In this informal, late‑night livestream, host Jason Nicholas (The Inspired Life) unwinds by sketching and coloring a quick urban illustration of the Steel Stacks in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He walks viewers through his materials—Lockbee folio paper, a discontinued Apple Snail ink, and watercolor—demonstrating ink‑and‑watercolor techniques, how colors blend and dry, and the spontaneous effects that emerge. Throughout the session he interacts with a co‑host (Speaker B) and the live chat, taking shout‑outs, checking music volume, and encouraging audience participation. Jason promotes an upcoming online workshop on July 26th focused on sketching industrial architecture, provides a link on screen, and reiterates his mission to spread positivity through creativity. The stream ends with a call to subscribe, like, and continue sketching boldly.
Chapters
Hey, Jason Nicholas Nicholas from The Inspired Life. Hope you're having a great, um, Saturday. It is July 19th, 2025. I am on super duper late. It is 10:47 PM. Um, why am I on so late? Good question. I don't know. I, I intended to come on earlier, then I started looking at different soundtracks and music and got lost in the Wonderland of the web. Um, yeah, you know how it is, go down one rabbit hole which leads to another rabbit hole which leads to a, I don't know, a universe somewhere in the galaxy far, far away. But I'm here sketching only for a few minutes. I need to do some sketching. It's been a, it's been a good day, bit of busy day, and I just need to change my mind before I head to bed. So let's do some sketching. Nothing major planned. I have some sketches in here, some scribbles, some searching, some concept ideas. For a, uh, for a friend who is writing a book. Um, so just come up with some concept ideas for different worlds in, in her book. So these are really loosey-goosey, just put your pen to paper and see what comes out kinds of sketches. So that'd be fun maybe to come on tonight, just add some color, um, for a few minutes and just unwind. So thanks for joining me here on the Inkspired Life. Where I love sketching architecture and I love urban sketching and I just love capturing ideas, thoughts, things on paper. So getting things out of hand onto paper. All right, cool. Let me— I'm going to put some music on while I'm sketching here. Um, let's see if it's too loud, let me know.
I don't know.
Which one we gonna pick, guys?
There we go.
All right, if you are listening live, let me know if the music's too loud. Just join me for, uh, some sketching. Like I said, we're just going to throw down some color. I think I'm gonna start with this one actually. This is a— this is the Steel Stacks. Uh, this sketch is based on the Steel Stacks in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Really awesome industrial, um, defunct steel plant mill. Uh, it's still there as a kind of a historic relic. It's so cool. And I'm going to be doing a workshop, uh, sketching this building— I'm sorry, this structure. I'll be doing a workshop on the 26th online if you're interested. There's a link on the screen thingy there. But let's just throw some color on this. I am dipping into some ink. This paper is fairly thin. I have— what is the weight of it? Let's see. I am using my Lockbee folio right now, and here's the paper I'm using. Boom. Could do some wet washes on it, but very lightly. I have water.
Let's see.
I love this color. It's called Apple Snail. Um, company doesn't They're not making this color ink anymore, so I treasure this bottle. I use it very, very sparingly because it's probably my favorite ink color, um, one of— definitely one of my favorite ink colors I've ever used. So it's right here, but yeah, it's like, it's precious now. Hopefully they'll produce some more one day.
All right, cool.
And we got some watercolors. Break this out. I wasn't planning on doing watercolors. That's okay. I don't see a paper towel anywhere to wipe this off. Oh wait, I got a cloth right here. All right, I'm gonna throw down some turquoise on here. Hey Kiko, how are you? Hope you're doing great, man. Good to see you. Great to see you, man.
Just checking on the chat.
Hey, Paul Loves Art! Hey, from Missouri, how are you? Good to see you. Hope all's well in Missouri.
Awesome.
So you can kind of see, um, here's what it looks like after adding some color to the— let's see if I have the original photo here somewhere.
I have it. Nope, nope, nope, don't have it here.
But, um, anyway, yeah, so this was inspired just from this, by the steel stacks in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Um, I love— if you haven't— if you're just joining now, make sure you go back. You can see the sketch when it was black and white. I love adding color. I think it really pops some things out.
So we use some ink and watercolor, basically.
I just—
I know I'm gonna geek out a little bit here, a little nerdy, but here, let me show you what I love. Hopefully it comes across on camera.
This right here, this orange is—
I don't know if it's coming up on screen, but it's just a puddle of orange right now.
I just love how these puddles of color dry and they mix with other colors and they drip down the page. It's really fun to see what happens.
Happens.
So it's— yeah, it's so much fun. It's like a surprise. You come back the next day, you're like, whoa, this changed. And that's one of the fun things about doing ink and watercolor or sketching is they will transform, they'll change. You know, here's a finished piece.
There's like a finished piece.
You can see here like these hard edges over there. They didn't look like that as I was working on this. That's how they dry.
So it's always fun.
Here's another example.
I love how the colors overlap when they dry. So yeah, so, um, it's cool. It's just a very cool thing to see.
Guys, I think that might be a wrap, um, for the Saturday Night Sketch session that kind of came on a little bit late, and it was fun. I love doing this stuff. It's a great way for me to unwind from a day.
It's a great way for me to capture a day. It's a great way for me to get into the creative mindset, creative flow. So sketching for me is really transformational on different levels. Yeah, if you're watching this and you like it, I would love for you to give me a thumbs up.
Subscribe if you haven't, whatever platform you're watching on now.
It's— I want to— I'd love it for this to grow, and, um, I just want to spread positivity through creativity.
Yeah, that's kind of, uh, one of my missions out there. All right guys, until we meet again, sketch boldly, live creatively, and inspire endless I'm Jason Nicholas with The Inspired Life. If you're interested in sketches like this based on industrial architecture, I have a workshop on the 26th coming up of this month.
There's a link on the screen right there.
I'm pointing to it right there.
Boom.
Check it out. The date may change for the workshop, but check it out and let me know if there are any Alright, peace out.
