Often there is no book or course to learn how to do what you want to do – so how artists and creatives overcome such challenges? How have some of the most talented artists and creatives in the community managed to learn their craft?

Daisy Torres

How did you learn to do what you do? – I begin my editing/photography career in high school. I went to Enloe Magnet High School, and a lot of their arts were heavily funded. Therefore I was really grateful that our school had a video production class and a newscast show. Read more>>

Aliyaah Jackson

For me, Photography has always been one of those things that came 2nd nature to me. When I was younger I got my first camera. I didn’t know what I was doing but it came naturally to me. I already was into drawing, modeling, and fashion, so when I picked my camera up it was like drawing but with a lens. Read more>>

Dawson Davidson

I can truly say I have been truly self-taught to become a taste-maker. I have grown up in the era of social media and the internet, thus I have had so many resources at my fingertips. It takes a lot of trial and error with whatever you are trying to do yourself, and trust me I have had my fair share. Read more>>

Mark Brown

I’m a life-long writer. Reading good stories is how we learn to write. As a boy, I started writing episodes of “Star Trek” and issues of “Spider-Man.” I’ll never forget realizing that someone had to make up those stories I loved. Why couldn’t I? Read more>>

Klare Petit-Frere

The foundation of my knowledge for art was really built over the years as I grew up. My mom is an artist and she always created space for art and really helped me to learn the fundamentals. When I studied art in college, I really began to refine and develop my skills even further. Read more>>

Luca Fontaine

I was born in Paris from a French father and an Italian mother. They have always been supportive of anything my brother and I wanted to realise and achieve. I started taking acting classes when I was in high school even if I had secretly always been drawn to stories and make belief. Read more>>

Aerik Francis

My first answer to how I learned to write poetry is simply learning to read and reading to learn. I’m so grateful to my family and particularly my mom who was so insistent on reading together. Read more>>

Daryle Edwards

If I could do anything at all to speed up this process, I would have liked to have known this was truly what I wanted to do in college instead of winging it once I graduated. I should have put in more effort networking and building my brand than hoping to be discovered under a rock. Read more>>

Amber Palmer

I learned photography by picking up a camera but after a few years, I just wasn’t happy with my work so I took lessons. It really set me above my expectations and my business took off. I should have take. The lessons from the start and started out with one of the best cameras. I thing the best skill was my creativity. If I didn’t have a full time job at the time, I could have done even more work. Read more>>

Alex Serlof

Since I was a young 7-year-old, I always knew I wanted to make movies, It was just something that brought joy to me, I was always running around with a camera and creating little videos or simply recording family events. I spent most of my teenage years learning how to edit videos on any software I could get my hands on. Read more>>

Alex Eickhoff

Creating art, mostly drawing, has always been a way I have spent idle time, since as early as I can remember. My parents and grandparents would give me paper and crayons to occupy my restless mind while they had adult conversations. Read more>>

Jazmin Ayala

I first learned how to sew in high school. My dad taught me how to work a home sewing machine and from there, I began as a self-taught seamstress and designer. I also attended the University of Cincinnati’s DAAP camp in 2016 led by Project Runway’s, Tessa Clark (season 17). Read more>>

Timothy Hall

My aunt taught me how to rap, sing, and dance when I was younger. As I can recall it was around the ages around 4-8. Knowing what I know now vs then i’d tell myself before is to just put myself out there. Not waiting on anyone or waiting on that perfect moment. Read more>>

Koi Sway

Music has always been something that was foundational for me. I’ve been in a studio since I was in my moms stomach. I remember always watching my dad and my uncles create the most insane songs. I didn’t realize it in those moments but I was actually learning that this was my passion. Read more>>

Benni Hunnit

At A Young age, I was always musically involved. I played the piano for a few years at the age of 8, then shortly after that I moved on to playing the cello from ages 10-18. I learned quite a bit about music theory, and sight reading, and that really helped put things into perspective for me as a musician. Read more>>

Ta’Von Vinson

I first learned my craft the way anyone learns anything…I just did it. Was I good at it? Maybe. At the time, I just knew I really enjoyed story telling through the route of stage and film. I think I learned things at the right pace. Read more>>

Rosalie Thorne

Though my family instilled upon me a love for storytelling at a very young age, I actually struggled with learning how to read and “hated” reading when I was six years old. It wasn’t until my grandma sent us Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’s Stone from South Carolina to Hawaii in 1999 that I learned how to read, fell in love with reading, and found out how magical storytelling was for myself. Read more>>

Grailian Nash

Practice Practice and Practice. When I decided I wanted to pursue photography I wanted to make sure I got alot of shooting in. It helped that my wife was a stylist so taking photos in the barbershop and the salon gave me alot of opportunities to get better. Also doing research on settings and how my camera works went along way into helping me improve the look of my work. Read more>>

Abby Daleki

With a BFA, MA, and MFA in drawing and painting, I have spent years refining my work inside and outside academia. That is not to say my work is “refined” as I am always trying to do so. I have had many mentors through the years- notably Brian Frink and the late Peter Williams. Read more>>

Sara Greer

Over the course of my life I have learned to do many things that are fiber related; what I want to share now is my story of learning to knit. I was in my early twenties and I didn’t know anyone who knitted. My family crocheted and I had been doing that well for the last few years. Read more>>

Laural Schultze

When I started Balloon Twisting it was just for fun. There was a local community education class being offered for “Beginning Balloon Twisting” and I thought that would be neat to try. After that first class I was hooked. I thought Balloon Animals were just a dog, a sword, etc. Read more>>

Sarah Bardsley

I never initially had plans to be a floral designer it was just something I could naturally do. My mother as a florist so I was around it growing up. When it comes to learning I think the best way is actually do it hands on dirty nitty gritty work. I’ve worked in corner flower shops, nurseries , high end shops, freelanced for the best in the biz and some others that weren’t my style. I learned something new everywhere I worked. Read more>>

Emily Cook

I’ve found that the learning path for many glass artists is not entirely typical. I started at a college in upstate New York with the intent of studying ceramics and it wasn’t a good fit for me. I decided, instead, to head back home to Maryland, take a year off to regroup before going back to school. Read more>>

Robin Ewers Carnes

Thankfully I’ve always known I wanted to draw and be an artist. I couldn’t be stopped as a child; I drew all the time. My parents saw the potential I had and nurtured my interest in the arts. Over all those years, I picked up a lot of knowledge on how to draw properly, took extra time to try new things and started taking early art classes in high school, along with staying after school for Art Club. Read more>>

Dahmian Ramsammy

Honestly I learned through experience. Starting off, I had an idea of what I should expect and what would be expected of me, but you can never truly know what something will be like until you experience it. I think going into it with confidence and openness was really helpful in speeding up the learning process for me. Read more>>

Pros and Cons Cosplay

Both of us started crafting at a really young age. From learning to hand sew with our grandmother’s stash of fabrics or playing with our mother’s wealth of craft supplies, we developed a pretty immediate love for multiple craft mediums. We’d taken an introductory class on sewing in middle school, but honestly, the idea of making potholders and pillowcases long term seemed incredibly boring, Pro actually started hating sewing for a long time as a result. Read more>>

Nathan James

When I first began designing, I learned on Youtube mostly. I only knew Photoshop and would create digital art and flyers for friends in the city. That served me well until I made it to Texas State University-San Marcos where I learned Illustrator and learned about Branding and Advertising. I believe if I knew more about how to sell my services better, it would’ve showcased the value of design more to my clients. Read more>>

Dionna Diane

I’m naturally dramatic and theatrical, so initially, this wasn’t a taught skill. As a child, I regularly mimicked people. This is how it truly started, and I have always been very good at it. In elementary, I was in numerous plays, but I didn’t start taking acting classes until middle school. Read more>>

Mr. Enlightenment

In college, I had to write a portfolio of poems for a creative writing poetry class. Over the years, I’ve listened, read, and watched other poets. I think the best way to speed up my learning process as a poet would be to write and perform more. I think writing poetry is all about trial and error. Read more>>

Tiffany Thomas

I discovered clay while in college at Francis Marion University. While walking down the hallways one day, I saw someone working with clay. I thought it was just mud at the time, so I was very intrigued. I grew up on a farm and my entire childhood consisted of playing in the dirt and mud. Read more>>

Amanda Verhage

When I bought my camera in 2016, it was intended to be a fun hobby of mine to take pictures of my daughter after she was born. I learned at a slow pace, and took a self-taught approach, using YouTube tutorial videos on the basics of how to use my camera’s manual settings. In the beginning, Read more>>

Lindsey Dunnagan

Studying architecture, going to graduate school, and applying to public art projects are the major sources that influenced my art today. I always drew and painted, but my art became more serious at Texas A&M, where I studied environmental design (architecture). Read more>>

Jermaine Thomas

I was going to the Art Institute of Atlanta where I obtained my BA in Audio Production in 2013. Initially, I was more interested in Studio Recording and I was very good at it, but as I got into my later years I wanted to learn new crafts, so when I was offered an opportunity to be a Sound Mixer on a Production, I seized the moment and accepted the challenge. The project was a success, starting my career. Read more>>

Christia Cummings-Slack

I have formal training in fine art from undergraduate school. That gave me a very strong foundation in the fundamentals of fine art in many medium. I had the best opportunity to study photography, drawing, painting, print making, ceramics, jewelry making, and sculpture in undergrad. Read more>>

Jordan Denton

I’ve always been sentimental with photos and enjoyed art. I originally bought my first camera to start documenting my life more; however, I quickly realized I wanted to learn photography and document other people’s lives. I spent countless hours watching tutorials about my camera, editing, and how to capture beautiful photos. Once I started to perfect my craft, I couldn’t stop, and it’s been seven years since I started photography. Read more>>

Rachelle Callison

I guess I would say I learned to model working with my aunt taking photos wearing her hat designs. I started doing that with her when I was about 13, she would guide me on how to hold my head and my expressions. Read more>>

Cale Charney

I always enjoyed writing. I picked up a guitar when I was 24 years old because before that, I had all these lyrics that were sort of songs in my head but I was frustrated with always relying on others to provide the music and arrangement. I didn’t know how to convey what I wanted musically. Read more>>

Joel Gibson Jr.

I’ve had a passion for music my whole life. When I got my first guitar when I was 17, and was taught how to chord and read music by a phenomenal musician. I was determined to be able to sing and play at the same time. Once I was able to figure that out, I started writing songs. Read more>>

Kristina Marder

Becoming pastry chef takes lots and lots of hours practicing, failing, practicing again and studying theory to understand what and why goes wrong. There is no way to speed up learning process, it takes time and patience. But it is also a good and quite fast way to understand that practice makes perfect. Read more>>

Alexis Groves

It started when I first was involved in a play awhile ago called “Confessions of a Womanizer”. As I was playing the role, I still felt like something was missing. I didn’t have all the answers on how to be an actress . Read more>>