ADEL DESIGN Blog

Chris Sandlin creates wonderfully expressive textured character illustrations. He is a maestro at picking controlled color palettes that showcase his bold lines and shapes. Chris was kind enough to chat with Vectips so read on to find out what Illustrator tool Chris would like to be and his favorite techniques.

The Chat

Hey Chris, thanks for chatting with Vectips! To start, could you tell us a little about yourself?

Not a problem and thanks for having me! For those of you that don’t know me, my name is Chris Sandlin and I’m a freelance illustrator under the moniker of SockMonkee. I recently graduated with a BFA in Graphic Design but took the road less traveled and pursued full-time freelancing after graduation. Aside from freelance, I run the SockMonkee Collection where I sell personal designs and prints. It’s a wonderful vehicle that grants me artistic freedom and allows me to share my artwork with others with no clientele restraints.

If you could magically turn into a Illustrator tool, what tool would it be and why?

Haha, I would like to magically transform into the pen tool. Not only is it how I create a vast majority of my work but I’ve easily become more proficient with the pen tool than I am with a basic pencil and paper, haha.

What’s your favorite Illustrator technique?

It’s definitely a tie between the pattern brush option (which I use quite often), and the free transform tool. If you guys didn’t know, the free transform tool while holding command helps a lot with minor angle adjustments.

Do you use any non-digital tools in your work?

I still use paper and pencil for all my sketches but I’ve thought of buying a Wacom or tablet for sketch work. I get so used to hitting command+z during vector work that I wish I had the liberty in sketch phase.

What are your favorite sources of inspiration?

There isn’t much on the web that inspires me. Every once in a while I see something cool that catches my interest but I try my best to find my inspiration in older art books, magazines, and everyday things in life that I see or experience – your artwork then becomes a projection of you and no longer an inspiration from another designer or illustrator.