Thursday Night Sketching

Hey, happy Thursday, um, March, March 12th. I, I should look at the date before. Hey, it's March 12th, 2026. Hope you're doing well. 9:21 PM here in New Jersey where it is flurrying after a 70-degree day yesterday. We have flurries going on now. What the heck is up with the crazy, crazy weather? Um, yeah, anyway, it's good to be here. Um, I'm Jason Nicholas Nicholas with the Inkspired Life where I love sketching architecture. Sketching for me is a way of life. It's a way of processing the world around me, a way of brainstorming, a way of, um, creative thinking, creative problem solving, a way of capturing moments in time. And just a way of communicating and expressing myself. So yeah, sketching is a really powerful, uh, tool, and I just love trying to practice it and do something every day. So thank you for joining me. Right now it is— I said the time already— 9:22. Just put a time up here because I'm kind of tired and I don't want to be on too, too late today, but I needed to come on, um, and I want to do some sketching. So Here's what I want to do tonight. I kind of want to prep like we did last week. We kind of prepped the background of one of the pages in the sketchbook here. Let me zoom in. Boom. So I want to prep a page in the sketchbook. So we'll throw down some acrylic paints, maybe some ink on the page, let it dry, and then we'll see what time it is. I'm going into NYC Saturday for doing some sketching, and I might just do another Liberty Torch sketch because I just love bringing those to the city and giving them out. So we might hit one of those, but who knows? This show is unplanned, unrehearsed. It's off the cuff, spur of the moment. Just want to put some good creative vibes out there and positive personal development and personal growth um, type of stuff. So let me know where you're watching from. I'll check the chat, we'll say hello, and, uh, hope you're doing great out there. So I see Celeste Rocks. Celeste, I see you on Instagram. Great to see you. Thank you for joining. Where are you in the world? I just got the sound on. Oh yeah, no worries. I am in New Jersey, good old USA, New Jersey. I'm about— I'm in northern New Jersey, about an hour or so from New York City. Which is cool because I get into NYC. I like to go at least once or twice a month, so I'm pretty blessed to be close to one of the greatest cities in the world. Great to see you, JLo. Great to see you on Instagram. Hope you're doing well. JLM Rocks is on the YouTube. Great to see you. Hope you're doing great. Hey, awesome, you got the sketch. Oh, I'm so glad you like this sketch. Awesome, I'm glad it came in, uh, and you enjoy it. That's, that's what's so cool about just like sharing artwork, is just when people just enjoy, you know, uh, the positive vibes you get from receiving someone's artwork. So cool. All right, so like I said, we're gonna just start today. I want to throw down colors and I want to just prep a page so I can come back sometime later this week and we'll do a sketch on top of it. This one I did last week. Um, I just was inspired to do the Brooklyn Bridge because it is— I think the things I have sketched the most from New York City are the Brooklyn Bridge and— 3 things: Brooklyn Bridge, Empire State Building, and the Statue of Liberty torch. All right, cool. So this is just playtime, guys. We're— I'm grabbing— I have no rhyme reason. I'm just picking these colors out that I like, and we're going to throw them randomly on the page. I have no goal in mind other than to throw some color on paper because it's just fun for me to do. It's therapeutic. It's cool. So please feel free to ask me questions, and I'm going to just throw down some color. Um, I have some dirty water It's kind of a nice bluish green color. And let's just throw this brush in and, I don't know, start with this color. Oh, you can see the paint kind of dried up on the cap. So I'm literally— I'm just squeezing it right on the paper. I don't have a palette here. This is a pretty color. This is a light blue violet. I like it. Hey Elizabeth, I see you on, uh, Instagram. Great to see you. Yeah guys, feel free to say hello. I always appreciate it. Uh, Instagram people, it's always great seeing you. My Instagram people leave the chat quick sometimes. I'm not sure why, but feel free to join us on YouTube as well. Um, if you go to YouTube, I'm on @theinkspiredlife and you can check me out there and subscribe. That'd be cool. So people, uh, I get this question about how do I pick the colors that I'm using, and my honest answer is I'm just kind of going with my gut, what I'm feeling in the moment. Um, that's exactly what I'm doing in this case. And I know, I know the colors I like to use the most, so sometimes I'll just kind of start with a few colors that I know I like using, and sometimes I'll just randomize it, just grab random colors. Like for example, I love this fluorescent red. One of the things I like about acrylic paint is you can get a nice texture from it, which is fun. Celeste, what size are you working on now? Hey Celeste, great, great question. So this, if I remember, is a 9 by 9. Let me measure right here. Yes, so this is a 9 inch by 9 inch sketchbook. Um, it's a Lectern. Lectern, there we go. Lectern 1917. The paper, I don't know the weight of the paper. It's, it is a hot press, so it's a smooth paper. And it's, oh, it says here, does it? Never mind, I think I just found the paperweight. Ta-da! Here you can kind of see the specs here. And I like it. It's thick enough where I can do ink washes or ink washes on it, or watercolor or acrylic washes. So it's good for that. Um, actually, I like what just happened by accident. I closed the book and I got some on this page, so I'm going to intentionally— let's press it together a little bit more. All right, and we'll have a maybe a 2-page spread here. Let's see. There we go. So now I kind of have some paint on both pages. Why not? It's kind of fun. And I, I don't know what I will sketch on top of this when it dries. I don't— I have no idea. 90% chance it will be something architecture or building related, and probably in New York City related, because that's— that is my favorite city to sketch. It's probably because it's the city I've been to the most, and it's just— if you haven't been to New York City, it is, um It's— oh, New York City. These are the words that come to my brain when I think of New York City. No particular order. It's, uh, frenetic, chaotic, stimulating, overwhelming, invigorating, um, tranquil. I'm thinking of like Central Park and some of the plazas. Tranquil, um, eclectic, um inspiring, um, motivational, um, details, colors, lights. Um, yeah, those are some of the words that pop into my brain when I think of New York City, and that's kind of the vibe I try to capture. A lot of energy and, um, yeah, a lot of energy in my NYC sketches. Cool. I'm feeling kind of blue, guys. I'm feeling blue, so we're gonna grab some blue. Let's just pop some here. I wanted— I like to leave white space as well, so we'll definitely leave. I'm not trying to cover the entire page. I make a mess with acrylic paints, as hard as I try not to. I guess it's part of the fun, right? Wearing, wearing your artwork, wearing the colors. Cool. That might be all the colors I throw for now. So I'm gonna let it dry for like a minute or two, and then I'd like to— well, you'll see. I'm going to pull, pull some of the color off. If you want to listen along tonight, I am listening to the Cranberries. I love the Cranberries. Um, Dolores, the lead singer, uh Probably my most, my most favorite female singer's voice is hers. She's incredible. I'm literally just going to kind of try to lift off some of the colors so we can see through. And you could do this a bunch of different ways. You can grab a toothpick or a, um like a skewer for a shish kebab. I usually have some around, or the end of a paintbrush, or the paintbrush itself like I'm doing here. So I just want to scrape some of this off before it dries too much. It's kind of like doing archaeology and digging, kind of digging through layers to find Maybe find a treasure buried underneath. Put a little bit of water. If it starts drying, you could just put some water on your brush just to peel some of it away, kind of like there. I'll do a close-up and you can see kind of better what's going on. Oh yeah, I'm uncovering something here I really like. Let me zoom in. Zoom, zoom, zoom. Boom. Um, I really love what's happening right down here, kind of peeling away the layers, and I have just really fun colors poking through here. There we go. I don't want to overdo it. All right, and I'll throw one more color on here and then I'll let it dry and we'll— I think we'll do it. I think we'll do a torch sketch. Um, I'm going to grab some fluorescent pink. I love doing these abstract backgrounds. They're so fun. Especially to come back later and add a sketch over it. You can kind of see it there. And let's see, let's throw— and you know what, I'm just gonna do what we did before and Let's bring some to the other page. There you go. I think this is cool for now. I'm going to let it dry, and, um, this— I think that'll be it for this part today. Maybe. Actually, there's one more thing I'm gonna do. Uh, paper towels. It's gonna take a paper towel, crumple it up, and I'm gonna get a little bit extra texture on here. So I'm literally just gonna do this. You can see what's happening here. All right, cool. I think that's good. All right, we'll put this aside to dry. We'll hit it later this week. And again, the idea is we'll come back, we'll do some kind of sketch on top of it, and we'll see where it goes. And who knows, I might even just paint over it again. I just want to throw colors on. It's just about being— this is the creative sandbox. Just be playful, throw things down. Some things will look cool, some things not, but you won't know until you try, right? Cool. So this is my sketchbook for kind of this abstract kind of stuff I'm playing around with. So that's what I've dedicated this, this one for. Let's put it back here. I, uh, torch. Let's start a torch. And I know I sketch torches all the time here on the live stream. I love them and they're always different, which is the fun part for me, and hopefully, hopefully for you guys, just to see how they're all different. Oh, so I'm also kind of stocking up inventory so when I go to Central Park, uh, this spring, I'm going to try to I'm going to set up next to Alex, who sells awesome artwork in Central Park. A little Marzieh chick is his Instagram thing. Little Marzieh chick. He does these cool little, uh, chicken paintings. Anyway, he said I could set up next to him. I'll try it, and then I'm going to sell— try to sell some torches. I think it'd be fun, so let's do one. 9:39. All right, I'm, I'm gonna wrap up at 9:45 because this young man has to get to bed for school tomorrow. Wait, I just say young man, right? All right, cool. Um, what— how are we gonna start this one? Let's start this one with a blue Sharpie. Usually I use a black Sharpie. Let's start with a blue one, why not? I think we're gonna work with, uh, let's just work with some pen tonight on here. So grab some pens, pens, and, uh, I think we'll throw down some creative marker as well. I know I want to use red and yellow at least, and orange to start with, and of course aqua. Boom. All right, so I'm going to kind of stick with these. Maybe we'll see how it goes. Hey Jacqueline, great to see you on Facebook. Hope you're doing well tonight. Always great to see you. Love the colors, looks like a red sunset peeking through. Oh yeah, and the abstract piece Yeah, so thank you. This is kind of— so I'm just prepping the background on this page. So I'm going to come back and do a sketch, not tonight but sometime this week. We'll do a sketch on top of an abstract background, just trying to play, be playful a little bit and see where the sketches go. But yeah, I see what you're saying. It'll be interesting to see where we take this next. I appreciate your comment. Great seeing you on the live stream. All right, let's throw down some color. Let's do it. So these torches are never the same twice, which is fun. For me. Um, I like them because they have layers on them. It comes together as I work on them. It takes different shapes and forms. It's cool. And the fun part is, uh, giving these out. I've given out— I've given out a bunch of them so far, and it's really fun. So it's— and giving them out has helped me connect to people. So my favorite donut place in New York City, Dough Donuts, shout out the one by Rockefeller Center. Um, given a couple of sketches out to some of their employees there, and really great, great guys. So when I go in, it's— they know who I am. It's great to say hello and connect with them. Um, given a couple out at Shake Shack to some of the employees there. And just other, other people. I did have a fun, fun thing. I was doing a sketch of a building. I was on the High Line and I was sketching a building, and I heard a family, uh, talking about this building and they thought it was really cool. So I was sketching that building at the time. And I finished the sketch, I went up to them, and I'm like, oh, I heard you talking, here's a sketch I just did, you can have it. And they refused to take it. They thought I was trying to scam them out of money. Um, I get it, I guess they're being cautious, but I was just trying to give it away for free. There's a lot, just a lot of scammers in New York City, especially like Times Square. Um, they try to take your picture and they're like, oh, if you take a picture with the character, then they want you to pay them money. So there's a bit of skepticism in the city, I guess. But, uh, I felt bad because I was just trying to give them something, but it's okay. I politely said, okay, no worries. Purple. I want some purple. I'm going to zoom in a little bit. There we go. All right, I'm breaking out my Fab Four, the Fab Four of color pencil colors. Boom, here we go. Here's the Fab Four. Neon yellow, chartreuse, neon pink, and light aqua. I'm feeling some neon yellow. Usually I'll put the color pencil on later. Um, it's kind of one of the last steps. But I'm throwing it on a little bit early because I just wanted some light on here. Excuse me. Oh, it's 9:50. I said 9:45. Okay, all right, in the home stretch for right now. Boom. You throw— let me throw a chartreuse on here. We'll see how the other thing's drying, and it'll be a wrap, and I'll finish this tomorrow. All right, so leave the torch here for now. I'll finish it tomorrow, but you can kind of see how they're looking very different, which is fun. Let's see how the abstract thing is drying, and we'll call it a day. Boom, here it is. All right, here's how it's looking. So you can see how it's drying. I kind of— it's really interesting. Um, let me throw this on here. Just kind of look at different pieces of it. I just want to put a frame around it just to isolate some of the colors. So this is just, um, layer 1. For now. I'll play around with a little bit more tomorrow, and then we'll eventually do some kind of sketch on top of it, and we'll see where it goes. My favorite part right now, I think, is right up in here. I like that area a lot, right up in there. Oh, I just got paint on that. No worries. Cool. All right, see if there's any final questions or comments as I clean up here. We'll let that dry. So if you had fun hanging with me tonight, just watching me kind of throw down some colors, prepping the background for a future sketch, Um, it's always fun for me to do that. It's always fun for me to work on the, the Liberty Torches. I love it. I think if I had to pick a signature sketch I do, it would either be the Liberty Torches and/or my, um, Brooklyn Bridge sketches. I was trying to find one here. Those are the two things I always go to for my iconic NYC sketching. Very cool. Jacqueline says nice. Thank you so much, it was awesome. Thank you for joining me live on Facebook, I really, really appreciate it. Um, we had Celeste over on Instagram with some comments, so thank you for that as well. And JLM, thank you, I'm glad you got your sketch and you like it. That's awesome. And, uh, Congrats for winning it. I appreciate you watching over on the YouTube. You guys are awesome. Thank you for letting me do this. I have to get ready for bed because this young man's got to get up for school tomorrow, and there's no way we're gonna get a snow day. I'm being selfish. I'd love to sleep in. All right, until we meet again, sketch boldly, live creatively, and inspire. Endlessly. We'll see you soon.