Sketch Fearless: Loose Lines & New York City Architecture

Yeah, what you're up to this evening or day or whatever time it is wherever you're watching. It's so cool, I see people watching sometimes from India. That's always fun. Um, I know I have Sue from, uh, Australia pops in sometimes. So, so cool to have people watching from all over the world. That is one of the amazing thing about The internet, YouTube, is how we can connect with people from all over the world that we otherwise wouldn't be able to do, right? I have some nice friends here that I've connected with, that pretty— people in New Jersey, some people in New York City. So I'm really blessed to, um, just be on here doing what I love doing and connecting with you guys. Uh, if you're watching on TikTok, hello TikTok! I Can't see the comments unfortunately, but please say hi in the comments, be positive. And if you want to come over to YouTube, we're on YouTube Live as well, and YouTube I can see your comments. So it's great being here live streaming on all different mediums today, trying to branch out a little bit more. I actually even set up in the chat, we may see a chatbot action happening here on YouTube. We'll see if that works. Stepping out, stepping up, and just spreading positivity through creativity. That's my goal, guys, and I need you guys all to help me with that by liking, subscribing, and putting out your own positive vibes, whatever you're doing. Please, we definitely need more of it in the world. It's It's crazy, it's cray cray, but we don't talk about craziness here. We focus on positivity, creativity, community. That's— those are the vibes that you'll get here watching The Inspired Life. I feel like I'm talking a lot. I'm hyper hyper tonight because I'm happy to be here. It's been a long day. Been a very long day at school. Yeah, school is, um, let's just say it's been draining my mental and physical capacity lately. So sketching uplifts me. This is fueling me right now. It's taking me to a different place, and I love that so, so much. So I'm just using a Sharpie on this paper. Um, I'm going to put a little bit of color on this Italian hill town. We'll pop out some of the clay tiles on the roof areas so you can kind of see a little town happening. Gigi says, a beautiful group of people to support one another. Yeah, Gigi, I love that. So true. And thank you for sharing your time. I know you are a very busy person, and, uh, your time means a lot to me. So thank you. I do value you and all the other regs we have here that watch in the chat. All right, cool. Let's throw a little bit of color on this, make it pop a little bit. So this is from my, um, I'm looking at a photo, but I'm actually, to be honest with you, this is more from my imagination than anything else. That's how we roll. Hello, TikTok folks, how are you doing? Feel free to come over to YouTube, join us on YouTube at The Inspired Life so I can actually see your comments. That would be amazing. I can't look at my phone while I'm doing this because the phone is up here. My eyes are down here. Yeah, GG. I'm going to— can I ask you a favor? While you're watching. I, I set up a chatbot, the Nightbot, today. I'm wondering, can you— are you able to put in the chat like, I was— I— I'm sorry, exclamation point command, or— yeah, try exclamation point command or exclamation point, um, gallery. I just want to see if it works. I'm curious. If not, no worries. I don't mean to to make you go to work. I just want to see if it's working or not. All right, so I'm just popping some like a terracotta color on these roofs just to pull it out a little bit, give it a little bit of life. So we'll spend a few more minutes on this and then we'll move over to the NYC, New York City sketchbook. And I know we're sketching there tonight. I have, I have it in my brain. So stay tuned just for a few more minutes and we'll do some NYC sketching. If you have an idea of what building I'm going to be sketching or structure, put in the chat. What do you think I'm going to sketch tonight from New York City? I'll give you a hint, it is one of my favorite, favorite NYC iconic structures. Uh, let's see, let's pull out— I want to find— let's actually just use this one. Hey, it works! Thank you so much, Gigi, I appreciate you. Yay, the nightbot is working! It's the simple things in life, guys. I might have to shorten some of the descriptions, but it works. Time doesn't work. Okay, so I don't have the time one set up. Endless gratitude, my friend. Zoom even closer just so you guys can get— I'm trying to— I'm just hinting at the roof tiles. So literally I'm kind of doing almost like waves, or maybe the letter M. So you can see, right, it's just giving a little bit of texture. And let's throw some hatch lines to give a little shadow. And I'm going to use this. This is a Uni-ball— no, lying. This is a Pentel EnerGel pen, and I love the color. It's like a sepia color. I'm a huge sepia color fan. Wait, wasn't that— wasn't that a droid on Star Wars? Sepia? Oh, 3CPO. Trying to make a joke, it's not working. 3CPO, that works better. 3CPO. I like the color scheme on here. Very simple, but I think it's effective. Just pulling out the roof— pulling out— I'm sorry, roofs. Also pulling out the, um, kind of some shadows, giving a little bit of depth to it. Thank you guys for watching. If you're watching on TikTok, hello! I'm sorry, I can't see the captions or comments. Feel free to come over to YouTube at The Inkspired Life where I can, um, see you guys if you want to say hello in the chat. We have Gigi hanging out in the chat. Gigi is the— Gigi, are you solo out there in chat land? I am so sorry if you're solo tonight, but thank you for hanging out. You have me all to yourself, so ask any questions. We also need to talk about that podcast at some point. All right, cool. All right guys, I like this. It's just a quick loosey-goosey sketch. Let's put a little frame around it just for fun. Um, if I wanted, I could actually show some texture. Let's do that. These— let's just show some stonework here, just a little bit of texture. Very cool. So I'm just showing a little bit of stonework on here. Let's give it a little more detail and show some on this, um, show a window up here, maybe a kind of a lookout tower. All right, cool. And I do have my frames handy. I do. Let's grab some. All right, cool. Let's throw a little frame around it. Looks cool. All right guys, all right, so that's a quick Italian hill town sketch. We're going to switch, we're going to hop on a plane and go to my favorite city, New York City. Feel free to ask me some questions, comments. I will see if I can check the TikTok out for a sec. Take a stretching break. I need to clean my studio because I am running out of space on the surfaces. All right, cool. All right, so we're going to continue sketching in, um, our New York City print/calendar sketchbook. So you guys will be seeing a calendar of some of these New York City inspired locations for in 2027. That'll be, um, well, it'll go on sale probably in September, October. If you're interested to see how we made these, go back, watch the YouTube replays. You can see, I think, all of these were done on live streams, which is actually pretty dang cool. All right. We're going to do a new one tonight. I'm going to take a stretch break and see if— oh, I almost knocked everything over. That was no bueno. All right, cool. All right, so here's our page. I am going to break out Some creative markers. Yes, C-3PO. Someone once said that was like me. Really? You're like, you're like C-3PO? That would be a good story to hear more about. How are, how are you like C-3PO? If you want to share, that'd be awesome. If not, no worries. I'm just drinking some nice— what am I drinking? Lemon ginger tea with probiotics. I'm feeling run down, so I like to drink some probiotics here. They are not sponsor— a sponsor of the show, but I love this tea. All right, we are going to be sketching one of my most favorite iconic NYC landmarks, the Brooklyn Bridge. So we already have the Brooklyn Bridge in here. This is the very first sketch I did of New York City in this book. We have some fans of this. Gigi, who is watching on YouTube, is a fan of this sketch. The guy sitting here with the Sharpie in his hand. Not my fave. So I'm going to do— I'm going to sketch a different view of the Brooklyn Bridge and just see if— see how it goes. So we're going to start with some white. And what time is it? 9:46. All right, we'll see how far we get. TikTokers, I hope you can see this. If my hand's in the way, I'm so sorry. Stay tuned. All right, let's, let's do it. Brooklyn Bridge is, uh, an iconic structure, and it was a bucket list item for me, um, for many years to see in person and to walk across it. And I was blessed in— oh my gosh, 2022 maybe— to, um, work up the courage. Took a lot of courage for me to do this, to work up the courage to actually go New York City. I'm— I go to New York City, that's not a problem, but go in New York City, take the ferry, which I had never done, take the ferry East River Ferry from 34th Street, took it to Dumbo and, um, Brooklyn Bridge Park, all that. Love, love that. It's probably my favorite area to hang out in, in New York City. I could spend hours and hours and hours in that location. Anyway, then had to walk to the bridge, find out how to do that, um And it worked out. It went really well. Thank you to my friend CFOT for his pro tips, and it was a dream come true. And here's my pro tip of the day, guys: don't leave your creative markers uncapped. I left this totally uncapped last night, and it is It might have to be dipped in water to be reactivated, I hope, but I don't have clean water. So let me see if I can find another one. Yeah, make sure you put the caps on your pens and markers. I typically do it even as I'm just working on them here. I really want purple. I don't know if I have any more. Dang, I don't have any more purple. That kind of sucks. All right, we'll figure out what to do without it. So I like to do grab-and-go creativity. I'm just going to pick up another color. You know what, we're gonna go blue. Let's use some blue today. I'm just looking for a dark color. I usually like using purple, but that's okay. You can stop me from creating. Oh, this is a really funky blue. It's very watery. Creative Markers are not— they're not usually this watery. Maybe because it's been sitting for a while. So I like to use the darker color just to give a bit sense of depth, some shadows. We'll actually come back and do some stuff on top of the blue, but you see how things are popping a little bit now. Hey, Becky's in the house! I see Becky over on the Facebook. How are you, Becky? Always great to see you. Hope you're having a great day. Let's grab and go. Let's draw some. Let's just take red out. I'm just picking out the colors I'm feeling, guys. Just colors I'm feeling. Uh, let's see, I want another dark color. I don't think I want blue though. Let's grab— let's grab some aqua, or turquoise rather. I have an idea for kind of these guardrails on the side. I have an idea of something I want to do. So I just need a solid color underneath, and we'll come back and add some magic on top. Hello, TikTok world, if you're still out there. Hello! Sorry, I can't see your comments. Feel free to put some comments in there. I'll go back and look through. Also feel free to come over to the YouTube side of the force where we can, uh, I can see you guys and we can chat there. That'd be amazing. Let me know in the chat, have you guys— has anybody been to the Brooklyn Bridge? If so, what do you think of it? Do you like it? I'm actually— I'm going to dip this purple. I have dirty water over here from watercolor painting. Let me see if this activates it. You might get lucky. Let's see. Maybe. Nope. Negative, negative, negative. I want a white gel pen now. Dumbo is a great place to be during summer. So is South Street Seaport. Yes, Dumbo, I agree. I love Dumbo. I can literally hang out there for hours. Uh, South Street Seaport is a place I have not been to in a long time. So I'm going to try to get my, uh, get my butt there this spring or probably summer. I'm curious to see what they do with the Tin Building that is going to be turned into a balloon museum. A balloon museum. So that's going to be interesting. Uh, so here's what I wanted to do. I wanted to kind of pull these out a little bit. So I had a solid color and then throwing gel pen on top just to give a little bit of deets to the guardrail so it almost looks like a chain link fence. It's looking pretty cool. It's a little— I kind of should have made it a little taller proportionally, but you know what, my philosophy about sketching is be imperfect. I'm not looking for perfection. This isn't a carbon copy. It's not— do people still use carbon copies? Am I that old? Uh, it's not a clone, it's not a photograph. This is just me, my inspo, in the moment, creating, being imperfect, loose, wonky, wavy, sketchy lines. That's the vibe I love, um, to go for. It takes the pressure off of me of trying to replicate and duplicate, you know, uh, something, a building that we know, a structure that we know. I'm just trying to get the gist, the character, and I want people to be able to look at this and to be like, oh, that's the Brooklyn Bridge. And I think this is doing that, right? Because we all know the Brooklyn Bridge is not these colors. These are the colors from my heart, my soul, and what is nearby. Just grab and go creativity. For example, I just picked up a highlighter This highlighter is going to really amplify some of the colors on here, especially the yellows that are underneath. It's going to pull them out more. Let's see, I want to do— I gotta do my vertical, my vertical cables here. So let's grab, uh, I don't know, let's try— let's actually try white. White or orange? See what happens. Let's go for some white on here. So I got the lines there, but I kind of lost the bridge a little bit. So I'm going to take that blue and pull the, uh, edge of the bridge out again. Guys, I'm going to wrap in a couple minutes here, so please let me know if any questions or comments before we wrap up tonight. Wow, this blue is like I have never seen a Creative Marker that had so much water in it. I don't know what that's about. That's crazy. Wow, it is. I gotta put this marker away, it's just dripping everywhere. That's— that is no bueno. All right, well, we have another blue. Yeah, this blue marker is much better. Hey, Tim's in the house! Hello, Tim, good to see you. Becky says your sketch would make an amazing poster for a Pride Month event. Oh, Becky, that's actually a very cool observation. I like that. Thank you. That's so cool. I like it. Unfortunately, I had the splatters on there with the purple— I mean, the blue. But yeah, that's cool. I'll let this dry for a second. I want to just add a little bit of detail, pull these cables out, bring them to the forefront, and I think we're going to be good on this one. I think Nightbot is— YouTube guys, let me know, is Nightbot annoying? It's the first time I'm using it, so I set timers up, I think. I don't know, I tried to. I don't— yeah. Also, Becky, can you see the Nightbot comments in Facebook, or is it— it might be just a YouTube. I think it's only a YouTube thing, so disregard that. I don't think you can see it on Facebook. Basically, Nightbot is just kind of a bot that puts in links to my gallery page, my, um What else is on there? Uh, my Buy Me a Coffee thing, my Lockbee discount code link. You know what I didn't draw on here? Silly me, I didn't do the— there's one thing that we're gonna use the, uh, Aqua. I did not draw— I didn't draw my cables, my droopy— my cables that go like that. There we go. Pretty cool. So I may be, maybe going to Central Park on Saturday to do some sketching. So we'll see how the weather holds up. So that will be kind of fun. So stick around, maybe on Saturday I'll do some— if I'm in NYC, I'll do some snippets, snippets of NYC. That'll be fun. There we go. Now I'm getting— I'm feeling the vibe here. I gotta do my planks across the bottom too. There we go. I'm, I'm really liking it. It's coming out pretty well. The links don't work. Thank you so much. Thank you guys, appreciate testing those links out. Like I said, this is the first time it's running. I haven't even tested it, so thank you for being my testers out there. The Instagram works, but the website seems to not go through. Due to security issues. What? That's weird. All right, awesome. What else? Um, does the Buy Me a Coffee one work? Do the links have to be— I'm sorry, I think you— I'm asking you guys questions. Sorry. Do you have to copy and paste the links, or— I want them to be clickable, so I don't know if they're clickable or not. I'm guessing they're not. So that's my question. Hey, TikTok people, you still with me? I'm moving you. I'm moving to TikTokers. TikTokers, bear with me, we're going for it. We're going for a field trip. Oh my gosh, this thing is really jammed in here. Hey, TikTokers, how you doing? Thank you for watching. Hope you're doing well. I, um, wasn't able to see the chat at all, so I was just kind of streaming, sketching. Hopefully you guys caught some of that. Um, it's always great seeing you. Feel free to come on over to the YouTube side of the Force. Come join the YouTube side of the Force. Um, yeah, then I can see your chats and stuff, and then be awesome for a conversation. We have a couple of amazing people in the chat on YouTube. And I love for you guys to come over to YouTube, just like and subscribe over there. It's a different vibe. TikTok is hard for me to see comments when I'm sketching, so I want you guys to become part of the activity. So let me know if you have any questions or comments. Again, come over to YouTube at The Inkspired Life, and we're going to be wrapping the stream up in about 3 minutes, but head on over and check out us over there. I'm going to be signing off of TikTok, so thank you guys again. Come over to YouTube. Hopefully I'll see you over there. All right, thank you, my friends on YouTube. Sorry, I'm trying to— I'm trying to get more and more people to come over to YouTube because that's where I really want to focus. Um, and Facebook, I still love you guys on Facebook, but I don't know what's going on. No, people are not seeing Facebook stuff. I know Becky's out there, so thank you. Um, or people just lost interest, which is fine too. Um, I just don't know the answer. I just have a lot more people watching, and I— maybe I just— maybe I— I don't know, I can't figure it out. But you know what, you guys are here, this that's what matters. I appreciate you for you, who you are, and your time. And I'm looking to add one more thing on here, and I'm going to wrap. I'm looking— let's just use a red pen because that's what I got in my hand. I got the red happening. Tomorrow's Friday. TGIFF. Wait, why I say two Fs? Thank God it's Friday, friends. TGIFF. Thank God it's Friday, friends. Tomorrow I need a Friday. This has been a rough school week, just mentally, physically. School, the school vibe is interesting, we'll say that. Uh, nothing negative, nothing bad, but I love being here with you guys right now, live streaming. This is my jam. If I can make this a full-time thing, I think I would, guys. I really do. I want— I love being a mentor. I love being a coach. I love being a teacher. But I think, I don't know, there's different forms, different places we can do that, right? All right, I'm just trying to sketch some of the block here so you can kind of see it. A little bit of texture. Um, GG's reporting the clicking works. Okay, awesome. The first one is clickable but broken. The second works. The third is not clickable. James Hetfield, Jason Hetfield. Yes, Metallica. We're talking Metallica. GG, I love that you know your tunes. That is awesome. Yeah, I feel like, uh, I could use a little Sandman right now. A little bit of Sandman. I need the Sandman to come visit me tonight so I get a good night's sleep. We you guys, what do you guys think? Do you like this Brooklyn Bridge sketch? Um, I'm gonna investigate those links. I appreciate you guys so, so much. Awesome, that's great, Tim. That sounds cool, man. Um, have fun with it, that'll be great. That would be cool. All right, so if you had to pick a Brooklyn Bridge sketch for the calendar, would you go with option 1? I need your honest feedback. Becky says, I catch you wherever, wherever you are, Facebook. Yeah, Becky, you— thank you so much. I— you're awesome. I really appreciate you. And I know I come on at random times. Um, yeah, I'm just trying to figure out, like, I really want to engage more people, so I'm figuring it out. That's why I'm changing things up on YouTube, my descriptions, blah blah blah. Um, so here's option 1, or we can go to option 2 if you had to pick one. This one's almost done. Yeah, I'll have to look at, um, check out my calendar, but thank you, that's awesome. It is quiet. I have no music on. It feels really weird. I'm musicless right now, and I do want to pull this out. There we go. Now you can see those arches, the Gothic, the neo-Gothic arches of the Brooklyn Bridge. Iconic. Without those arches, we'd have— what would we have? A bridge that is archless. My arch enemy. I like this, guys. GG, I'm gonna put your quote up here to end. I love your quote you just came up with there. And why did my music stop? Actually, apparently, apparently Spotify now generates— um, maybe it always did, but for me it's just started generating its own playlists based on my music. So it created a playlist called Relaxing. Which is interesting. Um, I like it, especially since Metallica is on it. I guess Nothing Else Matters is a mellow Metallica song. I gotta start listening to more Neil Diamond again. I miss Neil Diamond, huge fan. Neil Diamond, I always say Neil Diamond got me through college. Neil Diamond got me through college. He sure did. Thank you, Neil. Um, I would listen to the last song here, Another Day in Paradise, Phil Collins, or I Wish It Would Rain Down. We're gonna do Another Day in Paradise because it just reminds me of how blessed I am to have the things and people in my life that I do. I think I'm going to share the playlist next time as well because it's a public playlist apparently, and you guys can listen along with me. All right, uh, here's— I'm gonna put the quote on here. Gigi says— and I love this quote, Gigi, ready? My love for the brook— my love for the first Brooklyn Bridge will never fade, my friend. I'm working hard, I'm working hard, but I love that you're sticking to your guts and that you love this sketch. That makes me happy. GG, I'm gonna do something on it though. You're not— I don't know if you're gonna like it or not. I'm changing something. I want to pop the flag out. I just put some blue to pop that flag out a little bit. Uh, Tim says both are great, but I like the composition of the first one better, off-center. You guys, wowzers! All right, I'm outvoted. I love that. Becky says option 2 is my favorite. Powerful and colorful, full of life and hope. Here, Becky, I'm putting your— I'm gonna put your quote on screen. Sorry, DG, I just booted your quote. Um, powerful and colorful, full of life and hope. I like that. That's awesome. Oh wait, wait, Gigi has another. This is fun. What did Gigi put? Guys, this is so fun. Gigi says, but looking at this in depth, the second one is calendar worth. What? Did you just come over to the dark side of the force? Hmm, I can put both on the calendar. Heck, I can just do a Brooklyn Bridge calendar because I, I want to— I could sketch the all kinds of things, details, the full length of it. Interesting. The Brooklyn Bridge controversy here on the Inkspired Life. You thought this was gonna be a calm, mellow livestream, but no, it's turning into the Battle of the Brooklyn Bridge Sketches. That's the drama we live for. No, I'm just kidding. Uh, no, this is great. We get to see Becky from the other side. Hi, Becky! Oh, that's cool. So you saw Becky's comment? That's so cool. I love that. I'll just start putting more comments on screen so you guys can see each other. That's fun. That's a great way to bring you all together. Am I talking loud? The music's loud. All right guys, I just want to say a couple things from the heart. Should I go to the heart cam? I'm calling this the heart cam. Pardon any lighting, and I did not do my hair. I like to end— let's end on a little more personal note. Oh, there I am. Hey guys, that camera, right? That— yes, okay. Um, I just want to speak to— from the heart as I wrap up. This livestream tonight has made my day end on an amazing note. Uh, this day was not an amazing note, it was a sour note. It was like me playing the trumpet, and I don't play the trumpet. So thank you for sharing, thank you for caring, thank you for being here, even if it's for a minute or two, or you're here for the whole stream. You guys are amazing. I appreciate you all so much from the heart. Again, this is all about positivity through creativity, and in order to get that positivity, get that message out, we need community, community. And that is you. So until we meet again, sketch boldly, live creatively, and inspire endlessly. And it's— I'm doing this for dramatic effect. Is it working as I point a marker at the camera? I don't know, I'll let you guys decide that. Take care, see you soon.