We were lucky to catch up with Jose Sanchez recently and have shared our conversation below.

Jose, appreciate you joining us today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

Being a freelancer means you get to be your own boss. There’s some allure to that in as much as people desire the level of freedom a freelancer enjoys to set their own schedule and pursue the projects they want but the reality is rarely ever that glamourous. The truth is, freelancing is hard work. When you’re not actively working on a project you’re searching for the next job. Sometimes you find yourself with more than work you wanted and other times you worry if you’ll get a paying client next week. Often times those clients end up asking for editing work or touching photographs up or even working on a website instead of actually practicing your art. There are those jobs that people wish they could land and then there are those jobs that pay the bills and a freelancer has to know how to balance these things in their own careers. It comes with the sense that you’re always on the clock. When your office is also your home, you often think about things you need to do and work on making it difficult to separate work and your daily life.

Jose, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Born in Columbus GA to a military family I’ve called a lot of places home over the years but now I call it my wife Erika and our strange small dog. My name is Jose Sanchez. I am a freelance Illustrator and designer based out of Canton GA. Getting my BFA from SCAD Atlanta, I took my strange collection of passions and interests and developed them into the aesthetic that would define my work. My work tends toward the things I love and those things are comic books, spooky fantasies, punk rock album covers, sci-fi, horror, and b movie posters, the macabre, and goofy 80s movies. I will never not be proud to admit to having an impressive comic book collection and a sweet model of the Starship Enterprise. I now work as a freelance illustrator where I draw and design the sorts of things that I can only hope inspire people the same way that the art I grew up loving inspires me.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Illustration was never something I planned for. I grew up in a military family and moved around a lot growing up. Once my family settled down I held service industry and working class jobs throughout my 20s. I traveled around in punk rock bands and toured the country playing music on the side as a passion. I learned to tattoo and made art for album covers as a passion. By the time I hit 30, I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis and a number of other overlapping autoimmune disorders. This turn of events made it very difficult for me to continue working the jobs I had grown accustomed to and continue living the lifestyle I was used to. I had to wonder if making my passion for art a career could save me from having to push myself beyond my limits just to make ends meet. As an adult, I decided to go back to collage with the hopes of getting a degree that would facilitate me starting up a freelance career. The truth is that the arts are not easy or kind. The door is usually closed and a new upstarting artist has a very difficult time landing steady work if they don’t already have connections or enough time to create those networks. Landing that first job and more over, landing that first job that calls you back is a task in itself. At the end of the day you need a dose of perseverance and real passion for the work you do to continue doing it through the uncertainty. It takes knowing that even if I was somewhere else in life, I’d probably still be making art even if just for myself.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I think setting small but realistic goals is a great way to move into an artistic career. Say you want a book cover and you make it a point to work at getting your art on a book cover. The next project could be an album cover so you reach out to bands labels and other creatives working in that industry. Maybe you want to see your work in a certain magazine so you make that the focus of your outreach and networking. These stepping stones are what make a career in the end. My goal is not to be a world renowned illustrator by any means but it is to build a portfolio of work I can be proud of sharing with others and one that inspires others the way the art I grew up with inspired me.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.jsanchezstudios.com
• Instagram: j.sanchez.studios
• Other: My online print gallery: https://www.inprnt.com/gallery/jsanchezstudios/