In this instructional vlog, Jason Nicholas answers a frequent viewer question about the pens, pencils, and other writing instruments he prefers for loose‑style architectural and urban sketching. He demonstrates how he pares down his extensive collection to fit inside his Lockbee Quattro travel case, explaining the purpose and personal significance of each item. The lineup includes Sharpie extra‑fine markers for a non‑bleeding black base, Pilot Precise V7 (black and red) for reliable line work, a Lamy Safari fountain pen for cartridge‑based ink flow, Pilot Varsity and Preppy colored pens for vibrant bleeds, a Prismacolor neon‑pink color pencil as his signature accent, and a Pentel Aqua Brush for water‑based ink or watercolor washes. Jason briefly mentions his upcoming sketching trip to New York City, hints at future videos covering paper choices, and encourages viewers to visit his website (www.e‑inkspiredlife.com) via a QR code, emphasizing a creative‑for‑positivity mindset.
Chapters
Pens, pencils, and pliers. Maybe not the pliers, we'll put them over there. Welcome to the Inkspired Life, architectural sketching and creative mindset. One of my most frequently asked questions is what pens, pencils, and other writing instruments do I like to use for my loose style architectural sketching? And it's an awesome question, a question that I've been thinking about. Actually, today I've been focusing on it because I'm going to be going and sketching some buildings in New York City later this week, and I can't possibly take all of this stuff you see here. I mean, I have even more pens. If I just kind of pan back here quick, I mean, you'll see there's just tons of stuff. So I need to really pare down and figure out, hey, what am I going to take? So let's just move some of this and let me show you what I've come up with. So we'll move this to the side. All right, so I decided I'm going to take whatever I could fit in my cool Lockbee Quattro. I love the Lockbee Quattro. Um, let's unzip it and see what's inside. And I tried to put my most commonly used sketching tools in there. Ta-da! So let's go through these one by one pretty quickly, and just so you can get inside my creative brain a little bit. So here we go. I'm going to start with probably the most common thing or writing instrument I use is the Sharpie. I love my Sharpies, especially the extra fine point. And they also have an extra— I think it's ultra fine point something. But I love my Sharpie. I'll start most of my sketches with Sharpies because I like to add watercolor and ink. And when I add that on top of the black Sharpie marker, it's not going to bleed and run anywhere. So, put this over here. Maybe we'll do a quick sketch after I run through this. So, I have the Sharpie. The next thing I like to use right here is the Pilot Precise pen. This is the Precise V7. Love the Pilot pen. It's great for bleeding. I've been using these since architecture school, the good old sketching days. Yeah, it's a really reliable pen. And I also have a red one. I like to carry red because I just love the red color and I love bleeding this red ink. So it's another Pilot pen, just happens to be red. Next in here, oh my gosh, fountain pens! Holy co— holy manoli, fountain pens are like whole topic unto itself, but I like to carry the Lamy Safari. Lamy Safari fountain pen is really— it's fairly inexpensive, very reliable. I've been using this for years. I have a couple different ones, and I love the Lamy ink as well. It has replaceable cartridges in there. It bleeds really nicely. So that is the Lamy Safari pen. Next, here we have the Pilot Varsity. Pilot Varsity is a great pen, comes in many, many different colors. This happens to be purple. Uh, it's great for bleeding, and I'll show you an example in a few minutes. Another color pen I like to use, this is the Preppy pen. Preppy also comes in many different colors. This happens to be yellow. So these are also the kind of the default colors that I would bring with me, or I will be bringing with me. I love to use color pencils. This is a Prismacolor color pencil. This color happens to be neon pink, which if you look at my artwork and sketching, you'll see neon pink usually pops up somewhere in the sketches. Last but not least, in the Lockbee Quattro, is an aqua brush. This is a Pentel Aqua Brush. Love it. You can see that bubble moving, so there's water inside. So if I do want to bleed ink or watercolor, I have this brush with me and it's ready to go. So that's what I'm going to be bringing with me when I go to do some urban sketching later this week. Um, again, I could fit more in the Lochbie if I wanted. There's pouches in the front. And in the back, but I'm going to limit to what I can fit inside. We'll talk about paper and other things I may be bringing on future videos, but this just gives you a great idea of what I like to use in my everyday architectural sketching. Thank you guys for watching. I hope you enjoyed this. Feel free to go to my website at www.e-inkspiredlife.com There's also a QR code on the screen. You may need to QR that thing. I think QR is a verb. If not, it is now. We're QRing things. I appreciate it so much. Let me know if you have any questions or comments or feedback. Thank you so much. Have an awesome day and keep paying it forward with creativity. I like to say, use your creativity for positivity. All right guys, I am peace outting. See you later. Take care.
