Tuesday Night Sketching

Hey, hello, happy Tuesday! This is, um, March 10th, 2026. Hope you're having a great day. I am looking at the right camera now. Um, yeah, I hope you're doing awesome. I'm checking in for a little bit. Um, if you don't know who I am, I'm Jason, and I love sketching architecture, especially, uh, especially urban sketching like New York City buildings and iconic landmarks. Sketching for me is just a great way to express my creativity, my imagination. It's a great way to brainstorm, capture a moment in time, and to change my state of mind. So Sketching is a really powerful tool, and I just love coming on here, sharing a few minutes with you guys, and kind of digging into, uh, what's going on in my creative brain. Hope you're doing great today. I tried live streaming about 2 minutes ago and realized the microphone was not on, but it's on now. Yeah, here's a sketch we did yesterday inspired by St. Patrick's Cathedral. I love the colors, it came out really, really fun. Tonight, what I thought we would do is I did like an abstract kind of painting or background yesterday in this, um, I'm not going to say it right. I'm going to try to say it. Lectern, Lectern 90. Let me just look here. I'll show you. It's called Lectern 1917. It's kind of a hard press paper. I haven't really used it that much, so I thought it would be fun to play around with this a little bit. And here's a sketch I did inspired by the steel stacks in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Love that place. I got to get back to that place soon. Um, but last night we just kind of threw some colors and did an abstract page. I was waiting for it to dry, and I thought today maybe I would try to sketch something on top of it, play around, see what happens. Um, the show is often about me just kind of off the cuff. Winging it, testing things out. This is like my creative playground or my creative sandbox where we just kind of build things up, see where they go. And if the wave— if the wave comes and washes it away, it's all good because it's the process that for me is the most fun. It's that building, problem-solving, um, creating part that I love and fires me up. So let's, let's dig in. And got some Sharpies here, some creative markers, and we'll just see what happens. We'll play around for a few. It's gonna be a really quick stream. I am exhausted. I am so, so tired, but I wanted to come on and before I go to bed and do a little bit of creating. Very cool. All right, let's see. And we're just going to sketch anything. Like I said, I'm not aiming for anything in particular. I did start a lighthouse kind of shape here, so maybe we'll riff off of that a little bit. Let me, let me dig out a, um, just got a Sharpie here. That is one of those Sharpies. I just can't part with Sharpies that don't work. I don't know why. It's very strange, or I'm just late— too lazy to throw them away. We had an awesome, awesome— I'm gonna say spring-like day today. It was in the 70s, which is amazing after all the cold weather we've been having. So it was fun just to get out, get some fresh air, take a walk with my pup. At the park. Um, the sun felt amazing. I think sometimes we— I don't know, for me, sometimes I think I take the sun for granted, and today was a reminder of just how important that sunshine is for, obviously, for life reasons, but also for just kind of vibrancy, just awakening. It awakened my soul. It awakened, or awoken, whatever the correct word is. I just kind of woke, woke me up and generate some positive vibes and energy. And yeah, it was really awesome to get out and get that fresh air happening. So some of you may recognize what I'm kind of sketching here. One of my most favorite iconic New York City landmarks, the Brooklyn Bridge. I love, I just love the, um, I love the Brooklyn Bridge. The architecture is is beautiful. The engineering, the symbolism, uh, the story behind it. It's just really fascinating structure to me. Let's see, I'm looking for— let's use We use some creative markers, maybe. I think that creative marker is, um, no longer with us. Yeah, this is the one that works. So this was fun, like just a fun experiment yesterday. I threw down some acrylic paint on here and let it dry, and the idea was really just to kind of have a funk— funky kind of background, and I would do someone as some kind of sketch on top of it. So notice I'm using white on this kind of blue background here because the white's going to pop. I really want these arch shapes to pop a little bit. Yeah, I think it looks kind of cool. Let me get a black frame, throw it around there, right? So it's just kind of a fun background. I like it. Hey, JLM, late to the party. You are not late. There's no way you can be late if I didn't set a time. It's good to see you. I am popping on just late. Is it almost 10 o'clock? Are you kidding me? Holy moly, I didn't even know what— I knew it was after 9, but I didn't know it was almost 10. That's cray cray. I'm not super late. It's great to see you. Hope you're having a great day. So we're just playing around with this kind of abstract background I did yesterday on this paper, and today I wanted to add— just add something on it. So I like the look, it's pretty cool. Yep, it's 10 o'clock. I can't believe it. This day has— this day has flown by. This whole year has flown by. Oh my gosh. It's just a reminder, guys, slow down when you can. Enjoy the moment when you can because time goes so dang fast. It's crazy. Wow. Holy, holy wow. Oh, this is kind of cool. I love this red. I'm just trying to frame this, see what it— I really love this red color on the side. So this is fluorescent red. Um, this, this is actually a cool— let me go over here a little bit. This could be a cool horizontal kind of framing on there. I like it. I think I'm going to pull out the edge of the bridge a little bit here. Um, we'll pop it. What do I want to use? Um, you know what I'm going to use? I'm going to use— I'm going to use a red Creative Marker. I'm going to pop out the side here. There we go. So I just want to pop that out with some red. I kind of like it. It has a— I want to say graffiti type vibe, using graffiti very loosely. I just, I just like the feel of it. It's kind of grungy. I haven't done a lot of grunge, grunge sketches lately, my grungy industrial kind of buildings and colors. So maybe we'll do some of them real soon. Let's look actually, look at this. This has a lot of the colors I like to use in my grunge sketching. So this is the steel stacks in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, which is an incredible, incredible facility that they kept. So I think they closed the steel plant down in the '80s, 1980s if I remember. But the steel stacks supplied steel, I think, for the Brooklyn Bridge, um, oh man, for some battleships, um, Empire State Building, I think. So it supplies steel for a lot of iconic places. And what they did is they kept the kind of ruin of this defunct steel factory, um, there. It's a centerpiece, it's a showpiece. It's falling apart, it's rusty. I love this facility. Check out my YouTube channel. I did, uh, there's a couple videos, but there's like a 10-minute video where my friend Mr. K helped me shoot the video, and it came out really cool. Of the Steel Stacks. So go to my YouTube, put in Steel Stacks, and you'll, you'll see it. You got to check this place out, it's amazing. Anyway, I got off topic, but these are some of the colors I like in that grunge. I don't really have the rusty colors happening on here, but I have the texture, which I really like. I'm going to zoom in on it actually. Let's zoom in, let's zoom in. I don't know if I was trying to sound like Sean Connery or Patrick Stewart. Or I don't even have any idea. All right, so if you look here, you know, I'm loving this texture, just kind of like the paint's kind of peeling away here, which is really, really fun. Then it looks like Wolverine was here and slashed— looks like Wolverine claws here. Um, this is fun. I think I'm going to add a person on the bridge. Yeah, let's do that. Let's get you kind of a person maybe right in here, just give a sense of scale. So this was a fun piece. Let's, let's try, um, let's see if we can sketch with the gel pen if it shows up. So let's say we have Maybe got some peeps back here hanging out. Sketch our architectural peeps. There's some architectural peeps hanging out. Maybe there's another one somewhere up in here. Brooklyn Bridge would probably have many more people on it than 3, but I just wanted to show a few, um, show a few characters just to give a sense of scale. Yeah, this is a cool piece. Let me get a bigger frame. Yeah, that's beautiful. Thank you so much, you're so kind. I'm thinking you're talking about maybe the steel stacks. So here's a bigger frame. I'm gonna zoom out. There you go. Um, it actually looks cool in a big frame too. I like this. This might be better than this small vignette. I'm not sure which one I like better. The lighthouse doesn't really go on, so you can crop that out. That's not a problem. I can even paint over it with that red. I, I'm thinking I like the bigger version better because we get more of that perspective going back, so it looks deeper. What do you think? What do you think, kids? Um, use of color has developed those, uh, has developed a sort of abstract style contrasting structures and lines. Very cool, thank you. I love your feedback, I appreciate it. You might like using Pentel Sign Pens, aka Feud brush pens. Is it— I think, um Sounds familiar. I think I might have a— have them somewhere, but thank you. I'll definitely try it out. Could make this one a dip. Yeah, we can make it a dip tick, right? Which would be, uh, two, two pieces, right? Kind of do like— awesome, love the thinking. I think I'm gonna I don't think so. I'm gonna— I'm gonna paint over this part. Let's do that. That might be the last thing I do tonight. I am— I am so tired, guys, but I just want to be persistent, keep the creative consistency going, um, show up whether it's live or even if I just did this on my own tonight. I want to show up and just create something, and I've been doing it straight for a long time. All right, let's throw some red on here. And thank you for watching. I appreciate you guys so, so much, whether you're watching live or the replay. It's all appreciated. Be sure to hit that thumbs up button on the Facebook. I would appreciate— and the YouTube. And Instagram, however you thumbs up on those medias thingies. Thumbs up, share it out there. You can hear in my voice how tired I am. I don't drink, I don't drink alcohol, so when I'm really tired, you can hear my speech, I'm kind of like slurring, slurring a little bit. That's one way you can tell I'm exhausted. There we go. Look at that. Boom. Instant coverage. I like it. Yeah, now we're talking. Maybe, maybe I'll drag a little bit here. Touch of it. Very light, lightly going to just kind of glide this across here. Just want to pop a little of that red out. I don't want to get too cray-cray with it, so maybe I'll stop. The man says as he throws a little bit on there. All right, that's good. So we really just wiped out part of that lighthouse because it wasn't really going with the vibe I wanted since I sketched the bridge. Now if we do a horizontal framing— loving, loving, loving that. Let's try this one. Yeah, I think this has to be vertical. There we go. Looks much cleaner now. Um, what brush is that? This brush here? This brush? I— it's a very cheap brush. I don't know where the heck I got it. I want to say it was from IKEA a long time ago, and I'm going to measure it. So it is 1 inch. This is a 1-inch flat brush, and my gut is telling me that I had gotten it, uh, from IKEA. A long time ago. There's no brand name or anything on here that I can see. So yeah, I know that was kind of a cryptic answer, but yeah, that's what's coming into my brain. Put it down, put it down, put it down. All right. Ah, perfect size. Yeah. Hey Paula, how are you? Good to see you. Hope you're doing great. I see Paula on the YouTube. Good evening, loving the colors. What kind of paint are you using? All right, awesome. I love the questions, keep them coming, guys. Here's what we're doing. So what you're seeing on here And I started the background last night, acrylic paints. So basically, basically I have some Liquitex acrylic paints. I have fluorescent red. I didn't use pink on this one. Fluorescent red. I think I threw some gouache on there too, some bright aqua gouache. I threw some— this is definitely mixed media, all kinds of stuff— some primary yellow acrylic gouache. And then I think I threw down some light blue as well. And for the white, I'm using a Sharpie creative marker and a Gelly Roll pen. I use red for creative marker as well, and of course a Sharpie— never leave home without it. I always— I shouldn't say always— 97% of times I have a Sharpie with me. Um, yeah, so I think— oh, and I use a red Pilot Precise pen for the red lines you see. So it's definitely a mixed media thing happening on there. And I was just playing around with this paper. I haven't used this paper too much. I've only used it a couple times before. It's a hot press, so it's smooth. It's— I don't know, what is the weight of the paper? I don't know what the weight is. It's definitely not, not 140-pound. It's thinner. Sharpie can bleed through. You can see on this sketch here, I mean, Sharpie's bleeding through. It didn't— nothing's bleeding through on this one though, so So I thought this would be just a cool sketchbook to use. I love the format. It's, it's square, which is fun. I love the color. Um, what else is cool about this sketchbook is it has markers in it, page markers. I love that. Boom. And, and a bonus for those who want to enjoy a bonus, um, it It has this cool elastic to kind of keep it closed. I like the COVID It's a little— it's kind of bendy. And does it lay flat? With a little bit of coaxing, we can get it to lay flat. You might need like binder clips to hold the pages. So it's a cool, um, it's a cool sketchbook. Boom. So hopefully that helps with the, the Q. We'll do a couple more things. I want to add some texture on here on the bridge structure, and then I think we'll wrap it up for today. So feel free to put any final questions or comments in the chat. Yeah. Oh yeah, I know I said like 10 times, but I am so tired. But I didn't want to give in to the tiredness. I wanted my, uh, creative sketching playtime to happen today. Sometimes we have to make the things we love doing a priority, fit them in somehow into our lives, even if it's for a few minutes every day. So I thought I would end the day like I often do, with one of my most favorite things in the world, which is this. Sketching, creating, um, yeah, and hanging, hang with you guys. Now let's add a little bit of stonework to the bridge and do this really, really light. And I'll zoom in so you can get a better look at that. There we go, mucho better. I just want to hint at the idea we have some kind of material going on here on the bridge, and I think it just adds another layer of interest. I'm gonna get super close with— so you can see the texture on here. That— here, get super close. So check out the texture here. I love, love, love what's happening here. That is so fun. And here, right? And, and I think the Wolverine claws are kind of cool. That's not why— that wasn't my intention. I just looked at it earlier and it looks like Wolverine went like with his fingernails. Um, pretty fun. Loving the paints and hearing what you're using to draw. Very cool art. Thank you so much, Paul. I appreciate that. Awesome. Been using Render Sketchbooks, smooth, no bleed for all sorts of media. That sounds interesting. Yeah, I'll have to check, check them out. So typically I would use— where's my— here, this is from last night. So typically I would use a cold press paper. This is my go-to mixed media, watercolor, ink paper. It's Fabriano 1264 watercolor, 140-pound, and cold press. So cold press has that kind of texture on it, you can see it, um, which I love. So for me to work on this, this smooth paper is a different vibe and different feeling for me. So it's kind of fun just to play around with different types of paper, right? This— I know how this paper is going to work, so I'm very comfortable with it. I know it's going to bleed. I know that I can let the water, the ink colors, just run down, drip down here, dry. I know what it's going to look like because I've used it so much. So this is kind of unfamiliar territory, so I'm going to learn how to use it and how to work with it and different properties and characteristics than this paper, right? So as part of your creative playground or your creative, um, toolkit, try different papers out. Experiment, be playful, see what you like and don't like. Um, that's the only way we're going to learn, right, is by trying them. So don't feel like— don't feel like you're going to buy paper and make a mistake and be afraid to do anything on it. Don't let that fear of perfection stop you from creating, right? I like to say, um, for me, imperfection is perfection. Imperfection is perfection, right? I am perfection. Um, yeah, that fear can paralyze us and stop us and It's not a— it's not the way to crush blank paper syndrome by feeling like you need to create the perfect sketch. So that's what I'm all about, guys. Pretty cool. All right, let me know if there's any last things you want to comment on or ask a question because I'm going to start packing up here. Well, not really packing up, putting stuff away. I'm not like If I was packing up, I would be like traveling somewhere. I'm just gonna clean up. I have school mañana. Yippee! I do love school. I do love teaching, but 5:30 AM comes early. All right, cool. And here's one of those bookmark things I was talking about, so I'm gonna use the bookmark. There you go. We can mark our page with this cool little mark thing. Boom. Close it. Oh, it has two. It actually has two mark bookmarks. Isn't that cool? And it also has a cool pocket in the back. Check this out. So we got like a little built-in pocket we could put stuff in. How fun is that? I would love to design my own sketchbook. So if anybody out there is listening, is in that world, let me know. I'd love to collab on my own custom sketchbook design and sketch— yeah, just sketching gear and stuff. I have ideas like crazy and stuff I want to make. So if you're out there listening, let's connect. That would be so fun. All right, thank you guys so much for watching. I appreciate you all, and, uh, it's been fun hanging out for a little bit. I have to head off to sleepy land. Until we meet again, sketch boldly, live creatively, and inspire endlessly. Don't forget to hit that thumbs up button on the YouTube. I appreciate it. See you guys.