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.
Rachele DeMeo
I began my musical journey as a child with classical piano lessons, and in my teens, I took opera lessons. Since my childhood and into my young adult years, I sang Christian music in a church, growing up in Southern France surrounded by a family of musicians. Read more>>
Michael Poindexter
So learning to draw was the easy part, I’m largely self taught. I’ve always had the raw talent of being able to sketch and illustrate and would memorize characters from my favorite cartoons and draw them as best I could from memory. Read more>>
Chris Widdop
I had always been a bit of an artist and writer growing up, but learning how to write a full novel length work took a lot of time and effort developing my skills. I first started out by participating in National Novel Writing Month, which gave me practice writing works of such length. Read more>>
BR1AN
I mostly learned by teaching myself, spending years experimenting, and just creating without really thinking too much about it. From around 2019 to 2023, I was in this constant flow where ideas just poured out of me. I’d make 30 or 40 songs a year, and it felt effortless, like the music was leading me instead of the
way around. Read more>>
Melisa Meral
From a young age, I was naturally drawn to performance- tap dancing, ballet, piano, and even the violin. I loved making people laugh with made-up skits and mini comedy shows. As a teenager, I sang in a nationally recognized choir and even performed the National Anthem for the San Diego Padres at age 13. Read more>>
Paula & Rich Rogalski
We both have enjoyed working with our hands which was mostly used in renovating each home we purchased and lived in. (Paula) When I was a child I lived in a creative home. My mother was a painter and furrier. She would encourage me in my desire to paint so I learned to draw and paint with oils. Read more>>
Patrick Rutledge
I believe a lot of what I know came out of necessity. It’s one thing to be ignorant to something, but often times we’re aware that something is important, we just don’t do it or know how; however, I believe if you get frustrated enough, that can be a good driving force to learning and problem-solving. Read more>>
Linda Garcia-Dahle
While I did go to school to become an artist (California State University at Long Beach), I come from a family of creatives. I learned my passion and love for art from my paternal Grandfather and from my father. My Grandfather was an active trompe l’oeil muralist in Los Angeles in the earlier part of the last century, while my father was an amateur photographer. Read more>>
Londyn Pourciau
I start out by watching runway videos on YouTube. From there I started following models on social media. Lastly, I started looking at posing in high end fashion magazines. To speed up my learning, I should have hired an experienced modeling coach. The most important skills are having an understanding of what you’re selling, knowing how to express emotion, and knowing your angles. Read more>>
Terrell Fure’
I listened to artist like Bounty Killer, Beenie Man, Mad Cobra, Shabba Ranks, Ninja man, Super Cat, and other’s. I would use the melody to their songs and then write my own lyrics. Then shortly after I began to make up my own melodies when writing songs. I could’ve read more patios vocabulary books. Read more>>
Kimani Lewis
How did you learn to do what you do? Honestly, a lot of trial and error. I studied what kind of songs were getting placed in TV, films, commercials and video games, broke them down, and practiced until I could match that same energy and emotion. Collaborating with other artists and producers and actually submitting to briefs taught me more than any tutorial ever could. Read more>>
Stefanie Schmid
Learning to paint began with a YouTube video of a man on the other side of the world painting with a palette knife. His videos showed him scraping acrylic paint across canvas, and creating abstract landscape paintings. After many attempts, trials, and errors, I got it down to creating art instead of just layers of poorly mixed colors that became brown muck on canvas. Read more>>
Kathie Halfin
Learning, for me, is a lifelong process—and art is no exception. My practice in weaving has taught me patience and the value of time. Weaving is inherently slow, and I love that quality. I’m not seeking to make my projects faster, but I do enjoy finding new ways of working that open possibilities. Read more>>
Ja’lia Marie
I mostly learned my craft through trial and error. When I first purchased my camera, I thought that was all I needed to do. I was taking pictures in auto-mode for about 5 years before I actually learned how to use my camera manually.Read more>>
Shaun Moore
For me, learning the craft of music started when I was around 8 years old! I was in elementary school, and in the music program, my teacher asked me what were my instrument choices. From the advice of my father, I ended up playing the bassoon as my very first instrument. I would come home every day from school, sit and practice for hours. Read more>>
Hannah Hobbs
I first learned how to weave when I started at Threadbender Textiles. Our studio is for all fiber arts, with an emphasis on weaving and sewing. Weaving is one of the oldest fiber arts in the world! Read more>>
Jennifer Lail
As a creative, going to art school to learn the essentials was a great start. I worked exclusively in oil paint up until my senior year. It was in portfolio class that I was introduced to watercolor, which is now my predominant medium. At first, I played with watercolor the way anyone does when they’re just starting out. Read more>>
Kedwin Zapata
Hello! Wow let’s take it back to 1781 j.k! Bartending, yes. I actually attended NYC bartending school for the jokes of it all. A friend suggested i do it after getting laid off from my 9 to 5. Now mind you in was 21 at the time. Read more>>
Saketh Ranga
Honestly, I learned filmmaking by just… doing it. No film school. No mentor. Just curiosity. In 2012, it was just me and my younger brother drawing storyboards on paper. Stick figures, messy arrows, ideas scribbled all over. We had no clue what we were doing, we were just enjoying the process. Read more>>
Marquise Burns
Honestly, I learned everything through pure curiosity and hustle. I didn’t go to school for hat-making, I taught myself from the ground up. I studied how the best in the craft moved, whether it was on YouTube, Instagram, or TikTok. I’d watch how they blocked, steamed, and shaped their hats, then go practice until I got it right. Read more>>
Disha Agrawal
I have been communicating through visuals for as long as I can remember. My first real ‘project’ was a comic I made as a child to convince my family to get me a dog, and it actually worked. From that point on, I became the kid in class who was always drawing, designing posters, creating caricatures, making cards, and decorating banners for school projects. Read more>>
Jessica Faulkner
Honestly, for me even now it’s still a learning process. When I fist started my creator journey, I didn’t have anyone i knew personally to ask for help with learning how to edit, film look for content ideas ect. Read more>>
Emma Von Enck
Training for a classical art form like ballet is a multifaceted experience. Similar to other professional athletes, dancers require a level of physical aptitude (such as facility, coordination, and musicality etc.) alongside the mental fortitude to push through and even thrive under pressure. Read more>>
Matt Maenpaa
I’ve had a camera in my hand since I was a kid, first disposables, then a proper SLR in high school. I don’t really think I appreciated the craft as much back then, but the fundamentals were lodged in my brain. By the time I came back around to photography, almost two decades later, it was a lot like riding the bike. Read more>>
Ramesh Kumar Kannan
Learning being a lifelong endeavor, started for me from formal lessons on the classical piano and music theory from a very young age. It continued through the many influences from all the music I listened to, composers I studied, movies I watched, film-makers, artists and technicians I worked with. Read more>>
Sarah Hutchison
I started pottery after taking an introductory course at my local pottery studio. After the first initial class, I was hooked. However, when I began researching into how much it would cost to start throwing pottery in my own home, I didn’t think it was financially feasible. Read more>>
Laura Grant
I started writing about relationships when I was around 12 years old. I was working with a vocal coach and she encouraged me to keep a journal to help inspire my songwriting process. When I began writing songs about love, I found myself, even at that young age, tapping into universal themes in social/emotional development and archetypes. Read more>>
Evan Crider
I’m a musician and songwriter, but that wasn’t something that necessarily came easily. At an early age, music (especially playing guitar) was something only my imagination could grasp. Growing up, popular 60s and 70s bands and songwriters were the basis of what I knew. Read more>>
Brandon Crabtree
Even when I was a kid, I was taking things apart and putting them back together – sometimes, and most of the time, incorrectly. The patterns and framework layouts would stick with me. I was so curious about their design, how they worked, etc. My father hated it. Remotes, VCRs, DVD players, stereo equipment — nothing was safe. Mainly electronics. It was like the more I took apart, the more I wanted to learn.