Saturday Sketching

Hey, happy Saturday, March 21st. Um, it's 9:40. Wow, 9:40 PM already on a Saturday night. This day's gone Too fast. Time goes too fast, my friends. It's crazy sometimes. I'm Jason Nicholas Nicholas with The Inkspired Life, where I love sketching architecture and just being playful, creative, um, sandbox kind of experimentation time with colors and lines. And, um, yeah, just trying to throw down some creativity. It's always a great thing, and I'm trying to do it every day and at least a few minutes every day. So thanks for, uh, stumbling upon my YouTube and my Instagram live streams and Facebook. I appreciate you guys. I'm to get right into it and do some, some sketching tonight. It might be a little on the quiet side, and we'll let some of the artwork and the tools do the talking, but I will check in the chat. A little bit. All right, so here's what, what's going to happen tonight. I am, I'm working on this cool Just something new and different I'm trying out with these kind of abstract backgrounds, and I'm throwing— not throwing— well, yeah, throwing down sketches and lines and colors on top and just doing a series of New York City-inspired architecture because that's kind of my love of the architectural world. So let's continue doing something tonight. Um, last one we did was the Domino Sugar Factory. That was yesterday. And I think we're gonna do— well, I'm gonna start sketching and see if you guys can guess what iconic NYC building I'm gonna draw tonight. So I'll check the chat and say hello, and then, um, I'll be quiet just for a few minutes. We'll— like I was saying before, we'll just kind of let the tools do a little bit of the talking. Um, yeah. Hey, Edie is in on the YouTube. How are you? Hope you're having an amazing day. Thanks for stopping in again. It's always wonderful to see you, um, joining in the chat. Very, very cool. Love it. All right, let's get rocking. Let's do some sketching.

Alright, let's see.

Hey, yeah, the Empire State Building. You got it, it is the Empire State Building. Awesome job, Edie. Love that. Uh, the metal top sans antenna was originally designed as a dirigible docking station. I know, how cool is that, right? That is, that is such a cool fun fact. Could you imagine like these blimps kind of just docking up here? Um, it is, it is just so— I know this was designed like the 1930s and it just seems so futuristic. Um, yeah, I love, I love that about the Empire Stable, and that's a, that's a great fun fact that you got there. So cool. Yeah, if you have any other fun facts, feel, feel free to share. Definitely a good one. Empire State Building is an amazing example of Art Deco, um, design. Hello, Shawnee NJ on Instagram, how are you? Shawnee NJ, I think I recognize the picture if it's who I'm thinking of. I think— is that— is that Pete? If that's Pete on Instagram, great to see you. Hope you're doing well, man. Long time. So cool. Let me zoom in on the Empire State Building so you can see some of these lines I'm scratching in here. Yeah, Edie scores the big 10 points with guessing the iconic building I was sketching. You got that pretty early on. What, what made you know it was the Empire State Building? I'm curious. What gave it away as I was sketching it. Hello to everybody watching live out there and the people lurking. I'm so glad you're watching tonight. I thought it'd be fun just to come on and add to this, uh, continuing series of NYC-inspired architecture, but kind of in a different way for me. So it's just been a lot of fun being really playful and trying these different colors and backgrounds. And yeah, it's a lot, a lot of fun. And the goal, the end goal, is this— the pictures here will end up becoming a calendar, a 2027 calendar. So that's kind of an end target I have with these, uh, these sketches. I just think it'd be really cool to see these in a calendar format. And I haven't, I haven't actually put a calendar out there yet for sale, so I think it would be interesting, uh, kind of an interesting thing to give a try and see if it goes anywhere. It's looking cool. I think I'm going to take— I think I'm gonna— I want to pull out the antenna here, so I think I'm going to continue that purple color up the side. Maybe they use purple or blue, I don't remember.

There we go.

Just pulls it out a little bit on the side, right? Hey, um, hi all from NYC. Hey, Edie's saying hello from NYC. Wait, did I know— I didn't know if I knew you were in NYC. That's awesome if you are. So, so cool. If maybe, maybe you said that before. Um, that's awesome. Uh, you know how often I've seen that building? Well, I guess if you're from NYC, I guess you have seen this building like, um, I don't know where you live in NYC, but maybe, maybe every day. Um, since you've seen it so much, do you ever get tired of it, or does it just become background and you really don't notice it. I've always, always wondered about that, you know. So if I go into NYC once, twice a month, um, I always, I always see the iconic buildings, right? They always pop out to me. They stand out like, like nothing else. But I'm wondering, if you live there every day and you see these things every day, they just I'm imagining these buildings become just background and you don't really pay attention to them. So let me know, I'm curious, um, what are your thoughts about that? This one is not working. Want, want, next, next. There we go. I have a, I have a crush on white gel pens. I've been crushing on them lately. I know that might sound a little weird, but I just can't get enough of using these white gel pens. They're just so fun, and I just love the scratchy lines they make, especially on dark backgrounds. I'm gonna change some tunes up. If anybody has any musical suggestions, let me know. Hmm, I wish I could play my music loud, and— but then it would be copyrighted and I would be muted. And some people might like that, actually, but, um Yeah, let me skip to— what am I skipping to here? Skip, skip. Uh, I kind of feel like some Fall Out Boy. Yeah, let's see some Fall Out Boy. Cool, like where this is headed. Actually, I just had an idea. I'm gonna— it's about those white scratchy lines. I'm gonna throw down— yeah, I'm gonna throw this down and I can add some of those lines on here. You'll see what, what I'm thinking. So I wanted to be able to add some light scratchy lines there, so that's why I colored the background the aqua color and just threw those lines on top. Give a little bit of texture. I'm liking this. Um, you recognize the top immediately. Awesome. Are those brush markers, please, or the tip's hard? Oh, these are brush tip. These are brush tip. So I'll give you, I'll give you a quick demo. Let's just grab, um, here, let's do one in here. Yeah, they're brush tip, so I really, really love them. I don't know, here's a scrap page. So, you know, I could do just boom. I can push down on it, right? Get thicker lines. Yeah, I love them because they're brush tips. Great question. And there's, there's only one side. They don't have— some markers and pens will have like dual sides. This is just a single-sided one here. Um, great, great question. Hey, Jen's in the house! Jen, how the heck are you? I hope you're doing well. I hope you're hanging in there. I know you got a lot of busy, busy, busy things happening. Thanks for popping on. It's always great to see you as I drop stuff everywhere. Yeah, what else? I think I'm gonna add some red to this. Maybe I'm trying to think of— trying not to think of what colors I want to add. That might sound counterintuitive. Um, I guess what I mean is I'm not— I don't want to plan, pre-plan the colors I'm using on this. I want to grab and go. So grab and go creativity, that's how I keep my creative flow going. If I start planning, it slows me down and I just lose the rhythm. I lose the feeling, I lose the flow, and it sometimes shuts me down. Um, so if you start me— you see me slowing down sometimes or starting to think too much, that's usually a sign that my creativity is being blocked. I don't know if that makes sense. I mean, like, I never— I never— I'm actually gonna say never. I never come online live and sketch and, uh, pre-plan like what colors and stuff I'm using, and this red has to go here, and this blue must go here, and orange must be here. I never do that. Because then I would be worried about making a mistake because I'm not putting the colors where I pre-planned them to go. And I don't want that to happen. This show, this show, this practice that I'm trying to get in the habit of is thinking spontaneously, thinking from the heart, creating from emotion, creating from, from inside, right? Am I getting really close to the camera? Sorry. Um, it's that— it's that place inside here for me that I wanted to show here on paper, or that place up here, that stuff in here that I want to show on paper. Hopefully that makes sense. Let me know, put in a chat, put in the chat if I'm babbling too much. Is this man babbling too much? And then Metallica just came on, so now let me get a little hyper. Um, all right, yeah, this is looking cool. I wanted to pull the outline with red here. Of course, you're welcome anytime. Jen says, always nice to be here. Jen, the pleasure is all ours. Wait, I gotta give you a little thank you, a little thank you so much, appreciate you. Vibrant sketch, thank you. Yeah, do your moods affect what you sketch? Heck yeah. Oh yeah, uh, my moods affect what I sketch. My music affects what I sketch, but it's also the other way around. Like, sketching can change my mood. Sketching is a really powerful tool for me to shift my state of mind, to change my mood. I can be having a really bad day, lousy, lousy day, and, um I pick up pens, markers, paper, I start sketching, and I could just transform from that bad, bad mood to a place of joy, right? Totally opposite. So sketching goes both ways. Yeah, mood affects it, but this stuff can affect my mood as well. Hopefully that makes sense. Yeah, I was just— I actually just put up— if you guys are following me on Instagram and TikTok and Facebook, I should upload them to YouTube. I don't know why I really don't. Um, I did another hike. I put out another Hike and Mike video today. So Hike and Mike, Mike as an M-I-C for microphone, where I just walk and talk about stuff. And the one I posted today, um, was kind of me talking about me just having a bad day, and my brain had so much stuff in it, and I hadn't— I couldn't think, I couldn't get stuff done. And I talked about two, two tools that helped me change my state of mind. One we just talked about is creativity, sketching. Artwork. The second one is, um, just changing my physical location. So for me, it's usually getting outside and walking. That for me is a really powerful tool to change my state of mind, my mood. Um, it helps me to think a little bit clearer sometimes. So yeah, check out the video on YouTube or Instagram, the Hike and Mike series. And special announcement for you guys watching live I have a new podcast that will be coming out. I am working on it. I have, uh, about 4 or 5 episodes. Um, it'll be out. I'd like to get it out by the end of April, so be on the lookout for our new podcast headed your way. And, um, let's just say it's more about um, motivation and growth, personal growth and that type of stuff. So it'll be cool. I'm excited, but I'm also excited about this. What do you think? I'm liking this. This one might be done. I don't, I don't know if I need to add anything else. I don't want to overdo it. What is my fave song this week? Here's my fave song this week. I'll show it to you. Ready? This is my favorite song this week right here. Can you see that? Rise Above It All by Unsecret, Mike Maines. This is the only song I know by, by this group, these people. I love this song. It's powerful. It's gotten me through this week. It's been a really long week. I've had a bunch of stuff to get through, and, uh, it's been really awesome. So, uh, I love it. I always feel like life's worth living after I've done some drawing. If I skip too many days, I feel depressed and hopeless. Ooh, Edie, I would love I'd love to talk more about that. Um, let's riff on that for— if you're cool, let's riff on that for a minute. Yeah, um, I get, I get that feeling of— get the idea of specifically about drawing, or, you know, artwork is I feel like if I don't spend at least I'm gonna be honest with you, even if it's 2 minutes a day or a quick doodle, I feel like I left a piece of my, my soul behind for the day if I can't get the creativity out somehow. Um, so I, I get the idea of like if you miss it and how it could impact, impact you on that level. Um, yeah. So I don't know, Edie and everybody in the chat, let me know, do you guys carry around paper or pen or pencils or sketchbook with you? I'd love to know, or some kind of journal. Um, and I mean like a physical one, not, not talking like digital on your phone. I mean, that's, that's viable also, but I think putting stuff on paper in a sketchbook transforms boundaries that go beyond digital typing and entering on our phones, on our computers. That's just a personal thing. But yeah, I always have a sketchbook with me. I mean, I'll show you my— I packed this one away here. I was supposed to go to NYC this morning, but I just have too much stuff to do and I couldn't really go. But yeah, this is— I— this is what I carry with me pretty much all the time. It's going to be coming to Italy and Spain with me next week. Yeah, this, this is my go-to. Um, I will plug Lockbee because I use them all the time and I have a discount code you can use for them. But yeah, just carrying this and putting— writing stuff down and I don't know It helps so much to connect me to me, right? So, um, I really relate to your comment. Creativity is a way of connecting yourself to you, capital Y-O-U. This is fun. I love, love talking about this stuff, guys. I almost knocked this over. Cool. What if you made an international bridge series? Jen says. Hey Jen, I love the way you think. I think that'd be amazing. I— yeah, I mean, I've already sketched some bridges in Paris, obviously New York City. Um, I sketched a bridge down, um, oh my gosh, my friend, my friend Ru, uh, Florida. Um, I'm drawing a blank where it is. Oh my gosh, somewhere down Sarasota. I, I forget. So, so I've sketched there, I've sketched bridges, uh, from my friend sent me a picture. She lives in Washington state. So I love the idea of a bridge series. That's a great idea. So when I go to Italy and Spain, you just gave me an idea to focus on. I'll be taking a lot of pictures, but maybe I'll be looking for bridges that I can sketch. Love that. I love when you guys throw some ideas out there. Thank you so much. I don't know, are you guys up for— I'm going to give you a couple options. If you want to hang out longer, that's awesome. If not, that's cool. I think this is done. I don't want to do any more to the Empire State Building. Listening to my gut, move on. So I have a couple of things I'm— I could do. Um, I might lay out a couple more blank pages, you know, just doing let's just throw down some abstract backgrounds because I only have this one left. So I'd like to maybe prep a couple more pages. Actually, you know what, I think that's what we'll do. My other option was, um, just do a quick sketch. Maybe, I don't know, it's spring, I could try to do some kind of flower or something, but I'm— I think I'm feeling like throwing down colors and prepping these pages. So if you want to hang with me for a few, that's what I'll do. And, uh, yeah, it's always fun just to grab a brush, grab some paint, throw some stuff down. I'm just going to clean up a little bit here. Lovely questions. Um, if I miss anything, guys, I'm sorry. What do I see next? What kind of sketches did you do as a child? Oh yeah, yeah, um, so I'm gonna give you the abbreviated version. Here's the abbreviated version, and some of you guys have heard this story. It's kind of— we'll call it kind of an origin story. It's my, my origin story. I need some dramatic, like, cinematic music right now. So I'm gonna put on some Hans Zimmer. I feel like listening to Pirates of the Caribbean. That is not— that has nothing to do with my origin story. I am not a pirate and I'm not from the Caribbean. Um, I just like the music. All right, here's my quick origin story and this relates to your question. All right, so Um, I was 7, 7 years old-ish. I believe it was 4th grade. I had a really, I had a really bad accident with a snow shovel. Yeah, this is a true story. Um, I had the handle of the snow shovel was against my stomach and I was running with the shovel handle the shovel against my stomach, no hands on the shovel, and I was just pushing it. Imagine me running, pushing a shovel using my stomach. I was running with the shovel, the shovel hit a side, uh, a bump in the sidewalk, and basically the shovel stopped, my body kept going. Boom. So there's an incredible, incredible force impact the hand of the handle against my stomach. It didn't go through, no punctures. But anyway, the blow was so, uh, it was so forceful that it ruptured my pancreas, my spleen. Gangrene set in, they had to take intestines out. It was not fun. Anyway, because of that accident, um, when I went back to school, I was in the hospital for a long time. Well, I'm gonna say 3 weeks. Um, when I went back to school, I was not allowed to play on the playground with my friends. I couldn't do any kind of sports. I couldn't have a recess time. I would have to go to the office or the nurse's office during recess time. So, you know, what is a kid gonna do sitting? We didn't have our phones and video games and all that back then. So I had paper and, you know, pencils, crayons. So I would sketch and draw. And I started sketching, um, I just love cars and I wanted to be a car designer, so I would sketch these kind of spy-inspired cars. I loved, you know, James Bond and things like that. Yeah, I was— so I would sketch cars. And another thing I sketched a lot were maps. I would create these really fun maps of, um, you know, when you're a kid, you, you know, it was fun to play like— I don't know how I feel about it now, but to play like army and war. So we'd make these cool like army maps, and where I'd make maps of neighborhoods, or, um, you know, think Lord of the Rings, you know, like dragons and things like that. So I sketched cars and maps. That's where I really started my sketching journey, back way back when. Sketching was a way for me to connect with my friends because they would come in from the playground and I could show them. I'd be like, hey, like I said, I could paint while I'm talking. Like, hey, um, this is what I did while you guys were outside playing. I was inside doing this. So it was a good way to connect. I hope the answer of your question All right, let's throw down some colors. I can talk and do this too. I make a mess, so I definitely need paper towels out. This is grab-and-go creativity, guys. I am literally grabbing and just throwing colors down if I can open the lid. Great questions, guys. Hey, he says, as long as you're here, I'm here. Hey, thanks, I appreciate that. That's cool. You guys are, uh, I know, I know we'll have lives and stuff, so if you're watching me, I love it. From background, I love it. I'm in your ears somehow, I love it. So thank you for giving me the giving me your time, or sharing— not giving me your time, but sharing your time with me. You know, I'm gonna do a twofer here. I'm gonna do a twofer. Just gonna throw colors on the other side also. I haven't sketched in years. Oh no, no worries. Well, I'm gonna— I'd love to try to get you back on the sketching train, so let's talk, let's talk. But you know what, and it doesn't have to be sketching or drawing, it could be just something, some kind of creative endeavor, whatever creativity means to you. Just try to carve out— if you can carve out just a few minutes, seriously, a few minutes every day, it could go a long way. Do I miss days? Yeah, I miss days, but I have to be honest, I have passed— I don't know, 2 months or so, I've been really consistent every day. And part of what's helping me is coming on here and live streaming. And, you know, I was wondering if people— who's going to show up, if anybody shows up. And there have been times I've been on and no one showed up online, and that's cool. But I think just going live is a way for me to serve, and, and with what I love doing, serve in a positive way. So I think the commitment to that, just thinking of what I'm doing as serving in a way, is a, a great way for me to keep the motivation going.

Cool.

Oh my God, yeah. Oh my God, that is— that was a truth. That's a true story. I was, I was, um, I'm gonna go back to the story a little bit if you want to hear it. If not, close your ears. I'm gonna give a little more detail, nothing graphic. Yeah, but, um, so after the incident happened, you know, shoveling and Basically, it's— if you ever had the wind knocked out of you, that's what it felt like. I fell to the ground and like I had the wind knocked out of me, and I was kind of down for a few minutes. And being a young 7-year-old, I got up afterwards and went back out and whatever, something— the snowball fight or whatever we did, like nothing happened. And then that night, that night, um Um, I don't want to get too gross. Uh, let's just say I was, uh, I knew I was, I knew I was bleeding internally. I just knew I was bleeding internally. Um, you know, blood, vomiting blood, stuff like that. So if I wasn't rushed to the hospital that night, um, I get kind of emotional because I don't— if I wasn't rushed to the hospital that night, I don't know where I'd be right now. So yeah, so thank God I'm, I am here. So I'm going through, I'm kind of just scraping some of the colors off a little bit just to see layers underneath. I like, I like this color that's going down right now. I actually like that color a lot. I'm just going to kind of add more of it. Cool. Maps fascinate you. Oh really? That's awesome. Yeah, that's so cool. What do you think it is about maps that fascinate you? I love, um, I love looking at the New York— the New York City subway maps. Can't tell you I understand them 100%, but I just love looking at subway maps. There's something about the paths and the colors and the lines and the graphics that intrigue me, especially the old old style subway map. I need some fluorescent pink. And here we go. Um, there's something— there's something about being able to read a paper map that it just— you don't get from a GPS. Yes. If I can just refold the thing. All right, it's good to know I'm not the only one who has map folding issues, so thanks, Jan. Yeah, you know, yeah, there's something about holding a map which is quite magical. Yeah, I agree. And, and at the same time, I am so— I so love Google Maps and Apple Maps, especially when I'm, you know, in NYC. I know my way pretty, pretty good around NYC now, but, um, still it's always great to have as a helpful navigation tool. Oh, look at this, guys! Look at this! OMG, this color, these colors here. Yes, this is, this is a big yes right here. Wow. I know I told you earlier I had a crush on my white gel pen. Fluorescent Pink. Yeah, you are welcome in my world anytime. Holy cow, that is spectacular. I'm gonna bring it up here. May not show that well on camera because of the lighting, but dang, that is awesome.

Wow.

Oh my gosh, this pink has just changed both of these backgrounds here incredibly. Holy cow. LIG. LIG. Is that a thing? Do people say LIG, or did I make that up? L-I-G. Life is good. I can't, I can't imagine I just made that up. Oh my gosh, guys, these are going to be so fun to sketch over. Wow. Uh, you might be in heaven. Imagine a few year— imagine a few 7-year-olds go to purgatory or hell. That's true.

A few—

I would, I would say you're right. Yeah. Um, it's a good way to look at it. But you know what? I'm here. I'm now— I'm with you guys. Life is good. I believe that you're destined to inspire everybody, Jason Nicholas Nicholas. What? You are way too kind, my friend. Way too kind. Thank you so much. I'm only trying to put a little bit of positivity out in this cuckoo world we have. Going. So that's my goal, guys, just positivity through creativity. Um, yeah. All right, we're gonna do the paper towel technique. I'm just gonna take a paper towel, we're gonna blot. And I think I saw JLM in the house, so JLM, if you're in the house, hello, good to see you. I hope you guys kind of enjoy this— these abstract kind of background things. They're a lot of fun to do. I need more blue on here though. This is the blue I need right here. Well, sorry, it's aqua. Aqua. Aqua. Anybody say aqua? Aqua green. We'll throw down some aqua green in a sec. Is it Aquaman or Aquaman? And does anybody even care? That's the most important question. Do we care if it's Aquaman or Aquaman? All we know is the same guy is the same dude and he can talk to fish. So I kind of wish I could talk to fish. I'd love to talk to Dory. Dory is one of my favorite fish— fishes. Fish. All right, um, I like how the orange is poking through in the background here. Pink, love pink. JLM, great to see you, thanks for joining us. Now you can make up emojis to match. LIG and CTP. LIG's life is good. Hey, what is— what is— what is CTP? CTP. Yeah, look at this. This is fun. See, when you scrape away colors and you see the layers underneath, it's kind of fun, right? I'm gonna leave that texture. There's loads of texture, right? Boom, boom, shakalaka. Awesome. Hey, I love when JLM says, feels like coming home here. Love that, love that. Um, if it was me coming home, going home, there'd be ice cream in the freezer. Huh, it's not home for me until there's ice cream in the freezer. And I don't have any ice cream in my freezer.

All right.

Oh, I'm just gonna grab this. Sorry if my arm's in the way.

All right.

Hey, um, Matt. Matt's in house. Matt, good to see you. Hope all is well. Welcome to the, um, YouTube. I don't know if I— if we've seen each other on YouTube here before. If not, welcome to the Inspired Life. You're in a room with a lot of Maybe not a lot, but we have really amazing people here. And for me, it's not about quantity, it's about quality. We have some quality peeps in our stream, in our chat. So thanks for joining. Yeah, that's a heck of a lot of paint. That wasn't supposed to happen. Is it really good to put mustard on your hot dog? And All the mustard comes out of the bottle. Yeah, that's kind of what just happened. So Matt, stay tuned if you, um, you can see why I'm doing these abstract backgrounds. There's a method, there's a reason I'm kind of creating these right now. Oh, a Chihuahua. I threw a lot on here. Mhm. You know what that means? I know what that means. I'm looking for— let's see. All right, what that means is I'm just going to take some of the excess here and I'm literally just going to throw on— this is an old sketch, we're just going to throw some on here. You're like, what is— what is he doing? He's painting over that sketch. I know, I know. Welcome to the crazy world. Okay, let's let that sit there. Kind of want to lift some of this up. I have some really cool colors under there. We'll bring them out to life again. There we go. You can see them kind of poking through. There we go. Now we're talking. Now we're talking. All right, these might have enough on them for now. Definitely enough, um, Aqua Green. Okay, that was, that was pretty, uh, interesting. Warning: do not wear your best shirt while using acrylic paint. Um, not that I have any amazing best shirts. I need to pop some freshness on this, so we're gonna just throw some yellow on. Hey, did I just see Gigi pop in the house? Gigi NYC, NYC, how are you? So good to see you. All right, we'll go back to the Empire State Building sketch we did earlier and sketch over. Still not sure what to call this. Sketch over, I guess. See how it's, how it's looking. One of the cool things about these abstract paintings and just grabbing colors and layering colors is it's just fun to see how different color combinations work together, how they mix together. Sometimes you'll see some cool things happen, um, kind of like here. I'll show you kind of here on the bottom left. That green has almost a In person, it has almost a very vibrant fluorescent kind of green look to it, and that's just because it's over the light aqua. So it's just a fun way to, you know, see what happens. What you might like, something you may not like, something, but you don't know until you do it, right? All right, I think I'm gonna let this one dry, and then we'll, uh, look in the chat, we'll catch up.

Cool, right?

All right, um, ink screen paper cone, smooth texture versus rough. Yeah, so I know, so there's definitely some rough texture and some smooth on here. Let's talk paper also. So this paper, this is, this is a very smooth paper that we're using in this sketchbook. My go-to always was the, um, was cold press watercolor. So you know, my goal, my go-to, he was, was, I did say was, was this cold press textured watercolor paper, which I still love. But how the heck did I— I am, I'm turning into the Incredible Hulk. I'm getting really angry, guys. Just Just warning you, look. Yeah, the mild-mannered artist is going to be turning into the Angry Green Hulk before you know it. I don't know how that happened. Oh my gosh, now I just dropped my jacket behind me. Hi. Anyway, I don't know where I was going, but oh yes, now I'm using the smoother paper, which I like. It's cool. Different textures, different results. Um, the family is growing. Yeah, we got more people, different people in here. Um, you guys are awesome. So I think it's because of you all giving me the thumbs up and liking the videos and sharing the videos out and subscribing to my YouTube channel has really, really helped. So huge shout out to all of you guys for doing that. So I appreciate you all so, so, so, so much. Matt says hello to Gigi. D-Ray, hey, D-Ray's in the house on the Facebook. How are you? Okay, pretty interesting, interesting, but it'll work out. Yeah, these things always work out somehow. So here's— let's go do a flashback to about an hour ago. So here's the Empire State Building we did earlier tonight. All right, I see something I can add to it, but I won't do it right now. But here's the Empire State Building, right? This one's still blank. I really love the Domino. I'm— I love the colors, especially on this one, the Domino Sugar Refinery. Um, I think the most popular one I've posted so far has been Lincoln Center. People I've gotten really, really good comments and feedback about the Lincoln Center one, so it's really interesting for me to see what people connect with, what you guys all connect with. But the calendar is moving ahead, got more images now. Yes, aprons, aprons do help. I am apronless. I am the apronless chef. I am the apronless chef. Um, seems whatever I eat and paint needs to be shared by whatever I'm wearing. I get that whole vibe, 100%. Jason, have you ever sketched an Oriental shrine? Yes, I have. Jen, guys, Jen gets like 10 points for coming up, coming up with these great questions tonight. So ding ding ding ding ding, 10 points for Jen, 10 points. I have I did. I've sketched some. I'm trying to think of one that comes to mind, and I gave it away. I mailed it to my friend, I think, in Washington. I think she has it. Um, in the background was a Jap— I could do one right now. You guys want me to do a quick sketch? I'll do it. Say yes in the chat to shrine, and we'll— I'll pull up a picture. I need to look at a reference, but yeah, I've done one. Um, before, and it had like a, um, like a wise man. And in the picture, I'm trying to remember a picture of the temple in the background. It had an abstract background. If we go way back on YouTube, I'm sure it's on there. I'm sure I probably did it way back when. All right guys, I'm gonna put this aside to dry. So these are good for now. Um, if you want, I'll do a quick shrine sketch and we'll wrap up. If not, that's cool. All right, no worries.

Let me put this here.

Let me— I'm running over my jacket on the, uh, by the way, I lost— I'm putting this out there— I lost a green, one of my favorite green, like, jackets, like one of these kinds of jacket things. All right, we're gonna— let's go to the— I'm changing cam view. Sorry, you're gonna see my big face on screen. All right, cool. All right, trust that. All right, boom. So I lost— I used to call them like sports coats, right? Like one of these things. I somehow lost— what camera am I looking in? This one. I somehow lost my favorite green jacket. What the heck?

Yeah.

I don't know. It's not in my house, it's not in my classroom, and those are the only like places I would have worn it. So if anybody sees— I don't know, putting it out there— if anybody sees a green jacket, it could be mine. Just let me know. So sad. And if we do a shrine, we'll just do it in, um, we'll do here with creative markers. I need some good shrine music. My studio here is chaotic, just so much stuff everywhere.

All right.

Um, yes, I got a yes. All right, let's do a shrine. Shrine car. Oh, you know, I've— it's not in my car. I've looked in my car. Yeah, that was— thank you for mentioning that though. Yeah, I checked my car. I wouldn't have taken it off like in some random place like a store or something. So weird. All right, let's do a shrine sketch. Um, you know what, I haven't— let's, let's break out my friend Sharpie. Sharpie, I'm so sorry I haven't used you recently. Nothing personal. All right, I'm going to change the music up. Any musical suggestions, let me know. Coffee shop. Oh yeah, no, no, no, not in the coffee shop. I, I rarely— when I'm wearing the jacket, I rarely take it off unless I'm home. So it's very strange. I just love that jacket so much. You guys are like, okay, we didn't join, we didn't come to watch this guy whining about a lost jacket. And I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry. You know me, I just— I'm just be speaking with what's on my brain. Oh man, I'm just looking for some tunes. I need some tunes here. And it could even be— I don't know, for some reason I have The Mask, The Mask soundtrack here. Oh, I was listening to the song Cuban Pete. I love The Mask movie with Jim Carrey. I love the song Cuban Pete. Zoot Suit Riot, that's a good song. All right, I'm gonna find a picture of a shrine. Could your jacket be in the laundry basket? Um, no, it's not in the laundry basket. This is fun, this is fun. Keep, keep naming places. Not the laundry basket. What am I— what are we looking for? Japanese temple. Oh, I have— wait, uh, is the book in here? Sorry guys, I gotta stand up. Pardon my whole stomach on screen. Uh, where is it, where is it? Check this out. This is going to be fun show and tell. Oh yeah, yeah, wait, I have this book. All right, let's, let's look in these. Maybe we have some— maybe I have a picture I can use.

All right.

This is fun. I'm listening to Cuban Pete and we're looking at Japanese construction. This is, this is an international show and I love it. All right, this will be a fun show and tell, guys. Welcome to story time. All right, this is a book called Sketches from Japan from Francis D.K. Ching. Um, architect, educator. He has done these incredible books, and he was— he's really— one of the things he's known for is his architectural lettering. He has his own font. I mean, that's how you know you're a cool person when you have your own font, right? I don't have a font. Um, but anyway, these are some of his sketches from his, his book here, so Maybe we have a reference I could look at in here. Um, and you could see his— I mean, check out his sketching style. I need to zoom in a little bit. Are you guys still talking about the jacket? You are— you guys are hilarious. I love this, I love this. Um, check out these cool sketches. All right, check this out. I love his style, very clean. I'm not going to go through the whole book, but, uh, JLM, if you're still on, we were talking about perspective. Here's a good one-point perspective here. Oh yeah, these are the, um, here's the shrine. There's a shrine here. Oh my God, this is incredible. Wow, these are sketches I aspire, I aspire to Let's do this. Here's a shrine. Of course, I don't want to compare my sketches next to Mr. Ching's. This is a good point. So this isn't about the comparison trap. I am not going to shut myself down and be afraid to sketch this because this is an incredible, amazing sketch. I'm not here to judge my sketching against Mr. Ching's. About me riffing off of it and doing my own thing, right? So that's what I call the comparison trap. The comparison trap can shut us down, or we can use it to lift us up and inspire us. So, Jump Jive and Well— I love this song. Oh my gosh, I love this swing. The swing music's so good.

All right.

All right, we're going to sketch this, guys. Do my kind of quick take on it. Oh well, I picked up a red pen instead of a Sharpie, so let's do— let's use the red pen. All right, that's my, uh, quick take on a, on a Japanese, um Shrine. Hey, it's Paula Loves Art on here. Paula Loves Art, great to see you. Hope all's well. Welcome, good to see you. Did I donate it by mistake? Um, me— maybe that's where the jacket is. Maybe I donated it. I hope if I can't find it that it went to a good cause somewhere, that someone that needs a jacket has it. I don't— it's gone.

This looks kind of cool.

What do you think for an off-the-cuff Japanese temple? Um, Francis Ching, Western mother, Eastern father. Ah, that's so funny. Yeah, right. Maybe. Yeah, be interesting to know more about his, um, history, his background. Seems I can copy sketches as I go, but on my own, not so much. Um, it takes, it takes practice. I mean, um, I'm gonna talk about architecture. Well, anything. It's just, um, what's it called, muscle memory, right? The more you sketch something, the more muscle memory you have the more you— the less you need to look at maybe a reference picture, um, just by practicing over and over again. So for example, like, I rarely sketch Japanese temples, shrines, so I definitely need to look at a picture, and that's okay. And I think, I think we, we tend to fault our creative selves if we're looking at reference pictures, and we think we're kind of cheating. I'm gonna disagree, and I'm gonna go out there and say looking at reference pictures isn't cheating. It's, uh, it's another way to find information. It could be inspiring. Um, I'm always looking at pictures of Empire State Building. You know, I've sketched it so many times. Yes, can I— I can sketch it without looking, but I'm always going back and looking at pictures because sometimes on those pictures you'll see things in a different way. You'll see details you never saw before. Maybe you'll see different colors or the the way the light hits it, different shadows. So I think it's okay to use, um, to use pictures as a go-to. I don't really think— I don't think it's a cheat code. Maybe when I was in the hospital. Wait, are you talking about— did I lose— oh, oh, Edie. Yeah. You noticed that? Yeah, yeah. So that's so funny. So, um, I had a, um, um, catheterization procedure this past week to scope my arteries for any blockages. So, um, they had to shave. They had to shave here and here and other parts we won't talk about, um, because they didn't know where they were going to insert the, um, the tube, the tube to do the scoping of my arteries, right? So they can go in a few different locations. So they had to prep, they had to prep my arm, arms, because they could go through, they could go through here, through here, or the other location where they actually went in, which I will not show on air. Um, so that is why that is shaven. Yeah, I was joking when they did it in the hospital. I'm like, oh, you guys are prepping me for the summer. Thank you so much. I'm ready for the beach. Ready for the beach now. Um, so that's— yeah, that's what that's from. Good observation. Oh, Chuck Norris passed away. That's so sad. Yeah, that's What an icon, right? So sad. I'm gonna throw some color on this to wrap up for tonight, guys. So we'll wrap up like in 3 minutes, 11 o'clock. Yeah, so sad to hear about Chuck Norris. And then, um, it's kind of interesting, we were drawing like a shrine here and, you know, karate and all that stuff. Bruce Lee. I forgot about this band, the Cherry Popping Daddies. They're so— I love their swing music, it's so awesome. I have forgotten about them. I'm just looking for white, white. When Chuck Norris does push-ups, he doesn't push himself up, he pushes the earth. Down. I like that. Did you make that quote up? That's awesome. I love that. That's a, that's a really interesting way to look at it. Yeah, when I do push-ups, I, uh, see, when I do push-ups, I, hmm, maybe I need to start doing them so I can come up with a quote. Cool. Oh yeah, thanks. No, I'm not the best, but thank you, GGids. This is a real crude sketch, but I appreciate that. Yeah, so thank you for mentioning that. But for me, it was fun, right? So I'm not comparing to Mr. Ching. This is my quick, loose style. Um, I like it. I need another color. No, I don't. Yes, I do. No, I don't. No, I don't. Yeah, I do. Purple. I need purple for shadows. Didn't Chuck Lee and, uh, Chuck Lee— oh my gosh, Chuck Norris and Bruce Lee do it. They did, um, we were just talking about school the other day, um, Enter the Dragon, right? They were in that movie together, which I have never seen. I have to watch it. Imagine there's two icons together. Inspired Life, wow, nice sketch. Hey, thank you so much. Chuck Norris can divide by zero. I have to get hip. I am way behind in the chat. I am— I got to hip on my Bruce Norris chat, guys. This was a good challenge, um, Thank you for mentioning that, um, Jen. I think Jen had the idea of the Japanese temple. Loving you guys throw these challenges at me. You're helping me to grow as a creative, uh, and the more I do this, you're helping to grow my creative confidence. And I think that's something a lot of creatives, we lack. We lack the confidence to produce anything. We're afraid we're going to make mistakes. We don't want people to see what we're doing, um, because we're shy, we're fearful, we're not confident, right? So the more you do things, the more you put things out there, the more confidence you get. And there's a difference between confidence and ego. So I am not a person that's going to brag about myself and say I'm amazing. And we all know what big heads and big ego looks like, um, Confidence is a skill, a skill we can all develop to just become more of who we are. Was that cool? All right, guys. Oh, you like the purple? Yeah, thank you. I, I just want to throw a little bit of purple on there to give some shadows. I don't know what song this is. Some— somehow my Spotify just went on totally random mode. This is like cruise, cruise ship music. All right guys, I think I'm gonna start winding down and let's clean up and wrap up. All right. You had the new beach look. Yes, I have the new beach look going. And then I'm gonna bring the other ones back here and we'll see how they're drying. Let's put the stuff away. Yeah, I, um, it's kind of weird when I go into the hospital, I feel like I have to be a comedian. I don't know if it's to get me through, or I think lots of times it's just how I connect with the, um, people. I had actually the best experience. The people were all so polite and helpful and kind and informative, caring. It was such a great experience. Um, I feel like I always want to be funny in the hospital. I don't know why. All right, let's bring the other sketches up here, the other backgrounds, let them dry, and then we'll say good night.

Ouch.

By the way, who noticed my, uh— was that Edie? Edie, did you notice my forearms? I think it was you. Good observation skills. You, you, my friend, are a true artist. You look at the world in curious and wondrous ways. You're very observant. So ding ding ding ding, 20 points for being observant. One of you guys should start keeping a scoreboard for our, our live streams. All right, so that was one cool book. This is another cool book. Check this one out since I took it out. Measure and Construction of the Japanese House. So, um, there's some cool, like, just some cool architectural I'd love to do an architectural livestream where I'll do some technical architecture drawings, and I've done them in the past, and be fun to maybe go live and just do some like technical drawings. These are something— floor plan layouts. So basically they have modular grid type systems for measuring and, um laying out, organizing spaces. Here's some floor plans. I should bring this into school. We have some floor plans here with furniture. These are elevation drawings, some outside views. I love these This, um, these are— this is a section, cross-section. So imagine, imagine a cake, say a wedding cake, and when you slice through the cake, you can see the layers, right? The chocolate, the cream, the vanilla, the whatever, different layers. So a cross-section drawing in architecture is slicing through a building and seeing the inside, seeing the layers inside. I love cross-section drawings, they're so cool. Yeah, thank you for talking about mentioning the, the shrines. I forgot I had these books. There's all kinds of details and stuff here. Pretty fun book. All right, guys. What is with the purple? That is stunning. Yeah, I love that purple color. Chuck isn't gone, he's more than alive. Before— yes, yes, he is. Um, he will never, never be away from us. Creativity through positivity. Oh, that's what CTP is. Thank you. Creativity Through Positivity, CTP, and LIG. Life is good. I wish I could make emojis. Oh yeah, no, Edie, thank you, I appreciate you. Oh, that would be a great idea. Yeah, yeah, some— there's some great idea. I'm not sure what the great idea is, but Awesome. Um, we love great ideas. Um, love the juxtaposition of modern colors with old world structures. Ooh, yeah, right? That's so cool. I love that you're picking up on colors and ages and styles. That's so fun. All right guys, so We— I need to think how many more I have. I don't know if this will be in the calendar. I'm not sure about this one yet, so we'll include it right now. 1, we have 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Oh well, that'll be 8, but we won't count it yet. So 8, 8. Right now we have 8, 8 drawings for the calendar so far. So if you guys have any final questions or comments, let's put them in the chat. Um, so starting next Saturday, I will be off the air for a whole 10 days, um, unless I could— unless I'm able to do quick live streams from abroad. What time is it even there? Hold on, so you know what time it is in, um, Italy. Let's look at my clock. I forget what the time difference is. I put it on my clock, uh, World Clock. So right now it is— oh, it's 4:09 AM in Rome. Okay. So if the timing works out, I might do some quick pop-ins while I'm abroad, if the connectivity works out. Um, if not, I'll be on this week live streaming, so catch me, you know. I'll do some tomorrow. I'll try to come on every night for a few until I go away. All right, guys, thank you. Used to do the beach back— GG's like, I used to do the beach back in the days. Which, which days were those? Which days did you do the beach? Are you talking about the sunny days back when we actually had beautiful sunny days? You guys are funny. Um, painting the beach or hanging out on the beach? Um, good question. I— yeah, both. I like the beach. Um, it's fun to go to the beach, hang out. I'm more like a beach, like, going hang out in the sand person, and rather than— or hang out like on a boardwalk rather than going in the water. Um, I'm actually more of a a, um, coastal old fisherman port or Fisherman's Wharf kind of seaside vibe. I like to hang out like in Maine. I love going to like the, um, the Fisherman's Wharf kind of areas and old seaside port towns. I am jumping randomly in the chat here. It can make— love the juxtaposition. How about note cards with your sketches? You could sell sets with envelopes. Um, I have thought about that. Um, I love the idea. I don't know if— how much of a market I would have for what I— what I do. I would love— I have to be honest with you guys, I'd love to make money doing what I'm doing because this is so fun. And if this could become a self-sustaining, um hobby and even a small business, I am 100%, 100% for that. That is a transition I've been working on making. So I love these ideas. If I could sell these, I would sell them. Um, yeah, so I mean, it's— for me, it's not about the money, is number— that's number one. It's about sharing. But yeah, if this could be like— I gotta pay for supplies, right? So I love these ideas, so I have to really think about some of these things. All right guys, thank you so much. You're all amazing. Um, we have some native New Yorkers in the house. I really appreciate you guys. Um, and I would love to do an NYC meetup with, with you guys. It would be so fun. I know I've talked to one or two of you guys about possibly just getting together, grabbing a coffee, maybe taking his sketchbook and hanging out. He's kind of fun just to chill. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for spending time with me. This has been the highlight of my day. Thank you. Um, if— please be sure to hit the like, subscribe, and all that cool social media stuff so we can spread positivity through creativity out there. And I will be live— well, hopefully we're all live tomorrow, but I'll be live streaming tomorrow at some point. But thank you. Until we meet again, sketch boldly, live creatively, and inspire endlessly.