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.

Sahara Moon

I learned to do what I do through hands on experience. At the age of sixteen, I began learning guitar with my Dad. I have had a lot of great people in my life who have given me the opportunity to learn hands on early in my career. This has provided me with a multitude of techniques for performance. By just “doing it,” I have attained a lot of knowledge and experience that helps guide my forward thinking and decisions. The most essential skill is to be patient. Starting from the ground up takes a lot of time and dedication, especially when honing your skillset and craft. Read more>>

Pee Sheff

I have been designing with Adobe software since I was in middle school. This was back when you could still find photoshop for free on the internet and it was still a one time download for life. The first thing I ever graphic designed were personal pictures of basketball teammates. I would add text and swirls and reconstruct the picture in numerous ways. This then lead me to coding on Myspace (boy do I wish Stayed in the field now lol). Read more>>

Drew Xzavier.

Learning how to fly a drone was not easy, the easiest way to explain it is its like driving a car for the first time, the first time you turn that key you realize you are starting a new experience. I started with a DJI Mini 2 Model drone, which included no obstacle avoidance and no obstacle sensors other than just a downward sensor that was used to land the drone. Living in right outside the perimeter of Atlanta you are not given many options of places to fly that do not include buildings. Read more>>

Tiffany & Sam Pagan & Geddings

To be honest, we have learned the art of podcasting through trial and error and listening to other podcasts like ours. We definitely could have done more research and networking before starting our own venture, however Sam and I both feel that jumping in and doing whatever we have to do is the best way to learn. Strong communication skills, editing skills, and networking are key to developing a successful brand and show. The only thing that may hold us back from diving in deep would be our full-time jobs, as this started out as a hobby, however we prioritize our time more than ever now because the podcast is important to us. Read more>>

Eddie Brill

Being funny is not teachable. You either have it or you don’t. The best way to get better at stand-up comedy is accumulating stage time. Stage time. Stage time. Stage time. The foundation for great comedy is the truth. Stand-up comedy is about telling one’s truth, therefore it would be nearly impossible to learn about it in a book. A book most likely would turn out similar cookie cutter comics. One of the many beauties of the craft is that there are no hard and fast rules. Read more>>

Aikiela Wilson

Photography has always been something I was naturally good at. Ever since I was able to get ahold of a camera as a kid, I took every chance I got to snap a moment. As technology progressed over time and I started using smartphones, I practiced a lot any given moment capturing any little thing. Food, random pictures of friends, nature, and whatever else I could think of! Last year was when I finally saved up enough money to purchase my camera and bought different lenses after doing research on what I was actually looking for. Read more>>

Rebecca Hollar

Music is the first creative outlet I’ve had. I started taking piano lessons when I was a child, started playing drums in middle school, and taught myself how to play guitar in high school. In 2020, I started producing my own beats. A couple months later during quarantine, I decided to pick up a new hobby and teach myself how to sew. My learning process consisted of several YouTube tutorials and failed project attempts. Read more>>

Scott Hall

I started out writing poems when I was 14 or 15. They were pretty awful, but I always imagined them as songs even though I hadn’t started playing guitar yet. I was very self-critical and was afraid that others would judge my guitar playing until one day my best friend started taking lessons. I thought, “If he can do it. I can do it.” So at 16, I asked my parents for an electric guitar and lessons. I remember feeling that I was starting very late because I had classmates who had started when they were 12. Read more>>

Stacey Allen

My craft was not a generational talent that was gifted to me from generation to generation which I was self taught. However, I always had a passion for the creative side of cooking/baking. For example, I would watch the food network and simply be amazed at the creativity that was put into their dishes. During my ladder teenage years, my main goal was to find a good paying job instead of pursuing a career in the culinary arts. Read more>>

Jennifer Henderson

I’ve been blogging since 2009, but I was never really serious about it. I think Red Lips & Passports is actually my 4th or 5th blog, but the only one I’ve been consistent with. During Quarantine I started following another travel content creator and her content was FIRE! I mean, she was super creative and I found myself stalking her stories as if it were a mini vlog. I reached out to her and asked her if she taught classes and she asked me how much I was willing to invest in myself to learn. One Saturday she gave me a rundown on how to be creative with my content and BAM Red Lips & Passports was re-invented. Read more>>

Felipe Valdivia

My story starts in Chile I am originally from Santiago, Chile. My music career started in 2nd grade. In schools in Chile, they teach music to all the kids, just playing songs and reading some basic music just to have fun, I started with the flute, Like everyone else and I knew that there was something different with me, the other kids wouldn’t pay attention to the class or didn’t care about learning the songs, but for me, that music class was everything I practiced at home until perfection, I always remember the compliments from my teachers and family members I was always playing songs for them. Read more>>

Kevin Betou

I learned to do what I do by simply doing what I do. It’s that simple haha but for context I began my interest in drawing at a really young age, like around six or seven. I lived in France and I had an uncle who made money doing portraits of tourists. To be super blunt he was scamming them, he’d simply take their picture and trace the image. The final pieces always looked lifeless but they were happy and he was paid so he was happy. Read more>>

Justin Gwyn

My passion for cooking came from a young age. As far back as my middle school years I vividly remember watching the array of weekend cooking shows and finding a true sense of art and expression in taking a bunch of individual ingredients, putting them together and making something both visually appealing and delicious too. I learned the craft from my mother who took the time to show me recipes and allowed me to create dishes in her kitchen. Read more>>

Shawn Lee House

I was self taught in photography, lots of trial and error. I read books, listened to podcast and Googled for inspiration. It is amazing how much you can learn and teach yourself how to do. Knowing what I know now I would have tapped into my creativity sooner. Letting go of fear sooner would have made a difference in starting my business sooner than later in life. Read more>>

ERIN ASHFORD

On paper I learned from years spent at previous jobs. It is sometimes hard in the service industry to get to where I am now without “paying your dues” so to speak.. Out of high school I worked at Cracker Barrel, my first restaurant job. I learned so much there about serving food, talking to guests and the detailed organization of multitasking. The corporate model really was a great framework to start with.. I moved to Austin to finish school at Texas State and worked at Threadgill’s, an old school Austin institution built on southern food and live music. Read more>>

Steven Krause.

Studying, and over analyzing all things music is the most efficient way of learning it. There’s not a right way to do music, just like there isn’t a wrong way. Music is subjective to the listener, so what you learn is what you’re taking from it. I wouldn’t necessarily say that there’s a process that could have made it quicker, because everything takes time. Listening and having the desire to be better are the biggest tools for growth in any form of life. You will fight yourself more often than not, if you are not willing to be criticized. Read more>>

José Valentino.

To speed up learning processes, I’ve developed and practice a framework called “5 Paths of Consumer Experiences” or “5 Paths of CE.” Implementing this framework within my arts entrepreneurial practices has allowed me to overcome many obstacles that I and other companies who I advise and mentor have confronted. Class is in session! Read more>>

Stephanie Fenner

The best thing about natural dyeing is that it can be very humbling. One season might yield perfect, beautiful dyes and next year, with the same plants, you might not achieve “good” color. I think the most essential skill I’ve learned is patience and a willingness to see the successes hidden in what might be considered a fail. Read more>>

James Pritchett

To be honest, life experiences and working multiple-level jobs have prepared me for what is about to happen in my life. Everyone’s timing is unique. Some get their fortunes and blessings really early in life, yet some are late bloomers. And unfortunately, some never achieve their highest potential in life for uncontrollable reasons. During my life, I have definitely had more losses than wins. Everyone dreams of that fairytale Google & Facebook Founder success story and to become world famous billionaires. Many of my friends have said to me, with love and laughter, “JP, you have had so many companies, ideas and business cards!” Read more>>

Mariah Watts

I took a course in college and gained a foundational understanding of Adobe’s “Big Three” – Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. As a photographer, I favored Photoshop and realized I could reimagine dreams and ideas beyond this reality. Once I was comfortable navigating those systems, YouTube became my go-to for learning how to take my art to the next level. Read more>>

Marilyn Parker.

How did you learn to do what you do? Uh . . . trial and error for the most part. But we had stories to tell that we believed would help women, so we decided we had to have a platform (just like the soap boxes of old) that would make us visible to the people who could benefit from our experiences. That’s why we started our blog Persevering Women: Living Above the Circumstances www.perseveringwomen.com. We shared our own rawness and pain and persevering and victory. We didn’t try to whitewash anything. And amazingly women (and men) responded to our honesty. Read more>>

Kelly Guedes.

I have been obsessed with cameras since I was a kid. I used to take my parent’s cameras and make my own mini vlogs when I was as young as six years old. My parents eventually got me my own small camera when I got into middle school and I would take photos of anything in front of me and try to create a story with the images. Around the time that Youtube began to grow in popularity, I saw a video of someone making a stop motion music video out of photos and immediately decided I had to make one myself. Read more>>

Austreah Garnes

I actually started getting interested in television production back in high school, I studied television and radio production to be exact, more of the “behind the scenes”. Like directing shows, producing, and even camera work. Then once I graduated from high school, I wanted to continue my studies because I was interested in and comfortable in the production field. So I came to the decision whether to go to Full Sail University in Florida or stay local and attend Specs Howard School of Broadcast Arts (now Specs Howard School of Media Arts), and I chose to stay home and attend Specs Howard. Best decision I made. Read more>>

Ngor Adub

It’s a funny story actually, when I first stepped into the world of video editing I hated it so much, got upset many times and wanted to quit. I knew the first step to becoming a content creator was learning how to edit, but I had no idea it would be this frustrating. My very first editing program was something simple and absolutely free called Videopad, from there I went to Sony Vegas and then finally Adobe Premiere Pro. After countless hours of wanting to jump out of the window, I watched YouTube video after video and soon enough mastered Adobe Premiere which I’ve stuck with to this day. Read more>>

Allison Carswell

I have always been creative and eager to learn. As a child, my father would take me to the local library and I’d check out all the “how to draw” books I could get my hands on. I took a sewing class when I was in middle school in which I learned many of the foundational skills I still use today. Little did I know that skills such as threading a sewing machine, cutting fabric patterns on the correct grain and making sure your raw fabric edges were finished would help me in the future to create high-quality costumes! In high school, Read more>>

Nathan Jarelle

I learned to write through repetition, but the biggest obstacle which stood in the way of my learning was myself. Yes, you can get in your own way of success if you’re not careful. The war against ourselves is everlasting and each day we have to be mindful not to self-destruct. I’m doubtful that if everything I know now I could have applied back then. Success is more than just knowledge. It’s a mindset; you have to be ready to receive it. The most essential skillset any successful person could have is commitment, and a willingness to learn. Back then, I didn’t have the steady commitment. Read more>>

Destiny Surreal

Ya know, I don’t think there’s ever been a moment in my life where I didn’t have an idea that I felt needed to be nurtured artistically. I was fortunate enough to be raised in a creatively open, eccentric household with so many talents. There’s a special openness in that, that gave me room to explore what I loved about the arts. Whether that was painting, writing, photography, or music. I soaked it all like a sponge. Read more>>

Endiya Bivins

As a dancer, I’ve always danced as a kid so the skill just grew over time. I went to a performing arts high school where I got a bit of training there. Once I graduated college, I began to take classes and train professionally at a dance studio in Riverdale called Dance Stars of Atlanta (DSA). I started to really understand my body, hone in on my craft and learn from other professional dancers. Knowing what I know now, I would have started training professionally and taking more professional classes at a much younger age on a consistent basis like I do as an adult. Read more>>

Emily Brinks

One of my favorite things about being an actor is the perspective that you have on the world. You can learn from absolutely everything you’re consuming around you. I’m always finding ways to study myself or people around me in different social situations and getting a read on people’s body language. You can just sit on a park bench and see the different dynamics between people around you on the street. Read more>>

Geoff Hirt.

Mostly error and trial. The two active projects I have right now are nothing like I started writing. For a fews years I had a hard time finding my direction and it just had to be worked out of me until I settled on the approach I have now. I don’t think there are hacks to getting better at anything. Sure there are little things here and there that can help you progress, beyond what work you are already putting in, but you have to be putting in the work to take advantage of the bits of wisdom you find along the way. Practice. Practice. Practice. Read more>>

Michelle Brooks

I was lucky enough to have been working at an art center when I first became interested in fiber art, so I was able to take my first weaving class for free as an employee of the art center. Fiber can be an unexpectedly expensive medium, since even used table looms can start at around $200 or $300, and even with all the research I’ve done, I haven’t found a working/functional used floor loom that is under $1000. Read more>>

Erika Kelly

As long as I can remember, I’ve loved to sew. When I was little I would sew pajamas and dresses with my mom (more accurately, I would watch her sew these items for me and help a little) and I found it to be pure magic. The fact that you could take a piece of fabric and turn it into anything you wanted was fascinating to me, it felt like a superpower. As I got older I drifted away from sewing, forgetting how much I had enjoyed it. Read more>>

Trap Drumma

Tbh ive been musically inclined ever since i can remember. But my path to becoming a music producer started way before i got to the computer and started using daws. I started out in the school band and as a musician in a traveling band at the time. Idk what could have sped up my process tbh lol because to me and others around me it seemed like i was pickin up different instruments and learning music theory faster than most. Read more>>

Jenna Klinske

I learned more about interior design by shadowing experts. Builders, designers, architects, professors, installers, CEO’s of design firms – all these individuals have incredible skills. I find it important to learn from all sorts of people. Although I went to school for Interior Design, nothing has been more helpful then having connections with others in the field who are willing to give me the resources and education to help me succeed.  Read more>>