We were lucky to catch up with Jonathan Fackler recently and have shared our conversation below.

Jonathan, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

I can remember having a passion to draw as early as four years old and would watch my favorite cartoon show, SpongeBob SquarePants. If I wasn’t watching the show, I was drawing all the characters. One day while drawing at the dining room table, my mom and grandmother noticed my ability to replicate the characters accurately and they were shocked by the details. The positive reactions from my drawings encouraged me to draw more and more over the years. Yet, it took me until my high school years to realize my true passion, art. It wasn’t until after participating in football and powerlifting that I began to realize that I was truly happy when I was creating/drawing characters and bringing stories to life. So, I decided to take the first step and applied to Savannah College of Art and Design to begin my journey of becoming an artist. I am now a Senior at SCAD, studying to be a Sequential and Storyboard Artist and continuing to take one step at a time to reach my goals.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Jonathan Fackler, I am a 22-year-old Sequential and Storyboard Artist from Hershey, Pennsylvania (The Sweetest Place on Earth). I am currently a Senior at Savannah College of Art and Design majoring in Sequential Arts and minoring in Storyboarding. Sequential Arts is the study of storytelling through illustrations, for example, graphic novels, comics and storyboarding. Storyboarding is the study of preparing and illustrating the shots/scenes within films and animation to capture the vision of the director and production. I got into this field of study because of my love for comics and storytelling. When I wasn’t watching SpongeBob, I was reading all the books I had on the Spiderman and Batman. Soon, I had no more stories to experience and decided to start creating my own interesting stories and wacky drawings, and I never stopped. When you get a piece of art or comics created by me, you will notice my FACK INC. label/logo within my work. When you see that logo, you will instantly notice the unique and wacky style difference between my work and other artists in my field. My intent is for the viewer to be introduced to a new creature or character within each piece and have a sense of wonder and amusement. I have been working on a few projects recently and hope to spread a little laughter and similes through my love of art and storytelling in the near future.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My overall dream is to be a successful artist. I have set personal goals for myself, that I hope will help me reach my objective . One of those goals is to self-publish/publish my own book, filled with my wacky cartoon creations. My overall mission is to create cartoons and stories that make people laugh.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

I think the artistic work of Zach Hadel and Michael Cusack have really influenced my recent artistic philosophy and management. Zach and Michael are the creators of the Adult Swim show called Smiling Friends. Once I began watching the show I was fascinated with the wacky and expressive characters they created. I noticed how they broke away from the normal routine of drawing and animating and decided to create what they thought would be funny, giving a sense of creative freedom. Creative Freedom, that word plagues my brain every day, but in a good way. I realized that when I was drawing, I was following the rules and being someone else, that I am not. At that moment, I decided to give myself that same freedom to create and experiment with new styles that intrigue me and give off a sense of my authentic self.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://fack-inc.squarespace.com/
• Instagram: @TheDrawingMan_Art
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-fackler-a4a59b220/

Image Credits
All Images were created by Jonathan Fackler (FACK INC. Founder)