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.

Ksenija Dmitrovic

I believe that learning one craft never stops really. However we all have certain goals and level we would love to reach. As an artists we usually have talent to begin with, but we need guidance in process of learning more and practicing our craft. I’ve been lucky to find great acting teacher in Atlanta after finishing my formal theatre education. The biggest obstacle we may have on our way is only ourselves. Read more>>

Joe Hoffman

Currently, I work as the talent buyer and social media manager at Woods Boss Brewing & The Lodge at Woods Boss. Having gone to school for Accounting, I had to learn the ins and outs of the music industry almost entirely on my own, with the help of a couple of mentors, of course. I gained a lot of experience in social media and writing while running a website 8 years ago and learned a lot about the events side of the music industry working in hospitality for a promoter in Buffalo and later on for an artist management team for several bands based in Denver. Read more>>

Sonya Macari

Growing up I felt like I always lived in my imagination, I still do. I’ll never forget watching the wizard of Oz and thinking to myself I want to do that, it seemed so simple to me in my own head. I studied in New York at the HB Studios, I just loved it and it was there where I had developed a serious love & respect for the art and craft of acting. Read more>>

MR B ROCKSTAR

Spoken Word was a newly discovered gift. It was raw af but unrefined. Thankfully my environment was abundant with opportunity and I perfected the gift in a number of ways. Start with the early mentorship from my big bro who was my first example of a leader in poetry, add my poetry slam mentor, my poetry nonprofit mentor, my poetry events mentor and a slew of fire breathing dragons in/around my circle who y’all call “us poets.” Read more>>

Producer Drema Dream

The way that I learned my craft is by trial and error. I had a desire to learn and the faith to believe and I jumped in head first. The paces that I’ve had to take were strictly limited due to me finding everything out of pocket. But I’m doing so, I had a lot of time to learn a lot of things I didn’t know. The skills that are most essential to me is being teachable, being aware.and being focused. Read more>>

Amanda Walling

Fortunately, I learned through myself somewhat . I was always decent at drawing. Not amazing. But decent. And YouTube also had helped a lot too. Also, alot of practice had helped me out due to my shaky hands and bad symmetry lol. If you ever look at my portrait drawings, there is a reason why they all turn to monsters because the symmetry is always off and I’ll just try and hide it with injuries or horns lol. I probably could have sped up the learning process if I actually took the time to sit down and breathe and not be so hard on myself and procrastinate. Doing more research also helps as well. Read more>>

Margo Lunsford

I’ve always known I was meant to be creative. During my adolescent years, I attended the Glassel school of art in Houston, where I focused on my technical skills across mediums. Then in high school, I led the Art honors society, where I drove community and events around the arts. After graduation, I worked towards my MFA at Houston Baptist University. On paper, I knew exactly what I was doing, far from it. It took a 10-year hiatus from art to understand my craft and what I wanted to accomplish with it. Read more>>

Mike One

I learned from a desire to want to express my creativeness through music. I wouldn’t change anything because I believe everything happens at the right time. I believe the essential skills needed are quite simple. You gotta be hungry, dedicated and content with getting knocked down a bit. The obstacles that were ever in my way were always forms of resistance, mostly self induced. Once you understand how resistance works, you can better navigate around it. Read more>>

Shelby Bertram

At eighteen, I decided to go to art school. If I knew then what I knew now, when I first got to art school I would have started on learning value and composition. Those fundamentals are crucial to the creative process that I only started researching recently. Without those creative tools, it slows the rate in which you improve. Learning from life is also a valuable tool that requires no money or effort besides simply going outside, which I did not utilize much in my time at art school and as a younger creative. Read more>>

Eric Messinger

LEARNING THE CRAFT… Make mistakes! There are no shortcuts! Whether you do figurative or landscape work, learn and practice drawing or painting the structures and find the medium that best suits your temperament.
For me, that medium was powdered charcoal and charcoal pencils. I spent years doing practice sketches to learn how to create the illusion of three dimensions within the limitations of paper and pencil. Read more>>

Margalena Lepore

My journey of learning my craft was fairly straightforward in my early years. I began painting right before high school and immediately had a phenomenal teacher, Kay Stanley. She was integral in my knowledge and skill with color. I work with a limited palette because of her instruction and learning the skill to mix many colors with just a few. When I left for college and began to study art, my professors at LaGrange College really challenged my creativity. How could I separate myself from the world of many artists? What set me apart? Could I stretch further? Read more>>

Sam Elmore

It may sound obvious, but practice is probably the best answer I can give. You get out what you put in, and songwriting is something I’ve continued to do throughout the many shifts and changes in life I’ve experienced; it’s the thing I never stopped practicing and the thing I’ve always felt most confident in. That said, when it comes to my guitar playing it’s really developed much faster in the last year or two compared to the many years prior. Read more>>

Sid De La Cruz

I learned from several places. I learned from the universities I attended, the internships and working with established composers. I also learn by paying attention to what other composers do. Pay attention to current music trends. When I watch a film or listen to music. I try to analyze what is going on. This is something that I am always doing. Read more>>

ALEX CIRILO

This started because a friend of mine, Robert Almodovar left PR and went to study audio at Full Sail University. He is one of the top live mixing engineers, currently touring with Cultura Profectica around the world. He offered to teach me Pro Tools and its an opportunity I will always be appreciative of. What skill was most essential? Thats easy – my hunger and love for music. I always want to know and learn more about audio, it is very much my passion. Read more>>

Tristan Shannon

Learning to film and learning cinematography just a hobby that I developed a passion for after High School. I didn’t go to film school or take online classes to develop the skills necessary for video work. Instead I took to streaming shows and watching movies that I liked and just thinking what I liked about them. After watching films and shows I already adored, it helped me exercise my mental artistry and then it was just a matter of translating that into practical knowledge. Read more>>

Vera Sanchez

I began writing short stories at an early age. I wrote my first story in 3rd grade. I knew then that writing was a craft I wanted to pursue. In elementary school, we had to write daily journal entries. During the teacher/parent conferences, my writing skills were always brought up to my mom. I would get good grades on my journal entries but not my penmanship. I still have sloppy handwriting to this day. Read more>>

Rafael Córdova

I began making soap and skincare products in 1999, and my foray into making leather goods began in 2013. I taught myself the soap-making process drawing on my family’s knowledge of plants for healing. Both the soap and leather goods making took me into creative spaces of which I knew nothing. In 1999 there was no YouTube. I learned the history of soap-making and formulated our recipe by reading books. In 2013, YouTube became one of my go-to’s to learn the macro to micro facets of designing and making leather goods. Read more>>

Jessica Pierce

I am a mostly self-taught artist. I have taken workshops and courses here and there from other artists but other than that, everything I know is a result of a lot of practice and trial and error. Once I decided I was going to be an artist, I was ALL IN. If I wasn’t painting, I was researching all things art, new techniques and new media etc. I really gave myself the freedom to invest in my business buy buying new supplies and taking the time to learn new skills and experiment without the pressure of everything I paint needing to be a masterpiece. Read more>>

Jess Kean

Falling into acting allowed me to be seen and heard but more importantly I found what I actually needed which was a safe space to grow and growth is slow. I don’t think I could speed up the learning process even if I wanted to due to the fact that there is no end game or final result with acting but what is so fascinating about playing a character is that they are relentless in going after their goal, Read more>>

Ryan Johnson

I’m largely self taught. Some people think that’s pretty cool but honestly I think that can be the long route. If it were possible I think an apprenticeship or craft school would’ve made the process a lot less painful. I think we’re in the golden age of learning though. With YouTube and social media you can teach yourself almost anything. I was a learning little before that so it was alot more reading and less watching. Read more>>

615mxb

When it came to learning how to create music, I learned by just hopping on the software and figuring it out as I went, kind of like a video game. However, the internet did help a ton when it came to figuring out certain effects. I vividly remember when I was fourteen looking up “How to roll hi-hats” on Google. The process of learning something new and applying it to my music is a very rewarding feeling. Read more>>

Gregory Gillaspie

I learned how to make pizza by eating a lot of pizza. Before I had even made a single pizza, I had a collection of my favorite attributes from other pizzerias to form a concept. I knew I wanted the combination of fresh and low moisture mozzarella like Lucali. I knew I wanted cheese all the way up to the edge to slightly burn and crisp up kind of like Buddy’s. Read more>>

Ralph Russell

I first learned to DJ by watching DJ tutorials on Youtube and doing research on what was the best equipment to get to perform to the best of my ability. I also spent time at the local skating rink “Cascade” going to teen nights and watching the local DJs, like DJ Lavish Lee and DJ Krunc, control the crowd; paying attention to what songs they played that made the people in the crowd move. Read more>>

Donovan Dorrance

I try to never take for granted the many privileges I had growing up as it relates to my career: parents that appreciated music and wanted me to pursue it as an extra-curricular, lessons on a number of instruments, regular access to those instruments in my home… the list is endless. But one that I do sometimes forget about, maybe because it is now so integral to my daily life, is access to a computer. Read more>>

Jacob Danhi

I learned how to tattoo by woking in a good solid shop and did a proper 2 and a half year apprenticeship till I was ready to tattoo walk in clients. To speed up the process I guess I wish I just had more people to practice on more often so I had more of a chance to improve a little quicker, but everyone learns at their own pace.the. OST essential skill to have that early on is just have your line work on point first before learning technical shading and such. Read more>>

Joe Willey

How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more? I don’t remember a time when I didn’t make art. I always had crayons, coloring books, pencils, ink, and paint. When I was a boy, I drew all the time and eventually attended the Maryland Institute, College of Art. Read more>>

Marguerite Beane

Getting to where I am today with my musical skill was the result of a number of things- listening to lots of records, attending music school, performing/gigging, playing with other folks in the music community, taking risks on stage, and a good deal of dedicated practice time. That being said, I think the time period that I made the most musical growth was after I got out of college. I graduated in 2020 at the very start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Read more>>

Randi Idelle

In the beginning I will admit that I was overconfident in my skill! I thought that because I had a relatively nice camera and had watched every season of America’s next top model that I could produce the same wow worthy images without actually knowing how to use my camera. After a few sessions that took me hours and hours to edit because they weren’t turning out the way I had hoped, I decided to invest in education. Read more>>

Joy Bradley

I’ve always been good at artistic outlets growing up, I’m the type of person where I’m good a creating things with my hands, but it was always just a hobby. A few years ago while I was searching for ideas to design my friend’s wedding, I stumbled across these beautiful giant flowers. I immediately started to research how they were made. A lot of the information I came across was from international locations; pointedly from Russia. Read more>>

Rhonda Shaw

How did you learn to do what you do? I actually taught myself how to paint. I am still in the learning process. I painted and learned new techniques by trial and error, YouTube and speaking with other artists. I wish I would’ve started painting a long time ago, like before 2013. I think I would be a pro by now. As far as teaching others in my paint parties/classes, well that came easy because I taught myself, so I could understand the fear of doing something you’ve never done.  Read more>>

Vince Williams

I started mainly as a way of entertaining my bed ill mother. She became my biggest critic but also my biggest fan. I never had access to books growing up due my religious father. I had to learn watching David Blaine on VHS and YouTube. Now I have the access and direction to expand my knowledge on magic. Being online definitely helps. Read more>>

Paul Cottman

Like any other skill, I learned to act through study and practice. I’ve taken classes, i’ve read and reread several literary works on the various facets of performance, and I also get the opportunity to try something a bit new or better apply what I’ve learned to each new project. That isn’t to say you rely on the projects you’ve booked to be the only time you’re honing your craft. That would in fact be a mistake. I also absolutely love reading scripts, almost as much as I enjoy watching the films they eventually produced which comes in handy when you need to break down a scene. Read more>>

Christine Mason Miller

I was an art major in college and I have taken many art (and writing) classes since then. I have also done quite a bit of reading, studying, and writing about the creative process. While all that education provided me with a solid foundation, the main way I learn is by doing. Doing means showing up (even if I’m not initially in the mood), being curious, and trusting the flow of whatever it is I am creating. Sometimes that means putting something aside for a day or a week or even longer; other times it means staying with it and working through whatever issue I’m struggling with. Read more>>

Mélissa Baptiste

My first introduction to photography was in High School, I took a digital photography class in 12th grade where I learned the fundamentals of photography. Knowing what I know now I would have push myself more with the resources that I had at hand to speed up my leaning process. The skills that were most essential and that are still very important till this day in my journey are my ability to multitask, Read more>>

Marina Inoue

I was taught through a traditional tattoo apprenticeship where I first started in a tattoo shop as an assistant, and after some years entered into an apprentice role. The entry into tattooing in a traditional manner has been historically gatekept by straight, cis, white men. Apprenticeships have been known to be abusive and rife with extreme power dynamics between the teacher and the student, especially if the students identities are marginalized at all- and that’s if they are even able to get a foot in the door in the first place. Read more>>

Abril Robbins

During my last year of college I took my first ceramic class. I first learned hand building techniques then I took a wheel throwing class the following semester. The key to ceramics is patience, it’s taken me years to really understand the process, but even to this day I continue to stay humbled with clay. With the knowledge I have today I don’t think I could have changed much to speed up the process. Working with clay requires trial and error, it’s a science of it’s own and requires time. Read more>>

Sean Wenning

I think that I had a gut instinct about visuals and story, which got me a few successes in the beginning, but now that I am trying to take a step up I am having to learn more technical skills which has been difficult. I think that the best way to move forward is to have a REALISTIC goal for yourself given your available resources and make steps to reach that goal. Read more>>

Elm Hernandez

Cosplaying has always been a self taught craft for the longest time. It wasn’t until the most recent years that Cosplay really took off and all sorts of people started creating tutorials. I started cosplaying back in 2010 when really the only way to teach yourself was using low resolution pictures on Pinterest and hopefully understanding their usual very broken English explanations. Eventually I just started experimenting with anything I could get my hands on. Read more>>

Calvin Lauber

Learning to be a producer/engineer/mixer isn’t a linear path and can take totally different shapes for different people. I started out recording my friend’s bands in my home “studio” space as a 16 year old for basically free just trying to learn the basics of engineering using a few microphones and an early version of Garageband. I never took classes on audio while I was in college, so I’m essentially self taught, which possibly slowed down my learning curve; Read more>>

Ayris Blaze

I am actually still in the beginning stages of learning my craft. My time for learning the craft was cut down dramatically because I signed for a workshop to learn from one of the best and most passionate instructors in the burlesque industry. Yes, that’s right. I’m training to become burlesque performer! Read more>>

Kev Garcia

The First time I ever picked up a professional camera, I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. I kept most of the settings on Auto. I was simply too afraid to mess with the settings because I didn’t know what any of it meant. So I did what anyone else would do. I went on Youtube. I had searched “how to use a canon camera?” (At the time I was borrowing my sisters Canon T6i DSLR camera) A video by Peter McKinnon popped up named “Camera Basics”. Read more>>

Toshia D.

I am self taught in both graphic design and photography. I started teaching myself graphic design when I was 10 years old using websites that allowed you to edit your photos with different filters and things. In my freshman year of high school I then started to use Adobe programs like photoshop and illustrator to learn more. For a while I did do graphics on friends photos for practice. Throughout high school I learned web development, textiles fashion, and more graphic design. I graduated from the Indiana Institute of Technology with a bachelors degree in the science of Digital Graphics and Design. Read more>>

Samantha Vernak

It all began in 2005 when my Aunt taught me how to crochet. I stuck to basic things like crooked scarves and uneven afghans at first, but as I kept up with it I became more proficient and expanded my projects to hats, gloves, and even amigurumi, which is a fancy name for crochet stuffed animals. Learning to make Saminals as I called them, was difficult (have you ever seen a crochet amigurumi pattern??), but I taught myself using internet searches and trial and error. Read more>>

Amadeus Roy

For the painting side of things, I really believe my base level knowledge just comes from an innate understanding of the medium. The process of painting has always made sense to me. I’ve never had a formal education focused on painting, and the knowledge I have now has come from attempting the ideas I have in my head and learning “on the job”. As for the construction aspect, that all came from having a construction worker as a Father and working with him during the summers growing up. Read more>>

Elijah Swinson

I come from an a background in architecture, so most of my formal training was pretty rigid. It wasn’t until I graduated that I knew that there was a huge world of design outside of my comfort zone. I worked almost exclusively with small businesses trying to get off the ground, and that’s what a good bit of my business has been. Read more>>

DeMariah Newsome

To start, no matter where you are in your career, having a constant desire to keep learning will be key to your success. With that being said, I’m always learning new tips and tricks pertaining to photography. There’s a lot that I still don’t know, plus there are always new trends happening in the photography world. Everything I know, I learned by researching and asking questions. Honestly, my first go-to source when I started was, and still is, YouTube. Read more>>