This site was created to serve as a valuable resource of proven marketing and positioning strategies to help freelance artists prosper at the creative work they love, while also serving as a source of encouragement and accountability to those artists bold enough to do the work necessary to attract Better Clients and Charge Higher Fees and prosper as creative professionals.
Hi, My name is Carlos Castellanos, since 1983 I’ve been freelancing fulltime. I’ve produced award winning illustrations for a who’s who of commercial clients, ad agencies and major publishing houses.
I am also co-creator/artist of the popular nationally syndicated comic strip ‘Baldo’, the first Latino family comic strip syndicated in the U.S. by Universal Press Syndicate to over 250 news papers nation wide and executive producer of the animated Baldo TV series currently in development.
Areas of expertise I have developed over the years is in that of direct response marketing and Hispanic marketing. I’ve served as consultant and trainer to ad agencies and graphic arts organizations, has been interviewed by radio news and TV networks including CNN En Español.
Helping Creative Professionals Succeed
I am absolutely passionate about motivating, inspiring and coaching creative entrepreneurs on the realities of how to achieve greater success through their art and businesses. The world needs your light, your point of view and your creative solutions to entertain, educate and inspire.
I am constantly investing in himself and I challenge you to do the same. I believe that practically any creative professional can transform their creative passion into a healthy income, enviable lifestyle and go from Starving to Thriving once you make the decision to take full responsibility and a ‘no-excuses’ approach to achieving the success you desire.
Hey Carlos,
I spoke with Jan Korb earlier this afternoon and she told me that she had mentioned my name a couple of times in her podcast. So I checked it out and checked out your site. Very Cool. My hat is off to you for trying to bring some business saavy to our industry that has been sadly lacking for many years. Way to go.
Best, Hal Mayforth
Thanks so much Carlos for all your advice, help and inspiration!
I really appreciate it!
Carlos, hi my name is Greg and I have a question that I thought you might be able to help me find a answer to, I am currently looking to go to school for illustration but there are no programs in my region I’m thinking about trying to get one started at my local community college but don’t know how to go about getting them to adapt a curriculum, any advice would be helpful
Greg, thank you for writing. I really appreciate the time you’ve taken.
There are many new paths to gaining the experience and art knowledge you seek. I don’t believe you need to reinvent the wheel and go through the trudgery trying to convince others to start up programs.
For artists with the intent on starting their own business or going freelance, I rarely recommend going to art school to get a degree and accumulate the kind of enormous debt students are now carrying.
It’s ridiculous, in most art schools (even the better ones) they still gloss over the business/entrepreneurial side of being an artist and students for the most part come out ill equipped to make a successful go of art as a business while strapped with enormous debt, that for the most part forces them into taking on other jobs that are unrelated to art.
Here’s the thing. You now have access to some of the world’s most experienced and talented artist in almost any discipline and industry at your fingertips, offering workshops and online classes at a fraction of the cost of taking classes at a local college. You can literally tailor your course of study based on your own interests integrating the best of art instruction and business courses for a fraction of the cost.
And learning and investing in your own education never stops either, regardless of whether you earned a degree or not. So this is likely what you would be doing anyway after earning your degree.
Having said that, whether you decide to get a degree or not is really dependent on your professional goals. If you want to be a creative director someday, want to work at Disney or want to teach part time at a university level. A degree would be beneficial if not required. Though there are some well accomplished artists that have managed to have done it without it.
Just my two cents. I hope that helps.