Sketching Architecture : Birthday Stream

Hey, happy, um, October 23rd. Hope you're having an awesome day today. I'm gonna do some sketching. I'm gonna just start off a little differently tonight than usual. So I'll get to that in a minute. So I hope you're having a great, great day. It's 9:24 PM here in New Jersey. Um, so, uh, doing a little birthday sketching today. So, um, yeah, I thought it'd be fun to come on a little bit, maybe for, I don't know, 20 minutes on my birthday here and just sketch with you guys and check in and see how things are going. It's been a really, really great day. I've been very blessed to have a lot of people sending some nice comments and thoughts my way. Even in school, some of my students, um, which is incredible. So lots of nice well wishes all around, and that's so cool. So here, let's— I've been sketching barns for the past week and a half, and I love sketching barns. It's been so much fun. I'm going to change it up a little bit tonight. I am actually— I don't know what I'm going to sketch, but I do know that I'm not— I know, I know this is going to sound weird, but I am not going to start with a Sharpie. 90— I'm going to say 98% of the times I will start with the Sharpie, but I am going to start by just throwing down some color on the paper using these— well, I guess they're still Sharpies, but it's the Sharpie Creative marker, not just the regular permanent markers I usually use. All right, so let's throw down some color, and, uh, might be abstract, might turn into something, might turn into nothing, and that's awesome. I just want to have fun throwing color down, so that's my intention. Sometimes I talk about setting intentions before we like create something or sketch something. And my intention today is just throw down color, have some fun. And again, I don't care if it looks like nothing, it's totally random, and that's cool. And I am talking mucho because I'm excited to be here. Let's throw down color, and hopefully— I'm hoping it dries kind of quick because I do want to go on top of the color with Sharpie marker. So again, I'm just randomly throwing down some colors here. Um, one of the cool things about having a birthday on October 23rd is that I share it with, uh, two, I guess, celebrities. Two celebrities that I've— I love their talents. Um, so it's kind of fun. One of those celebrities is Weird Al Yankovic. Weird Al, um, he shares a birthday with me on October 23rd. So hey, Weird Al, if you're out there, happy birthday. Um, the other celebrity that I share a birthday with today is Johnny Carson. Um, I know there's stories about him and his personal life, and I don't I don't go— I don't care about that stuff. I love the Johnny Carson you see on The Tonight Show, a huge fan of that show. I, I pretty much watch a rerun every night before I go to bed, or clips from, well, you know, the old shows. Um, and something that you guys may not know about me is I always had a secret fantasy career to be a talk show host, AKA— I mean, kind of like the Johnny Carson Show. I'm not really into the current modern TV talk show hosts, but I would love to have been a TV show host like Carson, interviewing celebrities and, um, just doing fun kind of skits and stuff. So it's really cool that to have a birthday on the same day as those two celebrities. All right, let's see. Again, I'm just randomly throwing color down. I am not even trying to create anything here. Got some music on. It's also fun to play with these. I love these Sharpie Creative Markers. Hey Sharpie, if you're out there, just saying. I'm also listening to, uh, one of my favorite songs from the '80s, one of my— from my Probably my favorite '80s band. I'm gonna say '80s. It may have been '80s, '90s. Um, Huey Lewis and the News. I love this color. These are really fun just to layer on top of each other. Hey, D-Ray says happy birthday. Thank you, D-Ray. Hope all's well with you. I really appreciate your Nice birthday wish there. Thank you so much. I do wish I had a yellow creative marker. I don't think I have a yellow one. Just checking over here. No, I don't think I have yellow. It's all good. I just wanted to have a— just some brightness on here. All right, let's throw down— these dry really quick, which I love, so I can actually go back. And I do want to throw down some— I'm actually going to like sketch on top of these colors. It's just about being playful tonight, playing around with colors on here. Cool. Hey, if you're watching, feel free to say hi in the comments. I'd love to chat with you. Don't be shy, it's all good. Um, this is a white one, so I don't really need to throw down white yet. I have white on the paper. All right, so we started off just throwing down some random colors. Don't know where we're headed. That's the beauty, that's the fun tonight. Um, little birthday zaniness. So let's grab a— let's grab my— one of my trusty Sharpies. Trusty, is that a word? Trusty? Trusted Sharpies. And let's just sketch on top of this. I, I do know what I want to sketch. I'm going to visit one of my favorites, and I'm not going to say what it is. See if you guys can guess as I'm sketching. And I'm just gonna throw this— I don't know if it's showing that well, but we'll kind of pop this out a little bit more. You know what, um, I am actually going to switch to a— one of the thicker Sharpie markers so it shows up better. There we go. Cool. All right, there we go. Sorry, my paper's sliding all over the place today. I do like to move the paper around a lot when I'm sketching, just so it feels more comfortable. Woo! Yeah, I wish I had yellow, um. That's all right, we'll keep— we're going to keep going forward here. Just throw down some other colors. Choose his green. Hey, yeah, awesome band. I totally agree. Actually, we're going to switch up. Let's see, I want a color that's going to stand out. Maybe I'll use orange for this. All right, cool. So hopefully you can kind of see what's starting to form here. Teresa, did you have pizza? You know what, I did not have pizza for my birthday, um, and that's by choice. I actually had a nice sub sandwich. I was craving a Jersey Mike's sandwich. Uh, so that is— that's what I had for my birthday dinner, and it was delicious. And I did have ice cream cake, of course. So it's been a really, really nice day, very kind of laid-back, mellow. And like I said, I had some really nice wishes, uh, Facebook, text messages. I had a really nice phone call, um, tonight, and my students and my co-workers— oh my gosh, some of my favorite people I work with— we had a nice little bagel breakfast, and it was a surprise. So I'm very blessed to, um, I may not have a lot of friends, but the ones I do have are really special to me, and I hope they know that. I try to tell them. And my students— some of my students are off the charts incredible, and I am really blessed to be, uh, their teacher. What else could I ask for, right? And of course my family here and my pup, so it's all good. I am liking this, but I want yellow. I'm stubborn with this yellow, so we're going to throw down some yellow highlighter, I think. This is cool. So kind of a little Brooklyn Bridge sketch going on. There we go. I just feel like we needed this brightness here. Don't be afraid to sketch with highlighters. I'm digging this, guys. Hopefully you're liking this sketch. I'm gonna grab some water. It's at 9:39. I'm gonna wrap up in a couple minutes. I've been drinking a lot of ice water lately, and I just can't get enough. It's so— I just love it. Ah, just so refreshing. Ice water with a little bit of lemon in it. Or sometimes I'll drink a, uh, like one of those no calorie, no sugar flavored waters. I love those too. I like the way this is looking, guys. Pretty cool. It was fun just to throw down some color to start with. Just gonna flip it over, do it upside down this way. Hey, Chip's in the house! Chip, it's great to see you on here. It was really awesome talking to you earlier today. Hey, I was amazing. Thank you so much for sharing some of your time tonight. All right, cool. So let's flip it back over. Let me zoom in, let it dry for a sec. I— this is actually pretty cool, if I may say so. Well, I guess I did just say so. Um, let's see, I'm going to bring this out, curve this down a little bit, connect these a little bit more here. There we go. Yeah, so what a fun way just to use white there, um, to make the Brooklyn Bridge, right? Throw down some random colors first and then we'll come back on top of it. So I love these Creative Markers. I know they make thinner ones as well. This is like a bullet tip one. Um, I kind of wish I had a thinner one right now, but we'll work with what we have, right? I like to call it grab and go, just grab and go and create. I need to come up with something catchier, but we'll just— we'll stick with grab and go for now. Grab and go creativity. Uh, let's do some vertical pieces here maybe. I like the white, it's popping out against the color in the background. Hey, Chip says loving the suspension lines. Hey, thank you so much. Yeah, right. Let's throw down some more, um, black. Where is— I do love how fast these markers dry. It makes it really great for um, the way I love to sketch, which is usually kind of quick. I'm not sitting there waiting for stuff to dry. Although what I love about watercolor and ink is the way it morphs and changes after it dries. So, but if I just want to go fast and furious, these are perfect. There you go. It's weird, I keep, I keep sliding my sketchbook off camera tonight. What's up with that? I think it's time for me to start rethinking a little bit about my layout in here. I feel like I need a little more space on my desk, my little— it's not really a desk, my, um creative station. I'm at a loss of words right now. Um, yeah, I want some more. I know what I want to do. Oh no, I just got some creative marker on my white shirt I'm wearing. Oh, I hope it comes out. Dang. That's not cool. I just got— I'll see if— I know you guys can't see it. Okay, let's see. Where is it? You can see my sleeve right there, right there. I got some black creative marker on my arm, on my sleeve. That stinks. I don't think that's coming out. The hazards of grab-and-go creativity. I need to wear a smock. Do people still wear smocks? Yeah. I'm so glad I threw the yellow on here. I think that really helps, helps it. I didn't want to leave it white because the background's white, so I think by putting the yellow here on the bridge, it's just popping that out. Part of me saying this is done. I don't know if I want to re— I don't think I want to— I don't think I want to do any more to it. Let's zoom out. Let's put a frame around it, see what it looks like. Can you guys tell that this is the Brooklyn Bridge? So I figured, uh, I would kind of sketch. This is probably my— I'm gonna say Yeah, I'm gonna say I probably sketch the Brooklyn Bridge more than any other New York City structure. Um, I love the Brooklyn Bridge. I've only walked across it once. Just looking for frames in my drawer here. So I've only crossed it once. I've seen it many times. I'm gonna walk across it again soon, um, this fall. I definitely want to do it. Um, there's just something really magical and special and, um, uh, for me, fascinating about walking across the Brooklyn Bridge, seeing the skyline, um, being way up there in the air. It's just, it's a feeling I really, I, for me, it's hard for me to describe. Um, I just love what bridges are about, connections. And yeah, so I like this. All right, here's a cool frame. Let's see what this looks like, guys. I think this is going to look pretty cool framed. I don't have a big enough frame, but we'll just try this to start with. And I'll zoom in, give you guys kind of a peek at it. So here's what it looks like. Let's throw this frame. It's going to crop some of it out, and I'm cool with that. Let me know what you think. Does that look cool framed? Um, Chip says very Warhol look to me. The yellow adds great depth. Oh, so cool. I'm glad you like the yellow. It's— when I put the frame on, it's not the— not the yellow my heart, my brain, my soul, my emotions was kind of feeling. I wanted— I'm looking for more of a lemon yellow, but I didn't have anything, so we're gonna go with the yellow highlighter. Well, actually, let's frame it. Let's do like a vertical frame too. Take a look. So I think I like it horizontal. I do. I— Chip mentioned that the cables here— I love the cables on here as well. So I think that would look sweet. I have a bigger kind of square frame But this, for me, this really should be a horizontal frame. Let's see what this looks like. Yeah, horizontal, D-Ray says. Thank you. I mean, let's try— let me look in my one of my magic drawers here. Let's see if I have a bigger frame. Well, actually, let's do the opposite, cuz I have smaller frames. Let's kind of crop out a really small area and see what that does. I kind of This, this is actually interesting. Can I zoom in without cropping too much out? This is actually an interesting composition to me. What do you guys think of this? Kind of wish I had a little bit more white space, which I could add back in with— I have a white marker. Just to bring some— let's, instead of talking about it, let's see, let's do it. I'm going to throw in some white on here, just a little bit. We'll just kind of do some— there we go, that's enough. So I just want to throw some white in that corner to bounce kind of the white over here. So for me, this is actually another really cool composition. Would someone be able to tell it's the Brooklyn Bridge? I don't know. It'd be— I might actually test that. Maybe I'll bring it to school tomorrow and I'll just show some, some of my students. I'll ask them to guess what this is. It'll be a good test. What I like about it, it's very abstract. And it makes the viewer kind of look at it, study it a little bit, bring their imagination into it. And it'll be fascinating for me to see what do they see in it. This is interesting too. I'm not sure, I'm not sure if I like the bigger frame or the smaller opening. A part of me is saying the smaller opening. Cool. I find it really fun to kind of look at these different frames, these different openings, capturing different parts. Um, so that's kind of a pro tip: don't be afraid to break your bigger sketches, bigger paintings down into smaller pieces. You never know what you're going to find. It may be a color combination, a pattern, um, you know, shapes that you see. You know, this is actually interesting composition here. It almost looks like you could tell me it was a bridge here, some kind of building in the background, maybe some water underneath. So you can really be playful with it, and I guess that's the point of tonight. Just be playful. Don't be afraid to break out color. Throw down random color first. Whether using watercolor or markers. Um, somewhere here I have a scrap piece of paper with random watercolor on it. So— oh, I don't know where that is, but I just found my 2-inch squares I've been looking for. It's 2-inch and 1-inch square. Let's zoom in and take a look at these, and we'll wrap up. Uh, sometimes for me, these small squares are the most exciting. So a 2-inch and a 1-inch. I prefer the 2-inch. Usually. What I love about these small squares is you can really just isolate small sections and get really cool abstract patterns, right? See how that looks really, really cool there? So we have that. We could also scoot it over, maybe kind of do something like That— I like the other one better, but we can do that. And we just— infinite. Is that true? Are there infinite possibilities? Any mathematicians in the house? This is kind of a cool pattern as well. So my architecture brain seeing cityscape here, buildings in the background. I'm seeing some kind of road or something in the foreground there. Guardrails maybe. This is an interesting pattern here. Hey Mr. Nick, what did you do for your birthday last night? Um, well, I cut out some squares and rectangles and threw down some colors on paper and put the squares and rectangles on top and was looking at patterns. Oh, that's cool. Be fun to see what kind of reaction I get. Yeah, there's a— there are a lot of possibilities with this one. I'm torn. I don't know which way to head with it, but that's cool. Looking through 2-inch and 1-inch frames, and then we wrap it up. That's right, we're gonna wrap it up. Guys, you are awesome. Thank you for sharing a few minutes with me on a really special day here, um, and thank you for letting me share with you what I love to do, is just be creative and sketch, whether it's going totally bonkers with colors, um, or if, you know, going back to kind of the barn stuff I've been doing, or if I'm doing my New York City sketches. It's just a privilege for me to be able to be here and share what I do and have you follow along, comments, and participate. I appreciate y'all so, so much. I think that's gonna be a wrap. I have a cool virtual workshop coming up Saturday nights. I'm gonna make one shameless plug for it, see if I can put it in the chat here. Um, tonight is the last night to sign up for it because I have to email stuff out to people. So the workshop Saturday night is Sketching Wonky Barns. It's gonna be on Zoom. Right now I think we have 12, 13 people signed up, which is awesome. It's my biggest workshop so far. I'm super, super excited just to have some creative time for a couple hours with other creative beings. All right guys, keep using your creativity for positivity. Every little bit helps. We know the world could use a little bit more positivity out there. Um, D-Ray says this one was very cool and successful. D-Ray, thank you so much. I am going to agree with you. I don't usually like to pat myself on the back, it's not my nature, but I have to say this one is wicked cool. I'm not crazy about this piece on the left. I could honestly just show that edge and be fine with it. Um, but thank you. All right guys, thank you again so much. Um, have an amazing rest of your day. I'll see you real soon here on The Inkspired Life. Peace. And live creatively. Take care. Here's where I awkwardly wave until I could find the finish button. How— we'll do awkward smile and wave. All right, good night guys, take care.