Thursday Night Sketch and Chill

Hey, um, it's Thursday, January 22nd, 2026. Hope you're doing great today on this Thursday. I'm Jason Nicholas Nicholas with The Inspired Life. We're gonna do some sketching tonight. I am gonna sketch one of my favorite buildings in New York City, the Copper Building. I haven't sketched in a while. I have some, some previous sketches here. I've done a lot of sketches of this building. Let's move that. Um, I love the Copper Building. It's one of my most favorite buildings in NYC. I just think it's— I think it's a beautiful building. Let's look at some pictures of it on screen here. These are some photographs I took. Um, Copper Building. I might have the years wrong, but I think the Copper Building was built— gosh, 2017, 2015, New York City. It is right across from the 34th Street ferry terminal, the pier rather. Um, the building is so cool. If you look at it, it looks like— well, what does this building look like to you? Looks like the letter H, right? And it's got kind of a crooked-ish top to it. Um, that's what makes it unique. So I love, love, love it. We'll do a really quick sketch. Um, yeah, let me check in the chat, say hello. Feel free to leave a question or a comment. Um, and if you're, if you're a ninja watcher, that's cool too, but don't be afraid to say hello in the chat. Cool. Hey, uh, Jen is on. Jen, great to see you. You are, you are blue. Um, I appreciate you stepping up and being a blue wrench for me. Good luck, good luck guarding the chat because it is so dang busy. Like, yeah, um, we'll get there one day. It'll become busier and that'll be fun. Um, appreciate anybody watching live. Hey Andrew, great to see you as well. All right, so copper building, so cool. Here are some things I've done in the past. I'm going to Let me know in the chat, do you want— do you want me to leave a picture of the building on as I sketch it? Maybe I'll do that in case you want to sketch along. We'll just keep one image, we'll keep this one. You can sketch along with me if you want. Um, I always sketch it different, different colors, a little different take on it. Um, I would love to go to the Copper Building, walk into the lobby, and be like, hey, Here's a sketch for you and leave my name and stuff on it. I might do that. I might do that. All right, cool. All right, I'm gonna start off with the Sharpie. Um, remember, sketching for me is about imperfection. I am perfection. Oh, I love that. Wait, I think I just came up with something cool. We're gonna write— I'm gonna write this down. I am hyper. Um, Right, so the word im— let's do this. Imperfection. We're gonna— we're brainstorming. Oh, we need a Sharpie that works. We need a Sharpie that works. Come on, Sharpie. Im-per-fec-tion. Right? Imperfection. If you look at the word imperfection, It means not perfect, right? So I believe when we're sketching, um, just get stuff out of your head onto paper. We're not looking for precision, we're not looking for beautiful, we're not looking for clean. I'm just looking to get ideas out, capture feelings, capture moments in time. And what's cool, when I just was thinking about this, imperfection really means— ready? I Am. I am perfection. Imperfection equals I am perfection. That's deep. We're getting deep on the, uh, Inspired Life tonight. Thank you very much. All right, let's sketch. We're just gonna sketch right on this sheet. Hey Becky, great to see you! Becky's in the house. Awesome to see you, Becky, over on the Facebook. Becky's one of our original Inklings from way back when. Becky, when did— when was that? How many years ago? I think— well, do we— 2015? I'm— guys, I'm bad at remembering like dates. All right, hey, I see Jeff Anderson in the house! Jeff, awesome to see you. All right, let's just sketch the copper, have fun for a few minutes here. I'm gonna zoom in closer, I think. Let's zoom in. I know how to work this thing. Let me know, do you guys like the picture of the building on screen, or should I just get rid of it? I usually don't keep it on, but in case anybody actually wants to sketch with me. And, um, let's do it. Actually, you know what, guys, I'm feeling I feel like I want to sketch with red, red tonight, so we're going to sketch red. I'm just going through and pulling out some red pens and whatnot. Let's just do it. All right, so we got this impending snow headed our way. I'm seeing anywhere from like 17 to 21 inches here where I, I am, but it's changing constantly. Um, I am not looking forward to shovering— shovering— I can't talk— shoveling. By the way, this is unscripted, unrehearsed, just me stammering, being— just being me. Um, I'm not looking to shoveling, but I am looking forward to a snow day, maybe, where I can sleep in a little bit. Copper Building, we got kind of this letter H happening. We have a sky bridge, which is awesome. Have any of you guys seen the Copper Building? I, I think there is an elegance about this building. It was designed by Shop Architects. It's called Copper because the, the front of the building, the facade, is, uh, it's clad in copper panels. I think I need to move my camera too. My hand's blocking as I sketch. So sometimes, uh, one of the things I do when I'm sketching buildings is I'm always looking at the bigger shapes. Starting with that, and then you can come back and fill some details in. We're keeping it super loose tonight. Awesome. Hey, Gigi's in the house! Gigi NYC, good to see you. I love seeing you guys. Thank you so much for everybody for popping on here. Andrew says, sup, Mr. Nick? Sup, Andrew? I appreciate you, man. Thank you so much. The Copper Building is really cool to see, um, when you're on the East River Ferry. And there's a part of the ferry ride where the Copper Building— if you look here in this part between the buildings, um, you could see the, the Empire State Building framed in here. I always look for that magical special moment when I'm on the ferry. I know I'm kind of a nerd. I like, I like simple things. I think simple moments, and that's just a simple special moment. So if you get a chance to check out the East Ferry River, take a little ride on it, look for the Copper Building, and, uh, you'll see what I'm talking about. You know what, we're going to just play around some of these Sharpie markers I have here. We're going to throw down some color. Boom, boom. Can you guys see this all right? I think I should make it bigger. There we go. Um, 2020, Becky says. Yeah, maybe it was 2020 when we first started the Inklings on Facebook. That's definitely possible. Hey, speaking of original Inklings, We have another OI in the house. DB, DB, how are you? So good to see you. Wow, this is fun. I hope you're doing well. Gigi says it's nice that you have your students join your live streams. You know what, I am blessed. It's really cool that some of my students join in. Um, so Andrew's watching tonight. Andrew is a really— he is awesome. Andrew's one of the students I look forward to seeing at school. I look forward to seeing most students, but, uh, he's, uh, I think I said to him today or the other day, he's a good role model for the younger kids. Um, Jan says, I really enjoy watching your sketching, it is fascinating. Wow, thank you so much, Jan, love that. We're just kind of— we're just scribbling here a little bit tonight. Let's see what happens. I appreciate that. You're, you're an inspiration to us and your students. Thank you, DB. You guys are making me blush. I don't really blush. Also, I know half— I gotta do this. I used to have a camera straight in front of me, so I would look here, talk to the camera, you could see my wrinkly face. But this camera kind of sucks in front of me, to be honest with you, so I'm now using the camera on my laptop, which is over here. So sorry if my face is cut in half sometimes. It's kind of like Two-Face from Batman, right? The Copper Building. I actually have a student, same class as Andrew, um, where he, he is going to be doing a painting or some kind of— yeah, I think a painting of the Copper Building for me. So I'm And this student's a really amazing artist. I can't wait to see, uh, see what he comes up with. So I'm throwing this out there: spring, spring 2026, I would love to have a meetup in New York City. I don't know where, maybe the Copper Building, and just do some sketching for a couple hours. I think it'd be a lot of fun. I'm not sure if it'll be like informal get-together or if I'm going to put together a formal kind of, kind of workshop where you have people pay to kind of hang with me for a few hours and we do some sketching. So if you're interested and you'd love to meet with me in the city and do some sketching, that would be cool. St. Patrick's Cathedral is definitely a place I want to do that. Copper building, it would be fun to do copper building. I would love to do the Brooklyn Bridge or even go down to Dumbo, Dumbo, and do some sketching. So I think it'd be amazing. So that's kind of on my agenda for spring and summer this year. This is— look, this copper building is looking very I don't know, Mondrian's coming to my brain, the different colors I'm using. This is fun, guys. This is like therapy for me, just throwing down lines, throwing down colors. I'm not trying to create anything spectacular, nothing beautiful. I'm just creating, and the act of creation is really what it's about. That's the beautiful thing, creating something. Hey Emily, M is in the house! Emily M, great to see you! I hope you had a good bowling match today. No, we can— you can fill me in on it tomorrow. Um, everyone is expecting some snow. Yes, yes, D-Ray. I think last I saw here is 17 to 21 inches. I'm definitely expecting a snow day on Monday. Ooh, Metallica is playing. I like it. Mhm. Just scribble some kind of background on here, maybe. Emily, I might pick up some of those markers that you have been showing me. Um, thinking about it, they're kind of cool. And before I wrap up, I'm going to wrap up in a few minutes. I'm just going to kind of give you a quick look through of the sketchbook. I have right here with me. See some of the stuff in it. And let's break out some Creative Markers, throw some down. I love, love, love these Sharpie Creative Markers. Just saying. Hey Sharpie, if you are out there listening, just saying, I love, love, love, love, love and love your Creative Markers and your regular Sharpie markers. I pretty much love everything you guys make. Hint, hint, hint. Yeah, there we go. Look how bold and rich these colors are for from the marker. Throw down some purple. Hey Chip! Oh my gosh, Chip, how are you? Chip, I am so sorry. I wanted to talk to you, call you last week, and the days got away from me, to be honest with you. And I wasn't— then I wasn't feeling so hot. But I hope you're doing well, man. It's always awesome to see you. So check out this purple, right? Just kind of throwing down some shadows underneath to give a little depth to that sky bridge. And then we'll throw a little bit here. So someone out there right now watching is probably saying— they're probably— you're probably saying You have— you threw down green marker, now you're covering with purple. What are you doing? You're like sabotaging what you did before. Um, no, this isn't sabotage, this is creativity, this is creation, this is being in the moment, this is grabbing and going. This is me trying to find the cap to my marker that I don't know where I put. Where the heck is it? Oh my gosh. Oh yeah, yeah, now I know I'm tired. I literally just took the cap off and I don't know where it went. Yeah, but I'm just feeling like, guys, I just felt like saying throwing some purple on, and then I don't care that I'm covering over the green pen. Some of it's throwing, showing through. Here it is, I found it! Ding ding ding ding ding! 10 points for me, I found the cap. All right, so we kind of have like a quick sketchy copper building, different than one I've done before, different than another one I've done before. And I probably have 15 more copper building sketches somewhere. You know, these have ink and watercolor on them. Tonight I really kept it simple with marker and a little bit of pen. I'm feeling, I'm feeling I do want to add a little bit of some kind of a brown color. And then I'll do a little show and tell of the sketchbook here. So this is the Copper Building. Uh, lots of times I like to write sideways, I don't know why, on my sketches. Let's just put the Copper Copper and, uh, 2026. Cool. All right, quick copper building sketch for tonight. Let's do a quick little walkthrough of what's— what I have in the sketchbook, and we'll wrap up. Feel free to put any questions or comments in, I'll look at those as well. Cool. Uh, I hope everybody's a safe and warm weekend. Yes, Jen, you too have a safe and warm weekend. That would be amazing. Keep cozy. Yeah, everybody's worried about this weather coming up. I'm hoping to get into the city on Saturday. I think there's plenty of time. I don't think it's going to start snowing until Saturday night, so hopefully I can get into the city Saturday. I I'm kind of itching to go. I've been wanting to go to the Met. Maybe I'll take a little bus ride in and walk up to the Met Saturday morning. And, um, I have not been to the Met in, I don't know, 15 years. A long time. This would be kind of fun to walk, go in there, maybe do some sketching. All right, here's what we got in here. Couple things. Um, all right, so I know which book this is. So this is my— this is a Lockbee. This is my Lockbee folio. Carry this with me into the city. It's cool, it zips up. Got some pens in there. Boom. Um, and this is the These are some sketches from the JP Morgan Chase building. So I was in the city one day and doing some sketches of the JP Morgan Chase building. It's still under construction when I sketched it, so you kind of see in the background here. Um, these were all— this is— these are urban sketches. So urban sketches are when you are actually sketching there in person in the moment. So these are all urban sketches. Uh, this is a bottom section of the Copper— not the Copper, the, um, JPMorgan Chase building, aka 270 Park Avenue. This, this is the one I ripped. Yeah, so I was sketching this, uh, and there was a security guard outside and I was just talking to him and I think I ripped a page out. And gave him one of the sketches I did. Be funny if I go back and if he's still there. There's kind of another sketch of top of the JPMorgan Chase. Really cool building. I wish it was open to the public. It's not, unfortunately. Um, here's a— this was sketched at a bus stop Right by the New York Public Library, looking out towards a bus stop. So this was a fun— this was a workshop that my friend Mel did. Shout out to Mel. Pretty cool. You guys have seen me sketch the torches. Another sketch from that workshop looking at, at the bus shelter. You guys may have seen this. I posted something very similar to this, actually, another perspective sketch. I love the bright colors. St. Patrick's Cathedral. St. Patrick's Cathedral. Uh, St. Patrick's Cathedral. I'm obsessed. Love, love this building. Oh, can you guess what this is? St. Patrick's Cathedral. Yeah, I don't know what that is. Just scribbly. It's me scribbly. Uh, this is a bridge of a park that's near me that I like to take my pup to for a walk. Um, this was— this is a bridge there at that, at this park area. This is probably one of my faves in here. Five Guys. So, so I was sketching Five Guys one day. Um, love it. So I wrote down here 5 Y's. 5 Y's. So here they are, 5 whys. Um, why are they so expensive? Why are they— why are there so many calories? Why not? Why, why are these fries so dang good? And why are their burgers so dang good? So those are my 5 whys for Five Guys. I love Five Guys. I love Shake Shack. Five Guys. Um, this isn't a new EWR sketch. When I was in the airport, airport sketch. Uh, these are some sketches I did in France, in Paris. I didn't really have a lot of time. Some, some Paris sketches. Notre Dame. Eiffel Tower, uh, sketch I did at Versailles. Versailles, I think the S is silent at the end. Versailles. Some more Paris sketches. Becky says, I got my snowshoes right next to my front door. Becky is ready to go. Um, Gigi says, last night you showed us a sketch of the Twin Towers. Have you visited the the towers before? Oh, good question. I never visited the Twin Towers in person. I've only seen them from far away, so I did not get to go there in person. Um, great question. I have, I have been to the 9/11, you know, memorial site a few times. But yeah, I never saw the buildings in person. Um, this is the Pont Neuf, Pont Neuf Bridge, Paris. Me scribbling. And we have quick scribble, the Brooklyn Bridge. Let's do one— I want to pop something out while I'm looking at this. Can't really see the bridge— the, uh, towers. See if I can pop it out with some yellow here. Just want to pop the outline a little bit here. That's another cool thing, guys. Don't be afraid to go back over sketches you've done and add stuff. Just have fun with it, you know. It, it's just paper, it's just ink. Then we got our copper building. Ta-da! I don't think I have— nope, that's a blank one ready to go. And it— these are some notes and stuff. All right. There you go. Um, thanks for showing amazing sketches. You're welcome, Jen. Hope you enjoyed them. Thank you so much. So glad you got to go, and it was great of you to share. Thank you, DB. Yeah, Paris was an amazing, amazing trip. I still love this. I didn't mail it yet, actually. I gotta send this to my friend, uh, to Rue tomorrow with some pictures. But I, I didn't mail this yet. I, I really love the way this came out, just kind of aging it. I think it was just a fun first time, like, trying something like that. It was really cool to do. So this is the Pont Neuf Bridge in Paris. Paris. All right everybody, I appreciate y'all watching. Thank you so, so much. It is 10:15. This young man's gotta teach tomorrow. Yes, I do. Tomorrow's the last day of our midterms. Yes, so there's not much teaching, more midterming. Um, wish me luck. You guys are amazing. I will— you can count on me sketching over the weekend, especially if we have snow. I will be sketching. Um, if I head to the city on Saturday, I will maybe try to pop in with a live stream or two while I'm there. It's always fun to do that. If there's any final questions, let me see. Gigi says, looks great, good job. Thank you so much, Gigi. Andrew says, love the sketches, have a good night, Mr. Nick. I'll see you tomorrow. Andrew, you got it, man. GG, Andrew, DB, Becky, Jen, Jeff, thank you. Thank you guys for all watching live. I appreciate you so much. M was on earlier too. So we meet again. Sketch boldly. Oh my God. Sketch boldly, live creatively, and inspire. Endlessly. See you soon.