For the past couple of months I have been working with famed illustrator and cartoonist Carlos Castellanos from Drawn by Success (you may also know him as co-creator of the Baldo comic). If you are not familiar with the Drawn by Success it is a site for freelance artists to learn more about marketing strategies, new ways to position yourself and improve your business. Each of the interviews we’ve done have been with extremely successful and talented artists who have new and innovative ways to position themselves and market their art.
In the short time I’ve been working with Carlos I’ve learned an amazing amount of very valuable information. Each of these artists have so much to offer I often feel like I should be taking notes as I interview them. Recently we interviewed artist Aleloop of Aleloop.com. We began talking with her about her fantastic website and how much fun it was, then toward the end of the interview she mentioned something that really caught my ear. She told me it is important for SEO to keep everything all in one place and make it easier for people to find you. Once the interview was over I took a hard look at what I was doing. How many sites did I even have? I’d lost track. Was I keeping up with them all? Hardly. Was it confusing for people to find me scattered all over the internet? More then likely. Was it time to start consolidating? Yes, without a doubt.
My original intentions in creating all these sites was to try and separate the different parts of my business and eliminate confusion. Wow, really? My idea was that someone who read my blog was not interested in my portfolio nor would they care about my How2Draw site. I figured the more places people could find me the better. Kind of a shotgun approach. The reality was that I’d ended up just creating a big sloppy mess that I couldn’t keep up with. So in an effort to bring things under control I have begun a massive clean up effort to consolidate everything under one roof. It’ll take a little time but efforts are underway. When it’s complete it will all be parked under BobOstromStudio.com. children’s illustrator.
I will keep some of the other sites open for a while but will eventually begin shutting them down as I move them to the new site. That includes this site. So please make a note of it if you enjoy reading my posts. Thanks for sticking with me.
Posted in: Business, Uncategorized.
Children's Book Illustrator Bob Ostrom at the Athens Drive Public Library in Raleigh
I had a great time last week visiting the Athens Drive Public Library in Raleigh. We had an enormous turn out with lots of super talented young artists attending. We had a ball drawing Big Foot, a cat, a dog named Jack and lots of other fun things. We also played a few drawing games and I even stumped the crowd with my Guess What We’re Going to Draw game.
If you missed me at Athens Drive don’t worry I will be adding lots more appearances and classes in the coming months. If you would like me to come to your school or library please let me know by filling in the handy form below and I will do my best to add you to the line up. If you are interested in taking one of my classes just check the add me to your mailing list box and I will send you my class schedule.
Posted in: Appearances, Classes.
Aside from being a children’s illustrator I also teach classes in Adobe Illustrator CS5 and Adobe InDesign at Wake Technical Community College here in Raleigh. When I was offered the Illustrator class last year I jumped at the opportunity. I’ve been using Adobe Illustrator for many years now. I believe the first version I had was either 5 or 6 and I ran it on my Power MAC 7200. It came in a wooden box and ran on candle power… okay not really but you get the idea. Anyhow what I’m getting at was I felt I really knew the program. I was pretty up to date running CS4 on my computer so I figured making the leap to CS5 would be a snap.
It’s amazing the things you learn when you teach. Sitting down and preparing a 3 hour lesson twice a week is a much larger task then I had imagined. Running through my lessons plans I quickly realized that even with my experience I am only using a very small portion of the program. Each of my students had different requirements. Some wanted to learn design, some were interested in illustration, and I even had a few printers who wanted to learn the program. So with all these different needs I was forced to stretch a little and learn new things in order to present lesson plans that would allow each of the students to understand the program in the way they intended to use it. This was great for the students as well and allowed them a much broader view of what CS5 can really do.
Art by Neil Castle - Adobe Illustrator CS5 2 Wake Tech Community College
At the end of each session students are required to hand in a final assignment. I’ve only taught two Illustrator classes so far but I’ve been totally blown away by these projects. Here is an example of what one of my students from my Illustrator 2 class was able to produce using 3D effects and the mesh tool (along with a few other little things). I think you’ll agree that not only is he an amazingly talented artist but that Illustrator CS5 has come a mighty long way since 1996 when I first started to use it.
If you are interested in this class or my Adobe InDesign class please visit the Wake Tech website at http://wechtech.edu or use this link : http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/84e8fcea (My classes are at the Western campus).
Posted in: Classes.
This month I’m working with Apple’s Keynote to put together a few presentations. I will be speaking with one of my author friends in a couple of weeks and I thought this would be a great opportunity to see what I could do with the program.
First off Keynote is a very intuitive program with lot’s of drag and drop. Which is fantastic because that makes it super speedy. Throwing together a simple presentation takes no time at all. I did this portfolio presentation in a little under an hour. There are some great features which allow me to place audio or video right into my presentation. I love this function and can see it being a big part of an upcoming project.
When it comes to exporting my files I’m able to save as a Quick Time, Power Point, PDF, HTML or iPod document. I can also share my work by sending it to iDVD, iPhoto, iTunes, iWeb, Garage Band or Youtube as a video. If I need to email it I can send it as a Keynote, Power Point or PDF. I haven’t tried all these functions yet but the more I learn the more I realize Keynote will soon be a very valuable part of my business.
So every program has it’s drawbacks right? Here are a few I’ve experienced with Keynote. Keep in mind I’m new to the program and have not fully explored possible solutions so just because it’s listed here doesn’t mean there isn’t a solution (it’s more likely I just haven’t found it yet). My biggest disappointment with Keynote was that in the past it allowed users to export to Flash. As far as I know in Keynote ’09 that function no longer exists.
Some of the other problems I faced were more about appearance. I noticed a slight color shift in intensity when placing art into the program. This was more pronounced when exporting the files to a Quick Time video. I also noticed that when enlarging or reducing the artwork I lost some of the sharpness. The lines weren’t as crisp and tended to look a little soft (I’ve been looking through the forums to see if I can find a solution and will post a link if I do)
Overall I was very pleased with the program and will continue honing my skills until I become a Keynote ninja. In the meantime I’m really looking forward to sharing on Youtube and think Keynote is just the program to breath new life the presentations I’ve been waiting to share for so long. If you have experience with Keynote and would like to share you knowledge or some of your work please leave a comment and or a link to your site in the space below.
Posted in: Business, Tech Stuff.
I love creating logos. It is one of the funnest parts of my job. In the past most of my work was created for print. That meant working within a certain set of limitations and making sure whatever I illustrated or designed looked great on paper. Over the years the demand for online content has changed the way I work. The printed page is only half the battle. Many of my logos appear primarily online these days and that has allowed me to begin looking at my design process a little differently. Continue reading →
Posted in: artwork.
I’ve recently begun working with extremely talented cartoonist Carlos Castellanos over on the Drawn By Success website. You may know Carlos as co-creator 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 nationally and internationally and read by millions every day.
Carlos is also direct response marketing expert, and an expert on Hispanic marketing. He has 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. Above all he is passionate about motivating, inspiring and coaching creative entrepreneurs on how to achieve greater success through their art.
If you’re a Creative Independence listener you will remember Carlos as a reappearing guest and guest host on the show. He is a tremendously inspirational guy and I look forward to working with him in the upcoming year.
Drawn By Success
If you’re not yet familiar with Drawn by Success I strongly recommend swinging by the site and checking it out. The 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 bold enough to do the work necessary to attract better clients and higher fee
Posted in: Business, New Stuff.
I’ve been very busy for the last couple of months putting together my new teaching schedule for 2011. I’m thrilled to announce that I’ve just added two children’s book illustration courses to the line up. The first one starts Saturday, January 29th and runs from 10am -4pm at Jerry’s Artarama in Raleigh. For more info please contact Sharon DiGiuli0 (919) 876-6610. Continue reading →
Posted in: Children's Books, Classes.
Experimenting with photoshop today and made this little animation of Santa. I guess you could call it a Santamation. Happy Holidays!!!!
Posted in: Tech Stuff, Video, artwork.
START is a new teaching program sponsored by Jerry’s Artarama in Raleigh. I will be teaching with START beginning in January next year. I am really looking forward to the idea and hope to be adding a bunch of new classes soon.
If you haven’t heard of START yet you can find more info on them other at the START site. START stands for Stop Thinking Art is Really Tough. It’s a great way to introduce people to art. If you’ve never taken an art class before or would like to learn something new this is the place. The instructors are top notch. The classes are offered in a ton of different locations and best of all they are only 30 bucks … supplies included.
Continue reading →
Posted in: Classes.
My good friend Mary Jane McKittrick, author and creator of the Boomer & Halley© – Little Lessons. Big Results.™ series of children’s books, yesterday announced a holiday charity drive to benefit the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA®). Now through the New Year, Mary Jane will donate one dollar from the sale of every “Lost and Found” book directly to the ASPCA®.
Continue reading →
Posted in: artwork.
