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?

Allyson Briggs

Growing up, my parents played all kinds of classic music at home – Jazz, Big Band, Motown, Opera, Country, everything, and it inspired me when I was very young. I always felt like I was on a mission to be a professional singer. I learned certain skills in school – the discipline, technique, etc. but the greatest learning period was when I took that terrifying leap to venture out on my own and pursue a career in music as my full-time job. Read more>>

Ryan Inda

Everyone learns craft in their own way. But as a writer and advertising creative, there are a few universal truths: find mentors who share in your curiosity, make mistakes, try again, and stow your ego. That last one can slow your success. It slowed me, for sure. Read more>>

Vanity Roux

The first thing i actually did was search for mentors, schools, OG’s that were legendary in the craft. I stumbled upon The Dj School in Dallas and gained the best mentors i could ever ask for. Knowing what i know now i would’ve jumped in a lot sooner with finding a mentor first and trying to YouTube things later. Read more>>

Sofia Ramirez

The simplified answer is lots of practice. While that is true I also think it is important to talk about how representation was a major player in getting me to where I am as well. I knew I wanted to get my BFA right out of High School. I was planning on concentrating my studies around Graphic Design. It felt like the safe option. Then I went to a concert one weekend my freshman year and I saw my first live painting performance. Read more>>

Sheila Vultaggio

Well, despite having studied Fine Arts, I found myself marginally rusty after not having practiced my craft in almost a decade. So, picking up where I left off required me to go back to the basics and spend significant time re-studying and brushing up on my skills. I experimented with various mediums and techniques to discover a style that resonated with me. Read more>>

Chas Mizer

To know what I know now took me over a decade of learning. I didn’t just have to learn how to produce music, but I also had to learn the culture that comes along with the style of music I create. Back in 2008 I was a senior in high school. My buddy showed me this free music program on is computer called “Garage Band”. Read more>>

Gautham Dharmaseelan

Begin with the fundamentals: It’s crucial to have a firm understanding of the fundamental ideas of photography, such as composition, lighting, exposure, and color, before delving into more advanced techniques or equipment. As with any skill, photography benefits from consistent practice. Make it a practice to take pictures frequently, try out various settings and techniques, and review your results to identify your successes and failures. Read more>>

Samantha Lande

I think storytelling is an ever evolving craft whether you are writing for a publication or a brand. I was an English major in college so I had the fundamentals but I knew nothing about running a freelance business. In the beginning I did a lot of observing and writing about anything and everything. I am not sure I could have sped up the process because much of it was based on relationship building. Read more>>

Heather Drayzen

In the beginning, I started painting and drawing regularly in my junior year of high school. I transferred to a fantastic art magnet school that set me on my artistic path. I grew up with role models that made things—my mom would decorate cakes and my aunt would sew and put on craft shows. However, growing up in San Antonio in the 1990s, the arts were not offered as a regular program in my district. I had little exposure to artists and didn’t really have any idea of what art was exactly, so that high school art program was mind blowing for me. Read more>>

Kanagaraja Anoj

when i was ten years old i really got interested in writing poems, so from that age i keep on writing different types of poems and stories at a point i got involved in listening to rap songs which gave me an idea of rapping what i write , at that time i was only 12 years old, so i wrote my own view of imaginations, things which i see from my own eyes about society, learning the way how i should find rhymes to rap in a proper way, reading more, Read more>>

Demian Tejeda-Benitez

I actually learned photography, for the most part, on my own. I simply learned by picking up a camera, playing around with it and got familiar with its functions and features and then actively putting it into practice. There’s lots of trial and error but whenever I would confront something that I didn’t know of or didn’t know how to do, I’d always do my research. Luckily, the internet is a vast ocean full of resources to help you learn just about anything. Read more>>

Beth Wicker

Probably the best advice I ever got was from my Dad, who took me for a “drink” before I went to college (I was under age so it was an iced tea!). He told me “You are not going to college to learn all the answers – you are going to learn how to FIND the answers to questions that you will have throughout your life.” That was priceless. In graduate school at Cranbrook Academy of Art the most important thing I learned was not about making art – it was about THINKING. How to THINK creatively, and analytically. Read more>>

Louis Cai

I would say that I most taught myself how to draw, although I did take a drawing lesson in middle school, but the lesson stopped since high school because I went to another city. The school was in another province, and it was far from city so I basically spent my weekends by drawing and watching movies. I just drew the scenes from the movies I watched. I should be very thankful that I watch movies of multiple genres like sci-fi, Kung Fu, romance, etc. Read more>>

Tash Solomon

When my God sister and I first decided to do resin, we had to do a lot of research before embarking; because there’s different types of resins for different things. Also now that it’s gained popularity, there are so many brands now to pick from. If you go with the cheaper product, you’ll still get a decent outcome- but we want more than decent. So we’ve already had to switch brands. Read more>>

Michael Smith

Eighty percent of my creative output is writing, and twenty percent is visual art. This seems an appropriate balance for me. In both areas I keep learning by what I call “navigating by energy,” in that I choose whichever activity sparks the most energy. In that state both writing and art are fun and compelling, never a chore, and I’m motivated to keep exploring new techniques. I’ve never had anything approaching writer’s block unless I begin veering toward a low-energy state, such as an obligation to write a certain way, or to please or impress others. Read more>>

Ceylon Mitchell

The story of how I became a classically trained flutist is both common and distinctive. Like many K-12 students in my hometown of Anchorage, Alaska, I first started instrumental music education on my very first recorder back in 4th grade. Then, in my school district, 6th grade was the time to choose a band or orchestra instrument. Read more>>

Madi Arteaga

I downloaded the app “Bazaart” in December of 2020 through the app store on my iPhone. For those of you that are unfamiliar, Bazaart is a very basic photoshopping app with features you may find on Photoshop. Each time I explored Bazaart, I let my intuition guide me, I listened to my heart and remembered my conscious ideas I briefly constructed. I also never forced my learning or creativity, so I never felt obligated or stressed when creating. Read more>>

Deborah Santoro

I always wanted to be a photographer. My parents gave me my first camera when I was eight years old. It was one of my dad’s old cameras. I took it with me everywhere. I loved taking images of places during different seasons to see how they changed. I realized how important images are when I had my first child. As the years go by memories fade, but images can bring them back to life. Read more>>

Andrea Anderson

Since i was a child I had the ability to draw and create things, I liked to build cardboard houses with shoe boxes and paint them, my parents bought me coloring books and some wood colors. I have been in some art workshops since I was 8 years old and I never felt so comfortable doing something, as I grew older I began to delve deeper into the world of art and I met many talented people who opened the scene for me, between talks and fabulous anecdotes I decided to dedicate myself to art, I had everything to continue perfecting my technique. Read more>>

Garvyns Duval

Over the last 3 years, I have spent the majority of my time perfecting my creative passions, including digital art, photography, videography, modeling, and guitar playing. It wasn’t easy at first. Honestly, I would jump from activity to activity without any real focus on getting better. And that’s okay in the beginning, but if you plan on making a full-time living with your creative passions, you have to get better. You’ll need to get your passion to a professional-grade level. Read more>>

Glenda Grant

I am a self-taught artist who did not come from an art background. I learned to create art from lots of resources — such as the internet (mostly YouTube), art books (from the library), and from other artists in the art community. To speed up my art learning, I took some online classes (paid and free ones) and learned lots of art theories. Read more>>

Marina Serdyuk

I feel like doing what I do is a lifelong process. It’s always changing and evolving depending on what I want to do creatively. I’ve been taking voice lessons and writing music most of my life. That said, to this day I still struggle with patience and consistency. And from what I’ve learned over the years, that’s truly the key to speeding up the process. Read more>>

Renee Lowry

I never knew that I was good at designing or creating art until a few years ago. I grew up with everyone telling me how smart I was and encouraged to be more of a perfectionist. I think I was always scared of making mistakes or making art that wasn’t “perfect.” It really goes to show you that we are what we believe. Read more>>

Joe Grant

I encountered glass blowing in my undergraduate Art School. I thought that I was going to be an industrial designer but when I walked into the hot shop for the first time I was mesmerized by the material. Watching go from a liquid to a solid and back again using extreme heat seduced me and here I am 20 something years later still melting the stuff! I was also struck by the teamwork required to execute something well in the glass studio. Read more>>

Jayla Jackson

Interestingly enough, I found things that made me mad. I have always defined activism and an activist in very different ways. Activism is work that is centralized around social justice with intentions to destroy hate, injustice, and discrimination. An activist is someone mad enough to move. I got an opportunity to speak to Andrew Young and I asked him what kept him going. There had to be hard nights and times that seemed impossible. Read more>>

David LAWD P

I’ve learned business strategy and business development from the ground up. Started as a musician and understood how important it is to create a brand that’s bigger than the artist. I did a lot of research on my own and started one of my first brands in 2017. Since then, I’ve been able to understand that when you invest energy everyday into your craft you are gradually manifesting your purpose. Read more>>

Johari Mitchell

The foundation for my sense of good writing has been life–being a lifelong learner and avid writer is a part of the package that is me. I also was the beneficiary of a whole skill set around children’s literature that I didn’t fully appreciate until it came time to produce children’s lit myself. In my professional training, I spent hours upon hours studying the anatomy of quality children’s literature as a literacy interventionist and literary coach, Read more>>

Noah Martin

I learned to write songs and perform on stage over a long, long, long time of subconscious research. Growing up in Tucson, Az and visiting family in Nogales, Az, I was introduced to a hurricane of different types and genres of music. I didn’t think anything of this growing up since I was a strictly “rock and roll” child, but as I’ve grown up I’ve been able to see the influences and styles flow into my music. Read more>>

Chris Kessinger

Realizing that my passion was creating and designing murder mysteries wasn’t shocking to most people who knew me. I loved everything horror, and for lack of a better word, mysterious. I loved being handed a murder to solve, looking through and utilizing the clues that were present to get to the bottom of everything. When I discovered Escape Rooms, I instantly saw how the two entertainment avenues could easily combine and create something unique. Read more>>