We recently connected with Carles Marsal and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Carles thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What was the most important lesson/experience you had in a job that has helped you in your creative career?

One of the most important things I’ve learned is to say NO to those projects that I don’t feel confortable with. At the beginning it is something really difficult to do, specially because of the money you won’t earn, but you’ll learn soon enought that those projects are preventing you from taking the interesting ones, or simply from creating better personal works that will lead you in the correct direction.

Carles, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’m Carles Marsal, a Visual Artist, Art Director and Instructor living and working in Barcelona, Spain. I studied Audiovisual Arts and specialized in Graphic Design & Visual Communication. In 2004, right after graduating, I started working as a freelancer at the same time as teaching.

At first I was creating landscape projects and Concept Arts not knowing I was actually making Matte Paintings (that I learned when I saw a documental talking about the old technique used in films just as Star Wars, Indiana Jones, …, and that some artists were making that digitally in Photoshop). So I pushed myself into the technique, creating a really good portfolio until I got my first important commission, with Mercedes-Benz. After that, a lot of projects came to my studio, specially after my first collaboration with Adobe in an event called Adobe Creative Days, were I got the chance to share my works, techniques and opinion about the industry and its future. This brought an amazing relationship until today. I make conferences with them, talking about my creative techniques and news on the industry, and luckily, some great clients noticed me and decided to contact to collaborate.

I was also contacted by Domestika, a big company that provides creative online courses. I made some little courses with them, one was an Introduction to Photoshop. which I wanted to be the easiest and most friendly way to learn the program, and it became the best selling course in the platform with more than 350k students today. That made me decide to create my own learning platform, but focused on a more profesional way of learning my full creative process, specially in Concept Art and Matte Painting.

Currently I work for a wide variety of clients all over the world just like National Geographic, Netflix, Neom, The Dubai Expo 2020, among others, doing all kind of creative projects, visual development and art direction, and I also make some time to create online courses to share my professional techniques, alongside some resources just like brushes, textures, and more.

This year I’ve been working as an Art Director for a Sci-Fi Documentary, which has been a really exciting adventure.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The process. That is, with difference, the most rewarding aspect. Putting together everything you’ve learned with your motivations and your feelings is just something every artist has to keep in their mind. It is not the acceptance, the success, the number of shares, likes or anything like that. It is all about the process. When you put all your soul in the process, at the end you see the difference between who you were when you started it and who you are after finishing it. And that leads you to the next project, with evolution, real creative evolution, and joy, the joy of learning in every new process. Don’t rush yourself, enjoy the process, learn from it and evolve.

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

There’s something that I find really worrying nowadays, and that is the need of achieving everything as fast as possible. And, to be honest, nothing good comes from that when talking about creativity and art. When I started, I knew I needed some time to become a better artist, to show my best potential, and that required between 6 months and a year for me to create the portfolio I wanted to have. I worked part time, made some little commissions and dedicated the rest of my day on my own personal projects. And the same applies to what to what to charge to your clients. Some people ask you what do you charge for a Matte Painting or a Concept Art expecting to earn the same just after making a course or graduating, and my answer is always: “Do you want to know what I’m charging now, after 20 years or when I started just like you?”.
We are somehow loosing the perspective, the effort and sacrifice it takes to become an artist and create your own creative identity.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://carlesmarsal.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carlesmarsal/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carlesmarsal/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CarlesMarsal
• Other: Courses and resources for Digital Artists: https://cursos.carlesmarsal.com Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/carlesmarsalart