Snowy Sunday Sketching

Hey, happy, uh, Sunday, February 22nd, 2026. Um, welcome to blizzardy New Jersey. We have a blizzard warning in effect. It's, it's snowing, nothing bad right now, but, um, I'm hearing anywhere from 18 to 24 inches, uh, here, which is crazy, crazy, crazy. They've already canceled school for tomorrow, which was a really awesome, smart move, and I'm thankful they did that, which is, um, yeah, not because it's a snow day, but because Well, yeah, it's a snow day. Anyway, hope you're having a good day. I'm Jason Nicholas Nicholas with the Inkspired Life, where I love sketching, especially architecture. Sketching for me does many things. One, it's just fun. Two, it's a way for me to capture the world around me, to process the world around me in different ways. Uh, it's a way for me to think, to brainstorm. Um, sketching is a way for me to change my state of being. Um, it could calm me down, it could hype me up. Yeah, sketching is just a really powerful tool. So I thought I'd pop on today for a little bit. It's about 3:27 PM already. Oh my gosh, this day's flying. Holy cow. Um, so I wanted to come on now because I don't know what this weather's gonna do, what it's gonna bring, if it's gonna knock out power, who the heck knows. So I'll livestream maybe probably for about a half hour. Um, and yeah, I think, I think I'm gonna do this, uh, I'm gonna do a sketch inspired by the photo you see on screen. Let me make it bigger. So this, um, this is a building that You could see, well, the picture is taken here from along the High Line in New York City. I really like this building. I love, I love the brickwork, the industrial vibes, and the cool water tower on top. So I thought this would be fun just as an inspo to maybe do a sketch today. Um, yeah, you can see I have some tools with me. I have Fabriano watercolor paper. So I'm 1264. This is my go-to watercolor— we'll call it a watercolor sketch pad for throwing down quick watercolors or ink washes or just any kind of sketching actually. Um, I like it because it's spiral bound. I can lay it flat if I need to, and the pages tear off pretty easily. They're perforated. So we're going to use that today. I also have my Winsor Newton Cotman little watercolor palette. I love this palette. This thing has been with me for years. It's well loved, it's compact, I can easily put it in my bag or in my pocket. Um, so when I do, do— when I do take watercolor stuff with me when I'm sketching or urban sketching I like to take this palette. You can see it's well loved. It's just so cool. I love the colors in there. So maybe we'll do some watercoloring today. I also have a couple of, um, mini fountain pens here. What else do we have? Sharpies, of course. If you know me, you know I love Sharpies. I will sketch with a Sharpie 90— I'm going to say 98% of the time, if not 99%. Of the time. And I sketch with Sharpies because, um, a couple things. One, it forces me to commit, be bold, throw lines down. Once they're on the paper, I know I can't erase them, and I love that because it just forces me to work with whatever I've done. And it's a great way of building creative confidence. So that's one reason I love Sharpies. The other reason I love using Sharpies is if I want to come back and throw down a watercolor wash or an ink wash, we'll take a look here. Um, the Sharpie won't bleed. I opened up to one that I didn't use a Sharpie on. This is a rare occasion right here. This Brooklyn Bridge sketch does not have any Sharpie on it. What are the odds of that? Um, very rare. So I was going to open up a page that had some Sharpie, but I think I have something right over here I can grab. Yeah, here's an example. We'll use this bridge. So here you can see I have Sharpie on here, then I threw some watercolor down, but the black Sharpie lines didn't bleed. They didn't turn mucky and muddy. So using a Sharpie allows me to come back later and add either an ink wash or watercolor wash, and I know the black lines will stay. That was actually pretty funny that I had a sketch there with no Sharpie. Um, all right, cool. So let's start sketching. So I like to sketch and talk and think out loud sometimes, so we'll see what happens. I have some music on, and, uh, we'll put this We'll just— I'll keep the picture open. And again, whenever I'm sketching, whenever I'm looking at a photograph and sketching, I am— I'm not trying to make a duplicate of what we're seeing. That's not my goal. I just want to capture a vibe. I've had people on chats be like, your sketch looks nothing alike. Nothing like what? The photo is. Oh, I guess that's my creepy negative chat voice. So I just want to assure you that, yeah, I'm not trying to make it look, look exactly the same. I also like this because it has a cool perspective on it. And I am— well, you'll see. I'm gonna break out some different medium that I love using but I haven't used in a while on a live stream. So I'm gonna pull that out in a few here. Feel free to say hello in the chat, ask some questions or comments. I hope wherever you are, you're safe and warm and dry, or cool and dry, depending where you're watching from. Just safe. Safety first. I am not looking forward to shoveling, to be honest with you. Although, yeah, it's a, it's a good form of exercise, so if I had to put a positive spin on the world of shoveling, it would be that I'm getting exercise. Um, this building, actually, I know there are at least two water towers on it. You can only see one in the photo. And I'm not guessing, it's near the Chelsea section of the High Line. I could be totally wrong. If anybody's watching and knows, let me, let me know. I'm guessing the Chelsea section based on the industrial brick kind of building we're seeing. So we have maybe some kind of water tower happening here, and I'm just creating outlines right now. And to be honest with you, I'm going to stop looking at the photo in about a second. I'm just going to go with what's the line work I have on here. Get some windows here. Boom. I love water towers. All right, so that's all I'm going to throw down as far as line goes— line work goes right now. And let's throw some color on this. And what I want to break out right here— I haven't used them in a while online. I love these Art Graph water-soluble graphite blocks. They're kind of messy to use, which is part of the fun. And I love this color, so we're going to use that maybe for like the brick. All right, cool. So let's just have fun, throw down some color, see what happens. I have no intention other than— my only really, my only real creative intention with this sketch is to I just want to be playful with the graphite stick. That's all I'm after on this, uh, paper towel. This stuff can get messy, so I always like to have a paper towel or— yeah, there we go. Boom. We'll also pull out— there we go. I'm also going to pull out a graphite. This is a water-soluble Graphite stick. I love using these as well, so maybe we'll throw some of that on. Um, what else do I have in here? What the heck are these things? India Red, Holbein. I'm not sure what this is. Pastel. This feels like an oil pastel. I don't know if we're gonna do that. Probably not. All right, kind of want, kind of want you guys to see like what, how I like to use the graphite sticks. Just make some room. All right, cool. Need a paintbrush, got some clean water. I finally cleaned my water out. If you've been watching lately, you know it was pretty dirty, but I did clean it out. Although it would have lent itself well to the industrial vibe of the sketch if it was dirty, but that's okay. I'm gonna prop this up. Awesome. I like the way that looks so far. I love the colors kind of blending here. Uh, move a little bit closer. I just love the way this is drying. So here's the graphite stick. You might notice So this was actually unintentionally broken in half, but I'm glad it did break because it kind of like— I like the jagged edge, so I can use that compared to the other side. So it's kind of cool just to have the two different, uh, two different like, uh, what you call finishes or I don't know what we call the two, uh, different end conditions, right? The smooth end condition, and then we have the jagged one. Also notice I like to use graphite sticks in different ways. This, I like to dip it in the water and kind of sketch, sketch with it. I did a Chrysler building Man, I think a couple years ago— I don't— that I actually— I gave it to one of my students when she graduated, um, but it was done with graphite and it came out so cool. So check out my YouTube channels, look at the replays, and just search for Chrysler Building and you'll see it. Um, it's a really good example of me using graphite. Also, you can search for The Domino Sugar Refinery. I did a cool sketch using graphite sticks with that one too. I just love— these are water soluble, so I love the way they just dissolve when we're throwing water down on them. And I'm kind of going for this really, this industrial kind of vibe with this one. This is my typical industrial color palette. You'll see rusty colors, um, greens, yellows, aquas on here, um, reds, browns, yellow. So I definitely have a certain industrial color palette that I go for over and over again, and it's just an aesthetic that I like. You know what I didn't throw on here yet? Orange. I usually add orange as well, but if you remember the original picture, it did not have any. The closest color maybe is the brickish color, but the original photo had none of these colors. And that's what I'm saying, like, I don't paint to replicate or choose colors to replicate exactly what's there. I'm just— I use that image as an inspo just to throw down some lines to start with, and I'm just going with my feeling, what I, what I want to do, what I like doing. So everybody has different styles, right? Let's throw some orange on here. Um, and they're amazing artists that can do lifelike paintings and drawings, and they're so incredibly talented, and I love that. But that's not my, my thing. My thing is kind of my own interpretation on what I'm seeing. Like, I just love— I just love what happened with this orange here, just how the color is kind of running down the page. To me, that's fun. And not everybody— it's not everybody's thing, and that's cool. This will be fun when it dries, and then I can come back and add some details on top. Well, you know, after it dries, we'll throw some windows on here, call out some of the brick, some of the materials. So think of this as kind of layer— we're doing like layer 1-ish right now, 1/2. Maybe 1 is the Sharpie background. Layer 2 is just adding a bit of color to start with, and then layer 3 will be— I'm not sure, layer 3 might be more color or it might be some Sharpie just to pull out some shapes. It varies, depends what I feel like doing, but this will probably end up having, um, I'm gonna say 4, 3, 4, or 5 layers by the time I'm done just kind of adding things on top. I definitely need more of a pop of freshness. So I'm going to go for some lemon yellow. Lemon yellow gives me that, that hint of brightness, just like when you're cooking and you add lemon or lemon zest, you get that, that you get that pop, right? The pop of brightness and freshness to your dish does the same thing for me when I'm adding colors. Yeah, see, just those little pops of yellow are just lifting this up a little, lifting it up a level. It's looking cool. Yeah, so let this dry for a sec here. And I'll do a little bit more, I think. Yeah, I'm just taking a little coffee, little coffee break here. So I hope you're doing well. Like I said, we have a lot of snow on the way. I'm gonna be smart and just get out there. And we were talking about layers of painting— I'm gonna go out there and shovel in layers, not gonna wait for too much to fall. I've done that and it's no bueno, so we're not gonna do that this time around. Let's see. Yeah, I like the way this is drying. There are some really cool— put the frame on, I'll zoom in. Actually, I don't need to. Just check out some of the colors in that frame. What do you— what colors do you like that you're seeing? All right, excellent day. All right, cool. So I like the way this is drying. It's very, very fun. I don't know if I'm going to do a sky or background on this yet. I'm thinking— well, I'm thinking some cerulean blue. If I could find my cerulean blue watercolor marker, maybe it's in here. I am not sure. Negative, negative. All right, no worries, we'll keep moving ahead with this. There you go, hopefully you can see it better. So I'm not sure if we're gonna do a background on this yet, but I definitely want to pull out, uh, some of the shapes. I feel like I need to add some blue or something darker here. So let's grab some blue watercolor paint, or actually, you know, even creative markers. We've got a whole bunch of stuff here. Oh hey, Jen, great to see you! Hope all's well. Awesome, awesome to see you. Hey, did you change your name? It looks like You changed it back, or you got rid of the, the S— the I, I mean, for Jenny. Oh my gosh. Yeah, it's been a long day and it's only not even 4 o'clock. Um, so cool, good to see you. Yeah, let's dip in. You know what, I want to do purple. We're gonna, we're gonna mix our own purple. So welcome to the mixing station, let's mix some colors. Um, Here's how I like to make purple. We're going to take some red, boom, throw some red in here, and then we're going to throw in a little bit of blue, a little bit of blue here. We're going to swish them together. A little more water, I think. I'm a very messy watercolor user. Like, you can see my, my watercolor box. I love this. This is perfect. But I am not pristine with the colors. I'll dip, dab, mix, match. It's, it's how I roll. But you can see I got a nice purplish color happening. Pretty cool, huh? Dog sitting, just returned. Oh, that's cool. Hope you're having a good time dog sitting. I love, I love my pup. She's amazing. Dogs are amazing. Well, thanks for tuning in, Jenna. I appreciate that. It's always great to see you. So I'm just throwing in some purple here. Boom, that's more blue. So I could always mix more. Could I use an actual, like, just pre-made purple watercolor pan? These are called pans, these little, like, trays with colors in them. Yeah, I could. I don't have any. If I did, I could put one in there. But I like— I have fun just mixing my own, so it's kind of cool to just mix and match. So if you're just joining me, this, um, this sketch is in— is loosely inspired by a building I've seen along the High Line. That has a water tower, two water towers. We have one on our sketch. Um, it's a brick building, might be near the Chelsea area, has that Chelsea industrial vibe to it. So I thought I would just do a cool little sketch inspired by that. I love those pops of purple, they're so much fun. I may have noticed, like, I kind of splattered by accident a little bit of color there. There's actually some here happening, and that's cool. I don't mind that. It's part of the process. Um, it'll end up on here. And you know what, it's just giving me the idea to intentionally— we're going to intentionally do some splattering. Yes, we are. So I am going to load my brush up with some of that purple color. This is This is, this is where you should put your ponchos on. It is poncho time. All right, I'm gonna mix some of that purple and we're just literally just gonna splatter on here. What, what is he doing? He's— this guy's insane. Yep, I am. I'm crazy. You know, that was fun. I could— I'm not gonna do any more. I don't want to over, overdo it, but I just kind of like the energy, just a little pops of color. I think it's gonna dry and look really cool, so I'm kind of predicting ahead a little bit. Again, this isn't meant to be like an industrial grungy kind of vibe happening. Uh, that's kind of the— that's what I want the feeling to be for this sketch. Here's something cool I'm gonna do. Check this out. Um, I'm gonna take the edge of this graphite. Puppy is watching a dog cartoon. I love that. That is so fun. I wonder if he would like to watch Snoopy. Um, I'm gonna take the edge of this graphite and we're gonna just dip it in water, literally just literally taking it, dipping it here, and I'm going to create lines with this so it looks almost like kind of just lines of brick. And I'm just going to tap it Here. All right, so you kind of got lines of brick happening. It looks better as it was drying. You could see the kind of— I like to call them Morse, Morse code lines, kind of dashes and dots happening. So Morse code lines are I talk about different line types in my sketching, so Morse code lines are one of them. Or yeah, or sometimes I call them broken lines as well. But there you go. So now we got some of that cool like texture happening. And here's what I told you, right? These things are messy. So I am now wearing some of it. Uh, yeah, so it is— it's not— it's snowing, not high winds blizzard yet. We're expecting those conditions. I'm seeing anywhere from 18 to 20, 24 inches here. It's, it's always changing, so who the heck knows. Hey, uh, African Trisha over on, on the Insta, good to see you. Yes, so the weather is coming. They've already canceled school here for tomorrow, which was definitely a smart move. I, I am not looking forward to shoveling, other than maybe getting some exercise from it, but it is what it is. I'm just lifting some of this up a little bit. But yeah, so it is. Hopefully you're safe and you're warm. And I don't know if it's snowing over by you in, uh, in Canada, right? In Canada. So it's looking pretty cool. Puppy barks at the dog cartoon. That's hilarious. That is so funny. They're going to break, break out some creative markers. Actually, you know what we're gonna do? I'm gonna put this in front of my thing to dry for a minute. While it's drying, we'll do something else. All right, so I have that drying over there. We are in UK. Oh, hello, hello in the UK. Thank you for watching from UK, that's awesome, love it. Um, so this is— this was a fun sketch I did of Gapstow Bridge in Central Park. Um, what I like this and why I pulled it out— I just pulled it out because it was right here in front of me, but let's talk about it for a sec. Um, I was talking about layers on the other sketch we're working on. This has layers on it as well. Let me zoom out a little. We'll talk about the creation of it a little bit. All right, there you can see it. So this was started actually in Central Park. I went to a workshop And this was what we were sketching. So the base layer here was, um, if you see the big kind of blocks of color, the big blocks of color were thrown down in Central Park on location. Um, so that's how this started out— blocks of colors, big shapes. So that was kind of layer 1. This did not start with a Sharpie like I usually do. I think I was just challenging myself that day to not use a Sharpie and see what I could do with just watercolor. So layer 1 was the watercolor drawing. Layer 2, I came back and I darkened some areas, so kind of the rocky areas here, underside of the bridge, I darkened as well. Um, what— those are watercolors. The next layer, layer 3, I added some Creative Markers, which we're going to be adding to our sketch we're working on today. So in my Lockbee— this thing's amazing, guys. If you're looking for an EDC, everyday carrying, uh, part of equipment or piece of equipment, I love this thing for— I'm just turning into a promotion, but I, I love Lockbee. I have a discount code. I'm not gonna hide that fact. I use their stuff all the time, but But this thing is awesome for carrying my markers in. This is their, um, their pouch. So I love this thing. But yeah, check out Lochbie and feel free to use my discount code on screen. You can save, I think, up to 10%. But anyway, I used some Creative Markers on here. So the markers I use, uh, in this area for the trees, you can see the blue here, Creative Marker. And that just adds another layer of interest, right? Some movement as well. I was able to just kind of do some dotting on here, which was fun. I have some yellow here as well and some silver. So that was the kind of like the last layer on here. So layers, sometimes, uh, think about sketching or building up your sketches or paintings in layers. So that's a really good example of that. I also do that with my Statue of Liberty torches that you guys, you know, you see me do all the time. It's kind of this— kind of it's become my signature sketch. So let's see if I have any in here. I must have them in here, actually in here. These even— these Statue of Liberty torch sketches they're done in layers. The first layer with these is usually just taking, you know, my black Sharpie and just drawing kind of the outline of the torch, the flame, the hand. And then I'll come back and I'll add either ballpoint pen or acrylic markers, colored pencils, watercolor, ink. It depends what, you know, what I have around me at the time. But again, this is about layers, and don't feel like you have to throw everything down at one time. You can walk away and come back. Sometimes it's good to take a break, uh, take a break from your artwork, step away, and then, then come back and revisit it. You might like it the way it is, you might leave it, you might want to add things. You never know. All right, this is drying, so I wanted to pull out some creative markers on this. Wow, uh, wow, thank you for the wow. Très magnifique, Jen says on the YouTube. So African Tricia is in the UK. I love that, that's so fun. Um, Jen says favorite song this week. Ooh, Jen. Jen Jen. Hmm, that's a really good question. What is my favorite song? Are we, are we counting Sunday as the start of the week or the last day of the week? How do you view Sundays? The first day of the week or the last day of the week? I'm going for my favorite color right here, guys. Boom. I don't know what I would do without Sharpie Creative Markers when it comes to adding color. It's just— I just love these things so much. Favorite song this week? Hmm, I'm thinking about the song. I'm thinking about the song. I mean, right, right now I'm listening to Shinedown's Second Chance. Second Chance by Shinedown. I don't know if it's my favorite song this week, but I do have it on. I think I'm going to go with Brilliant by Shinedown. It's my favorite song this week right here. We'll play right now. Um, this song just pumps me up so much. It's a reminder that we all are brilliant in our own unique way. Don't let anybody ever put you down or make you feel inferior. We're all— we all have a gift, some kind of a gift that we can share. You know, it doesn't matter how big or how small it is. So I think— and I'm not— again, this is not a brag session. I don't brag. But I think one of my gifts is creativity. But more importantly, I think my gift really is being an encourager. I love to just be a positive motivator. An encourager in people's lives to help, to help you and, you know, help everybody on their, their journey for personal development, personal growth, exploring the things that they're interested in. So kind of, I think that's what, if I had to pick like a superpower, it would be like a personal motivator and encourager. What do you guys have? What are your special powers, guys? What is something you feel like you contribute positively to the world? Cooking. Am I cooking tonight? Jen is asking. Oh yeah, right now I have a, um, I have a roast in the Crock-Pot. Put a roast in there with Here's kind of my secret ingredients. I have a roast with potatoes in there, salt and pepper on the roast, olive oil. Let me start over. Olive oil, salt and pepper on the roast. We're gonna put yellow here for windows. Maybe it's a nighttime-ish scene. Um, what else? I put a pack— I put a package of gravy, brown gravy, kind of sprinkle that on top. A little bit of water in the crock pot. Um, and I love Marsala. I put in so many things. So I put Marsala and pour it on top of the, uh, the, the roast, let it kind of soak in while it's in the crock pot. And then I'll probably dump in it hour or so, I'll dump in, um, some broccoli and some veggies as well. So yeah, that's what— that's what's on the plate. Um, was that last week? Was Brilliant last week's song? I don't— maybe. Trisha says, uh, we all need motivation. Yeah. Yeah, I think we all do need motivation. And one of the reasons I love coming online and sketching live, you know, you guys in the comments, YouTube and Instagram, Facebook, um, you guys help to motivate me in positive ways. It's amazing. So we have, we have Jen over on YouTube, and Jen is, is awesome at being so positive and motivational. So, uh, I am so grateful for that. Thank Thank you. Do you sketch with pencil or pen? Uh, pen. Pen. I rarely use pencil. I will typically start off 98% of the time with a Sharpie, one of these. I love using Sharpies because Sharpies commit me to what I'm doing. If I put pencil down, I know I can erase pencil, right? But the goal of my sketching is not technical, not precision, not perfection. If I sketch with a pencil, I know I can erase it and make it better and make it perfect. I eliminate that option from my brain. I don't want that. I want my sketches to be loose, fun, scribbly, quick. I want the lines to do a lot of energy, a lot of talking, or sometimes calmness. Um, so Sharpie forces me to put it on paper, be bold, and move forward. So that's why I like to use a Sharpie most of the time. Um, I also sketch with, um, just regular pens. I love— here, This is another cool Lockbee. This Lockbee folio, guys, is my, my godsend. I use this thing, I take it everywhere, I love this thing. But when you open it, look what's inside. Boom! I have a plethora of pens. Pother of pens, that's fun to say. But I just like sketching with gel pens or ballpoint pens, or even— this is really cool. Just multicolor pens. Maybe we'll break this out. You know, if I could be a minimalist when it comes to sketching, I would take paper. And if I had to— if I can only take one pen, I would probably take a multicolor pen because it's like a cheat code because it has all these colors in it. This also has graphite. This also has a pencil point, so I could do that if I wanted. Good questions. I love the questions, guys. Always feel free to ask me questions. I need a song for the week, Jen. You're right, I think that was last week's. You know what song it's gonna be? All right, here's my song for the week. This is my song for the week. How Did You Love? How Did You Love? by Shinedown. Just a good reminder. This is looking cool, guys. Um, helping people get healthier and happier in the healthcare service. Jan, that is your superpower. I love that. That is huge. That is awesome, awesome. I'm giving, uh, if I was, if I was in my emojis, I'd give you the, uh, the prayer emoji there. Boom. Love that. I could tell you're a kind human being. You're welcome. Uh, or do you use a paintbrush to sketch? Not, not really. I usually will start with a Sharpie. I'll, I'll follow up with a paintbrush, um, although in this Central Park brush I did use a paintbrush because I sketched with just watercolor. But most times it'll be a Sharpie. The reason I ask is I did an online class the other day and she was insisting one needs to do a pencil sketch first. I use a paintbrush to sketch and then work on top. I believe we all have our own styles and choices of materials. It's a great question and Depends on the workshop, you know, the purpose of the workshop and the teacher. And maybe they're teaching a certain style and, and their technique, so I get that. But yeah, um, that is— yeah, that's not me. I'm— I like to encourage in my workshops, I like to encourage everybody to use what they like to use because it's For me, it's really— it's all about the process. It's about— and I know I've said this before, um, for some of you guys you've heard this, but it's about— it's about the journey from A to Z. For me, the most fun part of the whole process is not A, not the beginning, not Z, which is the finish. It's the letters of the alphabet, the journey that happens between A and Z. So I feel like if you can use your own tools and you express your own voice and use what you're comfortable using, um, it's about that. Now, if you're trying to copy a style or learn a style, that's different, right? Because I could teach you my exact, my exact technique of how I'm throwing all this stuff down here, and I'm more than happy to do that. But really, my goal is for you guys to walk away with feeling a little more creative confidence at the end of my live streams. I like the way this is looking, guys. Looking pretty cool. Here's a, here's a kind of a fun trick with these Creative Markers. I'll show you here. I'm laying it flat, flattish, and I'm just tapping it down. And if I want to create a brick look, this is kind of a shortcut for doing bricks. I also just like to teach ideas on how to do some like shorthand sketching, like shortcuts. Or cheat codes, you know. How do we get things to look like architecture materials? How do I get a brick look in a quick way without drawing every single little brick, which I, I don't have the patience to do, you know. And when I started off as an architect, before we had CAD and computers, I was drawing every single brick by hand on drawings and I loved it. I mean, I loved hand drafting. I still love hand drafting, but I had the time, the luxury of time to do that. Well, my bosses may have not have thought so, but, um, but here, this is— these are just kind of rapid-fire quick sketch ideas. So you can see, right, we kind of have like a brick, brickish thing happening here. A little off angle with my perspective, but it's loose, it's wonky, and I shouldn't have said that because you never would have known. Um, there we go. So just a little cheat code. So what is your song of the week? Let me know. Do you guys have a song of the week? I love when— I love when Jen asks me those questions. They're so fun to think about, and it could change. Oh, this is fun! I love the way this is layering up. I love the background here, actually. The journey. Well said. Hey, thank you, I appreciate that. Très bien, très bien. Are we going French? Is that French? What does that mean? Does it mean very good? I need to practice. Let me start, well, learning Italian and practicing Spanish for my trip in the spring. I need some orange on here. Just want to pop up so So I think the last kind of layer here is going to just to pop out some things. So I'll do that by adding color, and then we'll add some Sharpie, plot some shapes. Jen, what are you having for dinner today? Hey, what time— what time is it where you are? I forget the time zone difference. What time is it in Africa right now? Wait, was it Wait, they say Africa. Sorry if I'm missing things in the chat, guys. Um, oh, you already have your song? Mine is Come Away With Me by Norah Jones. Oh, that's awesome. Norah Jones is, uh, I love her piano playing. She's so talented. I'll have to give that song a listen. How do you— Jen, how do you decide what your song of the week's gonna be? How do you pick it out? Is it random? So I'm just throwing down some orange. I want to just— I don't know, something about me just wanted— I just wanted to really brighten this kind of area up here. I'm gonna— don't be afraid to pull some colors out. I'm gonna pull some out here. It's getting a little too muddy, so I just wanted to kind of soften that in the back a little bit. It's kind of further away and distance-wise, so I want it to be more lighter. This one's getting pretty close to, I think, being cool. Yeah, cool sketch. I'm gonna ask you guys to help me with one decision on here. It'll be the last thing I do. Um, my question is, what background color should I put behind the building? What background color should I put behind the building? I could leave it this way, but I feel like I need to have some kind of color in the background. And this looks cool with a— let's put a little frame there. So cool, that looks a little frame. If you guys are ever interested in any of the sketches you see me do, feel free to reach out to me with a DM or comment in the chat, say I'm interested in that sketch. I'm more than happy to, um, I'd love to sell some sketches to you guys. That way they're in homes where people are enjoying them. I have a lot here that I enjoy. You can see them behind me, but I'd rather have them be out there and where you guys can enjoy them. Maybe you connect with it. Maybe you've been in New York City, maybe there's a vibe or something that you like about a sketch. I also have you in the comments, you'll see I have a web link to an online gallery I started with some of these original sketches for sale, so check it out. You're welcome, Jen. Thank you for repeating. By liking the song, feeling the song, learning it. Oh, I love that. Do you play— wait, do you play an instrument? Do you play an instrument? Orange, smash the like— hey, thank you for smash the like button. And if you're watching me, of course, of course, African Tricia, I'm more than happy to answer questions. Um, feel free to join me on YouTube. We need 5 more subscribers on YouTube to get to 1K. Subscribers. We're so close, 5 more. When I hit 1,000 subscribers, we're gonna do the 1K sketch giveaway. I'll do a live stream, and whoever's on the live stream watching, we'll just kind of do like a random raffle and we'll give away a sketch. So I think that'll be fun. Hopefully we hit that this week. All right, um, I'm gonna go with orange, Jen. We're gonna do an orange background, which Leads me to my next question. I have— should I do— should we do Inferno Orange and really punch the heck out of that background, like make it so vibrant? We could do Inferno Orange, or I have within arm's reach like a Fluorescent Orange. Inferno or Fluorescent Orange, what do you guys think? This will be interesting. I think it'll be fun, actually. Am I allowed to hit my own like button? Wait, should I go online and hit the thumbs up button on YouTube? That'd be kind of fun. By liking this song, feeling the song, and learning it. I love that. You've been singing since you were 8. 8 after singing lessons. Oh, I love that. I think you should do a demo for us right now. Come on, sing something. Sing it, sing it really loud so we can all hear it through the, through the internet. I'd love to hear you sing. That'd be so fun. All right, I got Inferno Orange on YouTube. Wish me luck. This is where, when, you know, when I say sketch boldly, this is a great example of sketching boldly, just being bold, throwing either lines down or colors down. We're gonna— I'm shaking this up. All right, Jen, sing it. Jen, do you go through life like— it's kind of weird, but I do this a lot. I go through life imagining everything being like real life being a musical. Like in my school, in my classrooms, I'll imagine like it's like High School the Musical. Like, yeah, it's kind of weird, I know. Like I often think, what would happen if people just randomly burst out into song like in Target while they're shopping? Like, and then a whole musical happens. How fun would that be? All right, Inferno Orange. Here's why I'm shaking it. There are like gold flecks in here. I don't think it's real gold. Well, it's definitely not real gold, um, but when this dries, you could see the flecks of gold. It's gonna look super duper cool. All right, we're getting brave. We're gonna throw down Inferno Orange. This will be the last thing we do on this today. Let me zoom out. I should do— I should do the Inkspired Life: The Musical. Inkspired Life: The Musical. Let us sketch, let us sketch, let us throw down some color. All right, sorry, I'm not a good singer. Not a good singer. All right, let us sketch, let us sketch. Put our courage to the test. Throw down some lines and some colors and the rest will be the best. No, I— yeah, alright, enough of that. Gonna turn it upside down. Why? Because I want the water and the ink to run away from the building. That way it's not all gonna drip down on it, so we're gonna turn it upside down. Oh, I just did the classic— I just did the classic this move, guys. This is my coffee cup. This is my paintbrush. Can you imagine what happens next? Yeah, I just cleaned my paintbrush in my coffee cup. Okay, we're moving on. All right, I'm throwing down some water on here. That way it helps the ink to kind of spread out and dance across the page, glide across the page, and where it wants to go. A little bit of control to it. All right, here we go, we're doing it. Mm-hmm. I don't know why Beauty and the Beast popped into my mind, but it did. Let us paint, let us paint. No, I'm not a creative saint. I throw down colors just for fun. Oh, I'm out of tune. All right, um, I want you to also just check out what I'm doing. I'm dipping my brush here, put it over here in the ink, and I'm kind of— I'm just going to tap it. I'm not even brushing it on, I'm tapping it here. And I like it because it adds a little bit of randomness to the sky, so it's not so monochromatic. It has some interest and variety going on. So I'm just tapping down the colors. I'm gonna actually come back and lift some of it off. I was gonna put my— oh my gosh, I rarely keep my cup over there. Um, I like the orange, but I— it needs some yellow, so we're gonna throw in some yellow too. And I'm gonna, I'm gonna blot some of this away, and you'll see, you'll see why in a sec. Let's blot some of this off. Alright, let me flip it over. I almost put it into my coffee again, which is fine. I have painted with coffee before. I painted with coffee, coffee grounds. It's fun to do. Hey, JLM, JLM517ROCKS is on YouTube! Good to see you, hope all's well. No, but if I'm mad, I cope by singing for my entire life. I love that singing, like, is a good coping mechanism. 100%. That's a good strategy. Very cool, right? Music is so powerful. That's why I'm always listening to it when I'm creating. I cannot not create. Wait, did I say that right? Cannot not create without music. I think my— I had too many negatives on there. They canceled each other out. That's why I teach architecture and CAD and not language arts, because I would be disastrous at that. We were talking about ours because we all have our superhero gifts and skills and whatever. Mine is not teaching English language arts. So do you think of this fiery sky background? It's different. I think it was fun just throwing down this color. Why not? What's gonna be even more fun is when I pull out— I'm gonna pull this outline out with aqua. I'm gonna use Aqua Creative Marker. When this dries. Boom. And I'm going to use that to outline the buildings. It's going to really pop against that orangey background. Love it. Uh, Houston, starting 100 Day Project today with your inspo tools and tips. Really? That's amazing. I'm so— that is so cool. I'd love to hear more about that. That is awesome. I'm hoping I can help a little bit and fire your creativity. That's so cool. Love that. Um, I don't know if you're still on, but hello, M, if you're on. It's good to see you. I'm over on Insta. Guys, if you are watching on YouTube, be sure to hit the thumbs up button, share this out there, subscribe to my YouTube channel if you haven't. I really, really want to hit 1K. It's just a personal goal. Nothing special happens with me and YouTube for that. I need like a million viewers and a million watch hours, and that's not my goal. My goal is just 1K sketch giveaway. I think that'd be so fun. All right. I want this to dry. I do. I want you guys to see how this changes when I throw that turquoise down, but it's got to dry. So I'm going to put it in front of the fan here and dry it. But before I do that, check this out. Gravity is a creative tool, friend. It's a great tool to have in our toolbox. I'm just letting gravity move this ink around a little bit. In the sky. That way it's looking a little more uneven, a little more interesting. So gravity is our friend. Look how this is drying. You're going to be fascinated. You are going to be so fascinated. Let me put this in front of the fan here— I mean, the heater thingy. All right, let's see. While we're waiting for that, I will just, um, do something. We'll do— because I want to finish that live with you guys, but for now we'll switch and we'll do one of these. I'm loving these really fun abstract, um, cityscapes. I don't know what to call them. If anybody has an idea, let me know. I need like a fun name for these. I'm loving these cityscape sketches, they're so fun to do. But I want like a name, like, I don't know, like Ink Imaginary City. Does that sound cool? Ink Imaginary City. This will just be a background, and later I'll come back and work on these more. So these ink imaginary cityscapes just start with me really just throwing down lines and blocks of color. This is a fun song, the Umar Thurman song. By Fall Out Boy. Is it me, or do you guys— do you guys also hear Jen singing? Jen, I think I hear you singing. I think I heard that. Scapes. I kind of like that. Scapes. SKAPES. Hmm, could that be an acronym for something? I'm a huge acronym fan. What could SKAPES be an acronym for? I like the name SKAPES. Let's see, sketch. SKAPES. Sketching known architecture, perhaps everyone should— no, um, seek knowledge and seek knowledge and perfect every Sketch. I don't know, I gotta work on that. I can't think of any. That's a fun name though, has like a real cool modern vibe to it. Scapes, almost like escape, like these cityscapes are a good way to escape. How long have I been on? How long have I been on for? I tell you, when I do this stuff, the time just flies by. I was supposed to stop and do some, uh, get back into my tax, do some tax stuff. That didn't happen. Oh my gosh, that dinner. I could smell that roast. It smells so good. Mm. Sketching and cityscapes. Oh yeah, I like it. Do I— can I use that? I would love— I actually like that. Scapes. That is so— that's so cool. I love it. You've got your creative hat on. That's so fun. I should put my creative hat on because it would hide my, uh, hide my uncreative hair. Yeah. Oh, it's— no, it's coming down a little bit harder. I'm sure it's starting to stick. I'm going to get out there and do— I'm just going to shovel in layers today. All right, cool. So we got this scape, this cool scape going. All right, and pull the other sketch over and we'll wrap up with that. So hopefully it's dry enough. We'll just throw down some white gel pen, guys. I love, I love me some white gel pen. Love it, love it. If you haven't used a white gel pen, you should definitely— I would recommend definitely trying. It's so fun being surrounded by creative people. Thank you, guys. I really hope to do a sketch meetup in NYC this spring. Last— I've been wanting to do one. I was going to do one, um, at Rock Center back in October. I forget why. I think the weather didn't work out because of the weather. But yeah, this spring would be so fun. Alright, cool. I like the way this is looking. Alright, let me bring the other sketch over. This we can hit later. I'm gonna finish that later. Alright, let's get this dry enough. I just want to throw an outline around here and wrap up. Yes, I really needed a curved top to that water tank. That did the trick. Right, do you see how that blue just really popped the outline there against the orange? Looks really cool. And then you could see the sky. So I love— so thank you, Jen, for the orange suggestion. Love it. And I love, um, looks so cool. And I threw some that weren't some yellow in there. It's almost like a fiery sky, a fiery background, right? This is a fun piece. It is. It's missing a little purple. It needs a little more dark on here. I feel like we need a little more. Maybe we'll throw some purple windows or something. Again, I'm just riffing here. I'm not looking at the picture. I know there was a sign here somewhere, but I— that's okay. This is our creation, right? I do love this song too, We Pray by Coldplay. There's so many different versions of it. This is a good song. There we go. I kind of like that purple, just balances a little bit more. With the orange, I think, up here. A little more purple down here is helping. Alright, I think this one's done, guys. I think this one's done. All right, cool. All right guys, thank you so much. Oh, Jen loves it. Thank you, I'm glad you love it. This was a fun one. Thank you for the orange suggestion. I think it really, um, was cool. Really cool. I wouldn't have thought orange, and I'm glad you did. Was awesome. Um, I still owe you an Empire State Building sketch if you want it. It's all yours. Just, you could just email me or message, DM me, or message me, uh, an address. I'm more than happy to mail it to you. But here you go. We'll hold this close up. We'll put a frame around it and I need bigger frames. Awesome. By the way, Jen, if you want to, um, if you— if you— I know you're on that Discord thingy. If you want to send info, that would be awesome. If not, no worries. There you go. Check this out framed. Yes, this looks cool, and I love Look at this really cool pop of orange there. It's almost like a sun, so this could be like a really cool sunset sketch. Thank you guys so, so much. I'm headed out to the blizzardy, blizzardy world of New Jersey here. Don't know how much is on the ground sticking yet, but 18 to 24 on the way unless that's changed. It probably changed. Um, so I don't know if I'll be back on tonight or have a snow day tomorrow. Maybe I'll pop on tomorrow. I do have— I actually got like adult— I have adulting to do, like bill paying and all that fun stuff, but we'll see. Um, yeah. Oh, my email address is— yeah, it's— I'll just put it in the chat. It's pretty easy. It's, it's jason@theinkspiredlife.com. jason@theinkspiredlife.com. Pretty cool. I see Alan. Alan's over on Instagram. Hello, Alan. Thank you for joining. We're just wrapping up a sketch that was inspired by a building I've seen along the High Line. Um, I love the water tower. This came out really cool. I— yeah, dang, I'm fired up, no pun intended, by that fiery sky we have. I think this looks really amazing framed, you know. I, I kind of like it framed here with that almost kind of like sunset happening. Jason at theinkspiredlife.com. Guys, thank you so, so much. Stay safe and warm and dry, especially if you're in the blizzard, blizzardy area like I am and New York City is. And yeah, we're getting— we're gonna get slammed. Um, I'll pop on again at some point, I'm sure. Until we meet again, sketch boldly, live creatively, and don't forget to smash that thumbs up button. Subscribe if you haven't to my YouTube channel. We're almost at the 1K subscriber giveaway— sketch giveaway. Sorry, had to throw that in. So we meet again, sketch boldly, live creatively, and inspire. Endlessly. Appreciate y'all. Thanks, Jen, for fending off the trolls in our chat stream. Take care, Alan. Good seeing you on Instagram. Hope you can catch another live. If you want to see a replay of this sketch, check out my YouTube channel at The Inkspired Life, and you can see how, uh, how this was created. Peace out.