Tuesday Night Sketch

Hey, happy, um, Tuesday, December 2nd, 2025. Hope you're doing awesome. Jason Nicholas Nicholas here with the Inkspired Life, um, where I love sketching, sketching architecture, sketching pretty much, um, anything. Sketching is a great way for me to unwind, to get into creative mode, to, um, put me in a state of, uh, excitement. Sketching does a lot for me, so that's why I love doing it. So join me for a few minutes. We'll continue working on this that I started, this sketch painting I started the other day. So we're going to add some more to it. And yeah, let me know how you're doing. We had a snow day here today, which was nice, so a little break. Um, but back to school tomorrow, so I'll take it. I'm just clicking some settings here, we'll get rocking. So the sketch we're looking at, I started about, I think, 2 or 3 days ago. And start off with just a Sharpie, threw down some lines, and I added some watercolor. Um, not really sure where it's headed, what it's going to end up being. I kind of like the colors that are happening right now, and I am imagining some kind of— it's a perspective view, maybe looking down an old, um, maybe European street with cobblestone stone looking down into me. There's a garden back through this archway. So we'll just spend some time adding some layers to it. I'll add some color, some more ink lines, and we'll see where it goes. You know, part of this for me is not about what the end result's going to be. It's really about the journey. It's what happens from A to Z, not always what Z is. So that'll be a lot of fun. So we'll get that going. And I also want to show you a sketch. Actually, I'll show it to you now. Um, here's a sketch that I think I did this like 4 years ago, I think. So this was inspired by— I think I was watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade about 4 years ago, watching it on TV, and this kind of scene just popped into my brain. It's This definitely is not New York City, but it's just inspired by a city street with a Christmas tree in the background. And I really love, um, how this sketch came out. So this is a cool Christmas one, and I'll do this— I'll do a live stream this week, uh, showing you some of the other Christmas tree city inspired sketches I've done. Cool. All right, let's throw down some lines.

Head full of noise I couldn't hide, trying to make sense of another day, trying to stand tall in my own way. Some days I feel like I'm breaking down, some days I'm the strongest one around. Either way, I'm still pushing through, trying to figure out what humans do. I'm stumbling, I'm Rising, falling, realizing I'm changing. Still fighting, still learning, still trying. No script, no plan, no perfect version. This is simply being human. This is simply being human. —left me torn, made me someone worth fighting for. I'm stumbling, I'm rising, falling, realizing. I'm changing, still fighting, still learning, still trying. No script, no plan, no perfect version. This is simply being. Human. This is simply being human. I'm not here to be flawless. I'm not here to pretend. I'm here to keep moving again and again. I'm here to keep choosing a life I can stand. A life that's my own. I'm still becoming. I'm still becoming. I'm stumbling, I'm rising, falling, realizing I'm changing, still Still learning, still trying. No script, no plan, no perfect version. This is simply being human. This is simply being human. Saw you behind the counter, sharp like a knife, hair tied back, stealing my Life. Steam rising in the air. Couldn't find my words, couldn't even dare. Hands trembling, knees weak. I tried to speak, I tried to speak. Spit out my Spent my chance. Locking down my shot, not a second glance. Spent my shot, spent my chance. I messed up for the shadow of man.

Janice, how are you? Good to see you. Let me lower the music. Try that again. Hey Janice, how are you? Good to see you. Happy belated Thanksgiving. I hope, I hope you're doing well. My Thanksgiving was nice and, um, nice and quiet, which is what I like. So it went really well. Hope you are doing well and all's good in NYC. I was watching a live stream earlier today of the, um, Rockefellers— not the Rockefeller, the Bryant Park tree lighting. Uh, what a great, what a great show that was. If anybody did not see it, go on YouTube, look up Bryant Park Christmas tree lighting. They had such a nice show with some songs, some ice skating. It was really, really cool, and, uh, it kind of touched my holiday soul. Yeah, it was a really good show. I'm hoping to, uh, I really want to get into NYC this coming weekend and check out all the, the trees that are happening. So that is on my Things I'd like to do this weekend list, so we'll see if it happens. Uh, I like this scene. Yeah, it's kind of cool. I like it. I like this, the simplicity of the colors and the lines on it. Um, it does need a little something. I'm not sure what yet, so we'll just keep adding some stuff and we'll see where it goes. But yeah, I'm not sure, I'm not sure what it needs. And if I stop and think about it and analyze, oh, it really needs this, it could use that, I'm gonna lose my flow, and I don't want to do that. I'm just going to keep creating and see where this, where this ends up happening— happening— where it ends up arriving. And that's just kind of the way I like to do this, these impromptu sketches, to see where things take me. I don't really want to plan too much. Planning is going to just slow down my kind of my creative vibe I have going. So I'm literally just picking up whatever I have right next to me here and just grabbing and going. I will tell you, a color combination I love is, um, orange with pink on top of it, especially neon pink. That's kind of what I'm doing here. You can see it, the lighting's a little wonky here, but yeah, I have orange with neon pink on it. It just has a really fun vibe to it. I feel like I need a background though on this, so that's what we're gonna do. I'm just gonna grab some aqua and we're gonna just watercolor some Aqua in the background, and we'll see where it takes us. 8:10, only going to be on for about 15 minutes or so more. I'm tired, I'm tired. All right, let's do this. I'm going to flip it upside down and let's just kind of throw down some water and we'll throw some ink, uh, some watercolor on top of it. I'm just grabbing some turquoise. Yeah, there we go. I like the blue background, kind of the turquoise sky. Maybe that's what I just needed to add and darken some spots on here. Yeah, Jan says nice tree and park. Yeah, Bryant. I love Bryant Park. It is, um, one of my most favorite places in NYC.

Be free. Not much I need to know. All the things that bring me down. I'm the man you want. Why so many options? Too much to consider. How can I decide?

I can't even tell you how Yeah, this had to me has a Mediterranean kind of vibe happening.

How can that be? All the things that bring me down on the menu. Why so many options? Too much to consider. How can I decide? I can't even tell you how I feel now.

I don't even My pup has been very barky today. She's been very barky. Delivery trucks, garbage trucks, um, ice melting trucks. Amazon, you name it. I don't know what she's barking at now. She's awesome. She's just letting us know that there's someone out there. I really like the colors on this.

Couple giggles in the corner. Oh, what can I say? They got a couple plans, they probably got a couple ways, and I'm over here drinking my latte. Oh, why don't I have her for mine? I just got a full start to the bottom of my heart, and I'm still, still just sitting there at the coffee shop.

Gonna zoom in a little closer.

looking, and I feel, I feel him staring right back at me. And I'm sipping on my latte, and I just think to myself, why am I here? What is it that I do? What is it that I do? Why don't I have heart for more? I just got a full stir to the bottom of my heart, and I'm still, still just sitting there at the coffee shop. Cup in his hand, no steam left rising. Blank stare breaking the windows horizon. Clock ticks louder Page stays unwritten. The hum of the lights, the drone of the day. Creativity slips further away, chasing shadows of a life unbound, lost in No noise, no silence found. Daily grind, daily grind, stealing pieces of my mind. Daily grind, daily grind, leaving the soul behind.

Hey Jennifer, how are you? Good to see you. Cheers from Quartzsite, Arizona. I love that name, Quartzsite, Arizona. That's so cool. I think that's a— there's not a type of stone or mineral. Um, always good to see you. Hope all is well. Yeah, I like the way the scene is coming out. Zoom out, zoom out so you guys can just see kind of the overview of it. I honestly don't know how much more I really, I really want to add to it. Um, yeah, just thought of something. Maybe we'll add some stippling to the buildings, give a little texture to them. Hello Chip, good to see you. Love how this looks, colors all Fabulous. Hey, thank you so much, always good to see you. So I'm going to add some stippling. If you don't know what stippling is, let me zoom in. Uh, stippling is one of the most therapeutic sketching techniques for me personally, and it's simply doing this. So I'm literally just throwing some dots down on here, uh, just get a little texture to the building. You know, maybe it's an old stucco building and we're just seeing some of that stucco-y texture coming through a little bit. Um, and I'm just randomly throwing the stipples down, the dots down. No rhyme or reason to as to where I'm placing them, right? This is like that grainy texture that you see in, um, stucco buildings, that grainy, sandy type of texture.

You and me, we're a mess, but it's a start. Drenched in caffeine, drowning in your eyes, spilling over. Love, no time for lies.

All right, let's just zoom in close and we'll see some, uh, some of the details, how the layers look, how things are— have dried. And this one might be a wrap. So let's, uh, just take— do a zoom in, and then we'll— I'll do what I love doing, just take a matted frame and we'll just kind of see what it looks like. Where the heck are my frames? I think I put them away. I did. I guess before I zoom in, I have to get some bigger mats, but let's just crop out maybe a piece of this and see what it would look like. [FOREIGN] Kind of looks cool cropped out. I like cropping the tree out in that corner. Um, I like that the arch is off-center, it's not like in the middle. Of the frame. I think it's more dynamic, it has more interest when it's shifted off-center. I'm thinking maybe something like this would be a cool way to crop it. And then for fun, let's just kind of move it here, see what it would look like. Yeah. I'm not digging that so much, although what I do kind of like about this is we have that really— the balance of a white area and then the color of the sky kind of diagonal playing off each other. You know, maybe if we shifted it more like Maybe something like that could work. Let's see what would happen if we just kind of focus on the right side. This is not as interesting for me. I think because of that, there's too many vertical lines here. I like the dynamic of the angled spiky lines of the, um, the hedge. I don't, I don't know what kind of— I need any, any tree experts, any shrub experts out there. I don't even know, it's not even a real shrub, I guess. But I just like the dynamic, um, lines here. Against the vertical lines there as well. I also kind of like this rhythm of the jagged lines, and we can hit some of these curves for the stones. So it's taking my eye here and then off to that side, so it's almost kind of framing that tree. Those curve— I mean, those stone lines kind of frame this area. So it's always interesting just to throw a mat around there, right? I have an even smaller one, you know, even a tighter view of some areas. Yeah, for me it's boring having that arch right in the middle.

All right, cool.

Let's zoom in. I like to zoom in so I can see what it looks like and I can show you guys what it looks like close up. We're gonna go mega zoom mode. We're mega zooming. Mega zoom. All right, and what's fun about mega zoom is you can see how all the things have come together. Start at the top. Uh, notice the sky, you know, I have some darker areas and some lighter areas. That gives a little bit of variety. Um, I like the way the turquoise has, has dried on the paper. You know, it's not a flat surface, there's some irregularity. Let's try that again. There's some irregularity. I think I got it. I just also love this close-up because I can see all the, the wonky lines that don't even make sense, like that blip I have there, and it doesn't bother me. I love that it's just— it's an artifact from the sketch process, and artifacts are great for history, right? For telling stories. So every line that you put down is an artifact about how you created your artwork. Yeah, this looks cool. I even love the scribbliness of this whole thing. There's a little— this little— it's a little touch of red right here. This is Creative Marker. Boom, it pops against the yellow, yellowy background. Let's go up here and then we'll go to the other side. So one of the things I like to do in sketching is I like to take— and you'll see this if you look at my sketches, you'll notice it— I like to take a continuous line somewhere like here's the purple one, just kind of follow it, right? I like doing that there. I tried to do something similar. Where else did I do it? Oh yeah, I was trying to do it with the stones down here as well. I have this, this processed red kind of line going up and through, um, just a way of connecting different pieces together. It's looking cool. I like the way this dried, the watercolor. I like the hard edges you see happening, so I just let it puddle down and dry that way. Some interesting colors happening in the stonework. And here's that tree close up. You can see where I just added that red on top of the, uh, the green background. And here's one of my favorite color combinations, is, um, orange with pink on top of it. I love the orange and pink color combo. Here's some really good examples of hard edges. You can see how this kind kind of dried here and also here. Boom. All right, zoom back out and we'll wrap up. Oops, zoom all the way out. Cool. All right, that is what the whole thing is looking like. Um, I'm just looking at it. I do— I feel like there is one thing missing. I feel like this tree needs to be anchored anchored down. It's kind of floating. Yeah, I don't want to do that. I want to do it really simply with some— let's see, do I have a pastel here? I don't. I was looking for my— oh, I do! Graphite stick. I'm just going to use a graphite stick and we're going to throw a little bit of graphite under there, see how that works. So I am literally just dipping my graphite stick in this water. Let it dissolve for a second or two. Hopefully this works. We'll see. It usually works. And we're going to just kind of throw it down, let it melt on here a little bit.

He's his own superhero in a coffee shop line. Doesn't need a cape, doesn't need a sign. "Your stares won't break me," he says with a grin. Orders of courage lets the world spin.

I don't want— I don't want to overdo it. I think as I, as I add more stuff, don't want to overdo it, but let's add more. It only needs 2 pinches of salt. Let's throw the whole bag of salt in. Yep, that is how I bake.

All right, it's okay.

It's not—

it's okay.

It's not exactly what I was thinking I wanted to do, but we'll leave it.

All right, cool.

Let me know if you have any final questions or comments before I wrap up. So this has been a fun one, just from a random, um, sketch that turned into a perspective view, very loose perspective view. Then I pictured a— almost like a Mediterranean type of street or cobblestone street or alleyway that focus down to maybe just some kind of park or something through the arch in the background. And I think, I think this one's a wrap. This was a— this was fun. So this was, um, two— I think I did this in two videos. So if you want to see how it started out, go back to the last video. YouTube, go to the live on my— go to my channel, you'll see live. Go there and you can see the replays of, of this and any of my live streams. Um, there's a lot of stuff. There's like over 600 videos on there, I think, believe it or not. I can't believe it. This is always fun for me, showing up, sketching spur of the moment. You guys are awesome. I appreciate you watching so, so much. That's what's fun for me, is having, having you guys watch, participate, ask questions, whether it's live or in the replays, it doesn't matter. I just appreciate you showing up, and hopefully I'm spreading positive vibes through creativity, which is a really important thing for me to, to do on many different levels. Yeah, so thanks guys. Enjoy the rest of your day. I hopefully will be on sometime again this week. Let's see, today's Tuesday, maybe Wednesday. I don't think Thursday, maybe Friday. Sorry, I say maybes. I don't have a set schedule, um, but that's okay. I appreciate y'all. Take care, have a great, great day. Until we meet again, sketch boldly, live creatively, and inspire Endlessly.