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.

April Jones

Learning the craft is about practice, perseverance, curiosity and developing your own way of mastery. Setting your own path and creating not only a lifestyle but a career that fits your creative urges and aligns with your true self. Read more>>

David Kaufman

I’ve come to know and begin to understand the craft of filmmaking and cinematography through many different avenues since I started down this path. I think what I’ve come to realize and really love about it, is that it’s alway changing, so their’s always a new problem to tackle, technique to learn, and new people to meet. Read more>>

Genna Wigginson

I learned much of the fundamentals of art in grade school and college. I’ve had some incredible art teachers and instructors that’s provided atmospheres of creativity. Learning the essentials like color theory, composition, and proportion was very early on in my education. One of my favorite memories is the studio classes at MCA with bench easels, Dave Mattews band playing in the background, and a room full of artists with sporadic gazes on one composition. Read more>>

MK Metten

I like to say the road to figuring out the media I wanted to work in was a series of happy accidents. I stumbled across some images of another artist who combined watercolor and embroidery, and thought “I could do that.” Well, it turns out I cannot do that, watercolor is hard. But my interest was peaked in the embroidery, so I figured why not combine it with a method of painting I’m already familiar with. Read more>>

Alexandra Jamroz

I did a lot of self learning and experimenting with the materials along with taking workshops and classes. I honestly knew ahead of time what I had hoped to achieve before taking the more educational route. Taking more classes I am sure I would have experienced things quicker but it wasn’t a race but rather a marathon. Patience is important along with observations and learning from mistakes. Read more>>

Isaac Ford

It’s interesting, I used to tell people my training started at age 11 in my middle school orchestra class. This is when I began to read music, understand basic theory and acquire “proper technique” as a string player. That simply isn’t true though, I really started when I was nine with some beat up guitar my family had lying around. I would learn songs by ear, write my own music and play with friends. Read more>>

Terrace Wyatt, Jr.

Any project in the arts always comes with a lesson. As an actor it takes more than memorization, and being on time to work; it’s exploring who you are as a human being. Things that you need to work on and/or things you can appreciate that makes you love yourself and your presence in the arts. Read more>>

Natsumi K. Goldfish

I had my first academic fine art class at my university, which is pretty late for Japanese artists. In the art school, I took a few painting classes and other art classes including drawing, film and digital photography, printmaking, and art history. Since youth I was into making things by hand. When I was a little girl I was already drawing when I was still learning to speak. Read more>>

Alhaitham Jassar

I believe that art is a continuous journey rather than a mere destination. It is not simply a matter of “learning” art, obtaining a diploma, and immediately becoming a successful artist. My personal artistic journey commenced at a young age, even before I learned how to read or write. Throughout my upbringing, my passion for drawing and painting remained deeply ingrained in my heart. Read more>>

Andrew Herbranson

I am 100% self taught. I started out by watching a ton of instructional videos on YouTube and reading articles. I even bought a few books and would also spend time playing around with my camera and changing settings to see what would happen with those changes. Experience is the number one thing to learn in my opinion. Just getting out and doing it. Read more>>

Katelyn Chef

Working as a writer & photographer, learning the craft of each skill has happened over time. In middle school, English class was one of my least favorite classes (next to math) as I found all of the grammar rules (commas to be specific) a bit daunting. Read more>>

Micaiah Fletcher

The simplest answer would be to tell you that I studied architecture at the University of Houston, however, many real world and overall life experiences have made me the best innovator. It also definitely helps when you have design and business skills in your DNA, such as my two uncles who designed and built their own furniture and homes, and my mother and father who had businesses in farming and general merchandise. Read more>>

Debby Ledet

When I was in college I started working at a studio in North Star Mall and my manager was a freelance photographer on the side. She kind of took me under her wing and started teaching me about the camera, composition and those types to things. The funny thing is, when I think back on it, when I first started photography looked a lot different. Read more>>

Brad Wetzler

My first job after journalism grad school was an internship at Outside magazine. My first day was in 1990. During the next six years, I rose the ranks until I was a senior editor, working with some of America’s finest magazine journalists and nonfiction writers. Eventually, I left the desk work of an editor to become a full-time freelance magazine writer. Read more>>

Scotty Hasting

I have been singing since I was a kid. I just recently learned how to play the guitar. Before covid I was shooting archery professionally with the U.S. Paralympic program. When covid hit archery shut down and I needed to find something to do as someone who battles depression and PTSD I needed to find an outlet or an escape to get out of my head. I had always had a guitar sitting in the corner of my room and, I decided that I was going to learn how to play it. Read more>>

Allison Thomas

How did you learn children’s photography? I’m a proud mom of three amazing kiddos who have completely transformed my life for the better. When they were born, I couldn’t take my eyes off them, soaking in every little expression and emotion they displayed. They were so precious, and I knew I had to capture their journey as they grew up. Read more>>

Krudd The Guru

It took me a while to learn the craft but i feel like learning and mastering all you can before anything helps in the long run. I had to teach myself how to engineer and record because i didnt have all the money i needed to actually get a good studio session. recording myself helped me progress alot and helped me get to where i am today. Im still learning to this day honestly. Read more>>

Stephen Burdick

So in regards to becoming a musician, how I learned to do what I can do now is by.. just doing it. I would come home from school, and being at that age, have nothing to do but just play for hours. That’s really how you become proficient at anything in life- you have the desire, motivation, and work ethic to push yourself. Nobody can make you proficient at anything besides yourself. Read more>>

Emily Nelson

Practice was the biggest thing that got me to where I am today. I would 6+ hours everyday just sitting and doing nails, whether simple or super complex. Learning different techniques by watching creators such as NailzbyDev certainly helped me become more skilled in my art. Read more>>

Gentry Warren

I am mostly a self-taught artist. It has taken several years of trials and experimentation to get to my current style of work. I wish I would have started exploring classes by other artists sooner. I’ve found a lot of inspiration and learning by listening and watching other artists create. Even if the artists works on another medium, there are often thing that can be applied to your own practice and work. I think cost of classes and seminars has been the biggest obstacle to overcome in finding ways to further my knowledge. Read more>>

Natalie McGuire

I’m a self-taught visual artist and enrolled in photography courses to learn the language but wasn’t interested in what other photographers worked on. I wanted to just go off on my own and create what I saw in my head. As for the mosaic section of my art, I did take a class in cutting glass and watched numerous “how to” videos. I preferred the in-class sessions, Read more>>

Sean Clark

I learned the filmmaking process largely by watching Youtube videos and the rest was trial and error! I know first hand how it can be challenging when you want to do something that feels unobtainable. whether its a matter of having the right gear to get the results you want or a knowing how to do it in the first place. Read more>>

Nadjib Assani

I started observing life and drawing from a really young age. I learned from a family friend who used to help my grandmother when I lived in Cotonou, Benin. Once I started drawing, you couldn’t pry a pencil out of my hands even if you possessed the might of Atlas. Cartoons and games such as Robotech/Macross , Dragon Ball, Zelda, Ninja Turtles, Voltron, etc. Read more>>

Phocus

The main skill to learn as a creative is to be self-reliable. I learned to record, produce, mix & master all by absorbing as much information as possible. Most of what I know comes from watching interviews, tutorials, & just listening to music that I like to make. What helped me the most in learning the skills necessary to do what I do was challenging myself to get over a learning curve by working hands-on and tackling tasks head on; jumping off the “deep end” and learning to swim in a sense. Read more>>

Ken Sarmiento

How did you learn to do what you do? Thanks so much for having me! I appreciate the opportunity to share my musical journey. I learned piano by watching my mom and brother’s piano lessons at home. I discovered I could hear music and started playing it on the piano. Read more>>

Riley Bowes

My first experience of training in the craft of acting was in high school. I took Speech & Drama as one of my core subjects and it was the first and only class I ever enjoyed in school. When I graduated from high school, I got a Bachelor of Commerce degree and acting essentially disappeared from my life until I came to the United States to pursue a career in acting. Read more>>

Skyler Rossa

I’ve been writing and releasing my own music since 2019 so this is my fifth year as an artist in the public eye, but I still feel as though I am learning with every release. My upcoming single “HIGH” will be a testament to that; HIGH explores new variety in song structure and is stacked with harmonies. I categorize myself as an R&B artist, but I love to experiment with my voice on tracks of different genres like Pop and HipHop. Read more>>

Jeff Marion

I’ve been avid skateboarder since 1989 and in the summer of 1993 I decided I wanted to start my own company. When my family moved in the summer of 1994, I was fortunate enough to meet a fellow skateboarder, who happened to manufacture skateboard decks in his backyard. Read more>>

BeaJai Ramsey

I’ve learned a lot about photography from books, YouTube University, and practicing. I actually appreciate the time of me gaining all the knowledge over the years, because that’s what makes it so special and authentic to me, I wouldn’t speed the learning process up, I love the journey overall. Read more>>

Austin Bridges

Learning and mastering my craft didn’t happen over night. When I started this career I was 13, had no idea what I was doing or even how to put a song together. But I’ve always been drawn to music, and having a creative mind. Over the years after I started, I would just write lyrics down. Even if it wasn’t a whole song. I continued doing this until I thought myself what song structure was and how to put a song together. I studied all the greats, from biggie and pac, to our modern day Juice WRLD. Read more>>

Travis Monroe

I think the biggest thing that I can’t stress enough is that as a creative, you are constantly learning and growing. Each and every project we work on is a chance to try something new, or work on improving our skills. It could be something as simple as framing or lighting, or a bigger challenge such as a room setup that is troubling. There are always opportunities to learn from experiences. And if you feel like you’ve mastered it all, start adding elements to make it more challenging for yourself and experiment. Read more>>

Cameren Rogers

Learning how to take photos of food is often a more involved process than people expect. Beyond knowing how your camera works, to be a good food photographer, you need to have command of composition, texture, color and, most importantly, light. Many photographers, especially early on, rely on natural light to create their photographs. Read more>>

John Rockstar

After I got my first guitar at age 13, my parents signed me up for guitar lessons at a music store the town over. I spent almost every Thursday at 5:30 p.m. with my guitar teacher throughout my time in high school, learning scales, chords, arpeggios, and occasionally, songs. On top of that, I would look up guitar tabs online for any songs I was interested in at the moment to play along with and try to sound like my favorite bands. Read more>>

Jevi Pesci

I grew up in the eastcoast tri state during the late 90’s and early 2000’s a prime era of hip hop. Influenced by the culture at an early age using it as a therapeutic outlet to escape the surroundings of a crime filled drug related environment. I began with studying & mastering each element expressing myself through graffiti art breakdancing Djing and rapping. Read more>>

Leslie McClare

I actually learned by accident! I am a financial analyst by day, so I was looking for something fun to do. One day a friend showed me her new bed, and she said she painted it herself. I asked myself why cant I do something like that? So I bought some chalk paint and bought a bed off Facebook marketplace and gave it a shot. I was amazed at how fun it was and how easily it came to me. Read more>>

Nathan Timmel

The best way to learn any trade, is by doing. When it comes to stand-up comedy, you’ve got to get on stage as often as possible. The best comedians—Dave Chappelle, Bill Burr—make what they’re doing look effortless. And, by the time you get to where they are, it probably should be. Read more>>

Elisa Gomez

I am a full time artist and received my BFA in painting, but about five years ago I started working on murals as well as my fine art. This was in some ways an easy transition as I paint very large scale already, but there were a lot of new things to learn along the way. Each mural I do teaches me something new. Sometimes I am using new equipment like a projector or a boom-lift. Sometimes its about using paint on a difficult surface, Read more>>

Muriel Hansen

My passion for ceramics started at an early age as well, when I was about 3, my mom took me to a community studio for a family ceramics class. We made coiled bowls, and pinched dishes, and I was obsessed. I’d always wanted to learn more about the medium, but wouldn’t get the opportunity until my junior year of high school. Ceramics quickly became my favorite class, and I made sure to take a ceramics class every semester. After high school, I attended Kansas City Art Institute to study ceramics, and studied further at the International Ceramics Studio in Hungary. Read more>>

Mikel Watkins

I went to college for Audio Engineering in Arizona , I wish I would have left sooner I took a gap year. What stood in the way was moving to the city it was change of pace. Everything was fast and I was used to slow I grew up very poor and most of my classmates were ahead of the game with gear knowledge and being bread to pretty much to make music. I spent more time in the studio learning consoles than in did writing.i wanted to be the best I was hungry I lost some of that hunger through discouragement that was what stood in the way the most. Read more>>

David Vidal

I started to produce music back in high school. During the time that I started to learn how to produce music, I was in my high school’s marching band, which I always attribute as the precursor to my love for music and it really helped me in gaining knowledge about music theory and composition in general. Read more>>

Kelsey and Nick Melefsky

When we first started a podcast, we did not know how much work went into it but the show has been an incredible journey so far! We began by recording a few test episodes to get our bearings around all the equipment and settings. Our show involves a lot of research and prep work but editing was one of our biggest obstacles we faced early on. YouTube videos/tutorials were a godsend to us and helped us get a strong baseline for editing. Read more>>

Alex Newman

I think it’s the same as any other skill or trade. To me it came down to a lot of practice. I feel like as far as lyrics and having something to say, that has always been easy for me when it comes to rapping. I imagine that it would be for lost people. On the surface it’s not much different from holding a conversation, which we all naturally do, just in song form. Read more>>

Ariel Storm

I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t writing. I started journaling and writing poetry when I was around 12. Before I could actually write, I created stories when I played as a kid. I would act out these little storylines alone or in front of an audience. The storylines were always relationship and conflict driven, and included multiple characters and lots of dialog, and I made sure each character had their own voice, accent, etc. This alone was great training for becoming a romance author :) Read more>>

Coral Mizrachi

As an actor, learning and developing my craft has been a journey of passion, dedication, and continuous growth. I believe that my learning process has been shaped by various factors, and knowing what I know now, there are several things I wish I have done sooner to deepen my work. Read more>>

Susan Lavelle

When I first came to Los Angeles to be an actress, I was told by agents that I had “raw talent” and needed to study my craft with a good acting coach. “What is raw talent?’ I asked. I mean wasn’t talent enough? Raw talent is a good thing as it turned out but it is talent that needs to be tamed. Raw talent is your natural ability for your craft but it needs structure, control, Read more>>

Justin Holdren

One of the things I love about art is that you have to be a lifelong student. You learn something new with each piece you create, and that is exciting to me. When I was first starting out, I was never satisfied with my work. Little did I know, that would remain a constant feeling, because as your skills grow, so does your awareness that you still have so much more to learn and your standards for your work become even more demanding. Read more>>

Curt Merlo

I studied fine art at the University of California Irvine. The school was very conceptual and not very technical. Of course, I was most interested in being a commercial illustrator right out of school so there was a big gap between my education and the craft that I needed to learn. I mostly learned on the job emulating illustrators that I admired and trying to catch up. Read more>>

Cory Wasnewsky

In a broad term sense, I’ll never cease striving to learn something new with letterpress. I have the “formal” letterpress training that I received in school, which was my foot in the door. Working now for 8 and a half years at Hatch Show Print is where I continue to hone those fundamentals, as well as learn and push the craft. Letterpress is a strange animal in the sense that anyone could make a print with a day long workshop, but it takes a lifetime to learn. Read more>>

Knotty Orchid

The first step to learning burlesque is to go to shows, familiarize yourself with your city’s scene and meet the people you could be working with. Once I fell in love with the community I started looking for opportunities to take classes with as many different burlesque performers as I could. Read more>>

Adam Assad

I believe life is the best teacher a writer/creative can have. I’m definitely a better writer and filmmaker now than I was when I was younger and I don’t mean from a technical aspect. Even if I had the necessary technical skills back then, I didn’t possess the life experiences that allowed me to tell interesting stories. Great art is born from great struggle. Read more>>

Albert Orona

I have enjoyed learning the craft and digging deeper into the art because it has given me a greater understanding and it gives me more of an appreciation for the hard work that it takes to make it as a Comedian. Read more>>

Molly Harren

Learning to become an HD Multi Media Production Professional Markup Artist took time. I received my education from Faces Etc of MN Multi Media Makeup School and that was incredible. Their training is world class and can’t be beat! The thing I would say is that you can only learn so much in a class room setting. you must get out on film sets, be backstage at runway shows, onsite for corporate events to gain experience and become a true expert. I learned the most while being on movie sets, live in the action, very face paced but it took my skills to an entire new level. Read more>>

Kaitlyn Bennett

I am a self taught modern calligrapher and engraver. I spent a lot of time during covid practicing the skill, watching videos on YouTube and then partnering with local wedding vendors to do styled shoots. I by no means think I am a pro but I do know that the more practice the better and faster you become. Read more>>