In this late‑night YouTube livestream, artist Jason Nicholas creates a quick watercolor sketch of the Biltmore House in North Carolina. He works on a 4" × 8" vertical paper, using Daniel Smith sample sheets (Imperial Purple, Ultramarine Violet, Lemon Yellow, Light Aqua, Turquoise) and other supplies such as Sharpie, Pilot Precise, and Flair pens. Throughout the session he narrates his process: selecting and mixing pigments to achieve a deep purple, adjusting yellow tones, lifting paint with a cloth, tapping the brush to suggest roof shingles, and planning to add ink details after the wash dries. Jason discusses his intent to build a series of Biltmore‑inspired pieces, tying them together through consistent color palettes, and references similar series in his industrial steel stack paintings. He interacts briefly with viewers (Linda, Karen), acknowledges their comments, and shares personal reflections on the joy of experimenting with sample packs versus full‑tube paints. The livestream ends with a preview of the finished wash, a promise to add ink tomorrow, and a light‑hearted sign‑off.
Chapters
Hey there, hope you're all doing well. Thanks for watching. It is late Saturday night, 11:33 PM. I'm just popping on to do real, real just quick sketch here before I go to bed. A sketch inspired by the Biltmore in North Carolina. And what am I looking for? Something. Oh yeah, my paintbrush. Gonna throw some watercolor on here, I think. Where is my brush? My brush is here. Here it is. Hope you guys are doing well. So I thought I'd throw down some watercolor on here. I do want to get— let's see, I have some sample colors in here. I want a purple, purple color if I can find it. Let's see, I have some here. I'm gonna break out one of these Daniel Smith watercolor sheets, sample sheets. I want to pull some purple off of this, this, uh, bad boy here. Cool, let's do it. Make sure everything's on cam. You can see that more or less that works. Hey, Linda's in the house! Good to see you, Linda. Hope all's well, hope all is well. And I'm glad to hear that, um, that your grandson is doing, doing well. That's good news. Always great to see you. Yeah, yeah, cool. I like the colors going down here. These are— again, this sketch is inspired by the Biltmore House in North Carolina. And I say inspired because it's not the same color. It's a close-up view, my take on it. I'm definitely not trying to recreate a photograph I took. Just want to be inspired by it. That's what's fun for me, just using and seeing, you know, using photographs or places I've been just as inspo. Let's see, I'm going to mix some of my own— throw some blue. And some red in here. I'm going to mix a little my own kind of purple. Just want to make, make it darker than what I put on there in some places. So let's just kind of show, maybe kind of touch it down in places, just get a little darker. There we go, that's looking cool. Oh, you're welcome. I'm so glad he bounced back. That's awesome. Love that. That's great, great news. I'm just thinking, I want, um, my yellow is not coming out as yellowy as I wanted it. It's all good, right? I don't have any paper towels. Hmm. No, I'm not prepared. Let's see. Cool. I like the way the color is. Um, I like this color combo. I like how you capture the life of the building, the story. Oh, Linda, that is so kind of you to say. That means a lot. Thank you so much. I really appreciate that so much. I'm going to dig into— I'm— I have these Daniel Smith watercolor sample sheets. I'm going to try pulling out maybe one of these yellows. I just want a brighter yellow here somewhere. Looks like last time maybe I used this bismuth color. But I have a bunch on here, so let's— I don't know, let's actually, let's dip into— let me try some of the Lemon Yellow here. Yeah, cool. Yeah, I like— I actually like that. I'm gonna lift— I'm lifting some of that off, I think. Alright, there we go. I'm just tapping it down. Boom. Yeah, yeah, that's acceptable. Yeah, so the colors I've used so far are, let me zoom out so you can see what I have on my desk here. So I have Light Aqua here. Boom. Um, I think this is lemon yellow. So this is, uh, Cheap Joe's Turquoise. I say— I always say aqua. Turquoise. Winsor Newton lemon yellow, I think. I dipped a little bit into some red and blue, make some purple. I also use this purple on this Daniel Smith sheet. The— I was using the ultramarine. I think it's ultramarine violet. It's off camera there. And a Sharpie. That's, that's what I've used so far. And I don't think I'm going to add any different colors. I'm just pulling some of this color back a little bit here. Just to lighten it up. So I'm wiping off my paintbrush with a cloth, and I'm just lifting some of that paint back off, but it still has a yellowish stain, which I like. I'm going to dip into the turquoise here, and I'm going to throw— let's throw a little more on here, I think. So I'm just tapping my brush down just to give some texture. I don't want to do a brush stroke smooth. I'm just going to literally— let me get some paint on there. I'm just tapping it just to help create the look of shingles up on the roof so it's not so regular, it's kind of irregular. It's a pattern. I'm trying to create a pattern with the side of the brush. And I'll come back and add some ink lines on top of this. Oops, I just dropped my brush. Alright, let's grab some, uh, I'm really gonna get a thick layer of turquoise on there because I want it to pop. And we'll throw some in here, maybe some under here, just to get things to pop out a little. Might be popping a little too much, so let's just— there you go, throw some water and let it bleed down. Not liking it too much, so I'm going to blot it off. Actually, I like that. Alright, I think that works. Gonna leave a lot of white space on this one. Hey, Karen's in the house! Good to see you, Karen. Hope all's well. Always great to see you. You guys are awesome. I'm on late tonight, but I had to get something sketched before bedtime. I think also what I'm going to do is I'm going to use some of this blue I used before right here. And I'm going to use that just to help create some shadows on here. So this is the paper I'm using, in case you're wondering, and I really like this paper. I love the format. The size of this is awesome for the stuff I like doing. It's 4 inches by 8 inches. I love vertical formats, whether it's Well, whether it's vertical or horizontal, I love the ratio, the 4:8, the 1:2 ratio of the paper. Um, something about the proportions that I just really love to use. Um, here, here's the one of the first Biltmore— actually, I think this was the first one I did, first ink wash or watercolor wash. Love this sketch. This is probably one of my favorites ever. So I'm just kind of working off the color palette I used on this one and doing another Biltmore just to keep it as— I feel like, um, not only the subject matter will make a series if it's all the Biltmore, different parts of the Biltmore, but also the colors can help tie different pieces together as a series. So I'm trying to do more kind of series stuff. Not serious, but series. I'll never do serious stuff. And you probably noticed that with my industrial steel stacks paintings I've been doing, they're all the same color palette. So when you put them next to each other, it just looks really cool. Nice series of paintings. Went a little too heavy with the blue on here. I don't like blotting. I have a cloth here, but I like blotting with paper towels. But I went a little too heavy. The music got to me that time. And then I'll pull some of this out when I'm— when it's all dry with some, um, I'll probably come back with my Pilot Precise and just throw some more ink lines on top just to capture some of it better, pull out some of the shapes that were lost or to create some new shapes. There we go, that's better. That's kind of what I was thinking of. I'll zoom in so you can see this. There we go. I'm just grabbing some Daniel Smith. It's called Imperial Purple. Oh, now you're talking! That's, that's the purple I was looking for before. Imperial Purple. Yeah, love that. Has a— I was looking for an intense purple before, and this, this is it. I think that's the one I used on the previous painting I did. All right, this one's looking cool as far as color. I don't think I want to add— I don't think I want to add any more color to it. I'm gonna let it dry and we'll finish it with some ink. Awesome. So there you go, guys. That is round 1 of this Biltmore-inspired sketch painting. Step 2, or round 2, will be to add some more— this ink. Actually, no, I might either use my I might either use my Pilot or I'm thinking a Flair pen to add some detail. So that will be happening probably tomorrow because I'm going to let this dry. And that's a wrap for my live. I hope you guys are awesome. Hope you have a great, great Sunday. And thanks for letting me pop on for just a few minutes tonight to, uh, get my daily sketch in. Zoom out so you can kind of see the full scale of it. Here you go. Boom. Here's that Daniel Smith purple I would just use. I really liked right here. Sorry, it's out of focus, but the Imperial Purple, really rich. Um, I have to say, these Daniel Smith colors are pretty awesome. I don't have much experience other than the ones I've been just trying on these sheets. I have 4 of these sheets here. Really cool paints. Uh, I believe they're fairly expensive. I haven't— I haven't bought any tubes, so I'm not sure. But, um, yeah, it's always fun to try different things, guys, and I like trying things in samples, like sample packs of simple colors, simple packs of paper. Sometimes it's a great way to try things without spending a lot of money. There you go. I just want to throw some turquoise, just intense it in some places here. Intensify it. Cool. Good night, Karen. Hey guys, yeah, have a great, great night. Keep paying it forward with your positivity and your creativity. You guys are amazing at doing that. And I'll see you, um, hopefully tomorrow sometime. I'll pop on, we'll see. Linda says you have Daniel Smith palette, and Sue Kane uses DS Paints too. Love their colors. Yeah, yeah, they have great stuff. There was a color I saw demoed one time online, a Daniel Smith online presentation. I don't remember the name of it. I don't think they make it anymore. I want to say it was like Cinderella or something. It was a really beautiful color, but I don't think they make it anymore, and I don't have it on here. All right guys, take care, have a great, great night. Peace and live. Creatively, see you soon. Just gonna keep waving until the song's over. No, I'm just kidding. Take care, guys. I am trying to find the finish button. My screen's a mess here. I say this all the time, but it's true. I'm gonna keep waving until I— I can't do both. I can't find the finish button and wave. Where the heck is the finish button? This is me in perplexed mode. Where's the finish button? If I hit the— if I hit the icon down here for Ecamm— ah, there we go. Good night, take care guys.
