The Inkspired Life - Sketching & Painting : Inking Out Loud

Hey, D-Ray, good to see you. Hope all's well. Happy almost New Year! Hope you're not buried in snow over there too bad. I saw some of your pictures. It's crazy all the snow you've had. So I hope you're hanging in there and I hope you're feeling better. So I'm popping on quick tonight. I have— I'm gonna wrap up 8:30, so if I have 15 minutes, just to— just want to get a bridge sketch in here before I head off. I've done actually 2 sketches today. This is number 3. I just wanted to pop on live before, just to wish everybody a happy New Year, almost New Year, and, um, yeah, just check in. Hey, how you doing, Kate? Good to see you. Hope all's well. Hope you're having a great day and happy almost New Year. This is awesome, we got two peeps on YouTube watching. This is exciting. Love it, love it, love it. So I am gonna be on for 15 minutes, quick sketch. I have some water here. I actually have some hot chocolate. Delicious. I don't usually indulge while I'm online, but I'm gonna have a sip of this hot chocolate. Oh, it's good. It's Swiss Miss Salted Caramel. I am a sucker for anything caramel. Good stuff. So I posted a couple other pictures today of bridges. This is my third sketch. And I just wanted to come on here and just do something quick for you guys and wish you all Happy New Year. So hope everybody's doing well. Hope you are relaxing or getting ready to welcome 2023. I like to have a I like to keep quiet, so I'm having a nice quiet night home here with my family. I'm gonna watch a movie or something when I'm done here. And, uh, yeah, it's all good. Kate says yummy. It is yummy. You got it. So I don't know if you guys make New Year's resolutions. I don't make resolutions. I like to, I like to focus on maybe 2 or 3 words every year. Um, and I use these words as a guideline. Two of my words for 2023 are simplify and systematize. I know that's kind of a boring word, so maybe you call autopilot. Yeah, I just want to simplify everything from stuff I own to, um, things I say yes to. So it's kind of my focus in 2023 is going to be to simplify maybe even my artwork, just kind of take my sketching and simplify things a little bit more. So it's kind of, it's kind of where I'm headed, I think, in 2023. So tonight, guys, I'm just sketching with a Pilot Precise pen. I have a red one here. I'm probably going to break out the blue. As well. And we're just going to use red and blue and get some purpley things happening on this ink wash bridge sketch. I'm going to continue sketching bridges. This is— so far I've done 32 in December, 32 bridge sketches in December. This is 33 right here. So I stuck to my goal. I've done at least one sketch a day. Of a bridge, which is awesome. I'm not one to commend myself, but for me to stick to something that long is an achievement. So if I can do it, you guys can do it. It's just a mindset thing. And you gotta make it fun too. I've been having fun with these sketches, just playing around. I'm gonna switch up the tunes a little bit. Boom. Jason Nicholas Nicholas says, more churches, less bridges. Hey Jason, good to see you. Jason's like, I don't want to see your bridges, man, I want to see your churches. That's cool, Jason, thank you for your feedback, I appreciate it. Um, there will definitely be more, more, uh, church sketches coming up. I'm going to keep sketching architecture different buildings. You guys know I love sketching churches. You've seen— probably seen the St. Patrick's sketches I've done, some imaginary churches as well. And that's what's so cool about our artwork, guys, is we can, we can create what we want to, whatever subject matter we're into. That's what makes this fun for me. This is kind of my own thing and no one's like paying me or commissioning me to paint something specific or sketch something specific. I'm just kind of doing my own thing. That's why I love doing this. You know, you guys probably know I'm also an architect and a school teacher, but You know, being an architect, I'm working for people. I'm kind of commissioned to do projects, which I love. It's great. But believe it or not, there is actually less freedom in that because I have to meet certain constraints and deadlines. It's creative. It's creative problem solving, which I love. But, you know, unless you get that client that has an endless bank account, which I have yet to have, it's tough because you're really just kind of, you know, budget. It's just interesting. It's not a complaint, but that's why I just love coming online and sketching because it's so freeing. I love the blue and the red here just kind of mixing together. Hey, Kim's on in the house. I almost said on the house. Kim is on the house like Santa Claus on the roof. Kim is in the house. Kim, good to see you. Kim, I loved your, um, painting, your goat painting earlier today. That was Awesome. Really, really, really cool. One thing I can't sketch or paint are animals. I just am so bad at that. I'm sure if I practice and practice, I could get it. I just haven't— it's something I just haven't practiced, which is cool because people like Kim, you guys, you're awesome at that, and I just enjoy looking at your work.

Cool stuff.

So yeah, this is just a real quick loose, loosey-goosey sketch just for fun. We'll even get a little more cray cray. Let's throw down— actually, let's just throw more blue on here. But I do want to take the time to thank everybody for your support last year. Well, it's still this year, but 2022, thank you for your positivity, your feedback, your comments. Thank you for sharing. My Facebook page. Thank you for liking me on YouTube, Facebook. I just appreciate the fact that I've been able to grow a little bit more and just share what I'm doing, because I hope what I'm doing is just bringing some kind of positivity out there, whether you're an artist or not. So I sincerely appreciate you guys. Thank you so much. I have two cameras. I think this one's on. I appreciate you guys so much. Yes, I have my glasses on today because my eye was bothering me. Usually I wear contacts, and I did not do my hair as always. Um, but yeah, thank you guys so much. I really, really do appreciate it. Hey, Cameron's in the house! Cameron, good to see you. Let's have some more hot chocolate. Whoa, there's a bunch of people in here. Let me me check out— let me go look at the comments. Pardon me, I'm going to indulge in some hot chocolate as I look at the comments and talk to you guys. All right, so who we got? We got Cameron. Good to see you. Happy New Year, Cameron. Wait, Kim says Retro is an animal. Oh, Retro isn't actually— I have my Retro mug right here. Yes, so Kim, Retro is pretty much the only animal I can sketch is Retro the dog. We have Retro with us in the house. Kate was transferred to Charlotte. You're doing a hometown watercolor series. Ooh, you miss home. Kate, that's a great idea. I love that you're capturing a hometown watercolor series. That is so cool. You know, sketching Art for me is definitely a way of capturing memories. So I always think back to a sketch I did of—

I don't have it here, but—

a sketch I did of the World Trade Center back when I was in college. This was before 9/11, and I always get goosebumps when I think about it. But I was able to stand there across from the World Trade Center, across I was in Hoboken, New Jersey, just sketching, sketching that skyline with the Trade Center. I still can remember being there that day, sketching. It was a rainy day years ago. So I love that, Kate. I love that you're doing that. Hey, Janice is in the house. Janice, good to see you. Hope all is well with you. It's awesome to see you guys. Jan says, Happy New Year's. Happy New Year's Eve to you too. Kim says, what type of paper is that? It seems the paint flows well. Yeah, Kim, good question. This is— well, let me show you guys a couple other bridges I've been sketching. If you're up for some show and tell. I don't know, but you guys like this music? This music's kind of— kind of like it but don't like it. I'm gonna change it up. Started off good. Uh, so this paper is— this is actually Fabriano 1264 watercolor, 140-pound, 7x10, cold press. So, um, I've been using— this is Fabriano. I usually have— usually have— I can't talk. Where's my other sketchbook? Let me grab one. You know, so you guys have— I usually use Canson XL, which I like, but I think I'm liking the Fabriano a little bit better. There's a little more texture on it. So I only got this because they didn't have this. Sketchbook when I went to go buy them, so I ended up grabbing the Fabriano one, not by mistake, but because it's all they had, and I'm actually really enjoying it. So good question. I will definitely be using more of it. Yeah, so if you look, the ink is flowing on here pretty well. You can see kind of swirling it around, still wet. Here's a— this is a sketch I did earlier today. I think maybe some of you guys have seen it. This came out really cool. This is a wooden bridge in Granite Falls, Washington. So I have a friend who, she lives near there. She loves this area. I think it's a park area. She sent me some photos and one of the photos was of a wooden bridge bridge. So I thought this would be cool to sketch today. And this is ink and watercolor on here. And if you look close, you can see that texture of the Fabriano paper. If you look at the black lines, you can kind of see the texture of the paper, which I really like. I also love the hard edges on watercolor right here. I love hard edges. So cool. So, yeah, so I was trying to create a little perspective view there. Again, this bridge here is just fun, colorful, just being playful. And here's another bridge I sketched this morning. This is the Liberty Bridge in Budapest. Am I saying that right? Budapest? Crosses over the Danube River. Laura Abbott, if you're out there, Laura Abbott, have it turn me on to this bridge. Really, really beautiful bridge. This is only the second sketch I've done of it, but it's really a cool structure. I'm not capturing all the delicate beauty happening here, but it's a good start. I love these lamppost fixtures. Pretty fun. So that's what I've been up to. Okay, uh, Kate says, "That's awesome. I used to take the train to the city." Oh, that's cool, Kate. So awesome. So I worked in Hoboken for one summer, maybe it was two summers, um, while I was in college. I worked for an architect in Hoboken. I loved working in Hoboken. I loved the architect, such an amazing talented man. It was, it was just exciting being right across from NYC. Now I just love going into New York City and checking out the architecture and the vibes there. I'm going to be headed there this spring doing a lot of sketching, so I'm looking forward to that. That is so cool that you've been there. Jenna says nice Kim says, "Wow, so awesome!" Cool, I want to throw a— I'm just gonna— guys, I'm just having fun with this. We're gonna just throw some yellow here in the background and why not? I'm gonna wrap up in a couple of minutes. Looks awesome! Hey, thanks guys. Yeah, those were fun sketches from today. This is just a quick little quickie here. I just want to pop on.

So I'm going to throw down some yellow watercolor on here.

So I hope you guys have some Wonderful plans coming up, or maybe you're just gonna chill, hang out. Sometimes for me, chilling at home is one of my favorite things to do. Just laying low, kind of chilling. And I've been lucky, I've had off of this past week from school. We don't head back until Tuesday. And you know what? I could use more time. I could use just one more week. Not being greedy, just one more week would be nice. I feel like I'm just starting to get caught up on things and now I gotta go back to school soon. I am not complaining. I'm very lucky to have this time off. Thought it'd be fun to just throw some yellow on here. It's mixing a little bit with the red ink, which is cool. We're getting some oranges happening. This is just a Winsor Newton Cotman watercolor set. I love this little travel box, convenient sized. I have a brand— I have actually a brand new one waiting. In the wings, I've been using this one for years, which is cool. I've replaced some of the paints in there and some I have barely even used. Like, I don't even know what color this is. This maybe ochre. Maybe this one's ochre, but you could tell I barely use it. That is the original one that came with it. Same thing with white. I barely have ever used the white. Um, I think I think this is a green, like a dark green. I've barely used that one. So it's interesting to see what, you know, what colors do you pick out and do you use. Yeah, I'm liking this yellow on here. It's looking cool. Maybe we have a— we got a sunrise happening sunset happening. Let's throw some of that on here. So Kim, this, like other watercolor paper, this does buckle. It is buckling. It's very wet. But I think it's looking pretty nice.

Mmm, this is really good hot chocolate.

I'm just looking for a piece of paper towel to blot this a little bit. I'm so excited. I'm like, Kate, and I know D-Ray, you guys are out there on YouTube, which is so cool. I just started streaming to YouTube not too long ago, so it's really, really just fun to see people watching from Facebook and YouTube. Very cool. It's also good for me to see that it's actually working, this multi-streaming thing. Cool. I like this. I'm liking the yellow— excuse me— I used to always be afraid of using yellow. Um, it was my— probably the scariest color for me to ever use. I just had a— some kind of phobia about yellow. I don't know why. Yellow and green. But I'm not minding using yellow anymore. I love how all these colors is kind of mixing together. Let me zoom in a little bit. Maybe I think you can see it better. It's just fun to see the colors, the red ink and the blue ink and the yellow watercolor, just kind of all getting together for a little New Year's Eve party here. They're hanging out, they're kind of dancing. I had a little too much water in there, so I'm going to pull a little bit back on that.

Cool.

Um, Kim says, choosing that yellow was brilliant in more ways than one. Really, Kim?

Wow.

Kim, that's awesome. I would love if you could share, like, what is one— what is one of the things that you like about the yellow? I'm curious to know. I love that you said that. Um, yeah, maybe give me an example of something that you like about the yellow on here. That would be good for me, good feedback for me. Hey, Heather's in the house! Heather, how are you? Happy New Year's Eve, everyone! There you go. So originally I was going to do a sketch-a-thon New Year's Eve where I was going to sketch for hours and hours until midnight as a fundraiser. I just never got my act together to prep it and to promote it. So maybe, maybe during my spring break I'll do, yeah, some kind of a sketch-a-thon event where just come online and we'll sketch, we'll talk. And it could be, um, I'd like to do it as a fundraiser for maybe a local cause, or, um, I love Habitat for Humanity, where we can help raise some funds. Maybe I can, we'll talk, we'll see how that goes, but Yeah, so the yellow is cool. I love— I'm loving how it's drying here. Look at this. I actually like this at the top where it kind of— you may have noticed, I don't know if you were first on when I started, but I have these little frames I just cut out of cardboard. So this is 5 by 7. So I just kind of sketched the outline of that with a red pen. Just to give me an area. And the reason that is, is for mailing. So I have certain size envelopes, and if I could fit a piece of artwork in a smaller size envelope, it's more economical to, to mail. So if I can keep my artwork down to this size, it helps me with mailing costs. If I bump up to here, This is 7 by— this is 6 by 8. I think the Malakoff bumps up a little bit more, but it's just a kind of a guide for me. So I did use that as a frame before.

I'm gonna touch that.

Ooh, I almost did it, guys. I almost did it. I almost did this move, ready? Almost put my paintbrush in my hot chocolate.

Womp womp womp.

Good thing I did not do that. That was very close. My water is over here. I'm left-handed, so I keep— tend to— I usually keep my paint and my water, everything to my left side. It's easy for me to kind of grab and go. Um, I want to pop some yellow on here, but I— here's one of the things I like to do with yellow paint especially. I don't know why, but I like to do it. So I just like to have it sometimes not so watered down. I'm just going to grab some paint, just kind of layer it on my brush here. And just kind of tap it down. Actually, it looks a little bit— actually, I want this here. There's two different yellows. One is a lighter yellow, one is— so one is like a French yellow. Is it French's, the mustard? I think it's the brand, or Heinz. I don't remember. It's like a yellow mustard here, and the other one's more like a Dijon mustard color. I want the— I must be hungry, I'm talking about food. I want the, uh, this color yellow here, and it'll bleed a little bit. I just like throwing down that thick yellow, and when it dries, it just dries in, in a nice way. Let's see, I want to throw some more blue, I think. I'm actually just going to grab— I'm just going to grab some— I have blue watercolor paint in here. This is a little mixed media sketch, ink, watercolor. I just want to throw some of that blue along the edge here. And I'm going to bleed— blot some of that back a little bit. There we go. I just wanted to create kind of a little dark edge along there.

Cool.

Yellow, um, well, Yellow Well first would "I never would have chosen yellow. After watching it mix with the other colors, it just upped the fun aspect." Oh, cool. "Makes one want to skip over the bridge." Oh, thanks, Kim. I'm so glad yellow added that kind of pop for you. So you might have noticed I strategically actually layered more yellow here and more yellow here. I'm trying to almost create a brighter, more intense kind of sun kind of happening in this area. And this I'm going to leave and let just dry and fade away like it is. That's cool. I'm glad it added an element of fun. Thank you for the feedback. Heather says, "Yellow is so warm, makes me look forward to warmer days." I know. We have been so lucky here in New Jersey with our winter. I think we had 54 degrees the other day. I think it was in the 50s today. Rainy, but 50. We're expecting 60 next Wednesday, like 64 degrees. This weather is insane. I will take it. I will definitely take it. Alright guys, I actually think this turned out to be a fun little sketch. So this is my go-to bridge scene. I love doing this bridge perspective view. It's all— it all started with this sketch here I did last year in school. On a Post-it note. I did this today when I was subbing for a class, covering a class. So I did this like a quick 5-minute pencil sketch, and I love the way it came out. I've been using this ever since just to kind of inspire other views, similar views. I like this kind of perspective perspective viewpoint of a bridge. Alright. I'm just pull— trying to pull out some of these lines that got lost a little bit. So I'm going back over it as it's drying here. What should we name this one, guys? Yeah, let me know if you have any comments. What should we call this? What bridge? The bridge to where?

Or—

I'm up for suggestions. And then I just want to do some lines on here. It's a little wet, but maybe I will— I didn't use any black on here, so I'm not going to break out the black now. Let's just maybe do it in blue. So I'm just putting these lines on here just to help create the idea of depth illusion that we're going back a little bit. So just throw that on with a blue ink. Let me zoom in so you can see a little closer. Hey, if you're just joining us, thank you. Hope you're having a great New Year's Eve. Countdown is on to 2023 in— if I could do the math here, uh, let's see, 3 hours and 15, 3 hours and 14 minutes. Did I do that right, guys? I think so. I'm looking at the clock here. 3 hours and 14 minutes, we'll be in 2023. Hey, somehow it just zoomed to me close up. I'm not sure how it did that, but it's great to see you guys. Hope you're doing well. My camera cut off, that's weird. Oh, there we go, that was fun. I made myself bigger. Just a little close-up for you, just so you can see how bad my hair really is today. I just didn't do it. I didn't do it tonight. I do have my Batman shirt on. I try to wear a Batman shirt one day on the weekend. Um, cool. Hope you guys like this sketch. I think it's gonna dry pretty nicely, and it might be a wrap on this one. The man says, as he just bleeds his blue ink back here a little bit, just soften these lines a smidge and throw a little bit of water on them, let them bleed into the yellow. There we go. Yeah, I think this works. I think it's really creating that sense of perspective, that sense of depth looking back. To here. And one of the ways that— a couple things, the perspective, these angled lines are all pointing back that way. But also, I make— I intentionally made it darker, dark, more dark blue back here to help create or draw your eye back along that path. Pretty cool stuff. Um, Bridge to Tomorrow. Heather, that's awesome! We can call the bridge to tomorrow. That is so funny you said that. Someone had left me a comment on another bridge, man. I'm trying to remember which one it was. I think it was this one. Let me grab it. And I think they called the bridge maybe Bridge to Tomorrow or Bridge to the Future. So it's so funny that you said that. Maybe there's some kind of theme happening here I didn't even realize. But yeah, 2023, Bridge to the Future. So here, um, this was an experiment because this was actually done on hot press watercolor paper. This was either the first or second time I've ever used hot press watercolor paper. Um, but I think this is the one that someone called the Bridge to the Future or Bridge to Tomorrow, so it's interesting that you had said that for this one here. This actually dried pretty nicely. I'll hold it up closer. I'm not a fan of hot press watercolor paper, not yet, but I have only used it a few times. But I missed the texture that cold press press paper has. But I think this came out okay. Boom! Alright guys, let's see. D-Ray says, "It's not bad hair." Oh, thanks D-Ray. You are too kind. You are too kind. "Brewster tomorrow." Thank you, Heather. I think if that's cool with you, we'll use that name. Sounds awesome. Let's sign it and we're going to wrap for the night. So let me grab— I'm going to sign this with my Sharpie. Let me grab a Sharpie over here. Not a Shar-Pei. That is a dog. We are not going to be using a Shar-Pei to sign. We're going to use a Sharpie. Yes, that was my dad joke. That was my last official dad joke of the year. Thank you guys for being here and supporting me and my bad dad jokes. Had to get one out today, and I'm sorry that you are on the other end of it. Um, cool, let's do it. Bridge to Tomorrow, we're gonna, we're gonna call it that. K says thank you, happy new year. KL, happy new year to you, thank you for tuning in. Enjoy your New Year. I appreciate you watching and commenting here on YouTube. And I think, I think you actually commented on my Instagram earlier, if I'm correct. I looked at my Insta kind of quickly. If you did, awesome. If not, that's still awesome. I appreciate you. Have a great, great New Year, and I'm looking forward to seeing you and seeing all of you guys back in 2023. We're going to wrap up here with a bridge to tomorrow. Guys, thank you so, so much. Have an amazing rest of 2022. Have an even better 2023. I want to wish you all nothing but the best of health and joy and happiness, which is the same as joy. So best, best of health and joy to you guys. Um, Peace and prosperity. Let's just make it— an error on my computer. Let's make 2023 the best year we can, and I will see you on the flip. I'll be doing this, and I look forward to seeing you guys as well. I appreciate y'all. Peace. Um, oh, I was gonna say peace and live creatively. This bridge gave a sense of depth. It It's a wrap for this bridge.

Cool.

Bridge of Tamar. Yes, awesome. So D-Ray, awesome seeing you. I hope you're hanging in there. Hope you're doing okay with all the snow and hope you're feeling better. So hang in there. Uh, Kate, it was great seeing you again here tonight. Cameron, always great seeing you. The time flew by. I am so sorry that we just, we did not get a chance to get together during break. I don't know when you go back to school, but maybe we can still get together. Heather, always great seeing you. Thank you for popping in. Appreciate you. Kim, Kim, it's always great seeing you. I miss our Inkling, our workshops, and seeing you guys and all the people in the workshop. So I'd love to do one. I was thinking in January. I honestly just haven't put one— anything together on that, um, yet. Yet. I have something in my brain I want to do, but I'll let you guys know about that soon. Um, who else? Did I miss anybody? Who else? Janice was in the house. Janice, it was— it's always great seeing Janice. Janice, I love your pics that you post from NYC. Thank you for showing those. They're great, great inspo pics. You're awesome. And I think I got everybody. If I missed anybody else, thank you. I can say thank you the rest of the night because I really mean it. Take care, guys. Peace. Live creatively. See you in 2023. Take care. Have an awesome, awesome night. I'm looking for the finish button.