During the pandemic, Salgado began to keep a sketchbook to refresh their work ethic. Feeling stagnant and that they had a rigid process for creating work, they adopted a new medium they considered difficult to help jumpstart their creativity.

Limited to black and white and an "unforgiving" medium, Salgado drew various studies consisting of coffee shops and park views as they biked around Milwaukee. Gradually as they used the ink brush, instead of feeling like they were fighting with the medium, they slowly grew to look forward to sitting down with a cup of coffee to sketch. Mistakes began to turn into charming details that feel more human and this experiment helped changed their mentality towards making art and loosen their process.