Wednesday Sketching

Hey, it's Wednesday, March 19th. Hope you're having a great day. 8:35 PM. Oh my gosh, I am way off. 8:58 PM here. I am so tired, but it's good to be here. I'm Jason Nicholas Nicholas with The Inspired Life. Join me for a few minutes as I do some sketching. I love sketching architecture. It is— it's a game changer for me. It makes me— changes my state of being. It's a way for me to capture a moment in time, way to express ideas, communicate, and it's just plain old fun. So let's do some sketching tonight. Couple things I want to do. Let me just click over here on the Instagram and go live. All right, cool. So I've been working on, um, this sketchbook here, something new I started this month, just something different. I want to try different styles, different things this year, and one of them is just doing these kind of abstract backgrounds and like this here, and then sketching on top of them, which is really cool. So, um, so far I've been sketching some iconic NYC architecture, like Lincoln Center here, and then we have Brooklyn Bridge. Boom. Uh, the Oculus, love that one. And also I love this, the Copper Building. So it's been a lot of fun. So let's do another sketch tonight. And I think I want to do, um, St. Patrick's Cathedral. And maybe we'll do it on— I don't know, let's do on this page here. Before I hit that, I just want to mess around with this. This is a Brooklyn Bridge sketch I did a while ago, and I just want to kind of loosen up a little bit. And we're just going to throw some colors down, have fun with it, and that is my only intention. Tonight is have fun. Sometimes I like to set a creative intention before I sketch anything, and it just gives me a kind of a goal or, yeah, kind of a target to aim for. Um, but that's it, nothing else is planned. So let's just throw some color down, loosen up. It's 9 o'clock, I'm only gonna be on very shortly tonight. Because, uh, I'm tired and I have school tomorrow. But anyway, I hope you're having a great day. Let's zoom in a little bit. So this was just a kind of a loosey-goosey sketch I had done of the Brooklyn Bridge, I think on a live stream one night. It's fun to come back to these sketches and just sometimes add some stuff to them. There we go. Definitely plan on getting to the Brooklyn Bridge, um, this spring or summer, probably in the summer. Do a little trip, walk across the bridge. I think it'd be a fun, fun day. I love— I just love the Brooklyn Bridge. I love the whole Brooklyn Bridge Park area and Dumbo. I could spend a lot of time in those locations. There we go. Yeah, I like this. It's looking fun. And I think I need some yellow on here just to brighten some of it up a little bit.

All right, cool.

Got some color on the Brooklyn Bridge. That's fun. That's just a good kind of loosen, uh, loosening up session. And let's, let's work on, um, yeah, let's sketch. Let's do some St. Patrick's on here. What do I want to— what color do I want to use? We'll start with white and see where it goes.

There we go.

So just kind of outlining some shapes here from the From, uh, St. Patrick's Cathedral. Again, I'm never really going for duplicates. I'm just kind of— I love loose, wonky sketches, just trying to catch a vibe, kind of fast and loose. Fast and Furious, I think that's a— isn't that a movie with cars? This is not— this is not a car movie. We are not doing a car movie right now. Feel free to say hello in the comments and chat. I'll check in in a minute or so. Just throw down some more lines on here. Hey, hey, Jen's in the house! Jen, great to see you. Hope all's well. Always great, great seeing you. Hope you're doing well, my friend. Hope things are awesome in Canada. For sure. Um, when we go on our trip, my— when I go on my spring break trip, we're— they're partnering or partnering us up with a group, a school group from Manitoba. Manitoba. So that'd be kind of fun. Yeah, I can't talk when I'm tired. Hey, D-Ray, it's great to see you. How have you been? Oh my gosh, I haven't seen you in a while. I hope you're doing well. Thanks for popping on. You guys are awesome. Listening to the Cranberries tonight. A little bit of zombie going on right now. Love it. Jen, uh, says I've been thinking about you and wishing you well. Oh, thank you so much, Jen. Yeah, um, yesterday I went in for a catheterization. All went well, all went, uh, smoothly. Um, yeah, so I'm back home today, so that's a good sign, right? I'm exhausted though, to be honest with you. But thank you for thinking of me, and I always appreciate all the positive, positive vibes. So, um, thank you, thank you so much. And thank everybody else who, um, who sent positive wishes my way. It means a lot to me. Thank you, guys. But yeah, I'm on now, so that's a good sign. I appreciate it. Hey Cameron, oh my gosh, how are you? Cameron, I see you over there on the Facebook. Long time no see, man. I'd love to see you sometime and catch up. I hope you're doing well. I hope you're doing well. How is, uh, I'd like to meet, chat with you sometime, see how, um school's going and life and all that fun stuff. It's great to see you on there, Cam. All right, so we got a little bit of St. Patrick's vibage going on here. Manitoba is a nice place, very hot summers and very cold 55 winters. Oh, that must be Celsius, right? 55 Celsius. Good to know. It'll be fun. I've never hung out with Canadians before. No, so it'll be— it'll just be kind of cool to see, um, you know, what similarities and differences are in cultures, and especially with school kids and, you know, high school kids. So I'm really excited to, to, um, to be having the opportunity in a couple weeks. It's gonna be so cool. It is, it is good to be home. I have to say, a hospital I went to, the staff, everybody was absolutely outstanding. The care, the service, the organization Um, I'm going to say flawless. For my experience, it was flawless yesterday. So shout out to the medical team and everybody that, um, that I saw yesterday. Let's see, I want to use blue, I think. Let's pull out some blue. You can see I'm a little slow today in my actions, right? Usually I'm pretty quick picking up colors and sketching. My brain is kind of slow. It's okay, sometimes we have slow brain, right? Yeah, this is looking fun. I like it. It's very, very loose and abstract. Um, I'm not going to do a lot of detail on the church. Just want to pull out some of these shapes. D-Ray says, always thinking of you. Hey, thanks, D-Ray. Yeah, me too, D-Ray. You're awesome. You are a Class Act. Thank you so much. Hey Gigi, great to see you. Hope all's well. Gigi's in the house. Gigi, I'm feeling, I'm feeling okay. I'm just really, really tired. Um, um, yeah, everything went really smoothly yesterday, so— but thank you, I appreciate that. I'm back in action. I kind of wish I was home another day from school tomorrow. I, I I really need another day rest, but I'll be going in. Um, and after— I have to report, I don't know if I said this, but they did not— they did not find any, um, blockages in my arteries. So that is awesome positive news. So, um, yeah, that's really, really good news on my end. So we'll see. Still have some, some things going on, but, um, they'll be taken care of. Nothing major. But thank you guys for your love and support and, um, just hanging out with me. I always appreciate it. How's St. Patrick's looking? Are you getting St. Patrick's vibes from this? I kind of like it. It's a little loosey-goosey. D says, especially if you were put under. Oh, you mean under like, um, sedation? I just— if I just was— had a mild, very mild sedation with anesthesia, so, uh, nothing major. It was pretty mild. Yeah, I mean, I was, I was awake through the whole procedure, so I could hear what they were saying, what was going on, and all that fun jazz. Technology is really amazing though. The medic— medical technology fascinates me. It's incredible what they can do. Cameron, I'd love to meet up with you as well. Also, if everything is well with you, sorry to hear you— hey, no worries, Cameron. Thank you. Yeah, I appreciate that. Yeah, we'll definitely meet up, Cam. That'd be great. Well, uh, we'll figure out a time. I'm, I'm gonna be away in a couple weeks for about 10 days, going into Spain and Italy. So I'm super, super, super excited. Uh, it's gonna be a life-changing trip, I'm sure, just the experience. And I can't wait to share it with you guys. It'll be so cool. I'm digging St. Patrick's. I feel like I need some pink on here. Just break out some colored pencils. I need some water as well. Take the day off, Colin, you need to rest. Yeah, I was really close to doing it, um, Yeah, I was really close to doing it. I know, I really should have. Um, I think I'll be all right. I think I'll be in school and fired up. I'll grab some Dunkin' in the morning. Yeah, that'll set the day off good. Um, lots of less invasive procedures makes life easier. Yeah, GG. You know, it was, um, I wouldn't say where they— how they entered my— into my arteries, but, uh, they can go through a couple different areas. Um, but yeah, it's pretty amazing what they can do. Thank you, Cameron. Yeah, I think it's gonna be an amazing trip. I will, uh, definitely tell you about it. Well, maybe, uh, maybe when you get done for this semester, we can you can find a time to get together, that would be cool. And, uh, yeah, that'd be great. I do hope you're doing well, my friend. D-Ray says Spain and Italy. That, that's where I'm headed. So here's where I'm going. Ready? Here's where I'm going. Uh, we're going to Rome. Rome. Let's see, Rome. Uh, Vatican City will be there. Florence. Florence, and we will go to Madrid. Florence, Madrid, uh, Toledo, Spain, and Barcelona. I don't know if I missed any places, but I, I'm excited to see everything. I'm mostly excited right now to see Barcelona because it's supposed to be the world capital of architecture. Um, but I'm sure it's— I have never been to, like, I've never been to Italy, so I'm gonna be blown away everywhere I go. I'll be blown away. And also, is my hat— let me know if my hat is blocking the camera. I noticed it was doing that the other day. Uh, it's gonna be a whirlwind trip, so I don't think there's gonna be much sketching time, so I will be taking tons of photos. And I'll sneak sketching in when I can. I'm giving sketchbooks out to students, giving them the option if they want to do some sketching, they can do some journaling. And you guys know me, right? Of course I have to Gotta do some kind of sketching. It's gonna be a small taste of a lot of places, and, um, I'm sure I will eye up places to go back to and visit, you know, a second time. You got— are you guys liking this sketch so far? Let me know. I kind of like it. I don't really want to cover— I like the background colors on here. I don't know how much more What else do I want to do? I think I'm going to pull out this tower a little bit. Let's add some more white on top of it. Yes, Dunkin' Coffee! Yes, Dunkin' has these banana— I don't know if you guys like bananas, but I love anything banana flavored. So they have like banana flavored coffee drinks. I know it sounds weird, but they're really good. I've had a couple. Yeah. So I am looking forward to having— I gotta treat myself. Tomorrow's my long day in school, so I teach 6 classes and I have my prep first period, and then they go all the way through the rest of the day without a break except my 25-minute lunch, which I usually have kids in my room during my lunch, which is fine because they want to hang out and they're doing stuff. Working on projects sometimes. So I'm not complaining, it's just tomorrow's my long— one of my long days of the week. So a little dunking in the morning will get me through. I, um, was it last week? Maybe two weeks ago, I I was that guy that went into Dunkin' in the morning, so I use the app, I order ahead of time and pick it up. So I was that guy that accidentally grabbed the wrong order off the shelf. So I got to school and it was not my Dunkin', and I felt bad that someone else was getting my stuff and I got their stuff. Um, but their name was very similar to mine. You know, my name was Jason. I forget, I think the other name was like Jaylene or something like that, and it just looked very similar. So yeah, I grabbed the wrong Duncan. Don't tell anybody. Um, what do you think? I think this one might be done. I don't know, maybe I'll add some color here in the window. Us? Cameron, it's your last semester. Oh my gosh, it's been 5 years you've been in school. Holy mackerel, that's crazy. Wow, wow. Well, good luck with the job search. Good luck with the job search. Wow, if I hear of anything, I'll let you know. Fingers crossed. Uh, wow, 300K+ views on St. Patrick's Day Parade. Wow, I am so sorry, Jen, I was not, not there in the chat to help fend off those trolls. Oh my gosh, that's crazy. I am, I am so happy for him. That's amazing. I hope, uh, I hope you survive the, uh Fending off the trolls there. I don't know, guys, I keep looking at this. I don't know, I think we could put some people on here at the bottom. I kind of like this one. Uh, let's— I want to cross. Let's do a cross at the top. What color should I do? I guess I'll use purple. I want to go to NYC this Saturday, but I am not sure what the weather is yet, where I'm gonna head to. I kind of want to go and walk around a little bit, so I'm hoping the weather is going to be nice. There we go. Let's get some peeps here. Let's see, let's do, um, what color, what color? You know what, I'm gonna use blue. I have a blue Sharpie here. Am I being extra chatty today, or am I always this chatty? I feel like I'm being extra chatty, maybe because I'm just happy to be here and online with you all, y'all. This is a highlight of my days, guys. I just love coming online and sketching and talking. I wish I could hear you guys talk sometimes as well. I'll zoom in on this so you can see the people closer. Yeah, I'm digging this. Let me zoom in a little bit. Let's also change songs up. All right, uh, that spire I want to pull out a little bit here. There we go.

All right.

Yes, Cameron says, are you going on a trip with students? Yeah, so, um, I actually have 7 adults and 7 students that will be going on the trip. Um, it'll be amazing. So it's a cool mix. Gigi says, speaking of trips, not sure if you know of Julian and his channel. He lives, livestreams from Lyon, France. Thought of you. That's cool architecture. No, I'll have to check. I will check that out. Thank you for the tip. Dang, would it What a day to return to. You're a long one. That's okay. Was it good? Oh, was it good? Good coffee? Oh, um, no. The other person— the coffee I picked up by mistake was— was— that was kind of boring. It was like a— let me try to remember. It was a regular coffee with cream and some sugar, which I'm spoiled. I like, you know, Starbucks. I like— I'm a caramel, uh, Frappuccino type guy. I love those flavored kind of coffees. Um, sometimes I like a straight up iced coffee too. But— and they also had a chocolate donut, which I don't be petty here, but yeah, I had gotten hash browns instead. So I was kind of looking forward to some warm hash browns and There's a chocolate donut in there. It didn't go to waste, I'll tell you that. Um, Jen, oh, congrats! You were the queen, Jen. You're awesome. Shout out for your modding the other day. So cool. It would be cool to see the Bauhaus. Certainly something neat to teach your students. Yeah, Cameron, that's a cool idea. 106K views. Oh well, you know what, that's still pretty dang amazing. Only 4K during the parade. I mean, 4K is still a high number to manage, right? I'm sure the, um, I'm sure you had some of those delightful people in chat. I'm going to call this one done after I put some more fluorescent pink. Oh, and neon yellow. I'm not done yet. I lied, I'm not done. Oh, you can even see me coloring the top with it. I'm just throwing some neon yellow here on top of these crosses. Yeah, I, I like this one. Let me zoom out, get a full overview. Let me throw a black frame around it too. I think this will look kind of cool framed. Let me go back here. Where are my frames? Oh, timber! Cool. I'm in the process of organizing and doing tax stuff today and architecture insurance stuff today, and there's papers everywhere. All right, let's look at this black frame. I actually want to look at a frame, uh, look at a frame around Lincoln Center as well. I think it looks pretty cool. I may pop the people out with some color. Yellow. If I was to add color to the people, what do you, what do you guys think? I have the people down here. Any color suggestions? Change that song. I don't know what to listen to. Uh, all right, how about that song? What about Dreams? Dreams by the Cranberries. Okay, where is everybody staying? Where is everybody staying while in Italy? Um, well, so I'm not sure exactly sure where we're, where we're staying, but we will be— well, we are staying in Rome, um, Rome and Florence. Uh, we'll also be staying in Barcelona and Madrid. So I think we're staying at 4 different, like, places during our travels. Love the colors. Oh, awesome, I'm glad you love the colors. Yeah, the white pops. I am a huge, huge fan of using white now, especially the, um, either a gel pen or the creative markers. So thank you. Yeah, the black frame works. Yeah, you like that? Well, let's do this too. Let's do a crop, crop in a little bit, zoom in. I don't know if— I think the big frame is the way to go on this one. You know, if I wanted to crop out, you know, do we crop out like a section like this? I'm not digging it. I think I want to see the whole church. Something like that's kind of interesting, but I really think this one merits the big, the big frame. All right, let's take a look at Lincoln Center with the frame on it too. I'm curious. From St. Patrick's Cathedral to Lincoln Center, and I didn't even need to take a bus or walk there or a metro. Do they call it the metro? And I know it's called the subway, the train, take the train. So I put this horizontal on here. Let's look at vertical. Hmm, maybe vertical on this one. Yeah, this could be a vertical one. I really like this one a lot. And then let's put that on here too. Like a postcard size. No, I think if I— something like that, maybe. Or if we did a vertical of just part of it, like here. That's actually not bad. So this isn't bad, this little vertical shot, but I think I like both of these. I think I like full frame. I guess I would do vertical on both of them. Yes, yellow. You think yellow people? All right, let's put some yellow, some yellow Peeps on there. I was thinking yellow just to pop them out a little bit. Oh, the white frame on Lincoln Center. Okay, GG, great idea. I love you guys. Thank you so much for your input. Let's try the white. Let's do white vertical. So here's the white on Lincoln Center. What do you think? You guys like the white? Let's try a smaller white. I'm sorry, I'm singing that. The Caddyshack song, right? Kenny Loggins. I'm all right. I just put some Vivaldi on. Vivaldi's Storm. I love this piece of music. Um, I like the white. What do you guys think? Gigi says she likes the white one. Yeah, Gigi, do you like it horizontal or vertical? And let's color some people here. Uh, Cameron said orange, something about orange. The— or you like the orange on the side here? This orange? So that is acrylic. That's acrylic paint. I used some— might be some of this color mixed in with, I don't know, some of the cadmium red. This is probably— it's a mixture of different colors. I'm just rescuing— I'm rescuing these colored pencils from— there we go. All right, let's zoom in and color some people. All right, that is white. All right, maybe we'll do white too. Wow, Cameron, I can't— still can't believe it's your last semester. Holy cow, where did that time go? Cameron was a student of mine. That is, that is so cool, man. Congrats to you. Yeah, I like the yellow. It's making them pop.

There we go.

Vertical. GG says vertical. Ding ding ding, 10 points. Vertical. GG wins. All right, so we like this one. White, vertical. Awesome. And then this one I think is a wrap on the St. Patrick's, guys. Oh, regarding the people, regardless, I do like the composition of the orange and the red together, both subtle but yet slightly distinct still. Well said, Cameron. All right, let's go close up and we're gonna wrap in about a minute. 2 minutes here. What building, what New York City building would you like me— like to see me sketch next in this abstract background sketchbook journey we're on here? What New York City building would you like to see sketched next? Put them in the chat. Let me— give me some ideas. I'm not sure. Well, I kind of know some of the ones I want to do, but I am not going to say them. These are— and these are some of the other pages that we'll be filling soon. Oh, did I see the Pepsi sign? Oh, I— can I say I love that idea? Yeah, I need to sketch the Pepsi sign. I, I don't think I've ever sketched it. I've taken pictures of it. Let me pull up a picture here. That's a great idea. I don't think I've sketched the Pepsi sign ever. Here, I got some pictures here. Come on, pictures, why aren't they loading up? I'm going to put one on screen here. Yeah, let me drag this on screen. So here's some Pepsi sign pictures. Right, there's one shot of the, of the Pepsi sign. Um, I took a bunch. That might be a cool place to go to on Saturday, actually. Maybe take the ferry across to Long Island City. Again, it depends on the weather. Another sign I have— I took some pictures of the back of it, which are cool, but I don't know if I— I can't find them. That is Domino Park. I love Domino Park. Oh my gosh, Domino Factory. Yeah, well, you get the idea. So here's the Pepsi sign. This would be really cool to sketch. Great idea. Uh, this would look cool on one of these backgrounds also, wouldn't it? Pepsi sign's gonna be really tricky, especially if I do the— well, I have to do the words, right? I mean, that's part of the design. So writing the word Pepsi Cola in script, that's going to be the big challenge for me on this one. All right, I'll take that as a suggestion. Oh, the Louis Vuitton suitcase building. That's a cool one too. Jim's helping you expand your horizons. Always a first. Yes. Um, hey, that's how we grow, right? That's how we grow as artists and creatives. Stepping outside of our comfort zone, stepping, uh, thinking outside the box, or stepping outside that box, which is great. So those pushes, those nudges really help you grow, and you'll learn stuff. You'll learn stuff you like, you might learn stuff you don't like, um, but you're at least growing and learning as a human being. And I think that one of our jobs as being human beings, one of our functions, one of our duties is to, is to be growing in new and different ways, right? We have the gift of our beautiful imaginations, our beautiful minds, and why not exercise them? Why not expand them? Why not grow however we can? And it doesn't matter if it's sketching, painting, drawing, music, whatever, baking, reading. Um, there's so many different ways you can grow. And I think, I think for me, I think growing and trying different things is really makes me feel more, uh, connected, more alive, more— it's just more, yeah, more alive. It's being more filled with life and the vibrancy. And, and it doesn't matter if you fail while you're trying to grow, because that is part of the learning— learning, not the learning— the learning journey, the process, right? I mean, after all, aren't we just simply being human? Wow, I love— guys, I love riffing on kind of that kind of stuff. I hope you like that. The kind of talk. I just— it fires me up when I can just put good vibes out there. Um, we'll be in the 60s. Yes, it's gonna be in the 60s on Saturday. That is making even more of a no-brainer that I need to go. Yes, I love that. Um, with the buildings in the background So Jen, um, I could do the Pepsi sign with the buildings in the background. Yeah, that would be fun. That'd be really, really cool. Um, I have an idea. Radiant— a radiant city inspired UN campus. Oh, so like the United Nations, like the United Nations building, Cameron? United Nations? That would be awesome. I have not, I have not sketched the UN at all either, and that's right near the 34th Street Ferry area, so it's right in the vicinity. So that's a cool idea.

I'm going to add this.

Let's see. Oh, you guys can't see it. I added something to the broadcast, but it's not showing. Is it? No. Oh, there it is. So I just want to add what Gigi said: success never happens in your comfort zone. You have to step out of it. Yeah, that is really, really well said. And the other discussion we can have, the other path we could go down if we had time and we wanted to talk about it longer, is, you know, success— what is Success. What does it mean to you, to me, the person over there? It, it has a definite different definition for all of us, right? Um, so whatever your definition of success is, I agree, you definitely have to step out of your comfort zone. Um, and that's part of the rewarding Part of the journey is that stepping out, that connection to being more than you can be, or learning more than you know, or growing like you've never grown before, caring like you've never cared before, just upping your game, your skills, your manners, your connection to other people, communication. Uh, that's literally why I'm doing this. Oh, for this semester's project? Cameron, that's so cool! I'd love to see that project. The failure— you don't grow and learn. Agreed. Yeah, the Pepsi sign would be really nice. Why words at GGNYC? You guys are fun. Thanks, guys. Um, absolutely, absolutely. It is now 9:49. The time has come, my friends, for me to get ready for bedtime. Thank you so much for joining in, tuning in. I love showing up here live and sketching and riffing about life and talking to y'all, and, and more importantly, seeing what you have to say. Without you, I wouldn't be doing this. So thank you guys so, so much. Until we meet again, until I sketch again, until we see each other again. Um, yeah, take 2. Until we meet again. I just did the same thing. You know what I'm trying to say. I'm tired. Until we meet again, sketch boldly, live creatively, and inspire endlessly. Oh wait, did someone just join the chat? Oh, hold on, before I leave, I see some new— someone who just joined on YouTube there. Hey, uh, Eddie Sedgwick, am I saying it right? Eddie Sedgwick 4462. Hello, thanks for joining. Hope you're doing well. It's great to see you on the YouTube. Um, nice to have you pop on. Hey guys, if you are watching on YouTube, be sure to hit that thumbs up. Subscribe. Let's share this out there. Let's get more people watching. I want this channel to grow, grow, grow, grow, only because I'm trying to spread positivity through creativity. Yes, Eddie, I am so sorry. We are headed off for the night, but thank you for joining. Please join us again next time we're live streaming, and it probably will be tomorrow night somewhere around, I don't know, anywhere, maybe around 9 PM. We'll see how the day goes, right guys? Until we meet again, sketch boldly, live creatively, and inspire endlessly. Oh, JLM popped on! Hey JLM, how are you? Hey, I figured out the success, the secret to getting more viewers. I should just keep saying that I'm done for the night and then more people pop on. Do you think I could reach 1,000 if I keep doing that? What do you think? What do you think? Is that a good strategy? Um, I'm being silly now.

Yay!

All right guys, I'm really heading out this time, but if you didn't watch this live stream, uh, go back, watch the replay, guys. I want to say I think it came out really cool. This is what we did tonight. Check it out, check the live stream out. Some really good comments as well and good discussion. About sketching, about life, and about me taking the wrong Dunkin' Donuts. Take care, guys. Peace out.