Meet Jose Sanchez: Freelance Illustrator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jose Sanchez and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jose, can you tell us about an impactful book you’ve read and why you liked it or what impact it had on you?
There are three books that stand out. They’re actually kid’s books. I still remember the day I got Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark from the scholastic fair back in elementary school. That book (the original unedited version) and the illustrations within it are absolutely terrifying. It was probably my first experience with horror and I loved how creeped out I got by looking at Stephen Gammell’s black and white water colors. Fast forward a few years and you would find several of the Dinotopia books on my book shelf. Jame’s Gurney’s illustrations transported me from my bedroom to a lost island full of dinosaurs, danger, and magic. It was incredible. When I got to art school, I was ecstatic to find that some of my professors actually used some of Gurney’s books as text books. I still follow him on instagram and his work is incredibly inspiring. Finally, Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. It was the first “adult” comic book I remember reading and it made me realize that this illustrating thing isn’t just for kids. There’s a whole world out there for illustrators.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I’m a very process heavy illustrator which sort of sets me apart from other illustrators who also work digitally. The way I work is often a product of necessity. I work digital because illustrators have time constraints that makes traditional art making far too time consuming. The projects a freelance illustrator might get often demand quick turn arounds and digital art makes meeting those demands possible. I’ve touched on it already but I also have an auto immune disease that makes my hands (and everything else) swell up so I’m limited to the tools that won’t make my condition worse. These challenges have led me to making my primary tools for art making an ipad and photoshop but my preference is toward the grit and texture you’d see on a canvas or the flow and movement of water colors on paper. I put a lot of effort to avoid the flat solid color look of digital art in my illustrations. The process I’ve come up with over the years attempts to take a drawing that was done almost entirely digitally and layer textures, color gradients, and scanned in sheets of traditional media over top to arrive an illustration that (I hope) leaves a viewer wondering if it was done digitally at all. My journey is a long one. I didn’t begin illustrating until I was in my 30s and it was the result of a disability making it difficult for me to work the jobs I was accustomed to. Before that I toured in punk rock bands, hung out and learned to draw from my tattoo artists, and was a general nerd for all things dorky like comics sci fi and horror. It’s tough reinventing yourself at the age when most adults are settling into a career but I haven’t looked back once. I am currently setting up a personal etsy store. I’ve done several digital greeting cards and am currently working on some books that I hope to sell digitally through my store. It’s been fun doing my own work and it’s also a lot easier to be proud of the outcome when I’m the one driving the project instead of a client. Setting up my own business is exactly why I went to school and I’m happy to finally be at the point where I can do it.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I’ve always been a huge fan of street art and for that reason Krog Street tunnel area and the roads directly surrounding it are easily some of the most interesting spaces in the Atlanta area. The graffiti on those walls has inspired me for years. Whenever my brother comes to visit, we usually take a quick drive down to Krog street tunnel to check out the new pieces. If you like art, there’s nothing more raw and real than the graffiti people risk to put up and share with us on those walls.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Thomas Burns is an Atlanta based illustrator and a huge influence on my work. He was a professor of mine at SCAD and he generally did a lot of the business classes and such. I don’t know that I’d have any idea how to navigate a freelance career if it wasn’t for his insights. His art is also a lot of fun. Definitely look him up. He encouraged me to keep going down the path I was on and it was in his classes that I really cemented my style.

Website: www.jsanchezstudios.com

Instagram: @j.sanchez.studios

Image Credits
Jose Sanchez