Wanting to be an artist or creative is step one. Following through means investing in learning your craft, but we’ve heard from so many aspiring artists and creatives who feel unsure about where to start and so we’re incredibly grateful to the artists and creatives who’ve agreed to share their stories of how they learned their craft.

Prithvi Chauhan

As a cinematographer, my journey to learning my craft has been a continuous process. It began with a strong passion for visual storytelling and a desire to communicate ideas and emotions through images. I have always learned from the works of great cinematographers and filmmakers, analyzing their techniques and visual language, and learning how they create visual storytelling. Read more>>

Justin Joyce

Although I started learning drums in middle/high school, I would definitely say my time at SDSU is where I found my love for music and began playing drum set and composing. I entered SDSU as a drum set performance major and began taking my first formal lessons on the kit with Mike Holguin (besides a few lessons with Larry Grano beforehand to prepare me for my auditions). Read more>>

Viktoria Dmitrieva

It took some time for me to learn how to turn my hobbies into a business. I love to spend time in the forest, learning to identify plants, listen to their stories, discovering their medicinal gifts and admiring their resilience. I wanted everyone to appreciate the biodiversity that is scattered throughout our local ecosystems and see it preserved in beautiful mementos. Read more>>

Marcus Watkins

Learning the craft for me had been a great journey, i mean it has its high and lows at times, but overall has been great. Life is crazy and loud all the time so being able to create and learn slows me down for a bit. Read more>>

Manuel Borrero

I am a self-taught individual in the field of augmented reality (AR). I’ve always had a strong passion for technology and AR specifically. I spent countless hours studying, experimenting, and immersing myself in the world of AR. Through online resources, tutorials, and hands-on practice, I acquired the knowledge and skills necessary to become an AR designer and creator. Read more>>

Lul Rocky

I got into music at a young age. My uncle was a rapper and was part of a group in the late 2000s, so naturally me and my brother got more into music. I was more of a performer so when my uncle only taught my brother how to rap, I wasn’t tripping because that wasn’t my style anyways. From that alone I always knew how to rap, but when I got to high school I started reading poetry and shit and that taught me word play. Read more>>

Raphael Pierson

I think that without a doubt, the best teacher for me has been experience. Forcing myself to dig in and commit to learning is certainly where it started and in fact still drives me to this day. I think that when you’re both industrious and committed to learning, the information that you need to catapult you forward is going to be found in one way or another. Read more>>

Hunter Logan

I honestly never had a desire to be in radio or be disc jockey. The opportunity just kind of fell in my lap. I had just finished my last gig as an entertainer for Carnival Cruise Lines aboard the Carnival Conquest as an entertainer, when I went to one of the radio stations about 40 miles from my house to visit because they played my music on the station. Read more>>

Andrew Cobosco

Most of my knowledge in photography has been acquired through self-teaching and educational videos. I’ve dedicated countless hours to watching tutorials on photography, possibly amounting to hundreds, if not thousands of hours. I’ve found that the quickest way to enhance my learning curve in photography is to immerse myself in the practice by taking as many pictures as possible. Consistently getting out there and capturing shots has proven invaluable to my progress. Read more>>

Tatiana Toruno

My journey in videography began with enrolling in an expensive and unsatisfactory institution, “The Connecticut School of Broadcasting”. While I learned a little about cameras, editing, and video production, the short and costly program left me feeling underwhelmed and hungry for more knowledge. I decided to pursue a Bachelor’s degree in Applied Science in Film, Digital Production, and Television at a college, which was an incredible experience. While it is possible to learn videography independently, I loved being in a classroom surrounded by like-minded individuals who shared my passion for the craft. Read more>>

Armin Nasseri

Everybody starts somewhere. I began my journey doing background work on studio films and major television shows. I had a great experience working on the set as I watched how every department operated on a 8 to 12 hour film shoot. Read more>>

Kathryn Marino

I truly believe that time is the new luxury, with the new adaptations of the latest technologies at the helm of our disposal, time has become the scarce valuable commodity. Even our attention spans are shorter now, because we have been triggered to have immediate gratification with response times to messages and dms. There was one skill that I had developed working in television that I didn’t realize was going to be an essential aspect of how I performed or conceptualized programs but I did come to recognize that it was how I manage time in short duration activities. I didn’t even know that it was a skill until an advisor commended me. Read more>>

Sharon Jenkins

When I first tried to break into the publishing industry, I faced numerous challenges that motivated me to help others in similar situations. To find the right approach, I experimented with different types of publishing and marketing efforts. Although I attempted to collaborate with others, Read more>>

Jeremy Pangilinan

I started learning about my craft in High School. I was so very fortunate that my school had a black and white photography program. But by the time I had entered those years of my life, I was already carrying my camera everywhere. I simply loved re-telling the stories that came across my path when I was young, so my camera was always with me. Read more>>

Stephen Chen

I’m someone who learns quickest by doing, so in short, I learned to write by writing. A lot. I went through the UCLA Professional Program for TV Writing, which was a great introduction to crafting specs and pilots, but it felt like riding a bike with the training wheels on. It wasn’t until after I finished the program, after the training wheels came off, after falling and scraping my knees a bunch, that I became confident writing TV scripts. Read more>>

Kelli & Erica Turner

Not having to do it on your own in a very confusing business!!! My ‘aha’ moment happened in a Starbucks as I helped a friend navigate her questions about getting into tv, film and printwork. Whether seeking a new career path or just a hobby, I realized there were so many people like her who didn’t know how to start or even that they needed to know who to trust. Read more>>

Preston Light

I think we’re all constantly learning more about our crafts. With painting, I set out to make things I had never seen before and try to let my own style develop organically. Not taking the art school route I instead go to museums and galleries as often as possible and also have a small but ever-growing collection of art books that I flip through in my downtime at home. Read more>>

Yichun Lin

The learning process in art and design requires persistence, curiosity, and pushing oneself beyond comfort zones. Through formal education, hands-on experience, and continuous self-study, I learned to tell my own story. However, beyond these traditional methods, maintaining a solid curiosity and imagination and actively engaging with others played a crucial role in my learning journey. Read more>>

Lance Bradford

I learned by doing. Mostly just by absorbing the work of people I admire. Not just photographers but painters, musicians and writers. There’s no real way to speed up the process other than by shooting photographs. It is the only way to really understand what’s going on in the camera and how that relates to the subject. You learn by making mistakes. Read more>>

Beth Turner

Learning the craft of jewelry making has been something that I have experimented with since I was a little kid! I remember having to “teach a skill” in middle school and I taught the class how to make braided string bracelets! It has since evolved into something that I am very passionate about. I love learning new techniques and putting my own spin on it. Read more>>

Kendra Muecke

Learning the craft is creatively one of the best approaches we can take to our talents and interests. I often think about how I perceive things. I see things differently than many and the same as many too. What makes my learning unique is defining what authors narrate my life, what music is my soundtrack, and who are my heroes? I always studied hard in school. Read more>>

TAIOM

What keeps me excited about tattooing is that it’s a never-ending learning process. Even though I’ve been tattooing since 2003, I’m still thrilled by this craft and how it continues to be exciting and remains powerful. I learn from friends, clients, and coworkers every day, ever since I started doing it at home in Brasília. One time, a friend told me that to tattoo, you should drop ink and push it into the skin with a needle, so I tried it at home with China ink and a sewing needle, and those dots are still here on my knee, haha! Read more>>

Robert Del Quadro

My favorite part, and what keeps me growing, is the learning process. As with any craft there’s always multiple ways to achieve the final results you’re looking for, candle making is no different. I spent the past 10 years experimenting with different wax, working styles, coloring, molds, etc. And I’m still continuing to learn. Read more>>

Fungai Marima

In my formative years, my introduction to art and design, or ‘art’ was out of a necessity to communicate and express myself through painting and drawing, what I couldn’t or hadn’t learnt to articulate in words. I then continued making art in school and realised through getting better grades than most of my subjects that, possibly there was something to pursue. Read more>>

Marcus Drones

So I decided to go to Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts in Austin, Tx. There I was taught by some of the best Chefs around. While getting my education at school, they taught me so many techniques in cooking. So many people think that cooking is boiling water and adding salt and pepper but it is much deeper that that. Read more>>

Rudy Salgado

I learned what I do by paying attention to what I felt excited about, and finding the people who could help me learn how to do it. In my early twenties, I was working construction jobs and realized I really liked working with my hands. Art wasn’t something I did growing up, but my dad ran a denture lab and I grew up seeing a high level of craft and precision at his lab in our backyard. Read more>>

Jamie Koplin

I learned to make art starting from a young age. I’ve always loved drawing, painting, sculpting, and working with crafty supplies. I feel I’ve always been a fast learner, but I did struggle with watercolors more than anything, which is my primary medium, now. The most important things I have learned from working with watercolors is to keep an open mind, and know when to stop. It was essential that I stopped trying to control everything that was happening on my canvas or paper, and to just let it flow. Read more>>

HoodCelebsRadio/ HoodCelebs

We started out first with just having a passion for music. Than Ray Tracks got into beat making on the MTV music generator and the rest is history.I wouldn’t speed up my learning process every thing we been threw and been blessed to be apart the timing was all divine time.At that time everything was practice until 2004.school in them times I was still a teenager living with My mom early 2000s Read more>>

Lee Crawford

I’ve actually had a lot of formal training academically as well as experience in what I do and I feel that’s the biggest asset that I have in carrying out my duties . At 17 I was heavily into art and design, I studied architecture and drafting and became a Mechanical engineer coming out of high-school. Read more>>

Leslie Rasmussen

Since I learned how to write, I’ve written silly short stories, a journal, and fun letters home from camp, but I never considered writing as a career. When I got out of college I knew I wanted to do something in the entertainment industry. I started out as an assistant to a producer on a drama series and learned as much as I could about editing, scoring, mixing, directing and writing. The next jobs I got were as a writers’ assistant on sitcoms. Read more>>