Sketch Something Sunday

Hey, it's January 5th. Hope you're having a great day. Um, it's Sunday, 4:29, 4:30 PM. Just popping on to do some Sunday sketching. Don't know what I'm going to sketch, but I am actually going to be doing something a little different. I'm starting with a pencil. I rarely use pencils when I sketch, and I was going through my toolbox and I found, um, these cool Carpenter pencils that I haven't used in a long time. So I figured I'd break them out and let's do some sketching with them. So I have no, uh, no plan. I'm not sure what I'm gonna sketch yet. It might even end up being just some scribbling, and that's cool. Um, yeah, let's just do something. I think it's good to just to have sessions, even if they're like 5 minutes, 10 minutes long, where you're just randomly throwing lines down, whether you're using a pencil or pen, it doesn't matter. And you don't have to be trying to create something. It can just be totally random, just lines, right? Kind of like I'm scribbling here and just doodling. This looks like a candle to me here. But yeah, just kind of— it's just a great way just to loosen up not only your, your hands but also your mind, your creative mindset. Sometimes I think we feel like we need to be creating something that we know, something we recognize, um, and we don't always have to do that. Sometimes it's great just to be kind of out abstract, loose, just kind of, um, like, like to call grab and go. Just grab and go with whatever tools, color supplies are around. Just go for something. It's really, it's really a mindset, and it's also just good creative practice. It's a good habit to get into, um, if we feel like we need to always be creating something recognizable, it could sometimes stop, just stop our creating anything. And if you can count how many times I just said creating, or a form of the word create, let me know because I just said it a lot of times. So I thought it'd be fun to throw down some pencil here. Um, this Carpenter's pencil is cool. It has actually Looks like a red crayon on one side and just lead on the other side. And if you're watching, feel free to say hello in the chat. I always like to say hello to you guys, answer any questions. And again, I'm just putting pencil to paper and letting things happen and not really trying to create anything specific, really just having fun. Cameron's in the house! Happy New Year, Cameron! I hope you are doing well. Hope you're enjoying your, your break from school and, um, hope work is going well for you. It's always great seeing you. Happy New Year. Yeah, so just going through my toolbox and I stumbled on these Carpenter pencils I haven't used in a long time. I thought it'd be fun to break them out. You know, I'm going to throw some watercolor on top and just see how it kind of goes with the pencil. So let's just break some watercolor out. Um, I actually have these kind of these brushes here I haven't used yet, so let's just use these brushes too. I think these brushes are from IKEA. I had a friend who was generous enough to let me have some, um, some art supplies from a parent that had unfortunately passed away, and I believe these brushes were in there, and I think the package said IKEA on it. Hey Heather K, good afternoon, good to see you. Happy New Year, hope all's well. So guys, if you're just joining me, hope everything's going well. Happy New Year. This is just kind of a creative flow session. I am not trying to create anything. What? Yeah, usually I'm, you know, doing the Brooklyn Bridge or some amazing architecture somewhere. Today I said, you know what, I'm just going to grab and go and throw things down, kind of scribble, keep things light, loose, fun, and just see what happens. That way there's no pressure, no expectations. And it's kind of a mindset I try to adopt when I'm actually sketching buildings as well. I, I don't really set expectations. Um, I'm never trying to replicate exactly what I see. Because for me, that's what the world of photography is about. I just want to capture the character, the essence, the feeling, sometimes the shape or the mood of, of a building or a location. I have to say, this brush is actually pretty nice. I wish I kept the package. I think it said IKEA on it. And I didn't even know IKEA had paintbrushes. And again, I don't know how old this brush is either. It was handed down to me. It'd be interesting to find out. So I'm just grabbing and going, guys, creating here with— I actually started with a pencil, which is something I don't, um, I rarely do. Let me know in the chat if you have— do you have any creative ambitions this year? Anything you want to focus on or try to create, or maybe use a certain type of medium, or maybe a subject you want to try sketching, painting, building, whatever your way to express yourself is. This year I want to get into not only sketching— well, I'm going to keep sketching. I want to take it to the next level, so I already have something lined up. For that. I also want to get into create— designing and creating some art-related products, so stay tuned for that. I love these colors. This is just— even if you just sit down and say, hey brain, let's just play with colors and not even worry about what we're making. That's exactly what's happening here. These colors are really cool. I'll zoom in so you can see a little bit closer what's happening with the colors. So after this dries, I could always turn it into— I see a cityscape. My brain is wired to always see buildings and cityscapes. So I could come back in with a Sharpie and kind of outline some shapes and pull out buildings. So maybe I'll end up doing that eventually, but that's not my focus for right now. I kind of like the way the pencil looks underneath the watercolor. You know what I'm gonna do? Actually, I'm gonna switch gears. I'm gonna— no, no, no, I'm not gonna switch gears. I'm gonna stay with this. Um, one of the things I love about going live is you guys can see my stream of consciousness, what's going through my brain. Um, as you can tell, there's always a thousand thoughts going through at the same time, and that's just who I am. I'm kind of always thinking about stuff, always wanting to do so many different things at the same time. And there's nothing, nothing wrong with that. I've learned to embrace it. Why fight it, right? Sometimes it drives me cray cray, but art helps me to embrace the cray cray, kind of focus it. In a creative context. It transports me to another place, another time. I know we're getting deep on this Sunday afternoon. Hey, D-Ray says we got, got snow. Hey, happy Sunday! Happy Sunday to you. Yeah, I saw a post of yours on Facebook. I saw that you— it was snowing in your video, so stay safe and warm. Hopefully you're not going to be getting too much. We don't have anything happening here in, in New Jersey that I know of. I'm just looking out my window. Maybe there's a flurry trickling here and there, but it's really nothing. Be cool to have a delay or snow day sometime soon. I'll take that. D says getting deep. It's getting deep. Well, stay safe. How many inches of snow are you expected to have? Heather says, I've started playing with Inktense painting on fabric, then finishing it with free motion stitching for a doodled look. That sounds awesome. Wow, I love that you're mixing with different kind of mediums. That is so cool. I would love to see a picture of that. If you've posted anywhere, let me know. This sounds really fun. Love it, love it. You know, another, another thing I want to do this year is I want— I miss making architectural models. And Cameron, if you're still on, you're probably saying, what are you thinking, Mr. Nick? Um, being that you're in architecture school there, I just miss the craft of just making these conceptual buildings out of balsa wood and glue, right? Breaking out the hot glue gun, getting it stuck on my fingers, um, putting the wood together. It's just, it's an art form, an expression that I really have missed a lot this past year. Well, the past few years, but especially in 2024, there was just something that kept wanting me to come back to it. So I've made a commitment to myself that I'm going to actually revisit making architectural models, and they're going to be just conceptual models, just kind of fun builds. So that's something I'm planning on doing this year. So again, this is just really random. Um, I love the colors coming together on here. I'm just kind of dipping in right now to some orange. I want to intensify this. There we go. Let's play around over here. I want to get some— let me get some rusty colors happening over here. So again, I don't know exactly what these brushes are, but I mean, they're fairly cheap brushes, but it's doing the job, and I just like the way it feels putting the colors down. Let's grab some green. Another thing this year, another intention I have with my artwork is I really want to get deeper into exploring the grunge kind of look with weathered buildings, aged buildings, you know, rusted metals, patina, copper. So I'm going to really be working on those kinds of drawings and related to details. So architectural details, maybe, maybe, you know, connections like bolted connections, or, uh, what's coming to my brain, I'm thinking old industrial buildings, warehouses. That's something I really kind of want to play around with as well this year. So this is actually kind of fun because I'm messing around some color palettes here, seeing what kind of effects I can get. Heather says, I keep meaning to post but just haven't. No worries, Heather, whenever you post, I'll definitely, uh, take a look. Dearest, I bet you've missed the creating models. Would love to see. Yeah, I I have missed them. Do I have one? Um, I'm gonna— I'm gonna do a quick show and tell if you guys are interested. I'm gonna pull out this conceptual model I did back in college. I'm gonna just grab it off my shelf. I'll show you guys while this dries. I also found a couple of cool pens we'll talk about at some point on a— probably a different show. I found these when I was going through one of my drawers today. So let me pull out— pull out this model and show you guys. I have to be careful not to fall off this chair. It's all the way in the top shelf here. Alright, let's bring this over. All right, I'm back. Here we are. See if I can get this on screen. I think I've showed this model in the past. We'll break it out again here. This is a really, really loose conceptual idea. It was for a college project. Let's move my sketchbook there a little bit. Let me zoom out. And let me just turn it. That's the top of the model. Let me turn it this way. I don't— I can't get the whole thing on screen, but, um, this is a conceptual model. It was for a college project. For anybody that knows me, I'm a huge Batman nerd, so this was meant to be a— let me move it up here a little bit more— this was meant to be a a timepiece, kind of a wall in the Batcave and in Wayne Manor. Okay, so the idea was this would start up here. There's a counterweight here. So imagine this is a door for a person. So every time Bruce Wayne would go through this door into the Batcave this lowers, and then he'd have to come back this way. We know out from Batman to Bruce Wayne, back in the Manor, it would lower. So every time he goes through this opening, this would lower. So eventually he would be caught on one side. He would either have to stay Batman or Bruce Wayne. So yeah, so it's architecture school. We had these really cool conceptual type projects. We had to create a— I think it was a timepiece, an architectural timepiece. So that was kind of my project. But what I loved about this is I scavenged materials. These, uh, I found things in a waste bin, an old film canisters here. These were parts from, I think, a drafting table. I took wire from a drafting table. I don't even know where I found the metal. So it was really fun just creating this model based on these parts I kind of scavenged. And then here is the other side. So this was like a piece of acrylic I sanded, so it's not totally clear. Um, this was like— it's supposed to be a doorway. It's like you can get inside the mechanism here, but really fun. So I'd love to do this kind of stuff again and create these 3D expressions. So one day we'll get there. All right, let's see how this is drying. So I move this, so you're going to see the paint ran down the page. And again, we're just playing around today. I'm on just to unwind, play with some colors. I wanted to throw down some pencil, see what it looks like with the watercolor. Cool. Let me move this paper towel. All right, I think I'm going to use, um, some Sharpie Creative Marker. I just want to add some of this. I have to replenish this yellow color in here. I never remember the name of it. It might be something just like yellow. I call it taxi cab yellow. It reminds me of a New York City taxi cab color. So the more I'm working on this, the more I'm actually starting to see, uh, cityscape appearing. And again, the intention was really not to go anywhere with this specifically, but It will end up being a very abstract cityscape. Yuri says he's going for rust. Oh yeah, show and tell model. Yeah, I hope you guys liked that model I showed. It was kind of quick, fun— not quick and fun, it was a project from college, wasn't quick. But it was fun. Took a long time to make it. I just grabbed some Sharpie creative markers. Um, I just picked up red. Let me actually— let's see, gonna move these here. I'm just gonna grab a few of them, put them out. So I kind of— I designed a simple box and 3D printed it, and it's kind of cool because I can just set my markers on top here. So I can just see the colors and grab them so they're not all just mixed in a box. So I'm trying to bring this into more of a cityscape kind of looking piece with Showing maybe some windows here. Just going to change this song. I have some music going on in the background. Let's see, I got some music, some music piping into my ear here that I, I can't play because of copyright, of copyright issues. I have to say, I actually love the colors happening on this. I love what's happening here, that color palette, right? So if I'm talking about exploring this year, continue to, continue to explore grungy structures, industrial weathered structures. I'm really liking the colors happening. So that's just another reason to be playful. Mix match, you don't know what's going to happen. Um, I really love this down here. That's perfect, perfect for what I want to be looking to create. You know, sometimes we think there's a perfect recipe for creativity, and we— I guess we all do have our own recipes. Mine seems to be grab a little of this, a pinch of that, a teaspoonful of this thing. Definitely need— you definitely need the grungy water as part of it. Mix match. I kind of like where this is headed. To zoom out so you can kind of see the overall piece, then I'll put a mat with an opening around here. We'll kind of see if— how, um, how that pops it up, pops it out. Yeah, I'm, uh, pleasantly surprised at the way this is looking. For me, this active sketching is really— it's It's about the journey. It's just the fun exploring and the act of creating. It's not always about a specific end result. Yeah, yeah, see, now here's what— here is what my brain is thinking. Let me zoom in on this piece here. So in my brain, I'm creating a little kind of micro world with this random kind of abstract sketch. So I'm seeing, I'm seeing a cityscape. You can kind of tell that with some buildings, some windows. I pulled out the Sharpie Creative Marker and I threw down some green, and now I'm imagining this, this being a park here. I mean, we'll show some kind of trees or greenery here, some kind of park in the city. With these buildings in the background. Don't think that if you have a whole page with stuff on it that you have to use the whole page. Let me take out a mat and I'll show you. Here's what I'm thinking. So I love this kind of, um, something I've been doing for a long time is I just have some 2x2 and a 1x1 opening cut out, and I just love framing small pieces especially of abstract kind of pieces. And I just love looking at what's in that square. I'm going to go down a little bit here so you can see it better. So don't be afraid to just look at small areas of where you're working. Sometimes interesting patterns there, interesting colors, contrasts. You know, if I do this, I actually see a little kind of mini painting here. Um, let's go to the even smaller one. You focus down here on this for a second. So I'm loving what's happening in the square on the right, the colors. There we go, that's better if I get closer. And then I have some bigger mats, so let's grab I need to buy some new ones. I don't have any more black ones this size, but black pulls it out better. Um, let's go with this one, pull that down. You know, even if I just matted this piece here, maybe something like this. It crops the view out and it really focuses you in a lot more. Let's try this one's a little smaller. Yeah, it can even do vertical actually. And we have this square one here. So yeah, this can definitely be a very loose abstract interpretation of a, of a skyline somewhere, an imaginary skyline. Oh, hold on, score! I just found a matte, black matte, brandy new. Let me open this up. The New Year's score. I found an unopened black mat. That was actually really weird because I did not think I had any. So maybe I should say, uh, hmm, maybe I should talk about them. I don't know, what can I manifest? What else could I manifest to appear in them? In the magic drawer besides a black mat. Although I will take this for now, cuz that was very strange. All right, here we go. This is what I was looking for. Maybe, maybe this way. I think more like this. You maybe crop out that— kind of like that red line there on the left. Don't be afraid to look at your artwork from different points of view. I even like this vertical composition, actually. Cool. Like it, like it. So that's just a little bit about how my brain works. So I start to see these little micro worlds within these sketches. Um, I kind of— my imagination gets lost in these micro worlds, just like I was saying here when I definitely— also, also, pro tip, make sure you close your X-Acto knife blades. Okay, all right. I do love these Sharpie Creative Markers very, very much. Um, I posted a video end of December, some of my favorite tools, sketching tools I've been using. Um, feel free to look at the links in my YouTube page or look at the different videos. You'll find it there. Um, if you're curious to know some of my finds for 2024, uh, these markers were definitely one of the things I really enjoyed using. Alright, let's see, throw down a little bit more color and I think we're gonna wrap on this one just for now. Black, I want some black. Let's see. I am definitely liking the pencil look in the background. Um, I don't believe in like erasing the lines. I think every line shows the progress, shows the story. Of how this was created, right? It's just all part of what came out of my brain through my hand and onto the paper. So, um, I just— I've learned to just embrace having those lines there and letting them be part of the story that you're looking at, right? This is— this, for me, this is not a— definitely not about precision. That's why I do, you know, architectural blueprints. That's— that is precision. So there you go, just kind of a zoom out overall look at it. And I'll go back to the chat in a sec. If you guys have any questions or comments, feel free to put them in there. I'll probably be wrapping up in about 2 minutes or so. And let me grab my, uh, some colored pencils here. I think I want to turn this into maybe the top of a cathedral or a church. This looks like some kind of church spire here, so I'll use my Sharpie and I'll just kind of pull out, pull out some shapes here. I'm thinking maybe if it was framed, something like that, it could look good. So here's the overall piece. I think it's all I'm going to add for now. I'll come back and add just a couple more things maybe. Um, so it started off as just me throwing down, you know, some pencil first, and then we went into some watercolor, colored pencil. Some creative markers. Um, it was in my brain starting as really random abstract and just being playful, and then my brain went down a path of— and it's probably because of the way of what I create— I went down the path of seeing a cityscape in this randomness, um, very abstract, very loose. And then I ended up just really focusing on kind of this area, a little bit more outside of here. Put my— this is as big as my mat is. Maybe something like this. Yeah, I kind of like, I kind of like that there. Um, just by playing, you know, keep playing, um, playing with different materials and adding stuff. And not really embracing— or sorry, not really pre-planning what I wanted this to end up being. And it was just fun, and that's the whole purpose. Just get out there, explore, be playful, expect the unexpected, and don't always expect the expected. And I think it helps me to be kind of loose, um, also when I'm just grabbing and going with what's around and within hand's reach here. I can pick up and create on the fly, and I'm not stopping to go find something and come back. And that just keeps my creative flow going. All right guys, I hope you enjoyed this really, um, I don't know what adjective to use. I hope you enjoyed our sketching. Sketch Something Sunday might be something fun to do every Sunday. So Sketch Something Sunday, where we just sketch something. Who knows what's going to happen, um, and it's all good. Appreciate you guys so, so much. Um, D-Ray, I hope you stay safe with all the snow you're getting. Stay safe and warm, everybody else. I hope you're okay where you are and you're enjoying your day. I'm gonna go back in the comments, see if there's any final questions, and then, um, say goodbye. You guys are awesome. Says, get ready to wrap it up. Yes, looking good. Thank you, D-Ray, I appreciate you. Heather says, I love what framing does to focusing into an area. It can really change the final piece. Thanks as always for sharing a creative process. Hey, thank you, Heather, for sharing your time, um, and your ideas out there. Appreciate it so much. Thank you guys for embracing me for who I am and how this crazy brain works, just trying to get out what's here. Onto paper and talk you guys through what I'm thinking. Appreciate y'all so much. Keep using your creativity for positivity and do something nice for someone this week, whether it's a silent blessing or say hello, smile, just do something kind for someone. Let's pay it forward. We definitely could use it out there. All right guys, I will be back on again this week. Take care, peace, and live creatively. This has been Jason Nicholas Nicholas on Sketch Something Sunday here on The Inkspired Life. Appreciate you guys so much. Take care, see you soon. Awkward wave till I find the finish button. And, uh, no, I did not do my hair. And yes, I've been wearing glasses because my contacts that are in, I cannot see anything close with, so I have to wear these reading glasses. All right guys, take care. See you.