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?

Danielle Soliday

Painting has always been something that I have enjoyed and I learned by actually painting. I discovered what I liked painting and worked on how I could get better, usually I would look at photography and videos that other artists have posted to try different techniques. For actually sealing the tags to make them wearable I asked around to other shops to see what worked for them, and most didn’t mind answering my questions! Read more>>

James Smith

I started out probably like every photographer does, with a simple camera and just learning the basics. In 2000, I was going to Africa for a month and decided that I wanted to take more than a “point – and – shoot” camera with me. My Dad gave me an old Pentax manual film camera, and I was able to scramble a few lenses together. At that point, I knew very little about photography, so I bought a “National Geographic Photography Field Guide” and learned the basic science and method of photography. Read more>>

Oversaturated The Podcast

Simply by trial and error. Getting into creative spaces you must first be comfortable with yourself and the content itself. Learning your opinion is always different from others. Speeding up the learning process doesn’t necessarily yield the best results. Instant success doesn’t lead to revelations that will help you become better as a creator. Pride often times is the biggest obstacle. You must be willing to learn and adapt along your creative journey. Don’t let pride hinder you from growth. Read more>>

Yazmine Alexander

With becoming a Professional Dancer, Choreography, and CEO of my own company there was definitely a lot of obstacles that took place in my life that could have stopped me from doing what I do currently. I started dance when I was 3 years old and I started at a Studio that is based on the Westside of Detroit. Really with me I feel that there’s nothing that really could have speed up the process of becoming my own boss because everything takes patience and time to develop. Read more>>

Meivys & David Suarez

We are a husband and wife team and started our photography company together even before being engaged (crazy, we know… but love makes you do crazy things!) Photography was a hobby for Me (Meivys) and David, my husband was the one with the idea to turn this hobby into a business. Learning the craft started with experimenting with friends, family and lots of free sessions. As time passed and we got to know our signature style, we decided to invest in more education. Read more>>

Elliot Frances Flynn

I took acting classes, and performed in anything I could while I was growing up — school plays, dance lessons, choir, all that. I knew I always wanted to be an actor, and while I viewed everything I did at the time as Serious Preparation (TM), I was just dreaming. It wasn’t until I went to college, quit, and then came back again that things started to come together. I had a teacher I clicked with, which was imperative — and I also was this deep, deep well of emotion and sadness. I was extremely tender. Read more>>

Prithee

Well…we spent our early days out of the womb learning to crawl, to instruments…before we could see we were appreciating the soothing sounds of the Talking Heads, Tiny Tim, Devo, and Led Zeppelin. We then all spent hours practicing our crafts in our own ways, but spending hours practicing was something we all shared. Hours and hours and hours of hours. Read more>>

Chris Peter

I started learning marketing and media development creating design, web, and video as a Communication Arts Major at the University of the Incarnate Word. I’ve continued to learn my craft as a media and marketing generalist through various jobs such as; working as a graphic designer, producer, content creator, and design manager as well as working freelance along side a full time job. To speed up my skills I would have worked more on bringing my own passion projects & ideas to life, getting involved in entrepreneur meetups, and taking bite sized online courses. Read more>>

Marcel Robinson

Knowing what I know now, I would have been more proactive to bettering my expertise sooner. I’ve always been on the television track, but I allowed that to derail and stall my growth as an independent photographer, causing me to get behind the eight ball. I took a full year off from shooting stills, which certainly played a role in the amount of time it took to regain my focus in that area. These days I am often juggling that balance between the two, but I’ve found ways to manage both semi-successfully. Read more>>

Monica Gallego

Before YouTube was even in existence, I learned to apply makeup, basically through practice and copying looks I see on magazines. But eventually, I started learning more application techniques by watching videos online, and learned proper hygiene and business practices when I went to makeup school. Read more>>

Kristy Partain

I was introduced to oil painting my freshman year of high school. I took a variety of art and painting classes throughout high school and college. While I graduated college from the Ohio State University with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and a Master’s degree in Human Resources Management, I made sure to include fine art and design classes to each semester’s course load. In addition to taking courses, I instructed paint classes, worked for interior designers, and created custom oil paintings. Read more>>

Germôna Sharp

I learned by studying those that came before me. I research and I PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE. Most of the artists I see aren’t well rounded when it comes to their art or whatever lane they claim to be in because the focus isn’t on learning more and improving. It’s based on a quick “bop” or vibe, which is cool I guess but I want to create in progression. I don’t want to just make something just to say I made it. Read more>>

Nicole Maxwell

I have always had a passion for photography and took courses in school, but what helped me learn the craft the best was playing around with different poses, understanding composition, and the correct lighting for the shot. I have taken a ton of courses and read a ton of guides to help with learning the way of boudoir. To speed up the process, I would say knowing the poses would have sped up my learning process! Poses that can make all sizes look great are really important as well! The skills that were essential were understanding composition & lighting. Read more>>

Kay Bandzz

Learning the artistry of music involved making many mistakes and constantly acquiring knowledge not only in that specific art but in life as well. You can never fall out of love with the things that you do. Consistency is key. Knowing what I know now, I am grateful for the opportunities that I opened for myself in the past. I don’t think that anything could have changed my learning experience because it took time to appreciate everything that I know now. Read more>>

Autumn Thornsberry

I think that learning photography for me has been so much about keeping myself inspired by consuming art myself, expanding my work with new approaches, and experience. Some of the best advice I have ever been given is to “stay teachable”. The best way to learn is by practice! I love taking my camera everywhere – whether it’s my mirrorless, a polaroid, my phone or a film camera. I think it’s important to accept that you will create art that you love and art that you hate – it’s okay to be bad at something when you start. Read more>>

Andersson Tejeda

I started acting in the 7th grade in a performing arts class, which is where I got ‘bit by the bug.’ However, the program was cut the following year so my passion for it went dormant, until my senior year of high school. A friend had mentioned he wanted to start his own film production company and I immediately made sure to let him know that if he needs an actor to call on me. This allowed me to realize I should pursue film and theatre in college as well, where I met some wonderful professors, in both departments. Read more>>

Cindy Morgan

There is a book that talks about the 10,000 hour rule -I believe it’s called the outliers. Basically, by the time you have spent 10,000 hours at your craft, you become an expert. I think a lot of people are forced to make a creative decision about which path they will take., before they realize if they can actually commit 10,000 hours. Even if we’re talking about the specific genre of creativity that you want to pursue. Read more>>

Rey Carrasqiel

I am a self thought artist , I’ve always loved art since I was a kid , so I practice and practice until I found my voice , I was all over the place at the beginning,, but the constant practicing is how I got faster to my still . In my case I am an emotional artist so passion is my major skill mixed up with a world of colorful possibilities., see, I have to feel something to create something , so I’d say burning passion is my major skill . Read more>>

Bill Z

I was able to work under a lot of successful people early on so I just kind of tried to absorb everything I possibly could. My first intern gig in ATL was working at Usher’s fam’s studio for him, his brother JLack, and the various producers, writers, and engineers that rotated throughout the weeks. Seeing this process early on was huge for me. I try to learn from people as much as I can. Phil Tan (epic mix engineer) has been a main mentor for me over the years. and lots of others that would take too long to name. Read more>>

Rick Palmer Jr

This was never a career path or dream of mine, it was exposed to me. It’s almost like riding a bike for the 1st time and instantly having a rhythm which helps you keep your balance and before you know it you’re riding a bike… That’s how this went for me. I went to a model call, got selected, was scheduled for an upscale photo shoot and was told to walk a long runway in from of 12 agents. Long story short, I was selected but turned it down. Read more>>

Phillip Jordan

Trial and error. When I first got into music and business, I had so many ups and downs. From figuring out the right products for my market to figuring out my sound, it’s been a constant game of trial and error to see what works and what doesn’t. I do wish I would’ve armed myself with more marketing aspects when I first started and more training, not being afraid to take myself seriously. If I knew what I would i knew now, I definitely would have gotten on Tiktok sooner and stop trying to curate a persona when being myself is just as or more likeable. Read more>>

Tanika Green

Falling into the beauty industry was truly organic for me. I have always been a Corporate America girl, but in 2011 I received my package from BASF The Chemical Company, and that was the end of the office work for me, or at least in corporate it was. Now I’m thinking I’m on my way to school to be a CSI Tech, telling myself, if I can get past the maggots I will be OK! Well life did not take that course and instead, I found myself signing up at Robert Fiance Makeup Academy. It was definitely a challenge as I was going in not knowing anything about makeup and it did not help that I was the only brown girl in my class of 12. Read more>>

Christina Ward

I learned to use my spiritual gifts by learning to trust myself. One of the keys to unlocking yourself is self-trust. Something I could’ve done better to speed up the learning process would’ve been to be more intentional about what I wanted. I also would’ve been more patient with myself. I know, patience and speed totally contradict each other. However, I’ve learned to trust in Divine time. Patience creates a state of flow. Read more>>

Kimmie Cave

Learning leatherwork is an ongoing process. I was taught by a friend to burn wood plaques as a hobby. I had a lot of craft hobbies. One day a co-worker asked if I could do that on leather, like bracelets? I said I didn’t know, let’s find out. I bought 2 vegtan hides at Tandy Leather and I haven’t looked back. Most in the leather business use vegtan to stamp very impressive images into. I found I didn’t have the patience for that so I continued to burn my images into the leather. We create custom leather journals and recently have branched out into purses, wallets and other small gifts. Read more>>

Christine Spencer

I was always a very outdoorsy child and enjoyed spending hours outside in the nature photographing everything I found interesting with an old film camera. When I turned 16 my parents gifted me my first DSLR camera, a Nikon D40x. The same year my little sister was born. After having 3 little brothers at that point and being the only girl and oldest of the siblings I remember being super excited about having a little sister now. Read more>>

Donita Petite-Archie

I’ve learned to be an Executive Assistant and Influencer by aligning my desires to my goals. As an influencer, I do it all. I record videos, take pictures, edit on different software’s, and I stay organized. I went to school for Radio and TV so media has been a passion of mine for a long time. After college it was hard for me to get a job in my field. I prayed and manifested my goals. Read more>>

Barbara Lee Smith

I am in my 80s, and that’s okay. In fact, I am enjoying this part of my life. I am telling you this because I was a ‘girl’ in the ‘50s and was encouraged to learn only what was a safe choice. I loved music, but Home Ec was the choice in college. In addition to singing with every chorus I could, I also had one (ONE!) art class. I found what I loved right there. In fact, I was good at it. Who knew? I loved working with color, the theory, the paint mixing. Read more>>

DJ Rue

One thing that I adopt on a daily; is that I am “always a student”. I’ve been in Music Production & Theory since I was a little girl; so things were already familiar to me when I decided to step into this industry. Even though my background is in Music; I still felt that there is more for me to know. I bought Books about being a DJ, I watched a surmountable amount of videos, and I took some classes in Chicago at The Scratch Academy. Read more>>

Waking April

So I (Alex) grew up in and around music. My parents are both piano teachers, my brothers are also professional musicians and I’ve been performing music in some capacity since I was 6 years old. The actual learning of how to play piano and how music theory works runs so far back I don’t remember not knowing it. But there’s so much more to being a musician than just playing an instrument. I think for me, learning how to be in a band, how to lead a team and communicate creative ideas in a respectful way. Read more>>

Alanna Dennis

I grew up around food. In the South, most communities have a “cake lady”. That was my mom… during the holidays our house was always filled with cakes. My earliest cooking/baking memory is with my parents. My mom was making her usual holiday cakes and I had my Easy Bake Oven ready to go! I would always take a little of her cake batters and bake them in my little oven to make cakes for my dad! Read more>>

David Walker

I learned the art of photography watching YouTube clips for a year and a half straight. If I would have gone to school for photography I believe that would have accelerated my education by learning from profesionals and they would have pointed out mistakes I made early. The skill that I feel that were most essential is the ability to talk to clients and they trust me with their time and ideas. My only obstacle that stands in my way is me. Nothing can stop me but me. Read more>>

Brionna Taylor

Journalism and storytelling have always been a part of who I am and my story. It’s in my DNA. Even as a little kid, I would watch all the talk shows and seemed to be drawn to them. At an early age, my parents raised me to be well-versed and cultured by taking my sister and me to the theater, fine dining, art events, and speaking engagements. These experiences coupled with my multifaceted eye and inquisitive nature contributed to my ability to see and understand people on a deeper level. Read more>>

Stefanie Stark

I’ve learned mostly by putting the hours in, with lots of trial and error. Because I never went to art school, I’ve taken online courses to learn more about art principles and color theory. I also research different ways to approach things, and sometimes ask other artists about their process to learn from their experience. All of this combined has shaped my growth as an artist. Read more>>

D3 Beats

I’m a self taught producer I started when I was 14 on apps on a iPad. I just started playing around and then it got serious, I never actually really knew what I was doing though. Id watch YouTube and buy courses and overtime I ended up getting really good at it and begin to create connections. Over the years of consistent work I began to build a small fan base in Marietta/ Kennesaw area, I was only 16. The wave will come and go and as people would call it “ I fell off” . Read more>>

Kathy Caudill

Learning to sew takes time and a lot of patience. Sure you can turn on the machine and stitch a straight line, but learning all of the different stitch options, needle sizes, what each of the presser feet do and why some of them look so strange, what settings you need for the material you’re working with, and what to do when you get that dreaded bobbin thread nesting under your fabric often comes with trial and error. Read more>>

Libby Bussinah

My Craft: Medium/ Process Drawing. The simple act of dragging a stick across a surface and making something recognizable from just that single tool has been a lifelong fascination. I’ve always had a love of line work, so I began to explore ways to keep the drawing showing through the layers of paint. Coupled with a love of technology from extensive experience in graphics and digital processes, I decided to combine the two. The goal was to create a unique process, blurring the line between traditional and digital techniques with the resulting fusion of the two undetectable to the viewer. I call this mixed media method of working “Tradigitalism”. Read more>>

Spence Crosby

My craft and ultimate passion is Martial Arts. Learning martial arts was one of the greatest things that has ever happened to me. It taught me dedication, confidence and above all self discipline. I learned the art of combat early on from a great teacher known as Josh Villa. He took time to train and teach me the art of combat. From there I would participate in various martial arts tournaments to fight. I ended up taking 1st place in my three tournaments. From there, I fought one more time in which I placed 2nd this time around. Read more>>

Vince Falconer

So, when I was in high school I decided to take a “Film as Literature” class where we were supposed to watch movies in class, then discuss how they compared to written mediums. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to take the class with the teacher that also had us make movies of our own, which wasn’t exactly in the class curriculum. This inspired me to pursue film school after high school. While I was in College, I had to take a photography elective, and I loved it! So, I kept going, I took more advanced photography and photoshop classes, and started to invest more into my gear and personal technique after school. Read more>>

TWAIN

Well, for me, as a lyricist & songwriter, I believe it started way back in elementary school. I fancy myself high level in the Language Arts, and back in school I dominated them. I did not shy away from learning Reading, Spelling, Grammar, Writing, and the like. So by the time it came time to start writing rhymes, and become a hip-hop emcee I already had the arsenal of a vocabulary and a basic understanding of story and putting words together with purpose. That set off the process of actually becoming great. Read more>>

Joey Howell

How did you learn to do what you do? From a very young age I was interested in art. I enjoyed the activity of creating visual art like I did playing video games or doing something I found enjoyable in that way. I was also pretty business oriented at a young age and started to look at art as something I could do for fun and also build into a skill that could be worth compensation. Growing up with these ideas about art I started to look at other digital illustrators and brand designers that were doing graphic works full time & whos work inspired me. Read more>>

Erica Scott

I took advantage of signing up for masterclasses about blogging and content creating. During the pandemic there were so many free options and YouTube definitely was such a gateway to learn more and following content from my favorite content creators. If I could go back to speed up the process I would have taken more advantage of taking more pictures in places outdoor when there weren’t so many people out in the city during the shut down. Now I have to set up specific times to go out and take pictures. Read more>>

Mason O’Bannon, Kimberly O’Bannon N/A

Mason: “For me, learning the craft was a battle. When I first picked up a guitar at age 12, it was a source of escaping reality. Simply put, I picked up and played what sounded good, or learned the songs and licks that I wanted. As I grew older and more experienced with it, I expanded on the difficulty of what I decided to teach myself. From picking styles to learning the positions on the fretboard, it was very difficult to harness the coordination to progress and get better. Read more>>

Shawn Brooks

I picked up my first professional camera (canon sl2) and it all started with YouTube. My actual first first camera was a galaxy note 8. I recorded all my Youtube content there and then started to go deeper in Youtube University and that really excelled my learning process. I wish I had more people in the film community that I could have shadowed and learned from because I know for a fact that would have greatly increased the speed in learning this craft. Read more>>