Sketchbook Show and Tell

Foreign. Jason here from the Inkspired Life. Hope you're having a great day today. I want to do a quick show and tell of some sketches I recently did. On a bus ride to New York City, I brought along my Lockbee Mini Field Journal. This was actually the first time I had a chance to take it out along with me for a little sketching adventure. So join me for just a couple of minutes here as I show you some sketches I did. I'll talk about the idea I had and give you a little feedback about what I'm thinking about the Mini Field Journal so far. So let's go right into the sketches. So when I go to New York City, I take a bus ride. It's about just over an hour ride or so. And I often will do journaling or sketching on the bus ride. So I had an idea this trip to capture kind of vignettes along the bus ride. So when the bus would stop at different bus stops, I would kind of grab my pen, do a quick sketch. I did use this pen here. It's. It's actually a Sharpie gel pen. Really love it a lot. So the sketches you're going to see are just really quick thoughts. Bus didn't always stop for a long time, so I had to sketch really quickly. But the idea was to sketch. Sketch it as a continuous line drawing. So I thought it would be a fun challenge. And here we go. This is kind of the first page. So we kind of start here. We'll kind of go around this way. And here. This was actually at the bus station waiting. And I just kind of sketched a quick bus there. And you can see the line continues off the page. If we flip to the next page, the line picks up here and continues. So a lot of this was while the bus was stopped. Some of these sketches were while the bus was moving as well. So you can kind of see what's going on here. Some street lights, traffic lights. You'll see telephone poles, vignettes or silhouettes rather, of buildings. Again, this is kind of a single line. Just me doing this, trying to keep the pen on the page and moving it around. Continues here. And one of the reasons I love doing this, I was practicing a couple things. One was, one was a challenge to see if I could continue sketching this without lifting the pen off the page. Obviously, I had to do it when I flipped pages and stuff. The other thing I was challenging myself was how much sketching could I do on the page without looking at the paper? So I was mostly looking at the subject I was sketching, and I've been practicing that more and more, and I feel like it really loosens me up and it really just frees the sketch. If you're looking for loose style sketching, it's a really great tip and trick. Try sketching while you're looking more at the subject than the paper. So it's a lot of fun to play with. And that was what I was practicing here as well on that bus ride. So you can see the line starts here. It goes off on the right. If we flip to the next page, it's going to continue here. And again, just try to do a single line. Not all these are a single continuous line, but a lot of it, I would say about 95%, if not more, is that, you know, I didn't care. I mean, is this looking like roads? Is it looking like street signs? Is it looking like cars, traffic lights? It doesn't have to. The idea was to be experimenting and just really enjoying the process and the journey. That's what fires me up, guys. It's not always about the end result. So we'll just look a couple more pages in here. Same idea. Right? You can kind of see this was actually. I remember this. This is a silhouette of a CVS building. Here you can see the building, some awnings. Another thing about sketching, sketching in person or urban sketching, sketching out of place really allows the memory of the place, of the time, the feeling, the weather, the colors, even smells. It really captures in your brain and your heart. So that's another reason I really love doing this kind of quick sketching. Right. Is that tree beautiful? No, but it is beautiful to me because I was practicing and having fun. And that's the beauty of it. It's being lost in that moment and capturing that sense of joy and exploration. I often like to say it's a child, like a sense of wonder. Exploring and capturing your childlike sense of wonder. This was an ihop. Apparently I wrote IHOP there again. So these were sketches from my hour bus ride. I didn't sketch the entire hour, but I pushed myself to go for a little bit here. And it was. It was interesting to do this because I knew I looked. Now that I'm looking back, I can see what my eye was picking up on. It picked up on a lot of telephone poles and wires and signs. That may have been a lot. That was the last one. So next time I go back, I'm going to challenge myself to do it again, and I'll do it longer. I also did some journaling here in here. I took some notes as well. So I'm going to give my initial impression of this lock B mini field journal. Loving the size of it. It's really small, convenient, easy to carry. So that's a win win for sure. I can hold. You can hold up to four notebooks. I have two in here which was fine for me. I didn't really use the pockets too too much yet. So it has plenty of options for the pockets. I love the pen loop of course as well has a handle on here which is cool too. And I think it'll stretch out with wear. It's a little tight so I'm enjoying this so far. I kind of wish it had another place for another pen. I put this pen back in here but it kind of slips around. I was worried about it falling out. So maybe you know, something with the pocket or another place for another pen would be awesome. I did try putting it in here as well in the front. But I just want. I wanted my sketchbook to or field journal to close flat. So it really wasn't helping with that really minor, minor things. I'm loving this great convenient size and I had a lot of fun doing these sketches. So hopefully you picked up some cool ideas from that and a little inspo. And then another thing. I just want to share another kind of pro tip or something I'm using these things for. So these are called. These are called Lockby Quattros and I know I talk about this brand a lot. I love this brand. So I talking from my heart. They are not paying me to say any of this stuff. I've been using these to carry colored pencils in and pens. This one has my creative markers in it. This was so handy on my recent urban sketching adventure to keep stuff in there and I think I showed this last time. I'm not going to go through it all but you know here are just some examples of things I sketched. This is the regular size field journal which is still my. My number one preference because this is my size. I love the paper. So easy to hold anyway. So this, these. This is just a real great to kind of travel light. You know. I used to not carry any colors. I always carried a pen and which is great. That's fine. We can start simple to sketch simple. But I've been a little more brave and a little adventurous and start in adding some colors or taking colors with me as an option. Pretty cool. Let me know if you have any questions or comments. Or thoughts. It's great to see so many people. I see six people watching. Great to see you guys live. Hope you're having an awesome night tonight. Let me know in the comments. Say hi to me if you want to do a quick sketch. I'll do one. Yeah. I got school tomorrow, but I could always do a quick sketch. Actually, you know what I do want to do? I want to add some color to a sketch I did last night. Let me find the page. I did this really quick skyline sketch last night. This is. This is a quick scene inspired by Central Park. Let me zoom in a little bit. So I just really threw down some lines. This is another example of me looking more. This was done from a picture I took, but I was looking much more at the picture than the paper when I was sketching. Just to practice being loose without focusing on detail. So looking at the reference really helps in just sketching. Let's throw down some color on this quick and see what happens to 1006. I'm going to limit myself here to. Let's see. We can do in like, three minutes. So I'm gonna grab. I have, you know, my colored pencils and mark creative markers ready to go. I don't think I'll break the watercolor out tonight, but I do always have that ready to go. Awesome. Let me see if there's any comments or questions before I get started. Hey, Chip is in the house. Chip, great to see you. Hope all's well. We'll have to catch up sometime soon. That would be amazing. D Ray says hi. Deray, always a pleasure to see you. Hey, Karen. Karen. Hope all is well. Hope all is well out there on the West Coast. I don't think you're anywhere near where the fires are. I'm hoping that my prayers go out to everybody in California right now. Yeah. Valerie. Hey, Valerie. What pen do you sketch with? Valerie. Awesome question. So my number one go to sketching pen is right here. Sharpie. I love using a Sharpie. A couple reasons. One is when I go to add, say, color. So I always. I always like to start with a Sharpie. Another thing is Sharpies equal commitment. When you're throwing a Sharpie on paper, you. You're not erasing anything. So my brain, this is like a creative mindset tip. I know once I throw a Sharpie down, it's there. So I'm not worried about making mistakes. I live with what I draw. I embrace it. And sometimes it really helps to tell the story of how you created a sketch. So those are the Two main reasons. I love sketching with a Sharpie, a couple of other pens. I. I do have a Lamy Safari. I have not been using fountain pens too much lately. Really Sharpies. Another go to pen right is right here. I enjoy using the Pilot Precise pen to sketch with. I especially love the red Pilot Precise. So that's an awesome. Another pen I've recently been using is this and Sharpie. If you're out there, I am always talking about your stuff. Just saying it's a Sharpie gel pen. I started using these, I think last year. I. I think I was in a Staples store. I love the color of the pen so I bought it and it said Sharpie. So I'm really loving these Sharpie gel pens. That's what I used in here in this little mini field journal. So yeah, hopefully that answers your question. Those are my kind of go to sketching pens right now. Cool. I have, I have this which I really. I'm not going to talk to talk too much about it because I haven't really used it too up. I'll do another separate video on just this. This is actually a very cool. I can't remember the name of the company. I think it's Tom's Inc. Or Tom's. I'll post. I'll do another video on this. But this is actually a really cool. I think it's called the Lumos. Really cool sketching tool. It has two sides. You can replace ink cartridges in it. The tips are replaceable. So I've only really just started to experiment with this. But I will. Like I said, I'll definitely talk about it more in the future. It just feels really dang cool too. All right, Great question. I always love your guys. Your questions. Always feel free to ask because. Becky. Hey, Becky. Great to see you. Oh, Karen, you're in Northern California. Awesome. So glad you're not near the fires. That's. That's awesome. Hey, Valerie says been sketching a lot. Love your work. Thank you so much. I appreciate that. Keep on sketching. Keep on watching for creative insights and tips about sketching, especially loose style architecture. Chip, when sketching urban landscapes, what catches your eyes first and what do you find yourself sketching first? Are the answers the same? Ooh, Chip. Hmm? When sketching urban landscapes, what captures your eye first? Buildings. I mean. Yeah, buildings always capture my eyes first. And what I think I'm thinking specifically right now in New York City, it might change depending where I am. In New York City, the way the buildings hit the skyline is what captures me First. So if you look here, I'll break out some color and sketch while I'm talking. I will just use. It's gonna grabbing. I'm just grabbing and go in random colors. So the skylines always capture me first. Not skylines, the. The roof line where the architecture hits the sky. And why I see that first I think is it. A lot of things get lost in the city. It's so busy, so chaotic, so hectic. But you can usually pick out where these, these tall buildings are meeting the skyline. So it's just a very clear, easy way to kind of get engaged in what's surrounding me. Hopefully that helps. Second part was what do you find yourself sketching first? Love it. So it's kind of the same answer. I always. I like sketching buildings first. And I will typically start with the top of a building and work my way down. And this relates to what I just said. It's because I can define the top of a building against a sky. Great questions, guys. Always love your questions. This guy's gonna be really quick and loose here. What else is new for me, right? So you can see when I kind of shaded this colored in the sky, you can really see the buildings popping out. So that's a good example of what I was talking about and why my eye is drawn usually to that. So another thing, Chip, if the next thing I would say is interesting shapes. If I see something that's kind of an interesting shape or something that's very industrial looking or even grungy looking, that those kinds of items capture my eyes first. I love industrial buildings, old warehouses, rusted, decaying buildings. Those that will catch my eye as well. Again, I'm just gonna grab and go. We'll just throw some colors on this. Another thing is I. I don't always sketch people. I'm starting to do more people. Maybe it's because I'm not comfortable sketching people, but lots of times I will just leave people out of my sketching. And I'm gonna do something kind of my brain just said outline the buildings in the red. So we're gonna do a continuous line with red and just kind of outline the buildings here. It's okay. I know I'm covering over the black and I don't mind that because I could always go back with black again if I want and pull things out. But I'm just going my gut. And it said just kind of do this continuous line on there just to pop it out. This is fun. I think I could do this 247 guys let's just dip into some colored pencils here. Let me know if you have any other questions. I'll take a look before I head out tonight. I just broke the point on that. Here's another kind of a pro tip. I forgot to bring a pencil sharpener with me when I went sketching. I'm sure someone had one I could have borrowed. But normally I will sharpen both ends of my pencils in case one breaks. I have a backup. I didn't do that this time. So you can see here. This is what I normally do. So you might want to think about sharpening both ends of your colored pencils, especially if you're taking them out on the road in case you don't have a pencil sharpener. What else? Cold. Other colors. I love this neon yellow color pencil. It is like a highlighter. All right, let me see if there's any questions in there. Hey, Karen, thank you for the star on Facebook. Thank you for sending stars. I always, always appreciate that. It really helps to go towards buying, you know, some new supplies and showing you guys. So thank you so much. That is awesome. Do you find depth perception or shadowing harder? Great question, Chip. I love your questions. So depth perception, I think, I guess you're talking about, like, perspective. That's a great question. I don't really think I find one harder than the other. Yeah, I don't really find it. Find it any harder. If I was trying to create technical, precise perspectives, that would definitely be a challenge. But since I've adopted a mindset of doing really quick, loose perspectives, I'm not worried about accuracy. I'm not afraid to. To tackle those. Yeah, that's a really great question. So I think they're both equally. I was gonna say equally hard or equally easy. I don't know how to. Let's just say they're equal. You guys are awesome. I always love the questions. This is some kind of chain link fence here. So this the Central park buildings. Back in the background, we have rock outcropping, some kind of playground area, and a walkway in the park. That's what we're looking at here. We'll just throw some. Actually, let's do it here. Cool. So I am. I'm finding myself right now thinking about too much what I want to do instead of just doing it. And that causes creative block. A lot of times for me, instead of just grabbing and going, I'm trying to pre plan what colors I'm using. So I'm losing that creative. That creative flow. That's okay. I'm not saying there's. There is a time to plan and think about things. If I do it too much, it kind of slows me down and kind of shuts me down. Hopefully that makes sense. I just want to keep just kind of going and going. You got to trust your instincts. Trust your gut, trust your instincts. Don't worry about making stinking mistakes. That just holds. That just holds us all back so, so much. It's only paper. Cool. Hey, Valerie, thank you for watching. Would you. Would you say that skyline has the greatest level of contrast? Then maybe that makes it easier to make sense visually? Yeah. Becky, I love the way you said that. Yeah, the skyline has the greatest level of contrast. That's exactly right. That's why it's easier for me to start looking up at the buildings, you know, especially when we're trying to capture a scene like this. I love the way you said that. D. Ray says grunge. I heard grunge. Yes. You guys know I love industrial grunginess. That is. That is a focus this year for me in sketching. It's always a focus. But even more so this year, Just gonna throw down some of my. One of my favorite colors here. Good old pink. Kind of a signature color. Got it. I always need some neon pink somewhere on sketches. Awesome. Hey, Michael, great to see you. What color pencils are you liking these days, Michael? I am. I am loving right here. Prismacolor Premier. I. Yeah, I've tried other color pencils. For me, I love these pencils. They're not cheap, but the Premier Prismacolor Premier color pencils, they just go down like butter. So smooth. I love, love using them. Even now, just the way it feels as I put it on the paper, it's just. Yeah, it's just like. It's like melting on the page. Great question. So I would go personally, I would use the Prismacolor premier pencils. That was a nice alliteration. Personally, Prismacolor Premier pencils, perhaps. Hey, Paula, Great to see you. Just got in here. That's okay. No worries. I randomly on late on a Monday night. I have school tomorrow. But you know what? Sketching is a great way for me to wind down my day sometimes. We all got a lot of stuff going on up here if we had a busy day. Sketching takes me. Although it hypes me up. I'm really hyper right now, but it gets my brain in a different state getting ready for bed. So sketching can be really therapeutic that way. Great for transitioning your state of mind. Awesome. Hey, DB's in the house. DB. Hello. As an. As an artist, what is the best advice you ever received? Whoa, guys, let's give Chip some heart. Some hearts or rounds of applause or thumbs ups out there. These questions are fire. As an artist, what is the best advice you ever received? I. I got to let that marinate, you know, couple. The first thing that comes to my mind is there aren't. There are no mistakes. I don't know who said that at first where I heard it, maybe I don't know if it was a Bob Ross thing or something. I'm sure a lot of people said it. I love that question. I mean, our friend Rue always has these amazing witticisms, right? So, you know, can think of anything that he would. Anything that he would say would be something. I'm gonna have the chip. I'm gonna process that one. Yeah. What is the best advice you ever received? Great question. Let me. Let me share some of my. I'm going to flip it a sec. I'm going to share some of my favorite advice to give. Number one, look around the world and explore your world around you in a playful, childlike sense of wonder. Try to see through that lens. It really helps to give your creativity, create creativity a different spin. So see the world around you in a wondrous, childlike sense of wonder. I would put that one out there, actually have my sketch blueprint I'm looking at in the wall. I'll make this available for you guys. It's free PDF I think you can get off my website, but if not, I'll put a link somewhere to it on the chat later. So one of the things I have there is see the world in wondrous ways. Embrace imperfection. I like that. Embrace imperfection. It's just part of the deal, whether you're sketching or it's life, right? Don't fight it. Just learn to embrace it. Use it to your advantage. I think another piece of advice I'd like to give is don't get stuck in the comparison trap. When you're comparing yourself to every other artist you see on Facebook or Instagram, you're shutting yourself down. It's okay to look at that stuff for inspiration, right? Maybe get some ideas. But don't look at other artists work to say, hey, my work is horrible. Look at what they're doing. That's why I never wanted to post anything. That is why I never did color sketches. If I was doing stuff in color, I was afraid to show it because I was comparing myself to people that Were doing sketches in color, doing these beautiful, lifelike images. So I. It really shut me down. I would add color and keep it private. But I've learned to embrace your inner voice, go with your guts. And really, I think the final thing I'm going to give for some advice is it's about the journey. Enjoy the moment, Enjoy the journey. Don't always be so fixated on the end point. You can have an intention, have a goal, but for me, it's really about. I love throwing on color. I love sketching lines. That's what brings me the joy. Is this a masterpiece? No. No. But you know what? I had so much fun in the past, whatever, 15 minutes working on this, and that is time I can never get back. That is joy. So that's kind of some of the advice I would love to share with you guys. Chip, I'm going to get back to your original question at some point. I love that question. See, there's any final questions on here. Michael says, good to be back watching you live. Thank you, Michael. New York City with Miami color vibes. Yeah, I could see that the sky is too. Sky is to Miami. We're gonna gray it up. We're just gonna take some gray. No, let's use. Let's use a. What's this color pencil? Sky blue. We're going to dull this down. I'm going to throw some sky blue on top of it. That's so funny. Yeah, it's a great. These are. I love the colors that came out here. It's so fun. Have you ever drawn any Broadway scenes? Ooh. DB all right, I got a quick show and tell me. Just grab this. It'll take two seconds. I have. I have drawn stuff. Let me show you. Let me grab this. We got three things right here. 1, 2, 3. Let me just grab and go. All right, so these are. These are scenes that have been in. These are sketches that have been inspired along, you know, in the Broadway area, Different plays and stuff. So I don't know if this is what you meant, but this is architecture sketching inspired by Broadway. You got some signage here. This is actually. Oh, my gosh. Any Harry Potter fans out there? What is this thing called? Oh, they play that game Quidditch. I forget what this thing's called. Anyway, this is on top of the theater where the Harry Potter building. Harry Potter play is golden. Snicket, maybe. I can't think of the name of it. So that's one. I love signs. I love the signage and marquees in the Broadway area. And the theaters. This is kind of the same scene but a different medium. This is really cool paper. This is called Yupo or Yuppo. I don't know how you say it. I say Yupo. It's almost like sketching on plastic. A sheet of plastic. Not the easiest thing to sketch on. You have to really let layers dry. But if you just kind of take a look up here, trying to move, I don't know if it's showing or not. I just love this Yupo paper. And then here's another one I sketched. This is the booth theater. This is also on that Yupo paper. Really cool. Some fire escapes going on. I'll zoom in. This is. This is one of my faves, actually. I have to say these are two of my fave sketches here I've done so far. Great question. Love it. So, yeah, there's. There's a lot of cool stuff on Broadway. Would you sell the. Would you sell the bigger one? Oh, D.B. this one here? Yeah. Yeah. To you. Yeah, I would. I would sell this thing. I'm flattered you're asking. This is one of my. Like, I just actually just said that before I even read your comment. This is one of my favorite, favorite sketches. We can message each other if you want. Really? Thank you so much. Yeah. If you guys ever see any sketches while I'm talking to you or anything on my websites or posts, feel free to message me. I'm always willing to. I'm 99 willing to sell sketches. Some of them are really hard to part with, but do you. DB let's talk. I would love for that to go to you because I know how much you appreciate this. This stuff. PM me with a price. I will. I might do it tomorrow. Awesome. Guys. I'm gonna hear any final questions as we wrap up tonight. I hope you enjoyed my quick show and tell in the Lock Me mini field journal. My first use, the quick show and tell of the continuous line drawing I did on the bus. Bus ride. You'll be seeing more of this and hearing more about the mini Field journal. And then we talked about the. The Quattros and how I'm using them to hold pens and pencils. Feel free. If you guys do like this Lock B stuff or you're interested, I have a discount code on the bottom of my screen. I'm trying to point to it there. Feel free to go to lockbee.com, use my discount code and you'll save some money. They do have some rules that apply, I guess, but that's cool. And if you do purchase using my code, I. I do get a little bit of. A little bit of commission comes my way, which it has been awesome. And I'm really thankful to any of you that have purchased lock be stuff using my discount code. It's. Yeah, I really appreciate it. It means a lot to me and especially that you. You are liking what I'm suggesting. Really cool. You guys are amazing. All right, I think we're gonna wrap. I really, really appreciate you guys. Thank you for being amazing. Your support, your positivity, your creativity, this is my passion. I love this. I could do this 24 7. And it's just really cool for me to be able to share what's going on in my brain and here on my paper with you guys. I'm here for you. If you ever have questions, want some feedback or advice about sketching, tools, techniques, even creative mindset, feel free to message me on, you know, Facebook or YouTube. I'd be more than happy to give you feedback or advice. Thank you guys so much. Have an amazing rest of your night. I have to really head to bed now because this guy's got to teach architecture tomorrow and that is my other passion. I love teaching. It's really hard work teaching high school. But let's just say the. The moments, the. There are moments that are so rewarding, rewarding that makes it really incredible. So I'm very, very blessed. Take care, guys. Keep using your creativity for positivity spread. Good cheer out there. Say hello to people. Let's just get manners back in the world. Good God, we need manners again. I'm not going to go down a rant, but let's just keep being positive. See you guys really soon. Remember, if you can sketch if lines, if you can scribble, you can definitely sketch architecture. And I'm Jason of the inspired life until we create again. Bye, guys.