Tuesday Night Sketching

Hey! Happy Tuesday, December 16th of 2025.

I'm Jason Nichols with The Inspired Life. Hope you're having an awesome day today. Um— Hey there everyone on YouTube Live TV channel here at Inkspired.com. My name's Nick Nicholson-Nicholas.

Thank you so much for joining me again this week to talk about how we can create our own reality through creativity or inspiration.

And it was just really nice seeing some comments from people that have been watching my videos over time who've said things like they love them because they feel inspired by what I say. So thank you guys very much for letting us know your experiences when doing these live streams every Monday Hope you're having an awesome Tuesday. Yeah, it's been a long day. Hope you're having an awesome Tuesday. And for some reason it will not let me stream on Facebook tonight. So if you're watching this live and you're on Facebook or you're surfing the web on Facebook, let people know I'm live right now on Instagram and the YouTubes, as they say. I hope you're having a great, great day tonight. I want to, um, you'll see I have some sketches out here. We're going to talk about these kind of briefly, and then we're going to add some color on these. And I'm going to use something I've never used before. I'm going to— I have— it's going through my art stuff behind me. I have a whole box of this gouache. There you go, acrylic Gouache, um, and it's missing. I don't even know where the missing one is. Um, I have never used gouache, so it would be fun to crack these open, play with them, see what they do. I think it's like using watercolor, but it's, uh, it's opaque, whereas watercolor is transparent. We'll find out. So stick with me for a few minutes, we'll do some cool creative stuff, and, um, feel free to ask me questions. It's always great seeing you guys. And, um, let me just see. Anyway, all right, awesome, very cool. So I just wrapped up a sketch for my friend Linda who asked me to sketch her church, and it was so cool. But I did a lot of different versions. Usually I'm the type of sketcher, I'll just sketch it once, maybe twice, and I'm done. Um, when someone asks me to do something and they want to actually pay for it, I have to think a little differently, or my brain thinks a little differently, and it actually tightens me up in my sketching. And that's something I need to work on. I don't like— I don't like feeling, um, like tense when I'm sketching, like, oh, I gotta do this and this. That's really not my style. So I went through different iterations. I can show you the final one if you want. I have to get out of the bag though. So here are some of the earlier versions I did. I think this— I think this was the first one, and here's the second one. Either that one was the second one, or maybe it was that one, I'm not sure. 2, 3, and then here's the final. I'm gonna say this one's 99% final. I might add— I might add some shading or hatching to it, I'm not sure yet. But here's the final version. So, um, I really, really like it, but I have to say, I, I'm gonna— my favorite out of all of these, let's see if I can spread them all out here. I do like the final, but it's not my fave. This is my favorite one right here. This, this just says me, um, really loose, really quick, basic characteristics. And I, I love this one a lot. Um, this one, you know, they're purchasing, uh, they're purchasing this as a gift to give to someone, so I want to clean up a little neater. So the building's a little more identifiable to the, to the members of the church. So that's why you'll see the kind of contrast here with these two. And I don't get me wrong, I do really like the final one also, but I feel like this, this one here is my more my personality. So it's really cool to think about how, you know, whether you're sketching for yourself or sketching for somebody else, can impact your style, the way things look. Um, really cool. Hello, is that Chip I see on Instagram? Great to see you, Chip. Uh, for some reason my software is not letting me stream to Facebook tonight. I don't know why. Uh, it's unfortunate. I might, I might try starting again, uh, in a second. But yeah, so I appreciate you joining me. So that's just, uh, put you guys in my creative head a little bit, how I think about things when I'm sketching. So total Jason, Jason thinking a little bit harder. Cool. But here's what we're going to do. Since I have all these extra ones, I want to play around this gouache stuff and throw some color on it. I would put this over here. I don't want to mess that one up. So we're just going to have a few minutes together in the creative playground. And I don't— it doesn't matter which one we sketch on. Let's just do, uh, we'll do this one. We'll just throw some color on it. For anybody out there that has used gouache, feel free to write in the comments any tips or suggestions. Usually if it's— if usually the first time I'm using like a different medium I just like to do it. I don't like to YouTube it and look up how to use it or techniques for it. I just want to explore it on my own without any kind of input. So that's what we're going to do, and I'm just grabbing colors randomly. We're going to grab this color, and let's do a little bit of a purple on here, and we'll just kind of start with those and see what happens. Welcome to gouache. Welcome to gouache town. We're going to be gouaching. Am I saying— is it gouache? That's the other thing, I don't even know how to say it. Gouache? Gouache? Gouache? I, I don't know. All right, this color is called Scarlet. I'm gonna shake it. This has not been opened. All right, well, oh, it looks like it has a little squeeze. I also don't have a palette to dump or to mix the paint in, so I'm literally going to do it on a scrap piece of paper here. I'm just going to throw a little bit down. I think I bought this 2 years ago maybe, and it's been sitting in my drawer. And I don't even know if you're supposed to add water. All right, I'm just digging in here with this brush. Let's just throw some fun colors on. It's, it's very intense. This is kind of it straight up without any water. My brain's saying to throw some water, so we'll try that as well. Sorry, it's crooked, guys. So hello if you're watching on Instagram or YouTube, great to see you guys. Feel free to, um, if you're on Facebook at the same time somehow, let people know on Facebook, say, hey, Jason is live on YouTube, or Jason's live on Instagram. We'll try to send some people to either one of those. All right, I'm just— I'm adding some water. I want to water it down a little bit. Yeah, there we go. I like adding water because I can— I feel like it flows better. I can just kind of— so it's— oh, I'm almost going to say it's like a very thick watercolor when I put the water on it. Let me zoom in so you guys can see a little closer. Where's my, uh, where's my Zoom app thingy? That is not the Zoom app. I'm having a heck of a night with, uh, tech here. Here we go. Computer's really slow. All right, there you go. So you can see I added the water. You can actually see through and see the Sharpie underneath, which I kind of like. I like that look. I'm gonna water it down even more just on the brush. And, and it's acrylic, so I'm going to assume it's going to dry really quickly, so it's going to lock in quick. There we go. And I'm also gonna— we'll test mixability with some other colors. Does it mix well? I had some purple. Let's try some of this purple. I feel like a little bit of this will go a long way. Nothing is coming out of this one. Oh dang, there we go. Oops. All right, this is just straight up purple. See if I can make like a shadow here, maybe. Here, we'll do the windows. All right, this is really— I'm being too careful. Just throw it on, have some fun. All right, I am liking it with a little bit of water. It's just— I feel like I can actually sketch with it. Without water, it's— it doesn't really flow the way I want it to. There we go. I should have done the windows in the purple. It's all good, we're just playing. Cool, I like it. Hi Gigi, great to see you on YouTube. Hope all's well. Always great to see you. All right guys, so yeah, so I'm just breaking out this stuff I've never used before, uh, this— it's called gouache. Hopefully I'm saying it right. It's always fun to look like in your drawers, like I have like my art cabinet back here. There are things in there I bought years ago that I had never used. Here's an example, this stuff here. Uh, so we're just throwing down color, having fun playing with this on the scrap sketch I have. Uh, I need— I want a pop of brightness here. I wish I had yellow. There's some— there's a color called Yellow Oxide. We'll see what that looks like. We'll throw some of that down. So the vibe I'm getting so far is— whoa, the whole top came off— is that gouache is opaque compared to watercolor. You can water it down like I'm doing here, uh, so it becomes more transparent. It's definitely more intense. And I somehow took the entire cap off of this. Let me see, I don't want to spill it. Yikes. There we go. And it's pretty messy. Just put a blob. A little bit goes a long way, so just— there we go. Let's throw some of this color on there as well. Hey Rebecca on YouTube, great to see you. How, how are you? Hope all is well. Thanks for joining me over on the YouTube. The YouTube. So if you guys are just joining me, um, these are scrap sketches. I'm playing around with this gouache. It's a medium I've never used before. Usually I use ink, inks and watercolor. So I thought it'd be fun to break this out and just see what it does. So we're just having fun throwing color down, and just the whole mission tonight is be playful. I'm not looking for any specific results other than having fun. See how— see what this stuff can do. Yeah, it definitely needed just some other kind of brighter color on here. And I'm just mixing the colors on a scrap piece of watercolor paper I have had over here. Cool. Always feel free to let me know if any, any questions, comments. Let me know how you're doing. How are you guys doing? You ready? Excited for the holidays? I am, I am looking forward to a break. Um, yeah, I love teaching 100%, but I am— I need a break. I think we all need a break at school. Kids, teachers, administration. It's been a long haul this school year. Not in a bad way, just, just long. But I love it. Little rejuvenation. Does wonders for the soul. Let's layer this, and I'm going to get close up and you guys can see how this is drying. I want to throw some red on top of this here. Oh, I'm loving how this red is actually popping on that purple. This stuff is kind of cool, actually. The more I'm playing around with it, the more I'm liking it. Yeah, this is awesome. All right, let me do a close-up and you can see how this is drying. So you can kind of see the colors. I love how the red is popping out against that purple. That is really powerful. Power move, ding, 10 points. I just— I— yeah, I told you, just made that up. Um, turning this into like a video game, why? I have no idea, because my brain's tired. Um, so we got a power— PowerPoint here. The red— not a PowerPoint presentation because that would be boring, so we're sketching right now. I just love the red over the purple. Um, did you guys ever just crack yourselves up randomly? So that looks really cool. And here's a— you can see here the purple's really intense. I didn't water it down. And then as I went down the tower, I kind of added water and you get the transparent look. So you can see that Sharpie underneath. So I'm digging that vibe. So I'm really— here's what I'm liking, really liking, really a lot. I don't teach, I don't teach language arts. Thank the Lord. Um, I teach architecture, but what I'm really liking is how intense you can get. Water— add some water, how transparent you can get. So it really has that range. Um, watercolor, you can get, you know, thicken it up, a little bit of water, you can still get a really kind of opaque look, but not as much as gouache. So it has that versatility, which is really fun. I actually love what's happening here. Something about those colors is really fun and playful. I like the red over that yellow. I like layering. You see, I kind of layered some of the red boom on top of the other colors, so it's popping there. Um, here, because here you can see almost kind of blending together the colors like watercolor. And here's another example. The red is kind of intense, and you can see where— how I added water and diluted it. Rebecca says, love the purple. Yeah, that purple is intense, right? Me too, it's so fun. Glad you guys are liking that. Let's break out another color. Let's add blue. Why not? Because we're gonna just— we're living on the edge, we're adding another color. Um, so you can kind of see, here's like kind of a before and after, right? So here's this— this is the final one I'm actually giving to, um, my friend Linda, who, uh, asked me to paint this for— to sketch this for her, for her church. These were my practice ones. So we're just adding some color. This is blue. This is This is called Primary Blue.

There we go.

So acrylic does dry pretty quickly, so be careful how much you put down. You know, like, I, I don't want to waste all this, but it's drying. Once it dries, there's not much I can do with it. Whereas watercolor, you know, you can reactivate pretty easily. All right, let's dip into some of this blue. Where should we add it? Um, it will just like a— we'll do a sky. So I just want to kind of scrub this in here. Maybe we'll do some kind of a sky in the background. If you notice the brush, I'm not doing strokes like this. I'm really kind of swirling it. And I'm gonna water it down a lot and see what that looks like. So here I'm adding a lot of water just so we can see the difference. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe this gouache reactivates. Let's see, I'm going to dig into some of this red. I could have been wrong, guys. It might— it looks like it might reactivate with water. All right, I'm learning. Yeah, so when I try like a new medium, I don't like to go on YouTube and study it. I just want to throw it down and play around with it and see see what it does. I feel like if I was to go and watch a video, like a how-to, um, it would plant things in my brain and I'd have a certain expectation, and I would be like, oh man, I can't do what they're doing in the video, this looks horrible, I don't like this stuff, it's not doing what the video is doing. So I don't want to plant that in my brain, so I literally just Open stuff up, throw it down, see what happens. And if I'm into it, I'm interested, yeah, then I'll start watching some videos, see what techniques people use. But it's just kind of a good pro tip. I love— I kind of love how it's mixing here in the sky. That's kind of cool. Yeah, let's even get— reactivate some of this purple on here. All right, I'm able to lift some up, throw some on there. So I'm trying to see if I can lift some of this out, maybe, um, just to me to get some cloud, cloud things happening. Maybe we'll see what happens. GG says reminds me of churches in Mexico, they tend to be colorful. Oh, that's awesome, GG. Have you heard of an architect named, um, Luis Barragán? Luis Barragán. I think it's B-A-R-R-A-G-A-N, Barragán. If you don't know him, Google him. You'll see his architecture. I love his work. I learned about him in college. His colors are exactly what you're saying. They're so vibrant, so bright. He did a lot of projects in, in Mexico, so definitely check him out. Luis Barragán, especially his house project. I think, I think it's actually a museum now that you can go visit, and I, I don't remember what city it's in. Mexico City, maybe. I love that you said that. I kind of wish I had an orange. I don't have an orange in here. Maybe that's the color I'm missing, because I could, um, I could mix maybe some red and yellow, get orange. Cool. Rebecca says Facebook wants to be formal, I guess. Yeah, what's up with that, Facebook? What's up, Facebook? Facebook's not letting me— I can't stream to Facebook tonight. Something's up with my tech, so I'm not live. So sorry, Facebook peeps, if you're watching replays somewhere. My streaming software said no Facebook for you tonight, mister. All right, let's try to mix some yellow and orange— yellow and red. It would limit your— yeah, it would limit— exactly, it would limit my creativity if I watched the video, the how-to, before. I kind of want to make— I kind of want to create the how-to. Oh dang, that's a lot. I kind of want to create my own how-to. Does that make sense? I have, um, Scarlet— what is this one? All right, let's mix Primary Red with Yellow Ochre, see if we can get like an orangey color. I don't know. All right, there we go. I do appreciate you guys watching, giving me some of your time, asking me questions, putting stuff in the chat. That's awesome. Thank you so, so much. I'm working on trying to grow this channel, especially on YouTube. I was— my goal was to get to 1,000 subscribers before the end of the year. Well, originally it was like before the end of October, but I pushed it to the end of the year. Getting closer, getting closer. So that's awesome. All right, I'm mixing this up, guys. I don't know if we're getting orangey. It's Not really orangey, but we're going to go with it anyway. Why the heck not? I just love adding layers on top of layers. It's just fun to see what happens. It's kind of orangey. I'm gonna, I'm gonna— all right, I'm gonna cheat here. I'm cheating. I'm breaking out the creative markers. I don't need— I just want orange, orange. This is what I'm looking for right here. All right, so we're gonna throw down some Sharpie creative marker. You'll see how this orange— that's what I want. There, now we're talking. I don't want to get too crazy, I just want to pop it in places. Yeah, now we're talking. I'm loving— I am loving this. This is fun. Oh, oh my gosh, I should have seen that coming, guys. It's not officially artwork unless something happens. It's not officially artwork unless you wear it. And let's just say I am officially wearing my artwork tonight. I literally put my palm into my mixing palette. You guys want to see that again in slow motion? Let's watch this. Let's watch the replay. That's funny. Oh, I was getting too excited. I wasn't paying attention. This is turning out to be a cool little piece here. I just want to kind of pull out this arch a little bit. You know, sometimes I sketch and I paint at an angle, so sorry if it's, if it's, um, angled on your screen.

Cool.

I like this, guys. Honestly, these streams ease my mind. Awesome. Hopefully I'm providing a little comedic relief as well. Um, yeah, especially with put my hand in the paint. Rebecca says, I'm one of your OG Facebook Inklings. Rebecca, you're one of my OG Facebook Inklings. Rebecca, Rebecca, Rebecca. Twee, it's coming back, it's coming back. Wow, that's awesome. So you've, uh, I think that, man, inklings go way back. What is it, 5? Could it be 5 years now? That's so cool. Thanks for watching now and sticking, sticking with me. That's amazing. Love it. Like Bob Ross said, it's no mistake, just happy accidents. Yes, I think my parents said the same thing about me. No, no, just kidding, just kidding. Hey, if you're watching, Dad, hi. Oh man, Gigi, you have, you have me thinking of Luis Badragón now. Oh, now we got some orange. Look at that. I was mixing a little bit more here. Now we, now we got the orange color coming out. Well, I'm glad I could relax you, ease your mind, take you away from maybe your day a little bit, maybe put you to get ready to go to sleep. Some people said I should do ASMR. Because I definitely could put people to sleep. Ask my students. All right, so that was a little gouache session. We're going to end— I think I'd like to throw down some colored pencil. I want to put some neon yellow on here, although I have to wait for it to dry. Well, I can't— well, we'll figure it out. But yeah, so that's gouache. It's my first kind of play playtime with this stuff. It's fun. I'll definitely be using it more, um, 100%. There is actually one more color I just saw over here. I forgot I have a big bottle of this, this color right here, Bright Aqua Green. So we're going to throw some Bright Aqua Green on there. Nothing's coming out of that. Oh, I have to unscrew it. Maybe we're not going to use this one.

Uh, let's see.

What the heck, I'm just looking for an X-Acto knife. Maybe I can clean it out. This stuff's been sitting here a long time. I think it's all clogged. All right, let's see if that works. There we go. I love this color. This is my favorite color. Anything aqua, whether it's color pencil, watercolor, Apparently gouache now, it's probably my number one, number one favorite art color to use. All right, let's throw some of that aqua down here. This will really, I think, bring out some of those Mexican vibes with this color. Let's do the roof. If you're watching at home, let me know, should I zoom in closer? Am I too far out? I can always bring the camera closer if you need to see things better. Oh yeah, now you're— now you're talking. I want to leave some white space there, I think. Yeah, this color is fun. This color is super fun. Alright, let's water it down a little bit. Yeah guys, I am loving this.

Heck yeah.

I get so excited over— I think I said this last time I was on— color, just throwing down colors and scribbly lines. I don't know, it's This is so therapeutic for me. Yeah, this is cool. Let's throw some down here. Cool. Has Neon Yellow replaced Chartreuse? Hey, great question. Um, it has not replaced Chartreuse. Great question. Chartreuse is still among my favorite colors right here. Boom. Um, it's still— I'm using neon pink. I don't know if you remember that. So I love neon pink, but yeah, no, Chartreuse is still hanging out with me. Let's throw some of these pencils on. Time is it? 9:48. Oh my gosh. Uh, all right, let's throw on some pink. So whenever I use neon pink, I literally will throw it down in maybe 3 small places just to pop certain parts, pop certain parts out. So, so we'll kind of do that. I think I need a pop of pink somewhere down in here. So it's kind of weird the way I'm figure out where I want to put the pink is I'm literally just kind of letting my hand go around the sketch, and it's going to tell me where it wants it. I don't know why, it just— it works for me. So like, it's telling me I need to have something here, here, and I'm ending up in this area here. So I think I need to do something here. Yeah, this is good. All right, so we can just have our pops of pink. Just want to bring a little bit more down here. There we go. I love neon pink color pencil. Look at that. This isn't— this is gorgeous right here. These colors Yeah, I just— the colors are gorgeous, right? I just love what's happening here. That neon pink over that red gouache, it's pretty amazing. All right, here we got some neon yellow. Let's maybe use kind of window openings here. We'll throw some in. It's a good way to pop out those kind of openings a little bit. Maybe I'll throw some down here also. Yeah, look at that, look how that neon yellow pops. And we are going to break out the chartreuse. I'm just going to change this. I got music on here. I just want to change the song. I am obsessed lately with this, the song Bittersweet Symphony. I've been listening to it so much the past month or two. Um, I always used to love the song, then it just came back again. In my brain, and I, I don't know what it is. I really just love, love this song, especially when it stops playing. Why'd you stop?

Cool.

All right, we're throwing out some chartreuse, so maybe this is kind of maybe some grass or landscaping. It's really weird, my sound is cutting in and out. What do you guys think of this? Do you think this came out kind of fun? Gigi says— oh, uh, Gigi says perfect, perfect. We are all perfect in our own special way, right? I think for me, perfection is just being yourself. That's my definition of perfection, just being yourself. Um, neon pink is your signature color. Yes, it is. 100%. Wait, what? Wait, Rebecca? Is this Becky? Is that— am I being this so dumb and it just hit me? Oh my God, if this is Becky, if that's you, I, I just— I'm not used to seeing Rebecca. Oh man. Hey Becky, how are you? I can't— that literally just hit me. Hi Becky, how's it going? Oh my God, so dumb. Long time no see, hope you're doing well. Whoa. Um, a little touch goes a long way, 100%. Gigi says good song. Yeah, it is a good song, right? It's a winner. The song's a winner, or the sketch, or both. You're a winner, Gigi. Gigi, you're a winner. You're so fun. It's so fun seeing you in all those other chats as well. I love that. I love it, love it, love it. Um, we're gonna zoom in, look at these details, and I'm definitely winding up, although I say that a thousand times because I have so much fun. I just don't want to stop. Somehow, um, yes, it is Becky. Becky, I am so sorry. I just, I am not used to seeing— I know you as Becky and I'm not used to seeing Rebecca. So Becky, you're awesome. We are— we need to do an Inklings reunion. If you're down for it, let me know. We'll see if we can get the gang together and do a live stream and we can have new people join us too. Like Gigi. Um, that's awesome. So good, so good to see you. Somehow the bright colors have enhanced the 3D effects. Wow, that's a, that's a really cool, um, statement. We're gonna zoom in. Let's, let's take a look at what you said. I really— I'll just hold it up. Yeah, I think it's that contrast of colors. I love that you said that, that's awesome. Yeah, I really like that. I like to zoom in so you guys can just see how things are looking as, um, as they're drying, as layers are going down. Oh, the sketch. The sketch is perfect. Thanks, it's just fun. Cool. Gigi, if you want to DM, DM me a mailing address. I'm more than happy to send you this sketch if you would like to have it. I can definitely mail this to you. Uh, feel free to DM, or if you want, I can— you can even email me, and I'd love to mail this out to you. Becky's down, absolutely down for Zoom. Oh, awesome. It says, Becky, are you in NYC? I'll let Becky answer that one. Yes, you guys are amazing. All right, this is so cool. How are we going to wrap tonight? How do you guys want to wrap this up? Does anybody have any wise words to wrap us up with? What is maybe— what is one takeaway maybe you had from tonight? Whether it's something we talked about, something you thought of while we were hanging out, maybe something you talked about in the chat. What is something that struck you or impacted you, or I don't know, something you're leaving with tonight from our short time together? I'd love to know. Put it in the chat. I think that's a great way to end tonight, and I think I'm going to start— I'll start it off. So I think my big takeaway tonight, um, first I just want to express my gratitude. Thank you guys for watching. I always appreciate your time, whether it's live or replays. Yeah, you guys inspire and help to fuel my creativity. So thank you so much. And I think what I'm leaving with tonight is, um, just always have an open, playful, and curious mind when exploring new art materials, new techniques, new styles. Um, don't shut yourself down before you even start. Be open, be playful, and just be you. There you go. That's my takeaway for tonight. Becky's in Vermont. That's right, Becky's in good old Vermont. Becky is an awesome artist too. Becky, um, so there's two— there's— Becky did a really cool sketch of the Flatiron Building, which I have. I love that sketch. I also love Becky's horses. Yeah, what else? Becky does really cool horse sketches, um, and trees. Becky does really fun trees. Becky's style for me is a a style you would see in, um, children's books, children's book illustrations. Um, yeah, I'm actually smiling. It makes me happy to think about your artwork and the stuff you create. Good stuff. Gigi's like, we are all perfect in our own way. Oh yeah, 100%. Love, love, love that. Becky says, never be afraid to try something new with art materials. That's right, Becky. Thank you, Jason Nicholas Nicholas Nicholas. Have a great night. Take care, Gigi. Becky, take care as well. See you guys until we meet again. Live creatively, sketch boldly, and just keep being you. See you.