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?

Jamie Gehring

I love talking about craft! I wasn’t a writer prior to my debut memoir, “Madman in the Woods: Life Next Door to the Unabomber.” In fact, I was in finance for years prior to becoming a writer. My former neighbor was arrested when I was only sixteen and from that point forward I knew I wanted to write a book about this experience. But at nearly forty, I was finally brave enough to commit to this emotional, yet rewarding project. And after winning many awards and touching the hearts of readers worldwide, I am so grateful that I finally took the leap. But it took more than determination to write this book, I not only needed to learn how to write in scene but to braid multiple storylines together. Read more>>

Rachelle Miller

When I was 17 I first learned how to shoot on film and develop in a dark room. However, it wasn’t until I was a young adult (in 2008) that I took the freelancer plunge. My husband purchased a Nikon D5000 for me. From there I started photographing friends and family for a small fee. In 2008 YouTube and social media weren’t as prominent. I relied heavily on my own instincts with the occasional editing help from my younger sister. Read more>>

Lynsie Ochoa

I have had an interest in and have been continually learning photography since I was a teenager but I did not take it seriously until 2018 when my son was born. My spouse gave me a professional quality camera for Christmas in 2017 and I started tinkering around with it immediately. In 2020 I started taking classes online with the Nikon School and a few YouTube tutorials to learn the basics. With a ton of practice with my son I started feeling more and more confident ad started taking paid clients for Christmas that year. In many ways that was baptism by fire as I had no idea how to properly edit photos and I was learning composition and posing still, but I was super busy that year with clients as I was on the lower end of the payment scale and I was offering Christmas photos with a 1954 Chevy pickup. Read more>>

Elizabeth Graf

When I first decided to become a cake decorator, I knew I had passion, but I didn’t understand the stress I would face. You see a lot of interns fresh out of culinary school come and go in this industry. They enter the world of cakes and pastries because it sounds fun. It is a very enjoyable career, however, it can be a very intense job. There is little room for error when working on a cake design. Each detail needs to be perfect, from smooth icing to hand sculpted characters. Designing cakes takes a lot of patience and attention to detail. This is what makes a beautiful edible piece of art. Read more>>

Natalie Fields

I started photographing as a kid. I loved taking images and was extremely fortunate to travel to various countries which always gave me beautiful scenery to photograph. Being a hobby and passion for a long time, I improved my skills by watching tutorial videos, reading books, and enrolling in a few classes in college. I fell into photography at a professional level by chance and at that point, I decided I wanted to get my Masters in Photography. I enrolled at The Academy of Art University and finished my MFA in December 2022, where I focused on documentary photography. I think time to get into the field and shoot is one of the biggest obstacles for me. I was trying to improve and hone my skills while still having to work a full-time job. Like anything, the more time you can spend practicing your art the faster you will improve. Read more>>

Dominick Giovanni

I learned to do what I do predominantly with many years of practice and studying my favorite artists. Early on, as a child, I would be drawn to unique voices or cadences and attempt to memorize the delivery techniques used by those artists. When I was unable to hear music in person, I would try to recite the lyrics or hooks direct from memory. Eventually, that led to me writing my own lines and verses. My coming of age would be in an era when freestyling or “off the dome” emceeing was particularly popular and it was respected to be different or stand out by your use of energy, crowd control, or just sheer rhyming dexterity. In that sense, I struggled to create a unique sound and identity amidst so many fellow emcees, but I believe that gauntlet of congestion allowed me to slowly find a voice that is truly, me. The skills I find most essential are remaining true to self, going against the norm some with regards to style, challenging oneself to always outdo the last piece of work, and remembering to create from a place of joy and keeping that focus in sight. Read more>>

Serene Boachie

Being an independent artist means that you’re always learning. I’ve gone through multiple chapters in my life where I’ve noticed the growth in myself as an artist. In the beginning, I was simply singing, but there’s so much more to a song than the vocals, so I started to learn production. From there, I explored collaboration, music marketing, and then circled back to singing to recognize my voice as an instrument itself. Once I realized that I wanted to do music as more than a hobby, I had to recognize how important the business side of music is. Read more>>

Danger Junior

Interestingly enough, Danger Junior was formed out of a literal necessity for laughter, joy, and smiles. We all met at an exceptionally cold and hostile place of work. One of the most immediate and accessible ways to break through this drudgery within such a depressing environment was to do little bits and sketches for each other. It started with silly voices and simple mimery… just to get us through the harrowing work day. After some time, we learned about PROPER improv comedy, and the laughs started to naturally flow. Even the pigs and cows seemed to be giggling behind their cold eyes, despite their grim and twisted fate. Read more>>

Kinsley Oykhman

I started taking dance classes unparented when I was 2 years old! At that age I started with ballet and learning to move my body to music. Every year I got older, I took classes in new styles of dance and loved it even more. Every year came with more hours of training and more focus and I always wanted even more! Right now, at 13 years old, I spend about 25+ hours week dancing. I think I could have gotten to where I am faster if more opportunities existed when I was younger where I was living in Canada. Also, COVID set me back in my training as I wasn’t able to travel or take classes in person. Even with all of this though, I think I am on the right path and try not to look backwards at how I could have done better. Read more>>

Bradley L Bowers

It might seem cliche or obvious, but I learned a lot about how to exist in this profession, as a designer, in college. This includes the technical sides as well as the more intuitive and emotive components that go with being a designer. Literally every day I sit down and front of a computer, and do some form of CAD work, or graphic work, or type up an invoice. And these are all things that I took classes on while at SCAD. But also, the interactions that I had in school, with fellow students and with professors, were subtly setting me up for how to deal with different types of people, and more importantly how to deal with myself. Read more>>

Jaeson Filer

I’m self taught in a sense. Since I was about 8 or 9 I’ve been rapping. I would listen to every artist that I could and I didn’t realize it, but through osmosis I was developing my skill set. Looking back, there wasn’t really much I could do. There was a lot going in in my life; surviving the challenges presented was a full time gig. My passion for reading & my creative imagination are really the foundation of my skill set. My entire life was an obstacle….it was very challenging growing up the way that I did. Read more>>

Keeyen Martin

I learned starting in church and with instruction from my Grandmother. I honestly don’t think I would speed up my process. Everyones process is different and mine was essential to my development. Engaging, executing, and being in tune with myself I feel are the most essential skills I’ve learned. Currently know obstacles, just a balance of time and scheduling. Read more>>

Brittney Baker

I was lucky enough to be immersed in the photography world in my teenage years, starting off as a model. I was surrounded my amazing creatives and sets and equipment and was shown how to open up your mind and skills to execute a vision. I had a fast track to this world, and I was thrown into it at full speed which I am so grateful on when I now look back. Having to learn on your feet was one of the best things for my skillset, ego and social graces. Read more>>

DUNN

Creating artwork with signs was a self taught thing for me. I have been figuring it out since 2000 through trial and error. There was no reason to speed up my learning process it has always been gradual. The progression of my skills are in time constantly with my current junction in life. The skill to learn new things is essential as an human. Asking questions is one of the best ways to overcome obstacles when honing skill. What I know now…. Being able to take my analog skills of sign manipulation and pairing them to mass production sign technology. Has put me in a new realm of my craft. As always in my career I have prided myself on pulling up everyone around me as I stay on the forefront as a creative. Now is no different the new techniques and connections I’ve learned and being able to offer them to my creative community to assist on projects around the globe. Read more>>

Spencer Welch

I have always been very creative. As a child, I would copy my sisters sketches, I thought she was the most amazing artist. Throughout the years I’ve studied by watching other artists create, reading books and learning from the masters, and lots and lots of practice. I still remember sitting in art class with my friends, even though I wasn’t actually taking the class, and listening to the teach tell us about Georgia O’Keefe. I consider myself self-taught, but I have to give credit to all of the people in my life that encouraged me and believed in me, and to the ones who shared their wealth of knowledge and talent with me along the way. Read more>>

McKenna Ralston

When it comes to acting, I think there are so many variables that go into the craft that have nothing to do with technique, on-set experience, or what you’ve read in an acting book. Working on yourself whether it be self-worth, physical health, or enjoying life outside of the craft, I believe they can all be helpful when fueling life into your work. Acting is living truthfully under imaginary circumstances. If we’re solely focusing on “the craft” and nothing else in life, the work is less believable and less fun to watch in my perspective. Read more>>

Taylor Friesth

I think learning a craft is kind of everything when it comes to “being successful” for whatever that may mean to each person. I believe I have been uniquely fortunate in that my parents saw that I had a certain kind of spark in my eye when I started learning drums and they carefully made sure It became something that I didn’t give up on. That consistency that they taught me eventually turned into me, at least I think, becoming good at drums. That in itself is one of the biggest lessons that I or anyone could learn, “learning a craft” or really seeing how much time and effort it takes to truly get good at something. But it was learning that which showed me how that can be applied to many other things. Read more>>

Dan Criswell

I received an education from Cuyahoga Community College’s Recording Arts & Technology program. I have been making beats since high school and decided I wanted to pursue a more professional career in audio, so I taught myself the basics and moved on to higher education. After a few years of working with artists and producers around Cleveland, I genuinely believe that more experience in the field would have sped up my learning process. I had the blessing of being able to learn on industry standard equipment in a private, guided, and controlled environment, but nothing compares to real life situations. Obviously, there is a lot you need to know before you throw yourself out into the field, but running sessions outside of school once I had a basic understanding of how those sessions should go has easily been the best way I have learned. Read more>>

Sanyelle Sandusky

About six years ago, I was working at a mall for a small, local business. I had the honor of working with some great people, who I am still close with today. When it came to matters of the spirit, I was recovering from a fundamentalist religious upbringing, but softening again towards allowing myself to believe in more than the material. A few of my co-workers were interested in Tarot and astrology, and as I listened to them talk about the practices, my interest was piqued. The mall had a store that sold Tarot decks, so on a whim and a lunch break, I bought my first Tarot deck, The Wild Unknown Tarot by Kim Krans. Read more>>

Aj Angels

I learned many different ways over time. Music has always been around me but I started to do something about it in a serious way when I first got to LA in 2015. Songwriting wasn’t something I felt someone could teach me , song structure sure but songwriting , just. had to let the pen fly and try to verbalize my emotions and my idea of the future . I also got a few singing lessons and went to a performance work shop ran in LA. Those things were nerve racking but make the difference of me not being afraid to grow in front of others. Read more>>

Nicoletta Belardinelli

When I was attending university I wasn’t exactly sure of what to expect from the world of work. I liked aspects of design of course, but that wasn’t enough and I was quite confused about how to put it into practice. After my master’s, I got an internship at Browns, London-based independent design studio. Here the team is a small one, meaning that as a designer, no matter your level, you’re involved in every phase of a project. I feel in this phase it wasn’t so much about the skills for me, but more about building a solid basis that would allow me to explore different aspects of design and therefore expand my skillset. Read more>>

Hannah Bates

While at Columbus College of Art & Design, I took an Intro to Glass class and quickly became enamored with the material. I was drawn both to its physical properties and its labor-intensive processes. Glass demands patience, persistence, and problem-solving. These skills have been invaluable to me as an artist. It was through glass that I began learning how to work with metal, wood, and other sculptural mediums. Read more>>

Tevin Donson

I hope this message finds you well and filled with the joy of creativity. I wanted to take a moment to share with you the story of my personal discovery to pursue a life as an artist. It is a tale that has shaped my identity and brought immeasurable fulfillment to my existence. Reflecting upon my journey, I can trace the seeds of artistic inclination back to my early childhood. Even then, I found solace and excitement in colors, shapes, and the act of creation. Whether it was doodling on scraps of paper, molding clay into whimsical creatures, or experimenting with finger paints, I was innately drawn to the world of art. Read more>>

Mai Yang

I graduated from the USC acting program. Along the way I’ve also studied with acting coaches outside of school as well as taught myself by reading books and studying great actors’ work. I don’t think there was any way that’d sped up my learning process. All of the mistakes I’ve made and misconceptions I’ve had were necessary for me to get where I am now. I had to go through all of them. Read more>>

PJ Peterson

I’ve always loved to write and read. As far back as sixth grade I was selected as the co-editor of our elementary school “newspaper”, followed by the same honor in seventh grade. I read biographies, mysteries, historical fiction. In college I took a couple of literature classes and enjoyed writing essays about what I’d read. During my residency (Internal Medicine) my best friend gave me a clever journal called “Book of Days” which had drawings of cats and kittens and about 3 inches of space for each day’s recordings. We were both cat lovers. I started journaling, and haven’t stopped since. Read more>>

Varvàra Fern

My work is based on two things such as working with imagination and working with life models in the traditions of figurative sculpture. Sculpting images from my mind and anatomy are the things that I am constantly learning. I have been studying figurative sculpture since I was thirteen and I still see it as one of the main parts of my art. Most of my artworks include human figures or animals, and every time I sculpt them, I use my knowledge of anatomy, pictures and life models to make my sculptures look realistic, and so it has the anatomical foundation that people can believe in. Even though I have a general knowledge of anatomy, I realize that there is always something more to learn when I start a new piece. Read more>>

Agnieszka (Aga) Elliott

Learning the craft of wildlife painting can be both rewarding and challenging. In order to capture the correct anatomy and form of animals, I had to acquire good observation skills, which means that sometimes I had to spend hours just observing animals in their natural habitat to better understand their behavior and unique characteristics. That requires to patience and persistence, and also time and resources that one does not always have. I can’t just pick up and leave for Africa, so I had to learn how to accurately capture that diverse beauty of the African wildlife through the eyes of my husband and his mom, who are both from South Africa. Read more>>

Erin Busch

The two most important lessons I’ve learned from composing are: 1) Trust yourself & your instincts. You are the only person who has them! No one can tell you whether your music is right or wrong. A good teacher will help you to hone your skills and technique rather than try to change your sound. 2) Don’t wait for inspiration to strike. Composing is a cumulative practice – you need to give yourself frequent opportunities to be in a creative space in order for true inspiration to arrive. I used to take much longer breaks from composing because I just wouldn’t have any ideas, therefore I wouldn’t sit down to write. Read more>>

D.D. Seaton

and technique, and picked up a few fundamentals like perspective and color harmony that got me started. I am completely self taught, so a lot of my techniques are me just doing things that made sense at the time. I tried every art medium out there, and one day I read that oil paintings sold for more money than all other mediums so I started using them all the time. I was trying save myself money by thinning down the paint with turpentine and it became part of my style. I use thin layers of paint to this day, rather than big painterly strokes you see in most oil painters work. Read more>>