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?

Jenn Dailing

I started off learning how to make paper flowers for my own wedding. Let’s just say I wouldn’t recommend learning a new art or skill with that kind of pressure! The first set I made was awful and I just knew it would spoil the whole wedding. After some crying and a pep talk from my fiancée, I gave it another go. This second try helped me learn the lesson that would follow me through every part of my art and life. Read more>>

Dena Hussain

When learning how to create content, a lot of observation and practice were required. I’ve always watched other vloggers on YouTube and followed other modest fashion creators on social media. I’ve noted which editing styles I like from other creators and through editing hundreds of vlogs, reels, and posts, I’ve developed my own kind of personal style. I like my vlog-editing style on YouTube to tell a story and to always be entertaining and engaging; I want people to look forward to continue watching. Read more>>

Rebecca Oh

I’ve been building up my technical skill in painting for over a decade now. I started my art journey at a magnet art high school in Baltimore where I learned the foundations of my artmaking: observational drawing, color mixing, and composition. From there, I attended Maryland Institute College of Art where I had amazing professors who deepened my understanding of lighting, emotive color, and materiality of paint. Read more>>

Viinym

When I first started making music , I didn’t know anything really. My cousin , who was also into music , told me about an app called BandLab , where independent artist were able to creat music for free. I had to learn the app and navigate it on my own. It was incredibly challenging at first but I got the hang of it. My other cousin told me about distrokid, a website used to distribute music for a low cost. Read more>>

Sylvia Vander Sluis

I have always had a strong drive to create, and that drive was supported by my parents. As the daughter of a professor of art and a musician, I grew up in a household where learning, self-expression, and achievement were valued. As a young person, I learned drawing and painting skills through practice and classes my father taught during the summer. Read more>>

Matt Schu

I always loved to draw as a kid. I would make my own comic books and try to copy other drawings I liked. So drawing and illustration were always a big part of my life, but not really in a way where I was planning to make an actual career out of it. I just daydreamed in this very unspecific way. Read more>>

Michelle Gatpo

A. I want to say there are two pillars that I have noticed build as I pursued this acting journey- the business side and the craft side. Business-wise, I was mostly self-taught. I had friends help when I really needed it, but I think if you actually read the contract and overall details of the project, you are able to learn what it is an agent does. At first, I had the goal of submitted to everything and anything. And, over time, as I booked for a variety of shoots, I realized that I was my own agent. I would self-submit; audition; communicate directly with the casting director, producer, project manager, etc; negotiate; complete paperwork (ie pay, contracts); deal with invoices- the whole nine yards. Read more>>

Tom Callos

At a young age (teens) I found myself interested in the work of artists; Picasso, Matisse, Raoul Dufy, Thomas Hart Benton, and Maynard Dixon were among the people whose work I kept coming across. But my interest in making my own art didn’t come until my 20’s; at that time I was a part of an internationally famous martial arts demonstration team and one of my teammates was a practicing painter and printmaker. In that rehearsals and the work of performing took hours and hours, downtime was reserved for things other than martial arts. Read more>>

8 Ball Clothing

We both met at a buy/sell/trade clothing company in Seattle, where we worked as buyers, formed a friendship, and discovered our love for fashion. There, we learned extensively about clothing brands, fabric qualities, authenticating designer items, and pricing to match the customer base while maintaining the store’s revenue. We were both able to successfully curate the store’s inventory and train others to do the same. Read more>>

Laura Mauger

Learning to do what I do has definitely been a process that’s had lots of layers to it. There’s been lots of creative experimentation and instruction. Throughout my middle and high school years, I took the opportunity to sign up for every art class that I could fit into my school schedule. These included multiple painting and drawing classes, as well as 3D design, graphic design, and AP art. I continued to pursue art in college with a BFA in graphic design from James Madison University, where part of my coursework was taking more painting, drawing, and 3D design classes as well as 2D design, sculpture, jewelry design, lithography, typography, poster design, brand identity, graphic design, illustration, and I even minored in dance. Read more>>

Connor Rice

I’ve always been a creative person ever since I was a kid. From an early age my parents invested in putting me into art and music programs from lessons to camps. I was very fortunate to grow up in a household where my parent was also an artist and that gave me great insight into the creative process and the life of a working artist. I also was exposed to lots of art and other artists through my family. My uncle was my first formal drawing teacher and he taught me a lot of fundamentals on how to view the world with an artistic eye. Read more>>

Mori White

I learned to do what I do by turning my first hand life experiences into melodic stories over beats. I needed an outlet for everything I was experiencing and I never was comfortable with vulnerability so I used music as an outlet. I would write and write, constantly reworking my words and delivery and structure. Knowing what I know now, to speed up my learning process in the past is be completely open earlier. The best music stems from what is real. I would become okay earlier with being completely honest about who I am to the public. Read more>>

Toni Barajas

Learning the ins and outs of the Fashion industry for me hasn’t been something I cherish ,Growing up in the industry is the biggest blessing I have had, taking all the yes’s and milking them (as my godfather says) and the no’s as a moment to grow and self reflect. I don’t think that knowing what I know now I would want to speed up the process, like I said before I enjoyed taking every challenge and moment to teach me something. I believe gods timing is never wrong. The most essential skill for me has been balance, balance in time, relationships and self. Read more>>

Skunky Sweet

An Enigma wasn’t built in a day. Drag is an entertainment career. Like any entertainment career, you declare it and set it in motion. Skunky Sweet learned by doing: by going out to odds and ends shows all across Los Angeles, participating in competitions “for exposure,” and observing the behavior of the people I admire. Anyone can do drag (and you should.) It takes a different commitment to decide to make it your art, to make it your sole means of expression. Read more>>

Margaret Ruble

I first learned to sew at home as a young child, guided by my mother and grandmother, who were accomplished seamstresses themselves. Over the past twenty years, I’ve learned many skills as a professional costume stitcher and patternmaker in the performing arts. Had the Internet existed in my youth, I think marketing and networking would come more naturally to me. Zephyr Line Workshop is growing slowly but organically by meeting new friends and bike shops along for the ride. Read more>>

Milagro Baines

I first learned to crochet from what I affectionately call “YouTube University.” Knowing what I know now, I would have started with the very basics of crochet. When I first got into the craft, I jumped headfirst into a project—a hat, if I recall correctly—without fully mastering the fundamentals. At the time, I had decided to focus solely on crochet for a month to give my mind some stability. However, I struggled with tension (and sometimes still do) and with truly understanding the work my hands were creating. Read more>>

Dan Ringey

I am always trying to learn more about directing! but I believe that to truly excel in filmmaking, it’s crucial to understand the various departments and crafts that go into the process. Making a movie is a unique art form where a group of individuals come together to create a single project, so having a comprehensive understanding of all the elements involved is essential. Read more>>

Dana Fehrenbach

I grew up with two Grandmothers who were very artistic in all forms of crafting. My paternal Grandmother quilted, crocheted and encouraged me to create anything from scratch uses various materials such as cloth, felt, thread, paper, fiber, etc. My maternal Grandmother was my idol.. She was an amazing seamstress and sold Pfaff sewing machines door to door. She could look at any dress, or outfit and recreate it without a pattern, down to the exact detail, plus. She was also an amazing artist.. Read more>>

Pxpi Ak

I started making music in 2018 my senior year of high school and a close friend of mine at the time made beats. One day we were freestyling joking around to one of the beats he made and I just belted out this raspy grunge voice and from then on learned how to control it! I don’t know what I really could of done to speed this process up other than just practice and making music everyday, a lot of times you don’t know your getting better until you listen to your own progression of your catalog and the excitement it brings you. Read more>>

Nic Noblique

Working with steel and fabricating sculpture (from small table top work all the way up to monumental public work) requires quite a lot of patience and commitment, both in time and money. It’s an expensive endeavor and a lot of specialty equipment and tools are necessary. I just kept at it and with every new sale I would invest more into my studio and increase the capabilities of my fabrication process. Along the way you find yourself constantly learning and improving. Read more>>

Steven Reyes

I learned how to make rugs by simply throwing myself at the craft. I stumbled across the hobby via TikTok seeing a video from a user, @imakerugs, and saw that he made some really cool rugs of different characters, memes, and music artists that I like. At the time I was still recovering from a shoulder surgery due to a mountain biking accident. I remember seeing him make a Kid Cudi rug and wanting to buy it so badly. Read more>>

Kellette

My passion for assisting artists ( and businesses ) with their branding didn’t just happen; it was an unexpected yet deliberate journey. It all began with The K-List, a music blog I managed from Denton, Texas, alongside my college radio DJ role. At that time, I wasn’t even singing; I was deeply involved in the Dallas music scene, networking, and attending open mics, connecting with a plethora of talented artists. Interacting with their cultures, sounds, and origin stories inspired me to share their narratives and gain a profound understanding of their music’s essence. Read more>>

Alex Kattan

I was fortunate enough to go to one of the best schools in the country to study acting (NYU), and I learned a lot in my time there. We had very intense acting classes from 8am-6pm three days a week, however I truly believe I wouldn’t be the actor I am today without my life experiences. When you get down to it, acting is embodying all aspects of the human experience– and you can only learn so much in a classroom. I went to school with some of the best students; they went to class early and left late, they volunteered and did extra credit, however I found their craft lacked the authenticity that can only come from taking risks and living life outside of class. Read more>>

Meesha Kymbré

I grew up, singing, so singing wasn’t necessarily always some thing I had to learn how to do, but there was a time when I would just simply write down lyrics and put them into a song, and they wouldn’t have any type of flow , and it wouldn’t be because I didn’t relate to my lyrics. It was because I hadn’t truly found my sound nor myself like I was still discovering me and I don’t feel like that is something that ever stops… I haven’t fully found my sound, but it is a learning process. Read more>>

Todd Dever

First let me give you a little backstory. My background is in motion graphic design and video production. I have been working in the creative arts for years and in addition to being a motion graphic designer and animator, I was the Creative Director at Fuel TV-a channel dedicated to action sports, for several years. I have also designed many typefaces (fonts) over the years. I am basically self-taught at all this stuff and enjoy learning new skills. Read more>>