag right there. That's interesting. I don't know if you can see that. Yeah, I'm definitely— or actually, maybe, I don't know. Here's me, here's the flagpole, and here's the flag. That's actually really cool. And if we do horizontally, I don't think really works with the small frame. So vertically we would do that. Um, horizontally, um, this looks really nice horizontally framed, I think. You guys know, let me— do you like vertical or horizontal? If you're watching the replay, let me know as well, right? I kind of, I kind of like the horizontal. I don't know, what do you guys think? Let me know. Do you like the horizontal version or if we cropped it and did it vertically this way? Really abstract version. Hey, Key is over on Instagram. Great to see you on the Insta. I hope you're doing well. She's joining while you're sketching too. I love that. Yeah, hang out with us for a few and let me know if you have any questions. That's so cool. So two options, right? Boom, boom. All right, cool. All right, let's go through the NYC calendar sketchbook. Um, Edie says that's a lot better with the big frame. So Edie is a big frame fan. I should zoom out a little, that would be helpful. Duh. All right, so here's the big frame. Yeah, so Edie, I agree. Do you think— let me know, do you guys think I should put this in the sketchbook? The calendar, I mean, the 2027 calendar. I'm gonna go through all the pages And let me know what your faves are. I know I've done this before, but I'm always, uh, I want to hear what you guys think. So if you're watching me live or even a replay, let me know. Kiara, Kiara saying horizontal. You like horizontal also? I could see this being like a print, maybe a print that they could sell at the UN building. Again, I would clean up the flags on the right. So horizontal wins. I agree with you guys. All right, so let's take a walk back through— I'm calling this the NYC calendar sketchbook. My goal is to sell prints and calendars in 2027 of the sketches in here. Okay, all right, so the Brooklyn Bridge, number 1. Uh, we had— I think Edie said you like this one. Uh, who else was online? Gigi. Gigi was on one line one night, and I think Gigi— I think you guys convinced me into liking this one. I still— I'm still on the fence about it. It's not my favorite Brooklyn Bridge sketch. Either a calendar or a separate print, Edie's saying about the, um, and the U the UN building. Oh my gosh, yeah, I can't talk when I'm tired, guys. Um, here's the Oculus. So Brooklyn Bridge, the Oculus building. From the Oculus, we're going to the Copper Building, still one of my favorite buildings in New York City. I just love it, especially in person. Lincoln Center. I think Lincoln Center is when I started to put people into sketches, so we have some people there. St. Patrick's Cathedral. I'll be honest, this is not my favorite or best interpretation that I've done of St. Patrick's. Um, I was trying to do very minimal lines to capture the idea. The— oh my gosh, Manhattan Bridge. I almost forgot the name. The Manhattan Bridge. Domino Sugar Refinery, another one of my favorite buildings, probably in the top 3 or 4. I love this. I think this came out fun. Um, this one's a little hard to see. This is the Grand Central Terminal, the MetLife Building in the background. I like the perspective. That is the Chrysler Building way back there. I like the perspective. I shouldn't have to say what this is. I'm not going to say. Let me let you guys guess, but it's iconic. Uh, Chiara, if you're still watching, I wanted to show you— so Chiara, you were talking about texture earlier today, right? So this is, this is mixed media on the background. This is acrylic paint, this abstract pattern. So if you look really closely at the blue turquoise there, I mean, you can see the texture. So basically I'm throwing down these abstract acrylic ink, acrylic paint backgrounds and sketching on top. The Chrysler. A little crooked. I love this. This might be one of my faves in here. One World Trade Center. Boom. Guggenheim. All right, Grand Central Terminal. Yeah, definitely try it, Key. You gotta try it. I'm also gonna try to get your butt to New York City to do some sketching. We should— even if we just go to Grand Central Terminal Have you been there? Have you been inside Grand Central Terminal? There's a sketch inside. Um, St. Nicholas is, um, oh my gosh, St. Nicholas's Greek Orthodox Church down by the World Trade Center. Oh my gosh, the Washington, Washington Square Park Arch. I'm remembering, guys, I'm remembering. It's late, it's been a long day. This is Edie's suggestion, so Edie, if you're still out there, shout out to you for suggesting the Unisphere, which I still can't believe the size of this thing based on the pictures. I have not gone there. I would love to get there. So Edie, shout out to you, appreciate that suggestion. Um, I really like this version of the Met It's only a small piece of it, but it's cool. And I'm having more and more fun just throwing people on these sketches. Like, um, here's the Starbucks I did. I'm jumping a little bit, but here's the Starbucks I did on Saturday when I was in the city sketching. So I, I just love, you know, sketching in Starbucks, capturing, capturing the scene and just sketching these kind of architectural people in there. He says no. We must. Yes, we have to. All right, this summer, put it on your calendar. I know you're so busy. We gotta try to find a sketching in New York City day. Hey, that's me in Starbucks. That's funny. Wait, people, wait, is that really you? Let's see. Which one are you? Oh yeah, I think that's me. Is that you, the one with the big, the big head, the big ego? No, I'm kidding. Of course it's a joke. All right, Grand Central, another sketch. Boom. Then we're going here to a bridge in Central Park. Love, love, love Central Park. I will be there soon, I hope. Love Central Park. Oh my God, such an amazing place. This was a good example of layering. We were talking about dots, right? So this— let's try it instead of talking about it. Let's do it. So this is that one of the new markers I got. So, Kiara, if you're on, this is an acrylic marker. I just literally got these last week. Check them out. Here's kind of the brand. And this has a cool thing called a dot point. So literally it's a big dot, it looks like a snowball. And let's just try it on here. I just love it because— oh, let's do it up here. You can literally just see, you can create all kinds of cool dots and textures with it. Boom. Oh, this is so fun. I know I'm weird, guys. I know I am weird, but this is very therapeutic for me, putting these dots on here. That's okay. It's called creativity. It's being creative. It's just having fun. Sometimes it's cool to just kind of get lost in throwing lines on paper, color on paper. In this case, throwing dots on paper. All right, so you can see what I just did. Hey, that's me in Starbucks with the caramel macchiato. You're so silly. You're so silly. I love, I love me some caramel macchiato. That thing I had today was pretty tasty. I had an iced coffee, was something was called like the banana split. There was no strawberry in it, which was good because I don't really like strawberry, but it was a pretty dang good cup of iced coffee. Um, Edie says the Unisphere is 140 feet high. Let's go back to the sketch. Really? Oh my God. Holy— here, so here's the Unisphere, and this was left over— what year was the World's Fair? 1964. So this is a leftover remnant from the World's Fair in New York City. I'm forgetting the year, but this is 140 feet high. That's incredible. The Unisphere is 140 feet high and looks gigantic. So Edie, I get you've been there in person, right? You've seen it. Caramel macchiato and insulin, Edie saying on YouTube. Um, yeah, there's a lot of sugar in there. I am not supposed to have a lot of sugary stuff, but I do treat myself. Um, so if I go to Starbucks next time, should I be like, can I have a, uh, caramel macchiato grande size with a double shot of insulin? Will they do that for me? The 1964-65 World's Fair. Thanks, Edie. Uh, here's another one inside Grand Central Terminal. I like this interpretation of the Brooklyn Bridge better than the first one. I could even maybe do— I don't know which one. I think I'll put this on the calendar. That's what you guys had voted for, so maybe they'll both end up in there. I'm not sure. Then we have the New York Stock Exchange. Um, another— this may have been Edie's suggestion as well, or Gigi. And then we have the UN. So that is a quick tour of the New York City 2027 calendar slash print sketchbook. Um, loving it. What I do need is a suggestion for the next building, and I need to create some backgrounds. So in the next live stream, we'll do some backgrounds together. I'll show you how I make the acrylic abstract stuff on the back. Um, so that'll be fun. In the meantime, if you have any suggestions for a New York City structure or building you want to see, let me know. Currently on the list I have— all right, we did the NYSE, let's cross that off. Little Island, maybe, maybe-ish. UN we did. I have Little Island and South Street Seaport. Um, I would— I'm hoping to get to South Street Seaport this summer. I haven't really explored the area in a long time. And the Tin Building is— I'd love to sketch the Tin Building, but Did they turn it into the balloon museum yet? The tin building is going to become a balloon museum. I don't know what that means, but that's what's happening. Um, and then Little Island. Ta-da! Alrighty guys, I'm so hyper and exciting— excited, and I have to go to bed soon. But I love me this stuff. Um, and then here's a sketch of the post office NYC, which is Moynihan Train Station, which is— correct me if I'm wrong— part of Penn Station. So this was a fun sketch as well, and that is Kiara hanging out and talking in the post office. With her caramel macchiato. How did you make it into all my sketches? I didn't even— I didn't even know that was you. There you go. All right guys, should we go to the, uh, should I switch to the other cam? Are you laughing? You're laughing at me. All right, cool. All right, all right, switch to the, uh, we'll end with the heart, the heart cam. And we'll wrap. All right, awesome. I do— I love that you're at home sketching along while you're watching. That is so fun, so cool. Let's switch cameras again. I did not do my hair and my glasses are on because my contact was going wonky. And why am I making excuses? Be who you are, right? Let's switch cams. Boom. All right, change the angle. You can see that better. You can see the background. Got my mic in the way there. All right, cool. All right, so I like to end with this camera. I always just think it's more personal to connect with you one-on-one more. Um, tonight, thank you guys for exploring a little bit of New York City with me. That was so much fun. And also, we started off— let's bring out our iris. I'll show you one last time. And I think here's, here's a good takeaway, I think, tonight. So here's the iris. Um, when I first started sketching, like livestream sketching, or, or being confident to show my sketches in public, I was terrified of adding color. Because I thought the colors had to match the real world thing I was sketching. So if I was doing the Golden Gate Bridge, I would have to have the exact color of the Golden Gate Bridge. Um, if I was doing a house for someone, or, you know, or Empire State Building, I always thought I had to match colors. So I left everything black and white, which is cool. I still love black and white sketches. They're my favorite. But something just clicked in me where I'm like, sketching is a way of expressing who you are as a person, what's in your brain, what's in your heart, what's in your soul, what's in your spirit, right? The paper, the canvas, is kind of our escape, our expression, our voice. Maybe it's things we can't say sometimes, but things we feel. So don't be afraid. Throw lines down on paper. They don't have to be perfect. Throw colors down on paper. They don't have to be perfect. Just get stuff out of your head and onto paper, or capture something you're looking at in your own unique style. Be you. I think that is the way For me, that is the way to ultimate creativity, is just expressing yourself. And you know what? It's a process of discovery, right? The more we sketch, the more we paint, the more we draw, the more we discover, I think, a little bit about who we are. All right, until we meet again, guys, sketch boldly, live creatively, and embrace imperfection. I appreciate y'all so, so much. Your time means the world. All right, peace out.
