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?

Devorah Story

Over the last decade, I’ve immersed myself in the world of modeling. Through runway training, extensive studying, and firsthand experiences, I’ve created my own unique path in this industry. Looking back, I don’t believe there was anything I could have done to accelerate my journey.  Read more>>

Andre Clark

A combination of formal education, hands-on experience, and invaluable mentorship has shaped my journey in education and coaching. I started with a strong academic foundation, earning degrees in Accounting and Business Administration, which provided me with analytical and organizational skills crucial for teaching and coaching. Read more>>

Cheterra McCray

To begin with, a lot of what I know is from watching TV and movies! I know that sounds a bit indolent, but I always looked at it as a way of studying. Then as I got further into my pursuit of acting, I started to actually read more about my craft and study different techniques from actors before me. Read more>>

Julian Cotom

I first started playing bass as a hobby, so I wasn’t thinking about playing bass as an official set career yet. So, how I learned was different from traditional music lessons. It all started with listening to some of the songs that inspired my desire to play bass and learning by ear, not worrying about note names, scales, modes, or anything that was present in a more common method. Read more>>

Ceren Turkmenoglu

I am a multi-instrumentalist and composer, with the violin as my main instrument. I started learning the violin around the age of 9, and by 11, I was admitted to the conservatory to pursue my music education. My 10-year-long conservatory education was where I primarily learned to play the violin. Read more>>

KC Cresc

I learned to write by reading. I have so many books and stories that have inspired my work and the worlds I create. I grew up around books and my family’s love for reading so having my own stories has always been something that has stuck with me. I found that interactive stories were an exciting outlet for me when I wrote complex scripts for a mobile app game. Read more>>

Zion Richardson

I learned how to bake from my Mommy. Baking is a science, you have to take your time, it’s definitely something that shouldn’t be rushed. The most essential skills needed for baking are patience and understanding. Baking is a science and there’s a lot of steps. Read more>>

Suman Nayak

Bharatanatyam dance has been a significant part of my life right from my childhood. My dance journey began as my mother’s dream, but almost instantly turned into my own passion. My mother was very interested in Indian classical dance, but did not have access to any formal training. Read more>>

Leigh Pennington

As a writer, I honed my craft through various and lengthy means. My formal education in the humanities and anthropological disciplines challenged me to adapt my work to a wide range of audiences while authoring coherent and compelling works. Read more>>

Jordan Bigelow

This is a great question! A lot of what I learned came from curiosity, experimentation, and past experiences. Also, I have always been a do-it-myself kind of girl, and as a child, I would see things and wonder how they were made. As a visual learner, YouTube became my friend very early on in my creative journey. Read more>>

Monica Valentinelli

In some ways, I am not the typical writer, because I’ve always been writing. I started submitting and entering writing contests when I was very young and had my first publication–“Ella’s Story”–when I was nine or ten in a local newspaper. Then, in college, I pursued a Bachelor’s Degree in English with a Creative Writing Emphasis, because it allowed me to have more flexibility choosing my own courses centered on the craft of writing and study of narrative. Read more>>

Crystal Jennings

I taught myself how to do makeup by watching a lot of Youtube videos and traveling out of town to take one on one classes. I don’t think I would have sped up the process but I wish I would have started at an earlier age. The most essential skills with being a makeup artist is to be familiar with different skin types and skin tones. Read more>>

Tri Nguyen

It’s kind of a funny story. It happened 5 years ago. Initially, I was inspired by various YouTubers I watched and wanted to become a YouTuber myself. I purchased a GoPro and a DJI Osmo Pocket, then upgraded to an inexpensive camera with kit lenses, and gradually learned how to make videos. Read more>>

Erica Rawson

I’ve learned much of what I know through failure; trying and failing have been crucial to my journey as an artist and metal fabricator. I began welding out of necessity to create affordable frames for my large-scale artworks, but over time, welding evolved into a creative practice, offering new avenues for artistic expression. Read more>>

Frankie Jones

My path of learning my craft as an orator began with a profound & unfair challenge. As a child I suffered from a severe stutter and mutism. Thus my goal of becoming a great speaker seemed as though my vision didn’t align with my reality. This left me with a choice. Read more>>

Dave Maupin

Outside of school, I’ve learned how to do what I do by reading, watching others, and a lot of practice. Art is all about making. It is always about trial and error. When I was younger, a failure would mentally derail me and prevent me from making. Read more>>

Emily Haueisen

My first introduction to the type of work I do was when I took a course where I got to work in the scenery shop for the university theater department. I had a bit of past experience in carpentry and woodworking and thought that I would go in there and build scenery. Read more>>

Shawn Robles

Learning how to be a better photographer took a lot of time, trials, and errors. It took me messing up more photoshoots than I care to admit in order to identify my weaknesses and try to grow from them. Shooting more often and with the purpose of finding flaws in your technique would help someone develop quickly. Read more>>

Sarah Romanowsky

I grew up training as a dancer and continued that education into college. After receiving my BA in Dance, I started performing professionally for about a year before discovering a studio where I could learn aerial arts. Many people become aerialists without backgrounds in dance or gymnastics, but for me, I found having a dance background to be extremely useful. Read more>>

Rafi Ajl

I am very much self-taught. I tend to have to make a lot of mistakes to work through problems, and really learn. This goes for things with my hands, but things with the practice and the business side too. There is craft in everything – in being a good boss, in running a studio, and of course in making things. Read more>>

Swooty Mac

Being patient with my creative process, studying my peers as well as the artists that inspired me growing up. Just trying new things, taking creative risk. A lot of times you don’t really learn til you mess something up. Being able to appreciate and learn from the failures make the end result that much better for me. Read more>>

Salman Ansari

I do a variety of things—writing, programming, drawing, etc. But I’d like to focus on my learning process for drawing, as I think there’s some valuable lessons for creative mindset: I hit a bit of a wall after being burned out from founding a startup, and took an extended sabbatical. I started to draw during this time. Read more>>

Dantoni Mortimore

I began learning how to create music in ensembles and group settings, writing for and working alongside musicians and composers from the age of 11. Playing in wind symphonies, marching bands, and even steel orchestras. I learned most about my craft most when I began presently and intentionally executing a project and ideas that were meaningful to me. Read more>>

Amari Jhene

I personally learned everything from some of my mentors and youtube. I also learned a lot from myself and by myself, meaning from my own mistakes whether if it was casting, scripts, editing etc. Read more>>

Demetrius White

I learned photography editing through YouTube, which was a journey filled with time, trial, and error. I started with basic tutorials and progressively tackled more complex techniques. The process required a lot of experimentation, as I tried different editing styles and tools to see what worked best. Read more>>