One of the most daunting aspects of pursing a creative or artistic career for many aspiring artists is not knowing how to learn the craft. So, we asked some very talented artists and creatives to talk to us about how they learned their crafts and we hope their stories will help you in your journey.

Jenae Bluhm

You know, when I started college, I had big plans for pursuing a creative field. I was torn between graphic design, advertising, and communications. Eventually, I ended up changing my major multiple times, so I only took one design course. Nevertheless, the principles I learned in that class continue to influence my work every day. Read more>>

Miranda Livingston

I was a sponge honestly. I first learned about mixed-media and how to collage from my father. He was an art teacher for over thirty years and is now a full-time artist. I learned about composition, black and white photography, background vs. foreground, and using found objects just from observing my father and his work. As an adult, I continued to hone my skills by spending hours on YouTube, experimenting in my art studio, and visiting other artists’ studios. Read more>>

Susanna Mariette

I loved taking pictures as a teenager, but I didn’t really start learning photography until college. I do feel like photography isn’t necessarily one of those things you need to go to college for. Don’t get me wrong they helped me figure out how to use my camera and what all the settings meant and did. I also learned a bit about lighting. Read more>>

Diane Boden

I began the podcast with a friend in the fall of 2015. We worked together for two years until she decided to step away and take a full-time position that didn’t allow for time on the podcast. After having my second child, I decided to go all-in and pursue monetization. I learned Garageband, web design, website hosting, and all that comes with managing guests on nearly 250 episodes. It has been a whirlwind. Read more>>

Nate Eberle

The craft I do can only be learned through trial and error. There is no fast track to be good. It took years of dedication to find the right combination of materials to make amazing wood pendants and pins. If I knew what I know now I still would feel inadequate because I am constantly improving and changing how I do things. Read more>>

Anna Sanders

After freshman year of high school, I didn’t take any professional art classes until my mid-twenties. I’m a reporter by trade and focused on writing and my journalism career until my therapist suggested I do something “just for me” in 2016. I’ve always been crafty, but until I took a small monthlong watercolor class in Brooklyn that summer I didn’t think I was a good painter or even an artist at all. Read more>>

Linda Henley

I had never written fiction until I retired. My husband suggested that I enroll in his eighteen-week fiction writing seminar, saying that I could learn the craft. I wasn’t sure about that, but I took the class. After taking his seminar about three times, I began to understand how to tell a story and the basics of good fiction writing. Read more>>

Krishawna

I’ve always had a gift, but how I learned to continually perfect my gift is from artist management and training through Savannah Street Music. Knowing what I do now, I feel if I was more intentional I could have accomplished even more however, I believe that all of my progress so far has been perfect timing according to God’s will for my life. Read more>>

Adam Smith

Being an opera singer is a difficult creative profession. Starting out can be tough because it really depends on the kind of voice that you have, as to which journey you take. I was always a singer from a very young age, but violin was my first instrument. Once I was in my late teens I realised that singing was going to take over. I was always very interested in musical theatre and acting. But more or less fell accidentally into opera. Read more>>

Eleven Arrows

Being an active band takes a lot of work and coordination. The more people/schedules involved, the harder it can be to sync up quickly (and responsiveness is important as opportunities can come up quickly). We’ve learned the importance of communication and being easy/good to work with, both for our brand as a band in how clear and responsive we are with others and for the health of the band and our relationships. Read more>>

Theresa Coelho

It has been an amazing experience networking with small company artisans to acquire unique designs for my fabrics and zipper pulls. I have always had a passion for custom designs. When the pandemic happened, I had an immense amount of time on my hands and needed to find an outlet to focus my energy on. I started networking with digital designers and started growing my repertoire of eclectic designs to ensure I had unique items available in my store. Read more>>

Ronald Short

With filmmaking, the best way to learn your craft is to just get out there and make stuff. And I know this has been something said time and time again by many creators before me, but it’s true. You have to make some things before you really understand how it works. You can read all you want, go to school for it, and sit in a classroom, but in this field, it really comes down to doing. You’ll never get a real handle for storytelling or characters or shot composition or working with actors and crew unless you’re out there making whatever can, whenever you can. Read more>>

Juan Camillo Garza

There I was, up to my waist in quicksand. Again. How could Bachata lessons in the lovely hills of Central Mexico go so wrong? Maybe it was the acid. Maybe it was the shaman I cheated out of $20 in a poker match the night before? All I knew was that my only way out of there was going to be to reach for a particularly long, long stick of bamboo just outside my grasp. Bad luck. I had to think quickly. Quick, think, Quick. Read more>>

Katie Mae Norland

I learned how to do photography by trail and error. I was gifted a camera my junior year of high school and had no idea what I was doing with it. I shot in auto the first year I had my camera and mostly photographed nature and buildings. It wasn’t until I had a friend ask me to take her couple photos that I learned that you could fully control the settings on the camera. Read more>>

Tasha Razzhigaeva

Photography was my passion since I was 12 but I’ve never dreamed that I will have my life path go this way. I would have defiantly started earlier and would advise myself not to be afraid. Not to be afraid to reach out, not to be afraid to express yourself and shoot, shoot, shoot. The more the better. Read more>>

Shaunee Ericksen-Lamb

How did I learn to do what I do now in my artistic process? You learn from experience, from trial and error. I clear my workspace, which helps clear my mind. I can’t focus when there is chaos around me. I turn on good music and just let it flow, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. I can’t force the process, but I can help it along. Read more>>

Tove Lee

I have been doing art my whole life, and it is something I have been told from a young age that I am naturally gifted at. Despite having a natural talent for it, I didn’t think that that was enough because, from a young age, we are fed a societal narrative that in order to be successful at something, we must attend college, trade school, or some kind of higher education. Read more>>

Rachael Fischer

Art has always sparked my interest. I was always drawing, coloring, or just doodling with anything I could write with at a young age, and as I was a little older, I experimented with watercolor, oil, and acrylic painting. Growing up in the mountains of Tennessee with spectacular views and tons of outdoor activities, I spent a lot of time outside hiking, rock climbing, and exploring. Read more>>

Wendy Swiney

As a child and young adult, I always loved to read and write. When I married, I chose a career path that I thought would best benefit my family, never thinking that my love of writing and creating would be a viable career path. My daughter, Anna, became interested in acting as a teen and I had the priviledge of being on some major motion picture sets with her. Read more>>

Antonia Young

The first neon tube I bent was at art school – in the basement Light Lab at SAIC in Chicago. Meeting neon in this way began a journey that I am still on – of honing my skill and navigating a medium that has a history in the commercial industry that has been traditionally male-dominated, and at times, kept secret to survive. I’ve come to where I am through self-teaching, formal education, and through mentorship – found in community and by happenstance. Read more>>

Karen Arredondo

We learn from people of all ages, backgrounds and cultures. The more friends of varying backgrounds you have, the wiser you will be. I am friends with several 3 year old kids and people as old as 80 years old with all kinds of people inbetween. Read more>>

Deborah Lindquist

Turning your creative ideas into something physical requires imagination, desire, and skillsets. Read more>>

Jaime Quintana

The journey of a Makeup Artist is infinite. We mess up , we learn , we mess up again and we accept our failure with every stroke we take with our brush , praying to the makeup Gods that we don’t mess up again . That’s the way of the game. When I first started my journey , I dedicated my work to the beauty industry. My body and soul craved for more , so I started to mess with character designs using regular beauty makeup not knowing that that actual Spfx makeup really existed. Read more>>

André Santana

When I started narrating audiobooks, I had a spark of a sense for storytelling. I recorded my first few books with no training, and what was missing was an understanding that I could make choices as an artist. I took training with coaches, and most notably studied with superstar narrator and coach Joel Leslie Froomkin who really gave me a full foundation as an actor. Ultimately, I don’t know that I would have sped up the process. Read more>>

Brii Moser

Like many other professions that require training outside of a traditional education, the “proper” method of getting into tattooing is an apprenticeship. Typically, you’d spend a lot of time at the shop you wished to apprentice at getting tattooed by the person you hoped to have as a mentor. Read more>>

Francois Larosa

From College Theater to being casted in Short Films to getting on Robert Rodriguez’s sets. The Studio Sets taught me the function of the Roles of what each Crew Member did. I started early learning the Screenwriting Skills from an award winning Argentinian who won awards in Berlin Germany. Then migrated here to the US. I was one of two students when she first started her class. That foundation was the catalyst of me being where I am today as for writing in TV and Film. Also branched out in Authorship of writing two books. This made a huge impact on where I am now. Read more>>

Ashleydawn Wells

Growing up my Dad was self employed ( now I believe we call that being an entrepreneur). I learned a lot of what I know from Him. Learning branding and marketing for a business at such an early age really gave me an advantage over my competition. I was taught business management and marketing your brand step by step over the last 25+ years. Read more>>

Daja Excel

I learned the craft of photography and video through trial and error and most importantly consistency. Mentorship also played a huge role. I have a mentor named, Westley, who became a brother to me. People in our lives can be mirrors, teachers, and or expanders. I believe that Westley is that to me. Wes is one of those guys that you just want to be like. Read more>>

Sebastian Vega

Becoming a music producer wasn’t an easy feat, I spent most of my 20s locked down in a room attempting to create music and failing thousands of times, over and over and over. I watched endless youtube tutorials and got involved into music production community schools. Read more>>

Mandy June Turpin

Showing up. I think it’s the most important thing anyone can do. Talk less and listen more. I realized pretty early on if you pay attention to those who have been there longer than you, there is always something to learn; good or bad. Work ethic is essential. The harder you work, the luckier you are, and that’s the truth. Yes, you will meet people whose journey to “success” was shorter than most, but everyone has a different journey. Read more>>

Luke Esperes

I learned guitar from YouTube tutorials, specifically lots of Nirvana songs because all of their songs are so simple and use lots of bar chords. It really helped me get comfortable playing up to tempo, chord transitions, and learning how to craft my own songwriting. In hindsight, I wish I had the discipline to learn music theory, Read more>>

Chadd Scott

I went to college for journalism and had a 20-plus year career in the media, but my experience was all in sports. When I experienced what I describe as a “professional mid-life crisis” around the time I turned 40, I had tired of writing and talking about games and coaches. I needed to find something else to commit my energy to. Little did I know that would be art. Read more>>