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.

Sean Danson

The craft is nothing without a viewpoint. However, sometimes your viewpoint isn’t discovered until you take action. Often with poems, I begin by pulling on a thread without knowing where it will lead. It may feel like it’s coming out of thin air, but it comes from your insides, from your subconscious or perhaps even from Carl Jung’s collective unconscious. It’s also important for me to let the purpose of the writing dictate its structure. Read more>>

Sierra Negron

I picked up a camera nearly 16 years ago and started really becoming interested in portrait photography. I did not learn traditionally from going to school, I am completely self-taught. Read more>>

Hilary Ijieh

One of my earlier memories from childhood is from a performance I did back in Kindergarten, where I played the old man from “Three Blind Mice”. I remember being all smiles during my performance, even though I was supposed to be a grumpy old man. Read more>>

J.B. Stone

I think since it depends on the craft to be honest, but also the same lessons in many ways intertwine. I was always an avid reader, but I feel reading is more than just me being 40 pages deep into Emily St. John Mandel’s dystopic, “Station Eleven,” or being lost inside the worlds of Colson Whitehead’s “Zone One,” or Terry Pratchett’s “Discworld” Series. Read more>>

Quentin Townsend Jr

Photography, I started operating a digital camera when I was eleven years old, I had no idea what I was doing so I practice by photographing self portraits of myself on a little digital camera that i’ve gotten for Christmas and got feedback from friends on an old social media website called Myspace. Read more>>

Dan Nye

My acting education truly started in college. Going to Ohio State was a tactical decision. It was a large enough school that no matter what path I decided to pursue, I would have a good education. The longer I was in college the more I was drawn to Theatre. My true passion laid in film, and during my tenure at the school, a Film Studies major was announced. Read more>>

Nick Gatsby

I started learning my craft at 17 when I first started to write scripts. I would start from scratch in a notebook, and eventually I had an endless supply of stories and ideas scribbled across 25+ notebooks. I held into this method for a few years until I had the confidence to pick up a camera. Read more>>

Sparky LeBold

As long as my memory doesn’t fail me, I’ve always wanted to be an Artist…drawing in the afternoons in the family room…setting up dinosaur models and re-creating a scene from long ago as I imaged the dinosaurs eating or fighting with each other…the Brontasauros was always my favorite….the “Teddy Roosevelt of Dinosaurs….walking softly and carrying a big stick….I would imagine that I was the Brontasauros, too big for anything surprising to happen to me. Read more>>

Nate Sanway

something I’ve been doing since I was born. My mother and father are 20 years apart. Growing up my father was born in the 50’s, listening and playing music since then as well as the 60’s and 70’s; while, my mother, born in the 70’s grew up on her era as well as 80’s. Read more>>

Gisselle Rodriguez

I have been creating content for over a decade. When I was younger, I would have a lot of free time, because I wasn’t in any sports or after school activities. Therefore, I spent a lot of time at home and began watching YouTube videos. Read more>>

Lynne Spreen

After a lifetime of dreaming about being a writer (while doing a career that actually fed my family), I was finally able to go at it seriously. This was the shocker: I had no idea what I was doing, but worse, I had no idea what I needed to know! It took me 8 years to publish my first novel, and I consider that a slow master’s degree in the creative arts. And it won an award, so I think I did okay. Read more>>

Mic Logik

I started writing rhymes in the 5th grade with one of my best friends Ronesh. I had no idea what I was doing plus being 10 or 11 the subject matter I could speak about was limited but it was fun and became a hobby for us. Hip Hop started to become a constant in my life. I loved listening to 2pac and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. Read more>>

Jeremy Myers

More or less 27 years of trial and error, with a do-it-yourself and never give up attitude. I’m fortunate to be in a scene that’s very open and supportive. There’s been countless people that have steered me in the right direction or pointed my in the right direction since day one. Read more>>

Percy Kleinops

I became an artist because 10 years ago during a long business conference call, I drew a face of a sad man on a sheet of notebook paper. Later that afternoon, my wife holding that sheet asked me who drew the face. I told her I had. She looked at me with astonishment and said questioningly, “You’re an artist.” I had in fact drawn many faces, but drawing faces did not make an artist. Read more>>

Andreas Danner

The first time I came across a professional camera was back in college – I did my Bachelor’s at Stuttgart Media University in Germany. During my undergrad there I also took classes in photography, typography and print design, among others like marketing and business classes. Read more>>

Katie Facada

I define craft as all the creative decisions you have to make in order to create an experience that someone can just “drop into.” Read more>>

Michelle Bernard

I began singing when I was 2 or 3 years old. By age 6, I had become the youngest member of the Youth Choir at my temple. The came dance lessons, jazz and tap, I was never, nor will I ever be, a prima-ballerina! hahaha I also learned, I am not really much of a dancer in general. I am tall and lanky, and far from graceful! Read more>>

Milla Nguyen

In my opinion, someone’s craft is not something someone is born with or learned, but something that is created originally. I can say that while I have many inspirations from the world around me, I have always tried to be authentic in all the projects that I have created or taken part in. Read more>>

Emily Congdon

I always wanted to be in a creative field. I wasn’t sure exactly what that meant, but I always enjoyed drawing. I explored several creative fields in high school (art class, photography class, digital editing, etc.). Then I attended Webster University in St. Louis, focusing on Graphic Design. Read more>>

Gregory Parries

Well it took a lot of trail and error, when I first started shooting I was so turned off by the post processing of photos yet, yet at the same time i was also put off by the cost of film ( now that I think about it I don’t think I have ever shot on film other than maybe a polaroid camera when i was a kid). Read more>>

Chris Prunckle

It all starts with being extremely stubborn. When I was five, I used to color all the time. My dad, who dabbled in art when he was a kid, took all my coloring books away and gave me stacks of blank paper, telling me to “draw my own pictures and color those instead.” I was little though, so my art was horrible. Read more>>

Seth Barmash

Most talent is natural but can be nurtured. When it comes to creative and performing arts, most skills can’t be taught but better yet coached. Coaching comes in easy-to-digest forms on all social media in this tech-based era. For those a little older we had to learn for ourselves by trying. Read more>>

Rachele Bailey

I grew up in the entertainment industry. My mom was a model/actress in Los Angeles, and for a long time my father was editor in chief of a magazine as well as a children’s book author/illustrator. Watching my dad with his illustrations helped me with my designs (not that I got a massive amount of his talent – dresses and swimwear are the extent of my drawing skills!) I learned so much from both of my parents and their friends/co-workers, along with my own experiences in the industry. Read more>>

Maddy Sutka and Lola Estok Maddy Sutka and Lola Estok

A lot of the foundation for our writing comes from the skills we learned in college, where we both majored in entertainment writing. Obviously writing for a magazine is different than writing a script, but many of the same principles exist. For each article that Blossom publishes, we try to find the narrative within the story, and the heart of the piece. Read more>>

Blak Raps

I’ve always been in love with music, more specifically hip-hop, so you could say I’ve been learning to do what I do since the age of 3-4. My mother always tells the story of me being in my car seat rapping “Chief Rocka” by Lords of The Underground as it played on the radio. Honestly though, I really took it serious around 19-20 and started to really learn the game and also perfect my pen. Read more>>

Daniel Luis Ennab

I had a lingering interest in filmmaking at a very young age, when I was basically a little kid. That interest grew for every movie I saw, and I think I was more intrigued on the idea of story than I was with the visual aspects of it. Don’t get me wrong, when I first saw a film like Coppola’s “Apocalypse, Now”, or Carpenter’s “The Thing”, or one of Sergio Leone’s spaghetti westerns, I was drawn by the visual language of those films, I was moved by their grand scale ambition, I was even haunted by certain elements of those films, too. Read more>>

Zach Black

Although I’m mostly what people call ‘self-taught’, because I didn’t have any formal training on my current primary instruments of electric guitar and singing, I really learned how to do what I do by spending most of my life learning from and surrounded by talented musicians.  Read more>>

Koda Dakota

How did you learn to do what you do? I’ve been performing for 21 years and filming and editing videos for 16. The time that you put into your craft will yield results if you allow it to if you listen and ask questions. I’ve learned from doing, as well as working with the colossal badasses that I bring to my circle. Read more>>

Sage Coffey

I first started drawing when I was just a kid and I’m grateful to my mom for always being so encouraging back then otherwise I would’ve never gone to art school. I do want to say that art school isn’t for everyone but for me, the structured learning really helped cement the foundations I needed to become the storyteller I am today! There’s a quote my old professor used to say that I really like. Read more>>

Christian D. Nelson

A journey in film parallels life in many ways. It’s a struggle to discover your cinematic style and creative vision, and the work needed to be put in, is the same as learning to be confident and truly knowing yourself. I learned to do this by simply moving forward. Against all odds; I move forward. Read more>>

Sam Knight

Many people think they would like to write a novel. Few actually do. Even fewer think beyond writing that novel to becoming a writer. And those who do often find themselves quickly overwhelmed. It turns out there’s a whole profession there, and that means you end up running a small business. Read more>>