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.

Michael MacLeod

The biggest obstacle that has stood in my way throughout my pursuit of a career in acting is the hesitation to commit to a decision. In acting, it is vital that we really commit, truly and wholly, so that the outcome is unmistakeable. As a newcomer to professional sets or big theatre companies, it can be easy to second guess your decisions before you’ve even had a chance to experiment. Read more>>

Meital Shushan

My journey as an artist-entrepreneur has been a constant evolution, a dance between creativity and commerce. Diving into daily artistic experiments with diverse media, I am always learning and improving my craft and my lines. I soon realized the necessity of embracing the business side. Overcoming societal hesitations, particularly for women in the art world, was a significant hurdle. Read more>>

Anya Marshalleck

Personally, acquiring technical skills is one thing, but learning to create work that communicates is entirely another. However, these weren’t skills that grew separately from each other but rather together in a natural progression. For me, two skills were essential. The first was learning to draw and paint traditionally, as draftsmanship became a strong point in my work. Read more>>

Nicole Rais

Art is play. I wish I had realized that back when I became immensely frustrated and discouraged with my art in school. I didn’t start out as some art prodigy or with an innate talent. I had always wanted, so badly, to be able to express what was in my imagination with those around me, but just couldn’t quite get to a place where it matched up. Read more>>

Hasani Byas

Learning the craft want difficult at all. It feels like it came to me naturally. I didn’t realize what I was really doing at first. I thought I was just passing the time with my writing. On had no idea I was developing into a music artist as well. Read more>>

Richard Sandomeno

For me I have always been a curious person, as well as an individual with mechanical aptitudes. This curiosity has steered and driven me for as long as i can remember. While my mechanical aptitudes inspired me to take things a part , modify and reassemble them in a way that’s more appealing to me. Read more>>

Dion Thomas

Well honestly learning the craft was easy I’m a people’s person I can hold a conversation with anyone I would say. It’s the behind the scenes that I had to understand Read more>>

Chris Young

I would have worked harder on the business side of things such as getting a good tape, press kit , and learning how to contact agents and bookers. I would have written down more things I said or ideas I had. Read more>>

Saori Mitome

I first learned to sew in elementary school, making rags to clean the school buildings and classrooms. I simply folded the cloth and sewed it by hand to finish the dusters. In high school, I was interested in and influenced by the clothes and styles of musicians I admired, and I thought it might be cool to pursue clothing design, make one-of-a-kind garments, and learn a craft. That is why I went to fashion school after graduating high school to learn basic skills in fashion. Read more>>

Jerome Davis

Initially I started comedy graduating from a 6 six week class at the Va beach funny bone. After that I started taking classes at the performers playground afterwards. Comedy is an art where you’ll never be a teacher you’ll be a student always learning trying to get better than your last set. Read more>>

Cashavelly Morrison

When I was about 12 years old, I went to my friend’s house for a sleepover. She had a whole shelf of journals that she had filled with her own writing and lots of books of poetry scattered about, I remember seeing her pages and pages of handwriting and feeling provoked. I wanted so badly to have accomplished what she had done. After the sleepover, I went home and started my first journal. Read more>>

Sophia Fossano

There are many ins and outs of modeling. When I first started out modeling it was a struggle to stand out and be seen. It is super important to know EVERYTHING about this industry. If you aren’t a runway model you still should perfect your runway walk and if you aren’t a print model you should still perfect your posing and angles. Read more>>

TeaYaMay

I’ve loved music since I was little. My mom said I would dance in my car seat to “Push It” by Salt-n-Pepa. When I was old enough to have a cell phone I recorded my 1st rap on my answering machine. It went something like 216-5822 you called me I didn’t call you. I took a liking to poetry in school and always enjoyed the creativity in writing. Read more>>

Kimberli Rodrigues

I learned how to be a blogger and YouTuber through a lot of trial and error and risk taking. I am continuing to learn new skills, utilize existing ones, and grow but I started not knowing a single thing about it and just learned as I was going. Knowing what I know now, I would have not been so hard on myself in the beginning. Read more>>

Gary Syrba

I knew I wanted to work with photography at around age 10. My dad had a twin reflex camera that had the large viewfinder on top that you would look down into. I was fascinated looking into it as if it was its own little world. Read more>>

Joshua Miller

I have always been artistically disposed; I just find art in all forms to be so captivating. I have mostly been doing photography work as well as graphic design work the last handful of years. I started learning about Photography from school, and really got into the craft at university. Read more>>

Shailee Thakkar

The most basic answer is by taking classes. I have been making art since I was young and grew up taking art lessons and watching others make art, but I wouldn’t say those experiences gave me the knowledge about the fundamentals as much as my classes at Austin Community College (ACC) did. Read more>>

Maxime Bos

If you want to get into acting, the first thing you should definitely do is… learn how to act. It might sound super obvious, but even if you have tons of natural talent, taking some acting classes will always help you in some way! Whether it’s learning about new techniques, getting connections and widening your network, or simply just to get more experience, practicing your craft is never a bad idea! Read more>>

Jake Smio

I’m always learning. That’s one of my favorite things about music, every song is a different learning experience. I’m self taught so I’ve always learned through experimentation, it’s been a lot of fun. Read more>>

Brielle Lopez

I started my acting career at the age of 8 years old. My first job was a commercial for USC. I had no acting experience, the director said “just have fun and be yourself”! I wish every job was that easy, but it takes a lot of training, skills, techniques, and much more to become a great actor. It was then when my mom enrolled me in acting classes and voice over coaching to help me with my acting. Read more>>

Hamid Tabibi

For me it started as a child, I was always interested in music. Playing various instruments and singing in choir, really involved in music how ever I could be and once I turned 18 I started producing and Djaying and fell in love. My brother who is the lead guitarist for a band called the associates actually was the one who got me into the production side, he was using reason for more hip hop style beats at the time and showed me the basics and got me my first copy of reason and that little by little turned into my obsession. Read more>>

Steve Conte

I started as a drummer at age 7 and began writing songs at 11 years old, having no idea what I was doing on a guitar. I realized that I could make up melodies and words while playing “bass notes” on the lowest guitar string. Song “craft” had definitely sunk into my head from all the listening i had done; to The Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel and everything that was on pop radio in the mid to late ’60s. Read more>>

Bry Cruz

To be honest, I am not trained in art or art history. However, I have always been in love with creating and observing art. I remember when I was little my dad would let me draw tattoos on his back. They were just squiggles to my dad, but I saw otherwise. My interests peak as I entered my teens and I would take every art class available to me. Photography, sculpture, anything that would allow me to create. Read more>>

Herry Kim

As a child, I was mesmerized by the ability of artists to capture the essence of the world around them, to translate their emotions and experiences onto a canvas or into a sculpture. It was like they were opening doors to new worlds, allowing me to see beauty and meaning in the ordinary. I felt a deep yearning to do the same, to express my own unique perspective through art. Read more>>

Sean Hussey

The role and responsibility of the producer is one that is hard to learn on paper. As the esteemed Christine Vachon once said, “The job of producer is one of the great mysteries of the moviemaking process.” The ability to be able to run budgets, lead meetings, raise money, work with talent, build schedules, and so much more is not something you can learn overnight. It takes years of experience and I am only scratching the surface of what it means to produce film and television professionally. Read more>>

Bili Escobar

I learned mostly through hands on experience. I’m so grateful to have had equipment available to me, from the camera on my phone to eventually investing in a camera of my own. I probably would have take more chances if I knew then what I know now. People skills are the most essential, you can tell in a photo when a client is comfortable and genuine. Read more>>

Will Cady

My craft is creativity itself. Read more>>

Robin McCoy

I fell into fine art oil painting during college. I was in school for illustration and related commercial arts, but used my electives for painting courses and fell in love with the media and process. I’ve been drawing since early childhood, so this process gave me a similar, freeform, creative outlet that I enjoyed back then. Read more>>

Karen Tan Eap

Having been trained at the French design school Ecole Camondo and the American design school ArtCenter College of Design, I acquired exposure to various design cultures and processes. This enabled me to integrate both the critical thinking inherent in French design school and the pragmatism of the American design school into my approach. Additionally, my design and personality are significantly influenced by my Cambodian-Chinese heritage. Read more>>

DeLora Lambert

ell, I have always loved acting. I started with the traditional approach of doing background and extra work and took a couple of acting classes. But I did not continue following a conventional path for learning the craft of acting. I took a more holistic approach by diving in and getting hands-on experience as a filmmaker. Read more>>