Skektch Something Saturday

Hello, I'm Jason. Welcome to the Inkspired Life. Hope you're having a great day today. Um, if you don't know who I am, my name is Jason Nicholas. I am an architect, also a high school teacher. I teach architecture, CAD, and kind a product design type of class. And I just love being creative, and I love creativity. So, um, let's do some sketching. And sketching is a really, really important tool in my life. Sketching can help me in so many different ways. Um, sketching is a great way for me to brainstorm. It's a way for me to get things out of my head onto paper. Um, sketching is a way for me to get lost in a busy world sometimes, get lost on a sheet of paper. It's a way for me to capture moments of time and spirits and, uh, just the vibes of places. Sketching can rev me up, it could calm me down. So it's a really, really cool tool. Um, I've been working on a project. I want to show you guys a sketch I did today, and then we're going to talk about what you see here on the desk. I'm kind of working on practicing something. Linda says, hi, you finally have sound. Yes, I got sound. Thank you for letting me know. I don't know why it was muted. Oh, I appreciate that. All right, cool. So let's do a quick show and tell. Let me zoom out a little bit for what I want to show you. And if you hear squeaking in the background, they are playing playing with our pup and her squeaky toy. So that, if you're running and barking, that's what you're hearing. All right, so, um, I worked on a sketch today of the Pont Neuf bridge in Paris. It's the oldest, uh, standing bridge to be crossing the Seine River. So, uh, let me show you what I did, and we're also going to talk about this kind of stamp on the front. All right, so I sketched on a concertina format or an accordion format. This is watercolor paper that I cut and, uh, formed into like a concertina sketchbook, which means I can fold it and unfold it. So here's the COVID Let me show you what I mean. Boom! See if we can get the whole thing in one frame. I think you can see that all in one frame. So this, this measures 6 inches. It's about 12 inches long. This was a really fun sketch to do today. I was trying to be playful, just threw a little bit of blue and red in there along with the white just to kind of represent the colors of France. I'll hold it up and I'll just pan it a closer view. You can see some of the detail. Let me move this light fixture back a little. There we go. Cool. So this was a fun project to do. Um, you're looking at about a half hour, uh, 30 to 35 minutes of time I would say I spent working on this today. I think it's done. I think it's done. There's something I might want to do, I'm not 100% sure, and that's what we're going to talk about next. Um, so this is done on watercolor paper, and what did I use for it? I used, of course, I used a Sharpie. Oh, Mr. Sharpie, let's zoom in. We got, got a Sharpie. I used red Pilot Precise pen, boom. I use a blue Sharpie. I'm loving this color blue Sharpie. I'm actually picking up another one tomorrow at a big box art store that I got a gift card for, so I'm gonna get another one of these. I love that color. And believe it or not, I actually use some pencil. I rarely will use pencil, but I use pencil on this, and the pencil I use lightly too. Kind of sketch the— sketching the keystones of the arch. Cool, right? All right, so let me talk about kind of a project I did today. Um, so after I did this, I folded it up and I'm like, you know what, it would be really cool if I could make this almost into almost like a passport, right? So I got a stamp on there. And let's talk about the stamp because this was a process, this was a project, this was something I had fun actually creating. I made the stamp, um, not 100%. We'll talk about it, we'll talk about that in a second, but I made the stamp. Let me show you. So I went on my— went on to ChatGPT. Yeah, I love ChatGPT. I think it has a place for, for in the creative world, in the regular world, um, And I said, you know, I want, I want to create like a passport image of France. So I created this image. So it made a 2D picture image. I took that 2D picture image and then I went into my, my 3D printer software. I was able to take that 2D image, hold it closer, and I made that 2D image into a 3D kind of stamp you see here, right? So imagine rubber stamps. It's like a rubber stamp, but this is 3D printed out of plastic. So I printed the bottom, um, I reverse printed it because it was a stamp, so it looks backwards, right? Because when you turn it over, everything will read normally. And then I printed the bottom, and I also just quickly designed a rough kind of handle that I printed as well. And so that's kind of the stamp I made today. So design for me, what I love about designing things is the process. It's, it's getting from A to Z. It's the journey in between I find really, really fun. Here's some of my experimentation today with the stamp itself. I— so I did not have a Bink a big ink pad to dip this in and stamp it. I wish I had an ink pad. I have one— I'm going to be getting one tomorrow. So I was trying to figure out what could I do to at least get the stamp to test it out, right? So I originally tried, uh, a sepia marker. I brushed the marker on here, didn't really work. I took some copper color paint paint. Didn't really work either. Then I went to some acrylic paint, and that's the dark brown you see here. So I used an acrylic paint. It was thick, some of it was pretty thick, then I watered it down. You can see some lighter ones. I kind of like this one here. So I was just stamping, stamping, testing different viscosities of the ink, of the acrylic paint rather. You can see I was doing it on here. We're going to work on the sheet tonight for a few minutes. There's something I want to actually try to do. So I did more testing. Boom, boom, boom, boom. You see some of the images there. And then this is the one that ended up on here. It's okay. I'm not loving it, but it was one of the test ones. It came out decent. You can, you could read Paris, you could read France. You can make out the Eiffel Tower, but what I want to do is I want to distress this, take away some of the bright white of this cover, and possibly maybe even the inside. I'm not 100% sure, but I want to give it an aged kind of look, almost like Leonardo da Vinci sketchbooks, like an aged, uh, patina paper. So that's what I'm going to play around with a little bit tonight on this oil. Linda probably recognizes this church. This was a practice sketch I did. So we're going to play around on here, and I'm trying to get like a distressed kind of yellowy sepia-ish color here on the background. Hey, GG, great to see you. Hope all's well. Great to see you. So that's my goal, guys. So we're going to take this. I want to put patina this, age the COVID of this. And then again, I'm not sure if I should do— and if you're watching the chat, let me know, should I try to get that patina, the aged look inside this as well? I'm not sure. I'm actually going to be sending this bridge to, um, a friend of mine, and he's going to possibly be giving it to a friend of his. Owns a restaurant, and maybe it'll be displayed in the restaurant. We'll see, we'll see where it goes. All right, so let's play around a little bit. So I'm going to zoom in, I'll show you what I did so far. And this tonight's about just experimenting, being playful, trying to distress this, give a different kind of look to it. And what you see so far is I have this stuff called Distress I guess it's a spray stain. It's called the spray stain. It's called Spray Stain. I have this one which is Linen color. This one says Vintage Photo, Vintage Photo color, whatever that is, and then Walnut Stain. So let's just mess around with these and we'll just see what happens and play around for a few minutes. I might add some color on here just to— just because I feel like it. I hope you guys having a great Saturday. I know popping on kind of late. I was just watching an awesome live streamer who she was showing the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lights went off 10 o'clock tonight. It's down, taking it down for the season until the next one. One. So it was kind of fun to watch that. Kind of fun and sad because it just means Christmas and the season flew by. All right, I'm literally just gonna spray something. Take this brush here, let's spray some more on here. Let me know if you guys can see this okay. And I just want to age this and see what happens. Maybe we'll leave some splatter on it. And we'll mix some other colors. Uh, coffee could work cool with this too. Coffee. Alright, so I'm trying to get this look on this, 'cause I wanna distress the COVID of this. And to be honest with you, I've never really— it's kind of a first for me, so we are playing together. We are in the creative sandbox. Let's do some wet-on-wet technique. I'm going to spray some of that. Let's mix— let's break out this one called the Walnut color. Let's spray some of this as well. So it's definitely a dark color, right? Boom, Walnut. It's actually beautiful. I bought this stuff at Michaels. It was on sale last year. I think it was on clearance, so I don't even know if you can get it anymore. I kind of like the splatter look. I'm gonna let it dry like that. I don't know how long this stuff takes to dry. We'll figure that out. Now let's also use the Vintage Photo color as well. There we go. So the Vintage Photo, to me, I want to say it has a little more red in it than the Walnut color. Hope this is coming out okay on camera. I don't know if the light is wigging it out. Did I just say wigging it out? Is that like, is that from the '80s? I'm just dipping my brush in some water. Spray a little more here. I want to just see how well this stuff mixes together. And I also brought out my trusty sepia watercolor marker, and we'll play with that too. And I want to distress it, so I don't want this to be too even looking. It's looking kind of cool on this church sketch. Can you guys hear me better? My mic was way far from me. Hopefully you can hear me okay. Uh, pro tip, pro tip: when you are using a spray bottle and spraying something, make sure you know where the nozzle is pointing to, because yeah, I, I kind of painted my, uh, water bottle here. At least it wasn't pointing in my face, kind of like, uh, spraying mace or something in my face. That would not have been good. Spring ink in my face. Definitely would have been a look. Much better, thank you. Yeah, I had the microphone way far away. I wasn't— I moved it this morning and I forgot to put it back. All right, cool. I'm kind of feeling kind of confident with this and to distress the COVID but I do want to try one more thing. Let's break out the watercolor sepia marker. Uh, I've used this many, many times in the past. If you've watched me before, you probably have seen this. I love these Winsor Newton watercolor markers. My pro tip though is I don't like to— I don't like to put it right on the paper because it'll leave a stain. I like to put it somewhere else and lift it off and then put it on the paper. And let's see, I'll show you what I mean. So I'm actually going to We'll throw some on here, and we're going to wet this with— add some water, and I'm just going to kind of bring some of it on here. And we could also do the other— another technique I like with, with, um, the watercolor markers, just to add some water on the paper, and then we can dip the brush— I'm sorry, the marker— right on the paper. Oh, I love the way this is drying. Hold on, I gotta show this to you guys. This looks awesome. Let me zoom in. Thank you for the smiley face. I'm glad you guys can hear me better. Some people would rather not hear me at all. Let's just say some students. I'm just kidding. Check out how this is drying. I, I'm loving what's happening right here. Where's my— where are my frames? Uh, where's my smaller one? Let's see, I don't have my small, small one, but let's just— let's just kind of frame this area here, put black around it. I love the colors happening right in here. It almost has a leathery kind of look to it, right? Like an aged leather. You could see the texture of the watercolor paper being picked up. Let's get even closer. I know I geek out on this stuff. I'm nerding out on this stuff. That— yeah, I just love— I love this stuff. I'm that guy that likes to watch paint dry or ink dry. I look how it transforms. Isn't that amazing? That is so cool. That is wicked cool. All right, so that was the linen color. Boom. And I'm going to say it was the photo one that had more red in it. I think we're just gonna go for it, guys. We're gonna throw it on. We're just gonna— we're gonna patina this one. And here's the thing, right? I'd always preach about just going for it, just doing it. And it takes bravery. That's why I like to say sketch boldly, because you really got to be bold and just do it. That's why I love using Sharpies. We're gonna put this aside, let it dry. I do want to pop some color on here. I think it'll be cool to pop that church out a little bit. All right, let's move that over. We'll zoom in on this cover. And here's the thing, guys, if I really blow this, which I'm not going to— if I could, if I do I could literally just take this whole, this whole page here, this whole page, just go bye-bye. But I don't think it's going to happen. But I don't know if I will patina the whole inside of this. I don't think so. Let's just start with this part. Um, let's do this. I'm going to throw this underneath. All right, let's do it. Wish me luck. Going in, going in. Let's put some— let's put some, uh, where'd my phone go? Let's put some music on. Give me more encouragement. That's pretty cool art on its own. Yeah, GG, right? It's just— it's one of the fun things about using inks and watercolor is it makes its own art, like you're saying. I want to spray the light color down first, this Linen. Uh, let's see, let's throw that there too. Grazie, do it. Honestly, I was gonna brush some of it. I don't think I'm gonna brush it right now. This is a process that'll take layers, so I probably won't finish it tonight. I'll have to let it dry. We can see where it's headed, right? It's already starting to look a little aged. I don't want to fuss with it too much. All right, we're going to spray some of this on it. You got this, Jason Nicholas Nicholas! Thank you so much. Let's do it. —don't forget gravity is also a really cool tool that we have. So I'm letting gravity do some of the work, just kind of mix things together a little bit. Let me get this away from the, uh, there we go, that's better. And the trick is I don't really want to overdo it, right? Let's, let's, let's see some of that stain, the Walnut one as well. And I'm going to really just barely squeeze it and see what happens. Do you think it'd be cool to have like a thumbprint on here, like an ink thumbprint? I don't know, what do you guys think? It's really cool. Let me test it, like a little thumbprint, like It might be cheesy. I'm trying to think of a way so it looks like the passport was kind of held, you know, held in the thumb. And the thumb, I guess the area would be worn out. Actually, what I would want to do is spray around the thumb. So, all right, I'm about to get ink all over my hand here. Hopefully this is washable. Here's, here's kind of what I'm thinking. I'm just going to do it. Ready? Send in the stunt double. We need the thumb double. All right, so let's pretend the thumb double's here. We're going to spray I don't know if it's gonna work. Let's see. Kind of— it just kind of blocked out where my thumb is, right? Let's just do the opposite. Let me do a thumbprint, see what that looks like. Hmm, it's not really showing. I would need more of a, like, an ink. I mean, so that's one way to kind of do it. Just get that white area, looks like where the thumb was. I'm gonna put this down here and let it dry in front of the fan I have. All right, cool. Yeah, I like the way this is looking, guys. Let me put aside and let it dry. Your signature would be your thumbprint. Yes, I love that idea. That's actually very cool. It's a great idea. All right, cool. I don't want to overdo this because I'm going to let it dry. I think after it dries, I do want to come back and add some more of that linen color, this one. Which is my fave right now. Um, I also have these ink pads, but I don't really— I could use the ink pad to do a thumbprint, couldn't I? What colors do I have? Walnut. I've never used these, these inks before. Vintage Photo. I guess they're all the same. Yeah, they're the same. Antique Linen. Actually, let's, let's try a thumbprint with this, guys. This is all— this is where the fun happens. Just— this is like a playground, right? A playground for creativity. Just go for it, throw things down, have fun with it. You know what, why stress about it? All right, I'm just dipping my thumb here. Hey, Bon Identity, great to see you. Hope all's well. You can kind of see my thumbprint here. That might be cool when this dries. Maybe I'll do that. Maybe I'll do a thumbprint on it. What do you guys think? Should I do a thumbprint on here? Hey Angela, great to see you. Hope all's well. Happy to be here. Great to see you. Starting to look like a booking procedure, LOL. Yeah, right. All right, so we're gonna let this dry. Um, let's go back to the other kind of worksheet we were doing before. If you're just joining me, um, thanks for joining me here on The Inkspired Life. It's great seeing you, great having you here. I love sketching, especially architecture, and, um, tonight I'm actually working on a— here's a bridge that I had sketched earlier today. It's pretty big. I can't zoom out right now because the ink is wet. On my cover. But so we're just kind of working on the COVID I wanted to have like an old vintage-y, passport-y feel. I also had to run down a little bit here. Again, gravity, right? I'm just letting it drip down. I'm gonna let it dry this way. All right, we're gonna put this aside, let it dry, and let's bring out the other sheet. So I have a heater over there, it's throwing things in front of— all right, zoom out. Let's see how this is looking. Great to see you too, brother. Thank you, Bon Identity, I appreciate that, man. All right, cool. All right, so this is how this one's drying. Look at this awesomeness. Dang, I love, love, love, love the way this is looking. This is fun. I think I just discovered a whole nother world of stuff I want to start adding into artwork. Um, cool. All right, I said I want to throw some color down. You guys know me, you know I love color. And let's break out with some Sharpie Creative Markers. I need some more space here. Uh, yeah, let's break out some markers. Let me know if any questions or comments. Always love your feedback. Probably be on till 11 PM. All right, so we're gonna break out some Sharpie markers. Um, check out how many markers this thing holds. I love this. This is my Lockbee plug. I— they don't pay me for this. I'm just going to plug it because I love their products. Um, I do get it if you use my discount code. You can get a 10% discount from Lockbee. I get a very small, small commission. Doesn't change your price, but I support them. I'm an ambassador for them. I love their products. Um, this is their Venture pouch. This is amazing. I use it for markers, and then even the other side opens as well, and I got all kinds of pens and pencils and stuff in there. So that's my shameless plug. But let's break out some markers. I'll throw some color. I, I am feeling yellow. I'm feeling A little red. Yeah, let's stick with that for now, and we'll work on this. Hopefully the passport— passport in quotes— thing will dry and we can work on that for a few more minutes. I've been dying to break out red on this. I don't know why. Let's just do it. Zoom in. Uh, so this is a church in Ohio that Linda shared some photos. Uh, she gave me some photos, I sketched it for her. So thank you again, Linda, for the opportunity. You can add dark green. Oh, dark green sounds great too. Dark green I like. I don't have any dark green here though. I have this color green. Um, but thank you, Linda, for the photo of, of the church. Let's just throw some red on here. I'm just curious to see what it's going to happen. I'm just making my own colors up. This isn't really the colors on the church, but that's what's fun for me is just popping these colors on there. Got some yellow here as well. Yeah, this is looking cool. I even love this, the way this is drying. Look at the splatters. Yeah, yellow. I like yellow. Uh, Angela says, um, what church is that? Sorry I joined late, you probably already told everyone it was. Hey Angela, no, no, great, great question. Um, this is a church that my friend Linda sent to me pictures of. It's in, um, it's in Ohio. And I have to be honest with you, I'm drawing a blank on the exact name of it, um, but it is a real church. So I did some sketches for Linda that she actually, uh, the church commissioned me to do a sketch to give as a gift to, I think, one of their patrons. So that was a fun project for me to do. Um, let's break out some of this color just because I love this color. This is that— I call it Aqua. I think Create Sharpie has a different name for this. Is it Sea Green maybe or something? But in my brain it's Aqua or Turquoise. Maybe it's more Turquoise. Turquoise is, is definitely in my top 3, if not number 1, favorite color to use. I feel like we need some neon yellow color pencils, so let's grab a— got a bunch of colored pencils in here. Grab some neon yellow. And if you're curious into what I'm listening to right now, I am listening to Shinedown. Shinedown has an amazing song called Brilliant. If you don't know it, check it out. Brilliant is a song I listen to almost every day on my way to school. It just pumps me up, gives me hope, and it makes me feel like we all can make an impact and a difference somehow, some way. It's a great song. It's called Brilliant by Shinedown. This is looking cool, guys, right? It's kind of fun. Um, thank you guys. I love that you guys are joining here. Um, it's so cool. It's really cool to see you guys in other chats as well, so I do appreciate your time with me so, so much, guys. This is killer. This is amazing. Good band. Yeah, you know, I just rediscovered Shinedown end of last year, uh, after all those years I haven't— hadn't heard them. Coming alive. Yes, yes. All right guys, this is looking cool. Let's go. I want to pull the edges of the church out a little bit, so I'm going to break out a Sharpie. We're just going to darken the outline a little bit, and then we'll revisit the passport thingy, see how that's drying. Just grab some of my stuff here. Uh, actually, I just picked up this brown pen. I could actually— this is a cool color for the distressing. It's a brown pen. I could even— I can even throw some lines on there to distress. If I want with just a regular pen. I know that this is a scrap sketch, like this was a practice one I did before I did the final version. I'm actually kind of liking this. Let me zoom out. I'm liking this as an actual final, final sketch. I got a frame here, you know, even if we just framed, like, say we framed that part of it. Bon Identity says next one. So, uh, not sure you're asking about next one, question mark, next song I'm listening to, or next color, or next sketch. Let me know what you guys think. Do you think this looks cool, kind of framed here as like a separate picture? Angela says, I'm worried how AI will interfere with the art industry. Um, that's a— let's talk, let's talk for a second. Let's riff on that if you guys are cool with it. Uh, I'm going to give just my own personal opinion about how I feel about AI right now. Um, AI is— yeah, as you all know, there's a lot of controversy out there about AI, and I, I get both sides, um, pluses and minuses. Um, as an arch— from an architectural point of view, as an architect and a designer, um, and just all-around creative, I feel like AI has have— can have a place, um, for concept and brainstorming. So I use AI to help generate brainstorm ideas, to generate some concept ideas as well. Um, I don't feel like AI is a tool to create finished final products, including artwork. You know, it's— there's a place of humanity, a place of being, um, part of being a human that will never be transferred and end up on a canvas or on a piece of paper or whatever your art medium is, right? Um, maybe AI is its own separate individual category, art category, but I don't— it's never going to replace the emotions, the feelings, and love, and the sweat, blood, sweat, and tears that we as humans can put into artwork. And that is a— it's just something that's evident on an artwork when you look at it. You can feel that AI artwork, you— artwork I've seen, I don't feel that. Um, so it is a really tricky thing. I'm kind of rambling a little bit about it. Um, I did— so let me talk about the stamp I made today because I did use AI to help me generate this stamp idea. So I wanted to make this stamp for the passport, so I actually I actually had AI help me generate the main look of this, the main graphic. But after it generated, it gave me that, I took it to the next levels. I went into my 3D software, I made this into a 3D, um, stamp. So I 3D designed it in 3D, I 3D printed it, I 3D printed the handle for it as well. So this was a little bit of, you know, AI to help with the general logo, and then me coming in, okay, and taking that to the next level and making it into a functional piece. So it was kind of a combination, um, and it was cool because I was able to do this in-house myself today, and I'd have to go anywhere and buy a stamp because I thought of it and I wanted to do it instantly while it was in my brain, and I was able to capture that moment through tech to help me capture that moment and to create something to the next level. So it is a tool, um, not a replacement. I know we hear that all the time, but I really feel that way. Hopefully that makes sense. And it's changing every day. It's hard to keep up with, and It's interesting, right? Um, another thing also, being a teacher, I'm letting my students on a project they're doing now— I actually let them use AI as an option to create an infographic about, um, they're doing house architectural house styles. And what I love about using AI for that is they can type in their prompts AI is never going to be 100% perfect. Whatever it generates, they're going to have to review it. Um, the best one I've seen was maybe 85% accurate so far. So it's cool for me to see how the tech is working. And some students, honestly, um, it's hard for them to be— they're not wired. They're not wired to generate that kind of stuff. Um, in this on-demand society we're living in It is so hard for me to get students to slow down. I try every day. Um, so I said, let's try AI and see how it works as an experiment. So I'm kind of testing it in the classroom with students right now, and not all the kids are using it. I would say, I would say probably 45 to 50% are using it for the project, and it's just to generate a little poster, a little graphic of a house, and to call out the different elements and design styles on that house. So I'll, I'll give you more feedback on it as the project ends. Um, we'll see how it goes. All right, let's see how the other thing's drying. We'll wrap up. Hopefully it's dry enough. All right, so this is how this is drying. Let's zoom in. So that was just a real quick AI thing. We could talk for hours and hours and hours. But I'd love to know your thoughts as well. Um, I definitely don't want to see it hurting artists, taking away from artists, whether it's, you know, any kind of art. It doesn't matter. It's here, guys. It is here. That's the thing. Um, all right, so this is how this is drying. I got this piece of tape stuck. Do you ever get a piece of tape stuck to your finger and you can't get it off? All right, you can see how this is drying. I love the yellowing here. What do you guys think? How's it looking? It's aight. I think we're gonna spray another layer on here and make it better. Let's get our— let's get this out. All right, now we're back to Coldplay. It's switching between Coldplay and, uh, Shine down. Angela says, I'm glad to hear your point of view. The personal emotional part of the art, that's something I hadn't thought about with AI. Yeah, it's— AI does not get the blood, sweat, and tears, and it doesn't translate through. And I can tell, I can usually tell if it's AI generated or not. Um, right? We're human, that we got— oh, is this Antique Linen? Yeah, it is. I thought I had the wrong color. So I'm just spraying another layer of this Antique Linen on here, see how this dries. As long as the artists are okay with it, we are happy campers, I suppose. Yeah, Gigi, you're right. I mean, that's a really good point. Most of the artists I know and talk to don't— are not happy. They're not really liking it. Um, and also, I, I have used— there's an app called Suno, S-U-N-O, Suno. Um, I love music. I love being— I love the idea of being able to create and express stories and ideas and emotions through music. I'm not a musician. I don't know how to play any instruments. I don't know how to write music. But I have tried this app called Suno. I'll give you my, uh, I'll give you— I'll give you a link or tell you where you can find it. But I created I've created over 40 songs in Suno. I did a Christmas album. I did an album that was— it's all songs that take place in like a cafe or a coffee shop because I wanted like— I was— I'm intrigued about coffee shops and sitting in coffee shops and listening to people talk in coffee shops and just observing things. So I just made a whole album of music based on coffee shop scenes. And it actually came out really cool. Um, if you go on the app, if you go to suno, s, s-u-n-o.com, and you look up Static Verse, Static, S-T-A-T-I-C-V-E-R-S-E, Static Verse, that's me. You can just, you can listen to some of the songs that were created. Again, it's another controversial thing. Is, is it taking away? Yeah, it is taking away, but it's a tool for people like me that want to be able to express themselves in a different creative way that don't have the gift or talents to do that. And I— music drives me, guys. Music drives my life. It drives my creativity. And for me to have a tool that I can use to express myself that way is so helpful. It's very— writing this Coffee Shop album music was very therapeutic for me. Um, I was having— 2025 was a rough year for me, to be honest with you. It was— I had a lot of low points personally and was— and was going in bad places um, in my brain. And I'm doing great now, I'm fine, uh, it's all good. But I'm telling you, writing these songs really helped me to get out of that, those funks, those funky moods. So I'm gonna be— I'm gonna say I'm a fan of it for what I used it for. Check this out, I'm using this pen, it's— I'm making like this kind of cracky kind of things here. This is fun. You guys think— yeah, S-U-N-O. Thank you, Angela, you got it. Not sumo. Sumo is wrestling. I am definitely not a sumo wrestler. I need to eat a lot more pizza. Or maybe not a lot more, I need to eat more pizza for that. I love that, you guys are funny. Um, what do you think? Let's put against the black here. It's kind of what it looks like. Hey Linda, I see you on Instagram. How are you? Good to see you. You guys enjoying this tonight? Little bit different. We're just being playful and experimentive. AI can be a good distraction. GG. Um, that's a legit point, and sometimes I can go down an AI rabbit hole. I'm actually using AI to generate and to organize my financial life, um, my medical life, my, um, health, What else? Uh, my overall goals and plans. And yeah, I'm using AI a lot for taking what's up here and organizing it. Sorry, I'm looking at the wrong camera. I got two more. That's the one I should be looking at. Organizing what's in here into the scrambled brain here. It's organizing, it's helping me to organize things, uh, which is one of the cool things I like about using AI. It's a great organizing tool. You guys are awesome. I, I'm having fun. Thank you so much. I'm kind of liking this. I don't want to overdo this pen either, but I think just these little subtle touches are kind of interesting. Liking it. Thank you, Angela's LOL. Yeah, at the sumo wrestling thing, right? We could do the— we could do the blowing technique. You guys ready? You know, kind of blow, uh I know that didn't sound too good, but so I was just kind of blowing it and splattering the ink a little bit. This is looking cool. That's an awesome playlist. I gotta— I love this. Oh yeah, um, oh, the next live. Next live. I missed some chat, sorry. When's the next live? Bon Identity, great question. Um, I'm not really good at scheduling lives. I, I should have a regular schedule. Would— and I ask this all the time— do you guys feel like I should do a regular live stream schedule? It would have to be after weekday, you know, usually our New York City live streamers. I would have, you know, I want to go out live after them, so probably sometimes 9 o'clock PM. I'm rambling, Bonnie and Danny, because I don't have a set live stream time. Um, usually I come on at nights anytime around 8:30, 9 o'clock-ish. Tonight's a late one, but it's a great question. Make sure you like and subscribe if on YouTube, and you can be notified when I'm going to be on. I'm dip— I'm dipping my brush in dirty water right now, and I'm using this dirty water to kind of throw down a patina on here a little bit. There's a really awesome Coldplay song that I'm just loving these days. It's called We— it's called, uh, I have to look up the name. Is it We Pray? Oh gosh, you guys probably know. Yeah, We Pray. It's called We Pray. I'm loving this Coldplay song. I don't— I think it's new-ish. It's pretty amazing. There you go. So I'm just dabbing this on here, just dirty water. So this distressing idea is all about layers. And I don't want to overdo it, so we might leave it at this for now. I love sepia images. Yeah, sepia images are awesome. I love old school sepia. Um, I like to do grunge. I call them grunge-ified sketches where I can make them look kind of grungy, and there's a lot of sepia in those. Angela said I would watch regularly. Oh, awesome! Really? Would you guys watch regularly if I went right, had a regular live stream? I would love that. That'd be so cool. My goal is to get up to 1,000 subscribers. That was my goal end of 2025. Got close. I'd like to get to 1,000 before the end of January. That'd be fun on YouTube. I'm just using gravity again to move things around. Let me close that light. Can you see this better? Does it look better? I turned off one of the lights. I think there was too much glare on it. Uh, count me in. Hopefully more fellow viewers will join. Hey, that'd be great if it's earlier. Yes. No. All right, let me take a general survey. What day of the week If I was a live stream 3 days a week, what days of the week would be the best? And it probably would be at night, 8:30, 9 o'clock-ish. Um, Monday, Wednesdays, Fridays maybe. I'd like to try to do something regular if I can get more people watching. I have not seen Coldplay live. I would love to see them live. Um, yeah, I've talked about this before. Um, Coldplay— if you have not seen their video of the song All My Love that was written for Dick Van Dyke, about Dick Van Dyke, watch the Coldplay video on YouTube. Just put Coldplay All My Love. You'll see a video with Dick Van Dyke in it. I'm gonna— makes me cry when I think about it. Um, that is the most touching, heartfelt video that I have ever seen. I, I'm getting goosebumps. I'm getting— I'm getting teary thinking about it. It's just the love that you see in that, in that video is Yeah, it's incredible. So check out, uh, that video. This is fun. We're talking music, art. This is great, guys. I love this. Um, I have zero artistic talent. I still draw like the first day of kindergarten. I'd love to learn some things by watching here. Uh, Angela, this is the right place. I'm gonna guide you. I, I have a thing called the Sketch Framework. S-K-E-T-C-H, SKETCH. It's an acronym. I'm going to be starting a series where I'm going to walk you through my SKETCH framework. It'll help you— part of it's mindset, creative mindset tips. Some of it is strategic how-to sketch tips. So stay tuned for those videos, and I'd love for you to join me on a journey. I'm more than happy to guide you through sketching. And I think a lot of what holds people back from artwork is, is confidence. I think we're— a lot of us lose our creative confidence the older we get. Um, so I really believe strongly in promoting creative mindset through this sketch framework. So creative confidence is, is I think key for getting started and just, and just keep on going. So we'll talk a lot about that. So I'd love to have you join me on that journey. That'd be fun. Do you sketch people faces? Uh, I am not a good people sketcher. Great question. I will next livestream if you want, I'll pull up a photograph or if one of you guys wants me to use one of your pictures. I will show you, I will try to sketch a person. I'll show you live, I'll do it live. It's nothing I do. We can walk through the journey together. I'll talk about my challenges. And yeah, buildings, I love buildings. I'm an architect, I've always loved buildings. Buildings are easy for me to sketch because they don't move. People are hard to get standstill. Um, but yeah, it'd be fun. I'll sketch something live in my style. Sketch a person, a face. We'll give it a shot. Um, let's hold this up close. You can see how it's drying. And then let's see, 11:14. If you guys are tired and need to go, I get it. I know it's really late. Oh crap, that's okay. I think I just— I think we're good. All right, so this is how it's looking. I like the outside here. Let me blot this a little bit. All right, um, that's looking cool. We're going to zoom out, we'll show you the whole thing again on the inside. If you have any final thoughts, let me know. Guys, this has been fun, one of the— my most fun live streams recently in 2026. And then I will show you how this is drying while I'm getting a drink of water. You can see this that we worked on. You can see how it changes when it dries, right? In India, suno means listen. Thank you, Bon Identity. I did not know that. That is awesome. Suno means listen. Uh, maybe buildings are a good way to start sketching at Angela. Yeah, I think buildings are a great way to start sketching because there— it's easy to break buildings down into basic shapes. So whenever I sketch a building, I'm always looking at basic shapes, and it's about, um, going from basic shapes into a little more detail. So yeah, so, uh, Gigi, that's a really good point. Hey, Deborah Davidson, great to see you on Instagram. Jeff Anderson, great to see you on Instagram. How are you? Good to see you guys. Thank you guys for joining. This is cool. I'm sorry, I was getting a drink here. All right. All right, so, uh, let's— so again, this is our practice kind of scrap piece. Oh, I never— I think I said I was going to outline the building. I never did that. That's okay. You know what, let's do it just for fun. I'm literally just going to take this sepia marker and do it. Are you talking about this one? Yeah, if you're talking about this one, this is definitely more interesting, right? Um, this— we're just looking at the COVID I'll open it up in a second. So this is just a cover. I was using this piece to practice distressing on the COVID of this. I'll just open this up now, I'll show you. All right, so, so this was the COVID for my accordion sketch of the, um, this is the Pont-Neuf Bridge in Paris. This is the oldest standing bridge to cross the Seine. So you can see that's the bridge on the inside. So this is 6 inches by 12 inches. Um, this will be going out, mailing it to my friend who has a friend who just opened a new restaurant. I guess it's restaurant, restaurant, uh, type of place, and it's French themed. So if his friend likes this, this might end up in the restaurant, which would be cool. Yeah, so that's what's on the inside of this accordion, and I just wanted to kind of age the outside, age the outside, so it's like an old passport or with a stamp or something. So I was just trying to be playful. All right, let me put that there, and then let's just, um, I have this marker I just grabbed. Maybe we'll try this one. Me zoom in. I just want to outline this. Yeah, I love sepia. Sepia color is one of my faves, so I'm going to outline this with sepia. I don't know if this is water soluble, if I could bleed this ink or not. Love this song too. Adventures of a Lifetime. Mhm. I wish I could play the music, guys, I'm listening to. Um, I can't because it's all copyrighted stuff. I don't want to get shut down. I could, I could put links to the playlist I'm listening to on Spotify. You could always listen along with me. Maybe I'll do that in future videos. Right, so I just want to pull the outline of that church out a little bit more. Hey, Bon Identity, thank you for subscribing to me over on YouTube. I appreciate that. Awesome. Angela RW, this one reminds me very much of the Campanile Tower at UC Berkeley, very close to me. Really? That's awesome. I'll have to Google that up. Angela, you want to learn how to sketch? Maybe we could start with that building. What do you think? Let me know. I have to look at it, but we can— my sketching style is a very loose style. I architectural sketching. So I don't do tons, a lot of detail. I just want to be able to capture the form, the feeling, the vibe of a building. Um, so if you really want to learn how to sketch loosely, I would— you follow me, follow me on this sketching journey. It'd be fun. Jeff says looks familiar to the First Presbyterian Church in Dover. Interesting, Jeff. I will have to Google that one. That one is not far. I could actually go visit that one. That's so cool. I would check that out. I love it. I love that you guys are identifying this sketch with buildings you know. That, that's kind of fun, right? I don't want to wrap up. This is too much fun. If you— how much more time do you guys want to give me? You guys ready? If you're ready to check out, just put in the chat 'check out.' If you want me to sketch something else, put 'sketch something else.' If you don't care, that's cool too. I'm just looking over here. I kind of like this one. I want to get a frame. Uh, I need to do a show and tell at some point in time too. I have a lot of sketches for show and tell, but not tonight. Uh, so we have— is this a bigger matte opening? I think so, it's a little bit bigger. But this kind of looks cool framed, right? What do you guys think? Magic is my favorite Coldplay song. Oh, that's a good one, that's a good choice, love it. I think I'm actually going to cut this out and, um, we'll make it into an art piece. Let's see, I'm just going to draw an outline of where I'm going to cut it. I think I like it framed like this. This is good. This is kind of the vibe I'm looking for when I was talking about, um, if you guys know the sketchbooks of Leonardo da Vinci, the Codex sketchbooks, I am a huge, huge, huge fan of those sketchbooks. They have this aged patina kind of look to them. That's a look that I'd love to be able to recreate. This is my first crack at kind of doing something aged and patina looking, but this looks fab. I kind of like it— this is centered, but honestly, I think I like it a little more off-center like this. I do, I like it off-center, so I am gonna draw a line here. We're going to cut, cut this out. Let me just make sure it looks cool. Yeah, looks good to me. Let's nail it. Boom. So this was really a practice sketch, and now I'm going to crop it out, cut it out, and make it into a final sketch that maybe I'll put it out there for sale. I need to work on my shop on my website. But if you guys ever see any sketches I do on a livestream and you're interested in possibly purchasing one, let me know. Just put in the chat or DM me, message me, say, hey, I saw that sketch you did, I like it, how much would it cost, or something. More than happy to sell sketches. Um, I'd rather have you enjoy them in your own space or give them as a gift because lots of times they end up sitting here. And I do love my sketches, but I would love more if people enjoy them. So feel free to let me know. All right, cool. I'm going to cut this out. Where's my cutting mat? Cutting that, cutting that. Where are you? I have my magic drawers back here. I got tons of stuff in them. So we got this, we got this, we got this. I'm going to just cut this out. Maybe we'll wrap this up tonight as I cut this up. So here's how I cut it. I got this cool cutting mat. Boom. Use a metal— I love using a metal ruler. So if you ever got to cut paper out, I suggest using a metal ruler. I've had this one since college. This is an oldie but a goodie. And a trusty X-Acto knife. I'm just going to slice. Boom. Never try to cut through the paper on one try. It'll take 2 or 3 passes depending on how sharp the blade is. If you try to force it in one pass, you can get hurt, break the blade. It's definitely not worth it. Um, some X-Acto knife pro tips. Another one is put the, put the ruler over the part you want to keep. Put the ruler over the part you want to keep because I want to keep this section here, right, with the image. So if I have the ruler here, it's going to help prevent me from slicing this by mistake. It's protecting it because I'm going to cut here. And I am, I am left-handed. I usually get that comment, you're like, are you left-handed? Um, So I slice that. Let's slice the bottom. One of the things I used to love doing is making models, architectural models. Um, I still love doing it, I just don't make the time to do it. And honestly, clients never really wanted to pay me to make models in my architecture business, but it would be cool to start making them again for fun. Just want to make sure I'm cutting the right line here. That boom boom looks like this line here, so it's the outside one here. Yeah, I love just cutting, cutting cardboard, paper, wood, making architectural models. I still have some of my college ones. Uh, false, I only have one of my college ones. I have pictures of some of them. All right, there we go. So I just cut that out. I actually like that it has the— even though it's not from France. It says France on there, uh, but it's going to be covered up when I put the mat on top of it, right? So we're looking at something like that. Yeah, looks better framed, 100%. Looks great. Thank you guys, appreciate your compliments. Yes, framed. I agree, very nice. Lefties have rights too. That's good, that's a good one. I actually like that. Thanks, Jeff. Jeff gets 1 point, 1 point in the comedy department. All right, cool. All right guys, this is— throw this here. This is still drying. Oh, this is interesting. What the How is this happening? I have no idea. Hopefully the camera picks this up. Yeah, it does. Do you see these streaks here? It's kind of almost like bleached out. I don't— guys, how did I do that? I have to go back. I don't even know that happened. You can see it up here too, like we got a bleached out area, which I actually really like. And here, this corner too. Dang, if I put the light up there a little bit— I love the yellowish hues happening. I would— all right guys, we're gonna wrap up. I think we had a really productive night tonight. I always love to know in the chat what is something you got out of tonight's live stream, um, whether it was something from me or someone in the chat or whatever. Any thoughts, comments, anything pop in your brain, any big takeaways? It's always great for me to know. Give me feedback and I'll see if there's any last questions. Boom. It's hard for me to end streams because I love doing this. GG's laughing. Um, awesome. Thank you so much everybody for watching. We're using that camera on my laptop. I used to use a camera here, the image was coming out stinky, so I'm using this one here. Um, thank you guys so much for watching tonight. I really appreciate you all. Um, yeah, just brought running through my head anything. I think my big takeaway tonight was, um, just a reinforcement of the idea of being bold, just going for it, going for it and being playful. Um, this stuff, stuff I have never really done before, I just went for it, was just having fun with it. Um, the more fun you can have with creativity, the more loose, uh, things will turn out. And yeah, it'll just bring joy to your process. And I think this is really about joy. It's about being in the moment, being joyous in the moment. It's okay if it's struggling, if you struggle, or if it's challenging in the moment, that's fine too. But be in that moment. And experience it. Um, yeah, thank you guys. I'm Jason Nicholas Nicholas with the Inkspired Life, where I love sketching architecture, just sketching life. And until we meet again, sketch boldly, live creatively, and inspire endlessly. Appreciate y'all. Take care. Until we sketch live again, I will try to pop on tomorrow night Maybe around 8:30 PM Sunday night. All right, be well. I'm just looking— I'm looking for that finish button. There it is.