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.

Impulse Dance

As an organization, we strive to improve our dancing skills as individuals and as a group. Our members have come from different dance backgrounds ranging from never dancing before to having years of experience. With also having all different learning styles coming together, our goal is to adhere to everyone and find both fun and efficient ways to learn choreographies. From our experience, we have learned that the best way to speed up our learning process is by having dedicated members willing to help lead others and having a welcoming motivational environment. Read more>>

Khaila Carr

I have been drawing my entire life. I’m not sure who taught me in the beginning, but I assume I just naturally gravitated towards art like a lot of children do. I can remember my first art competition – kindergarten, I colored in a picture of a mermaid and won best in class. Moments like that followed me throughout childhood, and art was always something I was considered good at or praised for. Read more>>

Antonio David Paton

I think there is no moment where learning your craft comes to an end, ESPECIALLY in the film and music business. As one of my biggest mentors once taught me, once a new technology comes along, film composers are the first ones to put it to the test. In an ever-changing world with new software, hardware and instruments being invented every single day, stopping your own learning process is close to impossible, and not smart at all in my opinion. We grow every day as human beings, and by default, the art we create does as well. Read more>>

Britani Crosby

It all started back in college about 2013 or so. I was studying with my college professor for finals, while being a new mom and just trying to finish school. She’s talked about crochet and I asked if she could show me, as I was looking for something to calm my mind at the end of the day. She happily showed me the basic chain and simple single crochet, she sent me with yarn, my very first hook and an easy how to guide. Read more>>

Rachel LeClair

In the tattoo industry, there are hardly any requirements set forth by state and county regulations. Traditionally though, someone wanting to become a respected tattoo artist must complete an apprenticeship under an established artist/shop. I began my apprenticeship in December of 2017. My mentor was Jon Kindvall, owner of Jon’s Custom Creations Tattoo Shop, located in Greeley, Colorado. I completed my three-year apprenticeship in December 2020. Read more>>

Kelli Caldwell

I’ve been trying to hone the craft of songwriting for decades and there’s still more to learn. I took some writing courses in college and then completed a Master of Publishing degree, which is basically like an MBA specific to that industry. So writing and editing courses were part of the initial foundation for me. I then went on to work in marketing and in PR for Harper’s Magazine, which involved public relations writing and copy editing. Read more>>

Angel Godinez

I learned as I went along, or “self taught” as they would call it. There aren’t many people out there that are willing to sit down with you and teach you all these things, so you gotta sit down by yourself most of the time and figure it out. I could of definitely done a lot of things by myself instead of waiting around for other people to do it for me. I realized I wasted a lot of time and money on people that never really had any intention of helping me. Read more>>

Vero Garcia

I think as everything in life, at least in mine, every new skill is a learning process, and sometimes learning is trial and error until you get an idea of how to do it right. So far my learning process has been a great ride, with normal ups and downs, so time wise I can’t complain. I’m a graphic designer so having those skills as a background have been a great help. Read more>>

Alex Garcia

I’m mainly self taught! I learned the basics from a film program I was in back in high school but everything else has been my own trial and error, as for me thats the best way for me to learn something. I don’t feel like there is anything I could’ve done to speed up that process. I think because of the time I’ve invested learning the craft is what has allowed me to fully learn from every experience. If I had that process sped up I don’t know if I would’ve been able to take away as much from every experience by speeding up that process. Read more>>

Angel Beloved

My craft is DJing and producing music. Learning how to DJ and produce has been a lifelong process in a way, as there are various unique elements that go into both crafts. DJing and producing is not just as simple as picking songs and throwing them together or imagining a beat in your head and bringing it to life. It involves things like learning the mechanical elements behind the equipment, studying the intricacies of music theory, Read more>>

Laura Dickson

As a kid I was always creative and grew up in a very artistic family, but my fiber art journey started when I was in college. I started learning to crochet and knit as a hobby, making hats for myself and cute little baby things for my pregnant friends. Being a poor college student I had the grand idea that maybe I could save some money by learning to spin my own yarn and that is what really started my fiber art obsession. Read more>>

Joshua Elijah

Well, I started a free trial class with Skillshare on photography and cinematography. It’s kinda slow for me because I’m currently working with just my phone, I believe when I get my full gears and a better camera, it’ll help speed up my learning process because so far, that has been an obstacle for me to able to learn more Read more>>

Melissa Arey

Like most creatives, I would say I am “self-taught”. I have always loved design and art ever since I was a kid, became an art major in college, and worked as a graphic designer at a small print shop and then again for a large corporation. This helped refine my skills, but as far as creating a stationery business, I had to learn mainly through trial and error! I now have over 10 years of experience, learning from both my mistakes and my success. Read more>>

Alexis Boyd

I learned to do what I do by doing what is considered to be “boring work”. This means countless hours of Youtube videos, taking free courses online, listening to podcasts, reading books, talking to the OG’s, going to events observing and soaking up everything, etc. Most importantly I pray. I ask God to allow me to be able to apply the knowledge and not just “know” because applied knowledge is better than knowledge itself. Read more>>

Jay D$nero

I began to learn more about creating music by studying other artists. Watching different interviews, studio vlogs, and even just listening to other artists allowed me to get a blue print and input my own design on the music I create. As far as recording, engineering, and producing, I had to learn through trial and error. I would get into the DAW and try new things seeing what sounded good to me. Read more>>

Oji Morris

As a DJ, the best lessons I learned was through observation and practice. Over the years there were many who have influenced me to be who I am today. When first intrigued, there were a few who may have been idolized, but over time as you are honing your craft, you realize that even the most unusual suspects can have some sort of influence on you. Good music is Good music. So when I am enjoying myself on the dance floor (yes, I dance), you never know what song might come on that I have never heard before. Read more>>

Melissa Stynski

Photography in general, its a world of its own. When you decide to focus on one or two particular areas of photography, you really have to focus on perfecting those areas and that craft. I started photography in 2011. Like many other photographers, I was a mom of two young kids and I wanted to figure out a way to stay at home with them. It took me till 2016, when I left my full time job in the medical field to do photography full time. Read more>>

Channing McNeal

The only goal we had when starting The BLT Podcast, was to just hang out with our friends and have real conversations. We truly had no idea what form that would take or how to even make that happen. None of us had any prior knowledge of audio editing, hosting, or entertainment. Because of this, the podcast has been through several different iterations. When we first started, we had one microphone and 7 people. Read more>>

Hristiana Soula

Acting starts off as being instinctual, then it is refined with time. I would definitely say that it took a while to really get out of my head and start honing in on how to be the best actress I could be at any given moment. Worrying about the technical stuff like which angle the camera is pointing towards me or how my hair looked shouldn’t have been taking up too much space in my head, but the over-analyzation took up plenty of my time before I even started to click ‘record’ on my auditions. Read more>>

Brianna Davis

After I wrote my books, I thought my job was done, and I intended to hire an illustrator. I knew exactly how I wanted the illustrations to look from distinct colors to form, and after a long search looking for an artist who could fulfill my style, I realized the look I desired would take more time to dictate to an artist and perfect than to do it myself. That’s when the realization came, if I wanted to be 100% satisfied and get things done to my definition of perfection in my lifetime, I would have to be the one to bring the art to life. Read more>>

Marie Biallas

I learned many of my jewelry making skills just by trial and error in the beginning, before there was an internet to explore. I learned more when I started teaching jewelry classes and by self discovery on the internet. I haven’t really taken many classes for jewelry making except for Viking Knit. Learning Viking Knit was essential because it is something you don’t find being made by many artists, so it’s unique and people are impressed by it. Read more>>

KamWood

When it comes to learning the craft of recording a song i can remember a time when me and my friends first took an attempt at making our first song. back in middles school i use to have this karaoke tape player. it came with a mic and two slots for tapes. one side we would put the instrumental tape in and the other side we would use a blank tape to record everything. Read more>>

Stephanie Rodriguez

Growing up I always loved everything that had to do with social media and content creation and I didn’t even know it! I would watch creators on YouTube and wish I could be like them but little did I know I didn’t have to live in LA or Hollywood to create a life that I dreamed of. My mom pushed me to start my YouTube journey, and from there I branched out and started to do photography, working on my Instagram, Read more>>

Melodie Thompson

I have always enjoyed exploring and being creative in a variety of mediums while primarily working with oils and charcoal as my mainstay. I think the desire to explore has helped me to take risks when working with oils to see what new ways I can manipulate them to draw viewers closer in. When we are children, I think its natural to wonder, to imagine and create. As we grow into adulthood the parameters of life take over and we lose that ability to be “in the moment”. Read more>>

James Capanas

The way I learned how to design was through YouTube and experimenting with different things. Looking in retrospect, my learning process could have been faster if I stayed consistent throughout these past years. I essentially started designing since 2017-2019, took a little hiatus, and came back 2021. Read more>>

Brandon Z. Smith

When I was in high school I taught myself how to play guitar by using online tabs. I basically just learned power chords and called it good. I was able to start writing songs immediately, which was the point. I’ve never cared all that much about my own technical ability. However, as my musical tastes matured, I found power chords to be limiting. I started learning basic chords and progressed onto more complex ones, all while still using online tabs. Read more>>

Chem XP

By carefully tuning in to the world, inspiration can be interpreted a plethora of ways from any one little thing. Initially, I got a lot of inspiration from contemporary work from all around the world, but always felt so far away from these heights through the hazy lens of social media. I get quite overwhelmed with inspiration from the outside world now. Read more>>

Jennifer Spoon

Once I decided this is what I wanted to do, I was kinda shocked by what I needed to learn before I could actually start making a quality product. There a many different types of materials out there for bracelet making. I wanted to make sure I was using the best string and glue etc.. There was a lot of purchases made before I found what we use today! Read more>>

STEVE PRENTICE

Learning the craft of writing has been an interesting journey that started with writing poetry. My first experience with learning the craft is when I attended the Ford Poetry Festival in New Jersey. I kept asking each presenter about their writing process trying to figure out how to best hone my craft. When I asked former National Poet Laureate Billy Collins about his process he said, “Your process will be different than anyone else’s and the only way to find out what that is, is to sit down and write.” Read more>>

Will Chatlosh

I am now a 20-year-old student, now coming close to finishing my undergraduate career in college, and the one aspect of being an artist that has always held me back is time! I am proud to say that I learned to crochet (which is my main form of artwork that I am drawn to) at the age of 11 using YouTube as my outlet for information. Read more>>

Britt

Learning the craft of Etch-A-Sketching was something that came fairly easy to me despite having no other artistic abilities or background. When I picked up my first Etch-A-Sketch when I was 16, I noticed that I could manipulate the lines beyond just going up, down, left, and right. I could curve, make circles, and go diagonal which is crucial to sketching more elaborately. This allowed me to fully delve into the medium and I went from sketching random requests to having art shows and even selling my pieces. Read more>>

Cheri Charlton

I ventured into the realm of illustration and mural painting a bit later in my artistic journey. During my college years, I focused on studying painting and drawing, earning a BFA and MFA in fine art. Following graduate school, I relocated from Ohio to Chicago in 2007 with the aim of securing a teaching position in fine art at local colleges and finding opportunities to showcase my artwork in galleries. However, the harsh reality of financial obligations and student debt quickly hit me, shifting my focus to mere survival. Read more>>

Larry Braun

How did you learn to do what you do? I acquired my skills through a multifaceted approach, leveraging three primary avenues to learn my trade. Firstly, I enrolled in an online course in professional photography. This course served as my foundation, equipping me with fundamental knowledge of the craft and providing insights into the various types of photography. Read more>>

Harold Foxx

Since around 2013, I have been doing all my work on social media platforms which I produced The Harold Foxx Show, Foxx that Shit, and Foxx News along with my training at The Groundlings improv and sketch school based in Los Angeles where all the legends came from such as Will Ferrell, Melissa McCarthy, Lisa Kudrow, Conan O’Brien, and Jimmy Fallon etc. Read more>>

Dr. Dawn menge

When I first began publishing the Queen Vernita’s series, I did not plan on writing anymore books than the first one. I soon won first place in the EVVY awards and receiving interviews. I decided to add my traveling adventures and write one new book each month. The series has developed into 14 published works with three more in production. Read more>>