I love nothing more than a new identity, branding or advertising challenge. However, creating art is a close second. It's great to be able to break up all the computer work with art in the evenings here and there or over a weekend. I remembered having really enjoyed drawing on brown paper once before in the past ,with then pencil (H's to B's) and using a white piece of chalk. I've always been amazed by charcoal artists using just a stick of charcoal and achieving such incredible levels of contrast in their art. After watching a few videos and getting some charcoal pencils, I grabbed a piece of cardboard from the garage and started testing my skills. Brown paper is great, but cardboard adds a texture and it's stiff enough that I can just hold it in my lap without any backing board (super convenient). Using a black pencil, white pencil, kneaded eraser and q-tips for blending, I was able to create some detailed artwork with little expense. I started an Instagram page showing some of my work (@jordanfretzart) and plan to create some advertising with future drawings. I have shown a .gif below showing one of my portraits come to life and I am still experimenting with the best ways to preserve/show off the work. Getting off the computer in the evenings has sparked added creativity and inspiration for current projects. I encourage any designer to do it whenever they can and experiment with new mediums. A few last bits of advice: don't over-erase on the cardboard, don't use too much force with your pencils as it will create impressions/dents and keep your wife's cat away from smacking the pencil you're using.
