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.

Uriel Ben-Levi

Having a career as a hairstylist means you never stop learning. There are so many new techniques, products and tools that come out and you have to stay current with the trends. Cosmetology school teaches you the basics but there’s a lot you don’t learn in school and if you don’t have the passion you won’t be successful. Read more>>

Cintia de Mita

Learning my craft is something that takes time. At first, I wanted to speed up the process of building my foundational knowledge, but now I know that it will be an ongoing development. My craft is ever changing, and I am ever growing as both a human and a director/choreographer. So, I will always be a student and continue working on my skills. There will always be something to learn and get better at! Read more>>

Sebastian Bruno-Harris

Early on in my practice, I learned how to work with different mediums, including sculpture, drawing, print media, photo, and video, which became the foundational skills for a lot of the work I make now. In the last two years I’ve dabbled into different things like wheel throwing, flower arranging, miniature-making, collaging, 3D printing, and 3D animation, and my practice today is about combining all of these different ways of making into my own idiosyncratic sculptural arrangements.  Read more>>

Emily Davis

I learned how to use my voice as an instrument from my dad. He has a history in choral performance, and was often singing around the house. I suppose some of that rubbed off on me. Read more>>

Chrystal Starr

I believe I’ve learned more on my own time, and from working with other photographers, the past few years than I ever did from college. Photography school gave me the basics, but overall lacked teaching the fundamental business skills needed to successfully run your own photography business. I appreciate the “social status” having a Bachelor’s degree provides, however, knowing what I know now, I would have stopped at my Associates degree and figured out ways to learn on my own sooner, (and saved a lot in student loans!) Read more>>

Maverick Turner

I began learning audio on my own at 13 years old. I use to spend hours searching the internet, downloading software and reading pdf books trying to find out anything that I could about what it takes to become a great engineer. Read more>>

Sebrina Purcell

I think as an artist your journey with learning your craft is never ending. I see that more and more as I get older. That is why it is so important to continue to learn and try out different approaches to the work. There was a time in my journey where I would write everything down,(pages and pages). Read more>>

Veronica Lopez

I’m originally from Huntington Park, CA. My first introduction to the viola was in 6th grade at Henry T. Gage Middle School. I joined a beginning strings class alongside 80+ other middle schoolers. We spent our first year learning the fundamentals of music such as instrument care, clapping rhythms, and more. Read more>>

Lawrence Fields

My own journey has taught me a lot about how the learning process works, and I’ve realized that so many commonly-held beliefs about learning are actually completely in opposition to the mindset that we need to efficiently absorb new skills. Read more>>

Marco Cerretelli

I started tattooing 31 years ago in Italy while I was in the military. I’m basically self taught because back in those days,in Italy, nobody was offering any type of apprenticeship. Read more>>

Jordan Lyn

I’m self taught mostly. When I was younger I learned how to sew my own clothing and during college, I was exposed to fiber arts. From that point I experimented more and found embroidery. I looked up videos online and read a lot of book to find what works for me! Read more>>

Andrea Boyd

Before I started writing, I had almost zero knowledge of everything involved in getting a book into the readers’ hands. When I felt the call to write, I began reading every article I could find on crafting the story. Once the first story was complete, I moved on to researching how to get the book published, and then on to how to promote the book. It’s a never-ending process, really. Read more>>

Edgar Alminar

The theory that you have to put in 10,000 hours of work/practice to master something is definitely true. I put in thousands of hours in my recording studio and DJing events, and I still don’t feel anywhere near a mastery level. Staying up late nights, into the early hours of the morning, and hibernating away from friends and family is a sacrifice you will have to make if you want to move things along. That being said, when you are passionate about your craft, it never feels like work, or sacrifice, or tedious. Read more>>

Tess Foran

I remember the first time I used a tattoo machine. My friend had gotten one from his artist Chris Holtsapple and we were passing around a pumpkin and tattooing little doodles on it. It’s what first sparked my interest in becoming a tattoo artist and I don’t know if I would be here today if it weren’t for that experience. Read more>>

Sol

hen I was a kid I used to watch a lot of freestyle videos, listen to a lot of Hip-Hop, watch music videos, and there was this one specific show I used to watch back in the day called Rap City Tha Basement. I feel like all of those certain elements and different sounds that I was hearing, taught me and inspired me. I started out just freestyling to myself all the time, and my rapping skills just kept getting better and better. Read more>>

Brendan Krake

I’ve learned a lot since moving to Nashville, from starting college to then dropping out of college and deciding to really pursue the dream I’ve had since i was a little kid. It’s been a weird two years full of a lot of my favorite memories. I feel like I’ve grown up a lot, especially when it comes to my writing. Read more>>

Jamie Sivinski

I’ve always known I wanted to have a profession in art. I was extra interested in photography and ended up going to an art college after high school. I did learn a lot in college about the trade of photography. However I learned so much more from growing in experience. Obstacles in the way from learning more would be being in my own head and letting other peoples options get in the way of following my dreams. Read more>>

Colby Ragghianti

I pretty much just picked up a camera cause I found them so interesting and loved to see things through a lens. So I just took advice from my photographer friends asking how all the different things worked on a camera and they pretty much had the same answer, just try different things out and you’ll get the hang of it. So that’s what I did. Read more>>

Sam Conturo

Learning the craft is the most fun part of doing creative work. Just when you think you figured something out anoth er door opens with new possibilities expanding your craft even further. Read more>>

Marisa Gylling

I learned to do what I do from life experiences, and continuing my education within the art field. From a young child I have been creating art. I loved to sketch things that intrigued me from different stages of my life. For example I loved horses as a young girl. From having horse toys to watching horse movies I learned so much about the horse physique. Read more>>

Dominique Carter

I learned photogrpahy by following other photographers that I really liked on social media and just going out and shooting as much as I could. Sometimes I would shoot alone and other times I would shoot with others and learned from them as well. One thing I wish I would have done earlier was to shoot more things and not hold myself to one particular style or genre of photography. Read more>>

Jeffrey MARKOWITZ

In my book, Business School For Creative People I talk about how artists can make money. You want to become a successful artist making money doing what you’re good at, what you love, and what gives your life meaning. That’s why. But you don’t know how, or if it’s even realistic. That’s another reason why. Read more>>

Mitch Fairchild

Honestly, I’ve learned most of what I know about making music on my own, just by watching videos on YouTube and a lot of just messing around in Ableton and seeing what works. I still feel like I hardly know what I’m doing sometimes and definitely feel like I have a long way to go, but I’m at least at a point now where I can say that I can see the direction I want to head as a producer and know that I can make it there if I really am dedicated. Read more>>

Neil Vanides

I started acting in high school without much technical knowledge or training whatsoever. Fortunately, my school (Whitefish Bay High School) really valued the arts and the teachers there were all very passionate about developing each student by finding out what makes us who we are and what ignites us with energy. My first teacher was a man named John Coleman, and he very patiently taught me that before the “play” of acting begins, there is much work to be done. His guidance along with my sister Rose’s help memorizing lines were definitely key to my pursuit of the craft. Read more>>

Chris Hepburn

I am fully self-taught in all aspects of my career. I have a BA in Literature from the College of Creative Studies program at UCSB, followed by a year spent in Emerson’s MA Writing, Literature, and Publishing Program, as well as a year in San Francisco State’s Interdisciplinary Arts Program. I like to think if you add those 2 years together it’s equal to one Masters. That said, none of these schools directly trained me for what has become a career in video game marketing. Read more>>

Rishi Kaushal

“Just do it” is usually one of the first things someone tells us when we say we’re going to take up a new skill or craft, and even after 5+ years in the animation industry I find that I still have to remind myself that. Though it’s not always as simple as just doing something either, you need to know what to learn and how to do it, practicing without direction won’t lead to results. While I have a lot of respect for self taught artists, for me, who came out of high school not even knowing how to draw I think that animation college was a great basis for starting my animation career. Read more>>

Holly Willwerth

When I was a junior in high school, I joined our yearbook team. One of my first tasks was to help photograph and develop images for, that book. From the first moment I stepped into that tiny little darkroom, I was hooked on the photographic process. From there, I began taking classes in high school and college. That was 1990. Read more>>

Jorge Cajías

As a kid, even before I realized it, I was always bound to create music. I dabbled in the arts from very small, and I always had an involuntary urge to create. I would often watch a movie, hear a song, listen to a conversation, and feel an overwhelming urgency to draw, perform, or anything my innocent hands were capable of. Read more>>

Dusty Saunders

Learning how to animate was a bit of an evolution for me. Some of it I learned in school, and a lot of it I learned on YouTube. With animating I think taste is probably the most important skill. You can do some very simple non technical animations and if done in good taste it, it can be very well received. As far as obstacles, definitely computer hardware has been the biggest obstacle. Read more>>

Gabriel Lucido

The big learning curb for me was lighting, for that, most of my education actually came from YouTube. If I wanted to speed up my learning process, I would have spent more time researching the latest trends in photography instead of trying to mimic the old trends. I think the most essential skill for food photography is being able to identify good photography, otherwise you won’t be able to recreate whatever makes those photos amazing. Read more>>

Marqueza

Almost everything that I know how to do I taught myself. I learned to sing by just singing nonstop and still practicing and trying to reach notes I couldn’t before. I learned how to produce because I got so frustrated by the misogyny and gate-keeping in the local music scene and also my difficulty learning in school due to undiagnosed ADHD. I am still learning my craft as I go and that is part of the journey I am learning to love. Read more>>

Cynthia Soe

In my journey of discovering my passion in the art field, I embraced a lot of trial and error. All I knew was that I had a deep desire to build a career around creating and telling stories. I’ve come to realize that there’s no fast track to learning and honing my craft. There has been a lot of trial and error and every mistake or lesson from experiences I didn’t enjoy has ultimately contributed to my growth. Read more>>

Goh Kurosawa

As a creative musician, I wake up most mornings before the sun is out of bed. My current three favorite workout choices other than practicing music… (a) swim from 5-7am (b) run to the park to do 55 perfect pull-ups (c) do my one hour morning walk. On a good morning, after my exercising, I cook https://www.composelife.com/diary/k55 a meal, and then review my recordings and videos from recent events and work on crafting my voice, guitar, and compositions. Read more>>

Chauncey Kochel

I have always been artistic and creative for as long as I can remember. However, tattooing as a profession had never crossed my mind growing up. I’ve always been into the artform as a collector and admired quality body art but 20 years ago the industry was highly guarded, information was scarce and the process of how to even become a tattoo artist was far from “common knowledge”. Read more>>

Joana Jordao

I started learning graphic design at university while pursuing my bachelor’s degree, but my passion and curiosity about design started while I was still at school. I have always liked and appreciated photography. Back then, I used to carry my camera around and take photos of nature. My focus was flowers, trees, and animals, and I wanted to explore them from different angles. Read more>>

Noelle Roth

I was very lucky to have parents who put me in dance class at just 2 years old. They saw my interest in dance, and gave me the opportunity to learn the craft. When I got a little older, I started studying singing and acting as well as dance. Looking back, I don’t know if there was anything I could have done to “speed up my learning”, and to be completely honest, I don’t think that should be the goal! Read more>>

John Ma’ae

I got a bass guitar as a birthday gift when I was 15. I plucked away at it until I could make a proper sound. Days turned into years, bass turned into guitar and Whammo…I’m where I’m at currently! Read more>>

Annette Davey

As a young student growing up in Adelaide, south Australia I had always wanted to work in the arts but it wasnt an easy path getting into the film industry. In Australia the film industry is quite small and not easy to get into, so you have to be open to working as an intern and volunteering as much as possible to get your foot in the door. Initially I did any class or course that was available, and then i moved to Sydney where there is a bigger film industry and got extremely lucky. Read more>>

Miles Chatterji

I learned by trial, taking pictures over and over wondering why some didn’t look like what I would see in magazines, or online, so I would try again, and again. Eventually, I found formulas for certain types of looks based on equipment and angles. I’m not sure I could have done much to speed this up. Read more>>

Kyle Ryan Nagle

The first time I picked up a makeup brush I knew this was going to be the medium to change my world. I have always been artistic and loved crafting and creating. I always loved the idea of working in the beauty space because of having a mother and aunt who were both beauticians but I never wanted to do hair and be behind a chair. It always scared me. I saw how much work it was and it never clicked. Read more>>

Kalisha Zachery

Plan for everything, the expected and the unexpected! That’s how we learned to do what we do as producers and filmmakers. And fourteen years later we are still learning and planning – it’s a delicate process that requires a lot of patience, integrity and respect which is also our core values. We apply those same values to our purpose in media and for the craft of storytelling overall. Read more>>

Leila Lopez

When I was a child, my household was perpetually filled with music. My parents would always have the record player going, (and later in the 90’s, CD’s.) In addition, my father had a few guitars, and we owned a piano. My knowledge of playing music first came exclusively by hearing a song and trying to mimic the notes on the piano. Read more>>