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.

Shannon Phillips

I Learned how to DJ super young, when I was still in High School. And I learned on turntables playing vinyl records vs what Djs learn on today, which is usually controllers or CDJS. I would stand behind the DJs and watch, then one day one asked what I was doing and offered to teach me. He taught me the concept of beat matching, and other basics. Read more>>

Costa Christ

I never imagined I could actually become a professional fine art photographer until after I graduated from college. I attended SMU and had no formal education in photography; I earned a degree in accounting from the Cox School of Business. Read more>>

Eddie Vigil

I shaped my Script Supervisor skills through an intensive workshop held by Randi Feldman. She’s known for have instructed a large percentage of Script Supervisors working today. But I feel like the workshop was almost more of a final step in my path of learning to do what I do. Read more>>

Alison Bender

I always say learning your craft is the most important thing you can do. the 10 thousand hours to become expert is no myth. When I was in my 20s I started totting up my hours, and sure enough, when I hit 10k hours, I did feel like I finally knew my trade. Read more>>

Melissa Kenfall

I started writing Hamtaro fanfiction when I was 11, but the real journey started in 2018, when I received a comment on one of my Yu-Gi-Oh! stories on fanfiction.net that stated something similar to “this is great, but it has a lot of purple prose”. For some reason, this comment made me irrationally angry, and I decided to “show them” by writing an original book. Read more>>

Orin Torati

My initial exposure to creative direction was cultivated during my education as an architect, wherein I honed diverse strategies and methodologies for design. This evolution continued throughout my academic journey, encompassing both my bachelor’s and master’s degrees, guiding me beyond conventional architectural frameworks and prompting the exploration of alternative creative avenues. Read more>>

Michael Lipton

Doing it, as many times over, with people you trust and focusing on personal work. Until there’s substance, nobody really cares about the halation and bokeh in the background of your shots. Keep things simple. Make it easy to start, possible to finish. I’m not sure about quantity though, that’s up to you. I made a short film called Man of The Land a few years ago. Read more>>

Alexandria Rowlen

Since I was young, I always knew I wanted to be a photographer. I wanted to get as much knowledge and experience as I could to master the craft. I attended Columbia College in Chicago, Illinois, received my bachelor’s degree, mentored under renowned photographers, and even worked at a camera store. I wanted all things PHOTO haha. Read more>>

TRICITO

My favorite Hip-Hop/Rap song of all time is OutKast ‘So Fresh, So Clean’. From the way the beat comes in with its funky groove mixed in with the harmonic hook, it just makes me feel good; happy in a sense. The lyrics are what got me hooked but it wasn’t just the way I thought Big Boi and Andre 3000 were lyrical magicians for what they said, but also how they said it. Read more>>

Gilca Lorenis

Under a full moon in the year of 2018 was the very first time I ever picked up a paint brush. Only a few weeks after those Colorado mountains set me free. Reminiscing on the feeling I wanted to hold on so tightly. I came back home searching for ways to feed my soul. Read more>>

Matt Chenoweth-Goodson

I’ve always found it rather amazing how many resources actually exist. And I don’t mean “oh, you can read this book on acting in a booth” or “here’s some tips on how to get started”; I mean RESOURCES. Namely, people. Performers that have been in the business for a very long time tend to also end up teaching the craft. Read more>>

William Stukes

I started off taking photos as a hobby back when film was the standard, something I picked up from my father. Later on in the adult years I seen the direction photography was going in and was eager to learn so , I brought me a more up to date DSLR camera and began practicing on my friends and anything I thought would make a great photograph. Read more>>

Xabier Frank

I am Xabier Frank, a wheel potter who has been happily throwing his life away one pot at a time for a total of eight years and is based on Lake Worth Beach Florida. There is much to be learned. Read more>>

Kai Xing Mun

I’ve always loved cartoons, fairy tales, mythology, television, and movies. Growing up, I often imagined my own characters to be in those stories. Watching Glee and getting into Broadway musicals, I believed that being an actor would be the life for me. Read more>>

Travis Maxwell

I started my editing journey at Virginia State University as an undergrad. While there, I enrolled in a class called “Intro to Media Technology. One of our big assignments was a competition to see who could write, shoot, and edit the best film in class. Read more>>

Ran Li

From an early age, my natural affinity for storytelling led me to pursue a career as a professional screenwriter. Prior to gaining acceptance to USC film school, I immersed myself in books about screenwriting, such as Robert McKee’s “STORY,” and studied screenplays of my favorite films. Read more>>

Joewi Verhoeven

What I love about cinematography is that it’s very much a fusion of the artist and the technician. You can dream up all these cool frames but at the same time you have to know how to execute. It really encompasses the whole spectrum of image making, which is why I find it so enriching. Read more>>

Tiimy Reid

All of the skills that’s in my resume is 110% self taught I graduated from YouTube University after dropping out of college on day three. Yes the tools were gifted to me, but there was no instructions or anything. If I “messed up” I would just alter it to my liking that actual worked out excellent for me! Read more>>

Paige Powell-Revis

Running a virtual animation company was learned completely through experience and independent research. The college I attended for my BA in Cinema & Media Arts Production did not have an animation department at the time, but I knew I was interested in the medium. Read more>>

Dan Monro

In 1995 I was the night shift online editor at a production company. The GM bought a new-fangled non-linear editor called an “Avid” that no one knew how to use. After my shifts I would go in to the closet where the thing was set up and teach myself how to use it. Read more>>

Macki McMahan

I have always been a huge fan of polymer clay earrings. I love the weight, style, and look of them. For a long time, I supported various polymer clay earring companies. A bold pair of earrings are always an important part of my daily outfit. Read more>>

Colt Liles

Colt Liles delved into the craft of music through a unique journey, initially starting as a photographer with a passion for travel. Inspired by the artists he encountered on big stages during his journeys, Colt transitioned into the realm of music. Being immersed in the vibrant local talent scene of his hometown, he gained invaluable insights into the intricacies of the craft. Read more>>

Leyla Chykulina

Learning the craft is so important and I feel like a lot of people overlook it and think acting is all about talent and you either have it or you don’t but that’s not the whole truth. I used to fall on this trap and think “I don’t need training I’m talented, that is enough”. But I finally came to my senses and realised that wasn’t. That was just my ego talking. Read more>>

Jay Torrisi

I first got an intro to soldering in the 7th grade, when I made my first circuit board. After that I was self taught in refining my skills. Practice is what makes me faster and faster at doing LED light jobs. My attention to detail and being a perfectionist is my most essential skills. Read more>>

Naomi Wills

I actually only learned the craft to help the collective that I helped found with cutting cost with the creation of the music. I was initially only trying to help/manage the group and we ended up growing it into something more. In the process I learned how much I was actually interested in engineering, and it came naturally. Read more>>

Serge Usicov

Learning the art of acting dates back all the way to my youth doing church plays. I give credit to my mother and her side of family for introducing me to the performing arts. They are all practitioners in musical theater. Either it was acting, singing, or poetry. Read more>>

Justin Fisher

Eminem has always been my favorite rapper of all time, as he not only pushed racial and cultural barriers and helped propel hip-hop further into the mainstream, but has always considered himself a student of the game. I’ve taken on his approach of studying the artistic patterns of the greats that I looked up to over the years. Read more>>

Evan Mattice

Thanks for having me! So, growing up, my mom was this amazing artist, and luckily, a bit of that creative gene made its way into my DNA. My family was all about play and creativity – I was that kid with a popcorn bucket full of crayons, a glue gun (probably too young for it), and my sister’s Easy-Bake Oven was fair game for my concoctions. Read more>>

Nick Sabia

I like to say that I went to Youtube university. I figured out I could play piano by ear when I was 16 and just started looking up songs and scales etc. I took some foundational lessons and then just ran with it. I figured if I spent a lot of time with the instruments I would eventually figure them out to an extent. Read more>>

Karen Wilharm

Learning to do portraits Read more>>

A.J. Friederich

I have taken so many acting classes. I’ve taken scene study, audition, on-camera, commercial, voice over, business of acting, improv, comedy, drama, and many variations of the previously listed. Getting feedback from so many different voices can be confusing. Read more>>

Ellsworth “Cärnegie” MacArthur II

I feel like music for everybody is an experience since birth. That was mine as well. Hearing my family play different genres of music coming up. That along with moving around the country growing up bumping music with friends from different regions. Read more>>

Elijah Taylor

I got some practice by drawing all the time in 7th and 8th grade with my friends. We would make like, a new character every other week and draw comics about them interacting, fighting, or just exchanging inside jokes we had. My main subjects during this age were anthropomorphic animals, pulling a lot from the furry subculture. Read more>>

Anaïa Hoard

I learned to draw by consistently outdoing myself. Ever since I can remember, I’ve been drawing. It was something that was encouraged in my home. As kids, my mom would have my siblings and I gather at the dinner table to color our favourite Disney characters. Read more>>

Lemon King Oddy

I’ve always enjoyed humming and singing to myself. I kinda believe this was passed down through my father, which made me want to explore my passion and knowledge of music. The first instrument I learned was the piano, but I also dabbled with a few others. Read more>>