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?

Bereniz Velazquez

Most of the time when I tell someone I am a graphic designer they often think I just draw, or paint stuff an do little doodle crafts. But it is nothing near that, graphic design takes dedication, understanding, a lot a lot of hours and no sleep! this is just a little bit of what we do. Read more>>

Austin Chapline

The biggest factor to learning anything fast is to always be the dumbest person in the room. When it came to learning music production and engineering, I moved to Nashville and surrounded myself with people far ahead of me. This allowed me to observe them and pick up on things that could have taken them years to learn, but now was only taking me months. Read more>> 

Michael Vaccaro

I started working as an actor when I was a child. I think I got my first professional job when I was about eight years old. And the thing that has been the most important thing to me this entire time is study! I am constantly studying. Still, all these years later, I go to class. Read more>>

Tamika Clark

YouTube and Instagram were my biggest learning tools when it came to curating a balloon business. I practiced the craft daily, discovered new techniques, and enrolled in classes offered by some of the industry’s biggest balloon artists. Knowing what I know now, there is nothing that I could have done to speed up my learning process. Read more>>

Caitlin Woods

My journey to filmmaking was more of an series stumbles than a series of steps. My education is in acting and theatre arts, but I quickly learned that I’m better off behind the camera. Read more>>

Joseph Schrunk

I was always interested in my personal clothing from a young age. Waking up and starting a new day by picking your outfit should be fun. Fashion should be fun. I wanted to start making my own clothes in high school, so I did. I started designing and printing my own t-shirts at age 16. I got a job and used my first check to do a run of shirts. I’ve always used my own money to fund my projects. Read more>>

Kim B Miller

I initially stayed to myself and I didn’t dive deep into poetry. I wanted to be authentic. I wanted to find my own voice/cadence. I didn’t want to be an echo of anyone else. Looking back, I would not change a thing. I learned how to “poet” at my own pace. Read more>>

Kianah LongChase

I began learning cultivating several skillsets when they were considered play. Like most children, I’d sing, babble, tumble around, and try to impress my mom with tricks. As a dancer, voice artist, painter, and actor, I trained in various choreography styles, musical theater, and circus. Read more>>

Brianna Lpez

I think a better and more renowned question would be what called you to invest your time into learning what you do? Everyone’s path is literally entirely different from the next so I firmly believe in being guided and so the camera wasn’t this thing that I was intensely interested in learning at first. Read more>>

Greg Jones

Learning the technical side of podcasting was really fun for me. With a career behind the camera in television, I had a bit of a foundation for how to do things, but I didn’t know how much was really involved. Coming up before podcasting was really popular, I had to learn how to host audio files, embed links in RSS feeds, manually submit to podcast apps, etc. Read more>>

Janet McMordie

Life-long learning and curiosity has been instilled in me by my family since I was a child. I have always loved the “learning of the thing”. Life-long learning is also a phrase that gets shoved down our throats in medical school and continuing medical education is required of us to maintain our medical licenses (as I believe it is in most other careers). Read more>>

Leah Grandstaff

I began my circus journey in 2013 when a good friend convinced me to attend an aerial silks class. From the start I was enamored with this silky vertical apparatus & thirsty for knowledge in the craft! I remember coming across an incredible comedic solo static trapeze performance on youtube which inspired me greatly. Read more>>

Samuel Gunawan

I was introduced into playing music from a very young age. Growing up, I learnt classical piano through private lessons. But slowly, I noticed that there are other style of music that are very different compared to classical music. Once I got into high school, I started to learn how to use a Digital Audio Workstation, where people usually make and record music. Read more>>

Lauryn Kawasaki

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been fascinated in creating. I was always making something with my grandmothers, mom, and older brother, whether it be scrapbooking, jewelry, painting, or sketching. In my teen years, I discovered thrift flipping and my mom taught me the basics of sewing. Read more>>

Asiah Spencer

I learned my craft as I do anything else, doing it repetitively.I think the fundamentals of taking a quality photo is most important, however everyones opinion of a quality photo is different. Read more>>

Jeff Revilla

I grew up immersed in the skateboarding, punk rock and DIY counterculture of the 80s and 90s. I’ve always held the belief of whatever you create, you should own. You should be in control of your destiny. Don’t sign your creative control away to a publisher, an agent or a label who doesn’t have your best interests in mind. Read more>>

Kim Taylor

Throughout my childhood, I used various types of art as a vehicle to relax or to create something that I needed, such as pillows or simple paintings for a new apartment. It wasn’t until I discovered story quilting that I began to use art as a vehicle to process deep emotion. Read more>>

Rich Paul

Prior to starting I had a small woodworking business selling rustic crafty items. A couple of friends who made pens from kits like you find at Rockler and Woodcraft mentioned that I should try making pens, but I always dismissed the idea as something that didn’t interest me. Read more>>

Jamika Render

My journey in design started in college when I began experimenting with Microsoft Word products. However, it wasn’t until I discovered tools like Canva and Adobe Creative Cloud that I realized the endless possibilities of design. As I continued to explore and grow my skills, I also became an expert in various platforms like Wix, Squarespace, Shopify, GoDaddy, and WordPress. Read more>>

Noël Wan

I started playing the harp when I was four years old, so my journey so far in learning my craft has actually been the majority of my life. Starting so young has its benefits but isn’t without drawbacks. Those benefits include being able to pick up technical skills quickly, developing a strong foundation in rhythm–crucial for playing in orchestras–and generally being able to absorb a lot of knowledge from my teachers. Read more>>

Akshara Mallan

Learning the craft or learning how to make miniature models was something I have been doing since the age of 6 if I remember correctly. I would always collect scrap material from anywhere possible and then turn that into some sort of miniature model. Read more>>

Wendy Barnett

I’ve learned how to use AI technology to assist me in creative projects by trial and error and researching as much information as I can find. Having a full-time job and being a single mom puts a limitation on my free time to learn this new hobby, but finding those extra free minutes in the day to find the latest information is helpful. Read more>>

Kelly Knight

I studied interior design at the Savannah College of Art and Design and received a BFA degree that was a great foundation for the industry. At first, I was really interested in commercial work and thought residential design and decorating wasn’t my career path. However, the more I worked in commercial the less I liked it because there were so many people involved. I wish I had figured this out sooner. Read more>>

Kardo The Don

I learned to do what I do from taking school seriously; mainly English, language arts and my dad giving homework on top of what the teachers presented. I’ve learned to take good notes when researching in order to retain the knowledge for later practice. Read more>>

Aurora Goodland

If someone had told me when I was a young art student that my medium of choice someday would be carving woodblocks… I would probably say they were crazy! It certainly took time for me to learn to love the craft, but it all began with taking a general printmaking course during my second year at Simmons University. Read more>>

Chip Greenberg

I learned photography in the film era when I was only 13, and continue to shoot film today. I started perfecting my craft while studying photography at the Rochester Institute of Technology. I owned and operated a commercial studio outside New York City for over 15 years. Shooting for clients including Fortune 500 companies, I found clients’ expectations for quality work were high. Read more>>