The Inkspired Life - Architectural Sketching
In this October 19, 2023 livestream, artist‑educator Jason Nicholas greets his online community and embarks on a 15‑minute, improvised sketch of a photograph of New York’s Hudson Yards. He identifies the key structures—The Shed, the Vessel, and surrounding futuristic towers—while sharing personal enthusiasm for the site. Throughout the session he demonstrates his workflow: selecting an 8" × 8" Fabriano 1264 cold‑press paper, using a Sharpie, sketching while standing, and exploiting paper texture with varied pen pressure and hatch shading. He explains how standing adds energy and mobility, and how light versus heavy strokes affect line quality. Jason interacts with viewers, acknowledges several participants (D‑Ray, the two Lindas, Cameron, Nan’s Life 7, etc.), answers spontaneous questions about the architecture, his upcoming NYC trip, and even a brief protest‑related query. He offers informal teaching tips—bringing yourself to the table, staying dynamic, and using sketching as a creative, low‑stakes practice. The livestream concludes with a quick final review of the sketch, a call for viewers to keep creating positively, and thanks to the community.
Chapters
Hey everybody, happy, um, October 19th. It's 8:45 PM in the beautiful Garden State. Hope you're doing well. I'm on just until 9, so 15 minutes or so, and I'm gonna do some sketching. Hope you're doing great. It's good to see everybody out there. I see D-Ray's in the house. D-Ray, great to see you. Hope all's well. And Linda, awesome to see you as well. Hope you guys are doing fine on this, uh, Thursday afternoon or evening. Cool. So yeah, I'm going to do a little sketch here. Let's see, I'll actually— actually, I'll show you the screen. Here's the image I'm catching. Pardon me, I'm really tired. You probably can hear it in my voice. It's been just one of those crazy weeks. It's all good, just busy, busy, busy. So here is a scene inspired by Hudson Yards. Well, the photograph is Hudson Yards, New York City. I love Hudson Yards. It's an amazing location. Lots of really, really cool architecture. This building The building you see on the left, kind of shiny looking, that's called the Shed. It's a performing arts building. In the background, you can see the pine cone-shaped structure. That is a really, really, really cool building, and I'm drawing a blank on the name of it. That's how tired I am. It's iconic, and it'll hit me. It's a great building, but it's not going to stop me from sketching. And then we have some really cool modern— it's a very futuristic vibe kind of area. Oh my God, the Vessel! It just hit me, that pinecone-shaped building is called the Vessel. It's really a giant sculptural piece with stairs. Unfortunately, it's closed to the public. You can no longer climb up it, but it's a really cool structure. Thank you guys for the thumbs up. I see a lot of thumbs ups flying out there. I appreciate that. All right, I'm going to actually make this picture smaller and, uh, let's just sketch. Again, I'm not trying to recreate this. Let's just have fun. Hopefully this Sharpie works. My Sharpies have been giving me a little bit of grief. I don't think they like the dry heat. Maybe it's been a little chilly, so I have the heater on in my space here. This area, Hudson Yards, really fascinates me though. I just love the architecture so much. It's just a— it's a really cool vibe when you're here in person. I'm hoping to get there very, very soon, back into the city, so I can do some sketching. I like going to New York City. I feel very comfortable and safe going there, um, and I just go to certain areas that I know, I, you know, I know about and I'm comfortable going in. Cool. All right, so I'm thinking a little too much. Let's do this a little quicker here. So we kind of have that shed building here on this side. The vessel is really interesting. So, it's very angular type of, uh, building here, sculpture. And I just want to capture the idea of the vessel kind of happening back in here. Actually have some trees happening as well. All the way in the background, we have some buildings going on. Let me know how you guys are doing. What are you up to? I hope your fall season is going well if you are in the fall season, wherever you're watching from. What I love about this photograph is the building. I just love the angles. Let me make it bigger. I really love the angles and how everything's kind of going up to a point. So I kind of took this angle at a certain reason because I wanted the buildings to look kind of interesting. So I just think it's a really cool view. One of the things I love about foot— photography. It's just trying different angles with the camera, some high angles, some low shots, uh, to get different perspectives. And it's a really just fun way to see the world and experience the world differently through the lens of a camera or your phone camera, whatever you're using. Kind of, you can actually use, um, Use it to your advantage to kind of distort what you're looking at. And when you distort your views, it really creates a lot of interesting shapes. I know I don't talk about photography a lot, but I really do love photographing architecture as well as sketching it. Cool. We have, uh, kind of lines here happening. Awesome. Hey, Linda S is in the house. Awesome to see you. Hope you're doing well. Long time. I love when you guys all pop on. It's just, it's so fun. It's like a reunion. I'm so— I am just so lucky to, um, have so many virtual friends. You guys are really cool and supportive and creative, so I'm really just honored and blessed that you take the time to watch me mumble and stumble and scribble and sketch. I'm just bringing me to the table. That's what I tell my students to do, bring yourselves to the table when you're presenting. And I appreciate you guys for just accepting me and these unrehearsed kind of spur-of-the-moment sketch sessions. I never know what's gonna happen. I never know what the sketches are going to look like, but you know what? I'm here just to have fun. Sometimes the sketches come out incredible, sometimes they flop, but at least I'm having fun and learning something from it, and I get to hang with you guys, so that's really cool. Thank you so much. All right, this is awesome. I kind of like the way this is coming together. I really like the— actually, the vessel here in the background. I think that looks pretty cool. Right there. Linda H says, I was able to buy a pad of the watercolor paper pad you use. Oh, awesome. Yeah, so here's the COVID I'm actually using the 8-inch by 8-inch here. This is 8 by 8, but here's the same paper. Awesome. Let me know how you like it. I love the 1264 Fabriano. Love it for doing watercolor washes, ink washes, and obviously ink sketches. I just like the texture. I'll zoom in. I just like the texture because it adds to my sketchy look because the lines have little bumps and jumps in them. You can see here we have some bumps going on, some jumps going on. A lot of that is just the texture of the paper. I'm not grinding my pen hard. Um, and when the looser I hold it, the more sketchier lines you get here. And you can see where I push a little harder, it's a little bit cleaner. So yeah, you can kind of control the texture, the interest of your lines based on how hard you're pushing your pen on textured paper. That's one of the reasons I like using a cold press paper. This is actually, this is actually looking cool. I'm liking it. Um, Linda says your daughter worked for St. Gobain's and they worked on the glass for the building. No way, that's so cool! Wow, love that, that is awesome. Cool, cool stuff. I can't— I just can't say enough about— I just love Hudson Yards. It's It's just, it's for me, it's just a spectacular, I've probably, I think I've been there maybe 4 times, 5. It doesn't, never gets old for me. I don't know what else do I want to do to this? What else do I want to add? Maybe some hatch lines. I'll add some shading. Hey, Jason's in the house. Jason, good to see you. You're coming to NYC next week. Awesome. How is the protest stuff going? Is the city on high alert? Jason Nicholas Nicholas, great question. I have no idea. I live in a news media bubble. I mean, well, I'm not in the news media bubble. I'm like in a bubble not listening to the news media. I really have no idea, to be honest with you. So you might want to Google that. Um, yeah, I don't— I have no clue. So it's a good question though, for sure. And Google it and check it out so you feel safe with the conditions that may or may not be happening there. Uh, good point. Excellent point. Um, let's see, next. Jason Nicholas is staying in Secaucus. Very cool, Secaucus. That is, um, I know where Secaucus is. Awesome. I wonder if you're staying near the MetLife Stadium. MetLife Stadium is an interesting building, home of the Giants and the Jets. What do I want to indicate this? Oh, actually, I see what that is. We have some kind of canopy coming out here off the building. That's what that shape is. Okay. We have some really fine lines in here. So I, I like to sketch standing up. It gives me a lot of flexibility and mobility. 'Cause right now I kind of shifted over here and now I'm sketching off to the right. And just being up and about gives me more freedom to be, to put the lines where I want to and not forcing, you know, forcing my arm and contorting myself into weird positions. So I would say 9 times out of 10, I am standing up sketching stuff. And we all work differently, right? No right or wrong way. Whatever's comfortable for you. And I also feel like when I stand, I have a lot more energy. So when I teach school, when I'm teaching high school, which is most of the week, most of the year, I stand up. I never sit down teaching. I am always on my feet. I sometimes make my students seasick because I'm always wandering around the room, kind of. I just have an energy and I just like to be up and about. So that's, that's probably another— if I had to add a pro tip or mention a pro tip of how I keep my sketches loose, I think part of it is how me standing up and being dynamic with the way I can move. That just adds to the energy level for me. That's a good note. I gotta write that one down. Cool. I'm liking this sketch, guys. Let me just take a step away from it for a minute. We'll look at some comments. And, um, I feel like there's a lot of— I want to add some darkness somewhere. Hello darkness, my old friend. Who knows that song? Pillow Darkness, My Old Friend. Put in the comments who sings that. I, I know, I'm pretty sure about that one. I will not sing it. You don't want to hear me sing. What's cool about this shed building here on the left is it has these, these wheels on it so the building could actually open and expand. It's a really interesting piece of architecture. You know what we're gonna do? I want to draw this attention to the vessel building, so I'm actually just gonna kind of lightly add some hatch lines in here because I want— I'm going to leave the vessel white so it pops. And I'm just shading this in here, and I'm hoping it's helping to make this pop a little bit more. I'm going to shade this in a little bit. I'm holding the pen, the Sharpie, really lightly to help pick up some of the texture of the paper. So I hopefully that made a difference that this is starting to pop out a little bit, this edge. Cool, Jason's gonna be there, Hudson Yards. Jason, awesome! I'll be curious to see you, what you think of Hudson Yards. Linda says, I live 1.5 hours above NYC. That's so cool, very close. I'm about an hour bus ride from NYC, an hour bus ride. I usually will take the bus into the city and then and then kind of walk around. Hey, Cameron's in the house! Cameron, what's going on? Hope you're doing well. Hope school's going well for you, man. Um, we'll have to definitely catch up one of these days. It's always great to see you pop on. I'd love to hear about the projects you're working in, uh, working on at school. I mean, let me know what you guys think. Is the vessel building kind of popping out here? Zoom out. I want to make it pop out a little more, so I'm actually going to add some really, really light— I'm going super light here. I just want to darken this shed building up a little bit. I just, I really want, I kind of want the vessel to be the star of the show in the sketch. I think it's working. Hey, Nan's Life 7, how are you? Awesome that you're joining us. Sorry, late arriving. You are awesome. You're not late. There's no way you could be late if I didn't say what time I was going to be on, so I appreciate you joining. I am sketching, um, this is Hudson Yards in NYC, so I'm doing a scene based on that, sketch based on that. Cameron says, I have been very busy lately. I hear you, man. I, I get it. I know all about being busy for sure. I, I am on that busy train with you. I'm just adding some texture to this building here. I think I'm liking this one. I'm actually gonna leave it where it is for now. It's pretty cool looking. Thank you guys for all those thumbs up out there and the likes. If you're on YouTube, thank you for, for sharing. I appreciate that so much. You gotta— I'd love to get more people here in the studio, well, the virtual studio, joining us. It would be so cool. I said I was gonna stop, but I didn't. I didn't honor my word. I'm still going. Me know if you guys like this, the scene. All right, now I think I'm officially done with it. Ta-da! Here we go, a quick sketch of Hudson Yards, a couple of my favorite NYC iconic buildings and structures. We have the Vessel right here. And then we have the shed building. Love this as well. Um, and I just love this whole area, has such a cool futuristic vibe to it. I have not been there at night, but I would love to see this place lit up. I think it's got to be spectacular. All right guys, let me know if there's any final questions. I'm going to wrap up, it's after 9, and, um, yeah. Hey, the thumbs up. You guys are still thumb thumbs upping me. I think I made that up, that word. Thank you guys so much for tuning in. You're amazing. I'm gonna head out. Um, keep paying it forward, you know, use your creativity for positivity, um, or just even nod hello to somebody. It'll change someone's day, trust me. I want to thank D-Ray. D-Ray was in the house, it was great seeing you as always. Linda H and Linda S, the Lindas were in the house, you guys are amazing, appreciate you. Jason Nicholas Nicholas, always great to connect with you as well. Enjoy your trip to NYC, I hope you have a great time. I'm hoping to get out there and meet maybe Sunday, maybe this Sunday, we'll see. Um, yeah, Nan's Life 7, thank you as well for tuning in. Cameron, um, good luck with your projects and we'll catch up sometime, maybe, maybe during like winter break, that would be a good time. Dearest says wrapping up for the night. Thank you. No, no, thank you, thank you guys. Um, Linda says, thank you, Jason, enjoy your day tomorrow. Yeah, thank you guys, that's— have a great Friday. Peace, live creatively, and I'll see you guys real soon. Take care, have a great, great rest of your night. And I'm finding the finish button right there, it's right here on my screen. Take care, guys.
