Sketching Cinderellas Castle

Hey, happy Saturday, June 22nd. Hope you're doing well today. I'm just popping on for a few minutes to do a quick sketch, I think, and then maybe something else. I know it's very vague, but that's okay. Sometimes it's good just to go with the flow and see how things go, right? Hello, happy Saturday, June 22nd. Hope you're having a great day. It's always fun to pop on to do some sketching. Uh, if anybody can guess what I'm sketching, let me know. Happy Saturday. I am going to do some sketching and then, um, maybe, maybe we'll talk a little bit about Summer's here. Urban sketching. I'm going to be getting outside and doing a lot of sketching, so maybe we'll take a quick look at some of the gear I'm gonna take with me this year as I travel around. Um, it's always a work in progress because I want to take less. I always want to take tons of stuff, but simplifying what I actually carry with me, that's always the tricky part. So I'm going to work on simplifying I see Linda S. Linda S, great to see you. Hope you're doing well and congratulations again on your new grand. That is awesome, so happy. And Linda H. Hey Linda H, great to see you too. Thank you everybody for popping on. What am I using to sketch with? I am sketching on my go-to kind of just quick spiral-bound sketchbook right here. 1264 Fabriano. Love this paper. 7— this is 7 inches by 10. Um, and I also like this format too, the 4x8, so which is really cool. I actually like the 4x8 a lot. So these, uh, these two pads of paper, they'll be joining me on my adventures this summer, as well as of course, never leave home without it, Sharpie. I'm so paranoid, I'm I kind of have a Sharpie like in so many locations. My glove box, sometimes they're in my pockets and go through the wash. Um, yeah, I have in my— what do you call it— messenger bag in there, in my Lockbee Quattro Sharpies right here, Sharpies there as well. Um, I am, you know, in here too, my field journal, you'll see one there. So yeah, I have them kind of stashed everywhere, almost like I'm starting to do with— I hate to say it, but reading glasses. Yeah, I think I've hit that point where I got to start wearing those reading glass things. So I'm finding that I'm just leaving them everywhere. But anyway, all right, so, um, I am sketching. This is just my interpretation kind of of the Magic Kingdom. Cinderella's Castle at the Magic Kingdom in the amazing Walt Disney World. Um, love that place. I'm actually— I am looking at a photo that I took there. I guess I was there 4 years ago. 2021. I was there in December of 2021. I can't do the math in my head, but I think that was This is 2024. 3 years. Um, anyway, this isn't a math show, although I hope something adds up in the end for you guys, some kind of takeaway, whether it's a technique, a tool, a tip, a mindset, or even if you just came here to chill out, hang with me for a few, and have some fun. I just want to hope— I want you to leave here with something positive. Get some kind of windows happening in here. You got these, um, kind of these corbel, corbel or bracket type of details happening around here as well. Boom. For anybody that's been to my YouTube channel or has been following me for a long time, you might know or have seen the time lapse of my My Magic Kingdom, my Cinderella's Castle sketch, I did— gosh, 2000— I have to look. '15? It was actually one of the first live stream things I did on YouTube and Facebook. Actually, it was probably Facebook. Um, came out really cool. It's on my YouTube channel. It's usually the video that loads when people first go to my YouTube page. If you haven't checked it out, check it out. It's still one of my favorite sketches today. I have the original hanging behind me here, um, and it's actually been kind of popular. I've been— I've sold some decent amount of prints of it. All right, I think it's enough pen. Maybe we'll just throw some color on here and add a little bit of fun. And, um, there we go. I don't think you guys can hear music. Let me know if you hear music or not. Hey, Karen's in the house! Yes, Karen, it is hot in New Jersey. We had our prom— not our prom, graduation yesterday. So my son graduated high school. So grateful and excited. So I was there in parent mode and teacher mode. I was volunteering with the grad— with the prom stuff. But yes, it was baking out there. Good question. What am I looking for? I want to grab and go. You know, we're going to play around with— I have these— what are these? Distress Watercolor Pencils right here. They're You know me, I like to grab and go. I just looked at them, so let's play with these for a couple minutes. It's 9 o'clock. I'm gonna give myself an actual timeline today, otherwise I'll go forever, and I do have stuff to do, uh, as I'm getting ready to head out. Let's see, it's 9:03, so I'm going to say 9:15, I'm going to wrap up. All right, so I have some Dirty Water. That is one of my pro tips if you like creating grungy industrial vibe sketching. I love dirty water. So we got, uh, Cinderella's Castle. I am not gonna do it Disney colors. I'm just gonna go and do what I usually do, right? And I do have my watercolors here as well, so let's just kind of dig into these. And I want to angle this up a little bit, so let me take a box. Um, I also have my new green Pilot Metropolitan pen, which I'll break out as well. So if you stick around for a couple minutes, we'll play with that. Love the color. I am just looking for something to raise this up because I like to— I like to add watercolor and ink at an angle. When I'm doing washes. That way things run down. I like gravity. I like things— ah, the way colors puddle up and pool up. Let me zoom in a little bit. There you go. Hey, congratulations! Thank you so much, I appreciate that. Totally appreciate it. What are we gonna do? I don't know what colors. We're just gonna have fun. I— again, I am not making these Disney colors. I, I So if you've been to the Magic Kingdom, you've already seen pictures of this iconic castle. Yeah, don't expect to, uh, see you— don't expect to see the colors of what's actually there. We're gonna inspire it up, inspire it up. We're gonna Jason— Jasonify it. JSONify. I like that. We're gonna JSONify it. Also, in the comments, let me know, do you guys like to hear the music while I'm sketching or not? Does it not really matter? I'm listening to music, but I can't play it for copyright reasons, but I can switch over to the music I pay to use. Pay to play. All right, I threw down some Apple Snail ink. Now I'm dipping into orange. This is orange watercolor. I love, I love Walt Disney World, all the theme parks there. Um, my dream career was to have been a Disney, Disney Imagineer where I could have worked on designing attractions and you know, rides and buildings and creating all those fun Disney vibes. That would have been so amazing. Um, so my heart is with Disney. I just love their designs and what— and you know what they're about? They're about storytelling, right? That's okay, since I'm not an Imagineer, I can still live, kind of live that experience by doing these sketches and creating them, and sometimes creating my own imaginary worlds that you'll see me online sketching sometimes. Imagination is really, really important. Sometimes I feel the older we get, the less we embrace our imagination. And for me, if I ever stopped imagining, I, I think I would just kind of— hate to say it, but I'd become really stagnant, like a swamp, and we don't Some people don't like swamp smells. Where am I going with this? I'm trying to be— philosophize too much. I need to shut up and sketch. But no, imagination is really important. Don't ever lose it. I'm loving these colors. Check this out. Yeah, but for me, Disney's the epitome of imagination and bringing that imagination to life. That's a great way to sum that up. Yeah, I did it! I dipped into the red. What the heck? Holy cow, what was I thinking? I'm loving it though. Um, really liking these colors. Colors I use most of the time, you have seen them before. I never get tired of them. But let's throw in, um, I want to use this purple watercolor pencil here. What do they call this? Villainous Potion. Speaking of Disney Imagination, Villainous Potion, that fits into the genre, right? So I'm dipping, just dipping this in water. 9:08. I am— how am I going to end at 9:15? Oh my gosh, you guys know me. I'm sure, I'm sure you laughed when I said I was going to end at 9:15. Um, let's just do some— I like to call this sketch painting when I use these watercolor sticks. Or pencils, just kind of sketch painting a little bit, throwing some colors on quick, loose. When— for me, whenever I say sketch, there's a difference for me between sketching and drawing. And I don't know in the art world how it really works, but in my brain, sketching is something that's kind of faster and looser, just trying to capture something quickly, or an idea. For me, buildings, lots of times, right? That's sketching, kind of fast and loose. Um, when I hear the word drawing, drawing for me means it's more meticulous, it's slower, more— I don't want to say focused, but kind of more focused. So that's why I I tend to use the word sketch a lot. You rarely hear me say I'm drawing something. All right, I got to pop in this blue. Oh, that's— I used the wrong blue. I want this one. I want Salvage. This is called Salvage Patina. Uh, believe it or not, that might be all the color I add on this. I might pull out a little bit more of the turquoise. Um, let me zoom in so you can see a little closer. I'm really liking what's happening here. I think I want to leave this really unfinished. I will come back in, maybe I'll come with the Metropolitan. I'll do a quick demo of this, the Pilot Metropolitan. It's not sponsored, I bought this myself, um, but maybe we'll give a quick demo. I'll pull out some lines with it since I'm not really going to be adding any more of a wash. I don't mind using the Pilot to darken lines because I'm not worried about the black ink bleeding. Um, that's why I use a Sharpie, because I know it does not bleed. All right, cool, let's do that. Let's add a little bit of this to darken up some of the roof lines here. All right, let's go to the QQQ. Um, is your new fountain pen medium or fine nib? So Linda, great question. This, I believe, is a— it looks like it's a fine nib. Let me see, I'm trying to get a good shot of it for you. Sorry if my camera— I don't know why it's not really picking it up. I'm trying, I'm trying. You can maybe— you can kind of see it here. Um, so I believe this is a fine nib. Personally, I do prefer medium nibs. To fine. Let's actually hold up, they're about to be the same size actually. That's a great question. I do think it's fine. I will verify that for you. Um, they're fun colors. Thank you. 3 extra fine, fine, and medium nibs in 3 different Lamy Safari fountain pens. Linda H is Got it all covered, all bases. Yeah, I like the medium because I wanna keep my stuff simple, my tools simple, selections simple. So I find a medium I can get what I need out of it. I rarely will need anything to do any fine, fine detail. If so, I like to use, let me grab a, I think I have some here, hold on. If I need to do fine detail, this is what I like to use. So for fine, fine line work, you— I have a set of these Staedtler pigment liners. This is 0.3. There's smaller ones. So I will— I will use that for detail stuff. All right, let's darken some lines. So there you go, that was the Metropolitan. Uh, I am using cold press paper, it's rough. Um, not digging 100% how this is handling the rough paper. I feel the LAMY handles it better. So that's something to think about. It might be just the way I'm holding it or the pressure I'm putting on the pen. Um, and it's also maybe I'm not used to it. I do like the weight of it. Let's do a comparison. I like the LAMY, I think is a little— which one's heavier? I think Metropole is a little heavier, so it has a good weight to it. Um, I have cold press paper here. I can see how it— I haven't really played with our cold— I mean, hot press. I have hot press here. Let's just do a quick— so it's working really well on the hot press. It's slick. Linda says, I like that purple bleed. Yeah, look at that. Again, that was the, the watercolor stick. You can go back and use it on a kind of a dry technique, just bold it up in places if you want. So I am— I love doing these mixed media sketches. Ink, watercolor. I'm really liking these watercolor pencils. I like regular color pencils, as you know. Watercolor paint and ink. I'm finding that this is really kind of my vibe, is doing these mixed media pieces. I'm also loving how this edge, this hard edge here, and this is all white, right? Let me zoom out. Pretty cool. I think this one's done. I don't really think I want to do much more to it. Pretty cool. Although I didn't throw— I did not throw the pink on here. Let's do it. Gotta throw a little pink on, right? Wouldn't be one of my sketches without some neon pink somewhere. Let's do it in another place. I like to do it in 3 places, 3 or 5. There's something beautiful about odd numbers and art. Mm, actually, I'm going to bring this down here like this. There we go, kind of trail it down there. All right, so we got our pink on there. Awesome. Let me break out this Metropolitan again and let me add some, just some hatching. There we go. Yeah, I find this, the, this pen is working better if I use it slower. To sketch with. Yeah, there we go. I'm liking it, I'm liking it. It definitely is. For me, it's working better with a light, with a slower kind of stroke, right? It's a new tool. Don't be afraid to play around, experiment, try new pens, new colors, new paints, new mediums. Be playful, give it time. Don't just do one and done. Give it, give it a few tries. Then if you don't like it, that's cool. I feel like we live, um, in an on-demand society. We want everything now. Netflix, right? We go to push the button, we can watch any movie we want instantly. Um, yeah, tech's done that to us, this on-demand society. I'm guilty of it, just like everybody, but Don't expect your artwork to do what you want it to do on demand. Sometimes you got to give it some time and practice and be playful about it. Have an open mind. You know, this pen, I'm going to try it. I'm going to keep playing with it. I'm starting to like it better. The first time, not so much, but now I'm starting to like it better. Hopefully that makes sense. Karen likes the hard edge. Yeah, I love that hard edge. It is so cool. All right guys, uh, stick around for another minute. I'll just quickly show you what I'm— how I'm starting to think about packing and taking what I'm going to take for my little adventure I'm heading out— headed out to. Um, it is not art unless you wear it, guys. I am wearing that purple watercolor pencil. And I don't have any paper towels here. All right, all right, so this came out cool. I actually really like this. This is nice. Let me see if I have a frame here. I meant to go to Michael's and buy some just quick little mats, but I didn't do that yet. Where's my— I don't have a black one. Where's my black mat? Here, uh, here we got a couple here. Let's see what this looks like with a mat on it. Might not be the right size, but we'll get the idea. So if I just zoom out a little here, you can kind of see this matted which actually looks pretty cool. Maybe this needs a wash in the background. Maybe. Let's zoom in and look at this one here. It's kind of cool, right? I really like that. I really like this area. It's my favorite part of the painting. or the sketch. Um, if we did a horizontal one, just captured a piece of it. Something, something like that. All right, all right, here's what I'm thinking of bringing. I haven't thought this out 100% yet, but— well, I think you guys can predict some of the things I will definitely be bringing. Yep, talk about it pretty much every stream because I love it. So I will be bringing my Lockbee Field Journal. Um, I could actually show you how to load the pad in here because I have to add some paper. Lockbee Field Journal, love it. You can tell it's well used, well loved. Look how it's wearing. Loving the patina here. I usually have a binder clip with me. I find it's useful to clip pages down if it's windy or to flatten pages. I keep a small pad in here. This is real handy. This is a Moleskine, or moleskin, pad. You can tell it's been to New York City with me. It's really fun just to grab this, take it out, and do quick sketches on location. Um, I have one— actually, I have two pads in here. One is a dot grid. I like dot grids for, uh, note-taking, and then I like the plain sheets for doing my sketching. So I'm going to actually add another. I think it can hold up to 4 pads in here, so I think I'm going to add another one. This is what it looks like, really easy to add. Sometimes I'll keep the bands on here. These— this banding comes off, but I like to keep it. Um, sometimes I'll use it as just a bookmark or page mark to do something like that. But to insert it, just kind of open it somewhere towards the middle of the journal, and they have these nice elastic bands in here. Got these cool page markers here as well. Let me just take this out. There we go. And this just slides under the elastic. And there we go. So I have a couple of plain journals. I want to just fill it up, that way I have paper with me. I can go through this stuff pretty quickly. Another cool thing about this, it has a pouch in the back. Um, I like the pouch. I wish it had Velcro or zipper on it. It doesn't. So I tried to make my own little sealing mechanism there. Kind of works. But what I like to keep in here is, um, a battery pack. So this is a battery pack for, you know, if my— I take tons of pictures, or if I'm doing a livestream video and I need extra power, I like to keep this here. And this really fits nicely back in there. There's a pocket on the back you can put stuff in. I don't really use that, this too much. You can definitely use that if you wanted. Closes nicely with this latch. There's a place for a pen here, you can see, and there's another one here. So really cool, love the handle. This is definitely going with me. I will be carrying this around everywhere, and I kind of carry around almost everywhere now. That's cool. What else am I taking? So I'm gonna take that. I'm gonna take— I'm debating right now if I'm gonna take— I have a tool roll, Lockabee tool roll. And I also have these, the Quattros. I might condense everything in the Quattros and just put everything into my tool roll. So I could fit a lot in here. I could fit ink refill cartridges I have in here. You see that for my, um, Preppy pens. Another pad in here as well. So I think I'm going to end up just consolidating all the Quattros and putting everything into my tool roll here. I wanted to take, um, travel light. Of course, the paper we talked about and the watercolor palette. So I have an aqua brush in here, so I don't necessarily need any paint brushes, although I'm going to bring my bamboo brush. Um, we'll take the Winsor Newton. This Does it fit in here? I don't think this will fit in here. This might actually fit in the back pouch here, which it does. So there you go. So I can fit my watercolor kit right back there. I also have my Winsor Newton, the pocket one. Which is— I may have left that in school. Oh no, I may have left my pocket one in school. Well, that stinks because I'm not getting that before I go. Oh well, somewhere in my pocket I have more. I actually have new ones in here. All right, I have a backup, so I have my, uh, pocket kit. This one I really like. If this literally fits in my pocket, good thing I have a backup one. Oh, they changed this. This is brand new. They— this feels so much different than the old one. Yeah, it feels very different. Cool. So that's what I'm thinking of taking with me. I have some other things as well, and I'll do a video on it, take some pictures. In case you guys are interested in knowing how I— what I travel with for sketching. Um, also go to my website, Jason— nope, go to theinkspiredlife.com. I have a whole page there with tools and materials I like to use, and I also have links to the things I use there as well. So it's right on my home page on theinkspiredlife.com. Scroll down, you'll see, um a heading that says Tools and Materials and, and Supplies or something like that. Click on it, you'll go to the page with all the stuff I like to use. So cool. Hey, you guys are awesome. I appreciate you all so, so much. Let me see if there's any final questions and/or comments, and then we'll see how this dried as well. We had to change the TV channel and watch 4, 6, and 10. Life was rough when you had to change that channel. I know, right? Who freaks out when they can't find the remote control? This guy. Um, yeah, we need to embrace the imperfections of artwork. Yes, embracing the imperfections. Yeah, exactly, love that. Love that. Embrace your perfections. So Linda, I'm glad you said that because right here on my sketch framework, ta-da, the letter E stands for embrace imperfections. Thank you for writing that on there. So if you guys are wondering, this is my sketch framework. These are kind of my guidelines I go by. Um, it's changed a little bit here and there. It mods. It's a— what they call living document. It changes as the times go on. But yeah, sketch framework: seek inspiration, keep an open mind, embrace imperfections, take a loose approach. See, I have a couple things. I have capture personality and energy. I also have the comparison trap, um, and H, have fun with the process. So that's so cool. There's the sketch framework, which if you join me for the Fishing Shack workshop on July 20th, we'll be using that to go through and sketch, uh, some wonky, wonky fishing shacks just like this one. Ta-da! Did this one quickly the other night online. This was a fun one. I really like the way it dried, looks really cool. And I think the cerulean sky is kind of fun in the background. Very cool. And Linda S, I have to mail yours. I will be mailing your fishing check when I get back, so thank you for your patience. Um, Altoids palette. Yeah, I love that you said that. So I didn't bring any home. Um, we did a project 2 years ago, one of my classes, where the students had Altoid boxes and they converted them into little art kits to take. There were some really cool ideas. They got to laser engrave the covers. I have a couple in school, um, into something— actually, I am going to be designing some art-related products this summer that I can 3D print, so that might be one of them. Stay tuned, stay tuned. I'll have some— I have some merch coming out, some merch coming out this summer. Um, yeah, have a safe— thank you. I will have a great trip. Thank you so much, guys. Hey, Chip's here! What's up, Chip? Great to see you. Chip is awesome. Check out Chip's art if you haven't. Check out everybody's art. Karen's been crushing it with some amazing artwork, and Linda— I mean, you guys are all— you're just crushing it. Thank you for sharing your artwork out there. I love what I'm seeing. Um, you guys inspire my heart to keep creating. And what I love about this group, everybody is doing something different from each other, and that is fun. I love, love, love that. Um, yeah, thank you guys for warming my heart with your arts. It's a good quote. Oh, good stuff. And then Linda, I also love that Linda S, um, I loved your setup that you shared with me, so I love that you're exploring some colored pencils now. So keep it up. If I can have a little positive impact on your lives, I've done my job. Yeah, I love merch, Linda says. Yes, yeah, merch is coming out. So I don't have a sample, I actually left it in school. I think I showed you guys my city skyline, kind of a desk caddy organizing system. That I'll be working on and modding. That would be cool. Um, and probably a little artist palette as well. And have some other bigger, bigger merch dreams that involve fashion and art. Um, that is a work in progress. I actually have some concept sketches on it, and one of our fellow— my fellow teacher, she is a guru in fashion design. So might be a cool collaboration to actually create this cool art gear, artware gear, something like that. You guys are amazing. Let me know if you have any last questions before I head out. Again, let me zoom in so you can see how this is, how this dried. We'll start at the top, we'll pan around. I actually see a face. You guys see a face here and a hat? Oh, let's Wait, wait, where's my frame? This is really actually very cool. No, where's my 1-inch frame? I use it all the time. You think I would, would be so handy. Oh my gosh, where is that? Where is that 1-inch frame? Aye, Chihuahua. I got to clean my drawers out here this summer. Did I put in the top drawer? No, I never put in the top drawer. What the heck? I can't find my 1-inch frame. Well, that stinks. All right, anyway, I see a face right here. I'll zoom super close, right in this piece. Kind of a face with like a carrot nose and a weird hat. That's interesting. Yeah, little gnome. Thank you, Linda, or who said that? Linda. Yeah, it looks like a little gnome. That's so cool that you said that. So funny, right? I was just getting ready to wrap this up and, um, kind of face popped out. Let's zoom in again so you guys— I really want you to see how this is drying or how, how it's dried so far. If I'm talking loud, I'm sorry, I have music in my ear. I like the, the purple in the background there. And here you can see, yeah, this hard edge is wild. That is so cool. Hey, Michael's in the house! Michael, great to see you. Thanks for joining us tonight. Michael says, yo, yo, my water set and Sharpie pens came in today. Hey, give it up for Michael! That's awesome. Love it, love it. So cool, man. I would love to see what you create. That's so awesome. Good stuff. Thank you, Michael, for sharing that. I appreciate that. That's great, great news. It's so fun. You guys are amazing. Reminds me of a cat with a pointed hat. Hey, D-Ray's in the house! Hello, D-Ray, good to see you. Cat with a pointed— it could be a cat with a pointed hat. It's the Cat in the Pointed Hat. Isn't that Dr. Seuss story, Cat in the Pointed Hat? That's just so fun. I haven't done any of my really— remember, um, I used to do those really fun cityscapes really quick, loose. I'll have to do one of them again soon. And we— people would always find things in those sketches, um, mostly faces or people. It was really interesting. I'll just— maybe I'll do those again. All right guys, I'm gonna get ready to head out. I appreciate you all so, so much. This has been fun. Um, thank you for watching. If you're on YouTube, I would love for you to like this video, give it a thumbs up. Um, if you haven't subscribed to the YouTube channel, that would be fantastic. How much are we up to? 780? The numbers are going up pretty quick, which is great. It was— last look was 777, and then today I looked again, it was I think 780, something like that. Um, thank you guys so much. And for on the Facebook page, thank you guys also for liking and sharing. I appreciate every single one of you just for your positivity. Um, school's out, guys! I'm excited, I can sketch more. I'm gonna bring this home this summer. You're gonna see some fun things I haven't done yet, and I have to step outside my comfort zone, push myself to become more creative, more inventive, maybe even try sketching different things, um, and trying and playing around, maybe have different styles. I don't know yet, I haven't planned it, we'll see how it goes. Um, but I will be popping in with some live streams next week while I'm away, so hope you guys can tune in or see some of those live streams. Um, if I know in advance when I'll be on, I'll try to post it so you can be— make sure to catch me live. Thank you guys so much. Take care. Keep using your creativity for positivity. Peace. And live creatively. I will see you guys real soon. Take care.