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.

Cia Jaye

The one thing I love about acting is that I’m constantly learning things that naturally advances my skills. I’m a visual learner, so when I’m portraying a character that’s difficult to understand, I’ll research other characters in films that are similar and visually study them to help bring my character alive. I also catch my myself intaking every bit of information from different sets by watching other actors perform their scenes, especially when improv is involved. Read more>>

Jess Bush

Something that tends to surprise people is that I didn’t really know I could sing until my mid to late 20s. I knew I had a pleasant enough voice for a musical theatre ensemble and a good ear, but that was about it. I auditioned for the acapella group in college and did not get in. I cringe just remembering that day and how I sounded. I learned how to sing just from joining a band and doing it more often. Read more>>

The Band Kris

Well, we are self-taught musicians! We started writing songs when we were kids (we still crack up laughing today thinking back to those lyrics haha) but ultimately, we practiced that skill so much that it paid off, just like Tony Robbins says, “Repetition is the mother of skill.” It really is! Something that we have noticed looking back now is how our music would consistently reflect the type of music we were listening to back then. In a way, our ‘teachers’ are the musicians who we were inspired by.  Read more>>

Renee I

I am an artist by nature. I grew up drawing and being creative in whatever way I could. I learned to paint abstract oil paintings by my own experimentation and application over the past ten years. How it all started was during my undergrad degree in interior design. I took fundamental art classes such as drawing, color theory, 3D and graphic design, art history, and photography. It was the amount of training I had visually in interior design–– seeing so many shapes, lines, forms, and patterns that really trained my eye. Read more>>

Han Peng

Learning to become a concept artist has been a fascinating and evolving journey for me. My path began with a deep-rooted love for illustration, research, and storytelling, which naturally translated into a passion for world-building. I pursued a degree in history and ancient languages before going to art school, and along the way, I engaged in a lot of extracurricular art training. Ultimately, I believe I was simply born with a passion for drawing and creating things from my imagination. Read more>>

Loretta Bozung

Mostly by trial and error I learned to be an artist. Then in my late 30’s I was awarded a full scholarship to earn my bachelors degree. That process, of intense critical discussion, building a large body of cohesive work, that truly groomed me for a full time life as a practicing artist. Economics prevented me from attending college until I was well into adulthood. I went on to complete my masters at 40 and I think both my undergrad and grad studies were instrumental in giving me the real tools to develop my own vernacular. Read more>>

Troy Richardson

Songwriting is a lifelong learning process — I’d say some of it is an unlearning process, too. It has a technical and ethereal aspect. I’m sure there are a few songwriters who don’t play an instrument or know any music theory, but that’s probably rare. These are skills that a songwriter needs to create. It would be like trying to build a house without tools — maybe even like trying to build a house without wood. I’m sure there are songwriters who don’t play an instrument, just as there are probably some successful mud huts around, but it’s rare. No one needs to be a virtuoso instrumentalist to write compelling songs, but it’s hard to get ideas across without playing at all. Read more>>

Parris Douglas

I developed my artistic ability through repetition. Once I became more comfortable with my craft, I sought out more seasoned and established artists, asking as many questions as I could. When I was around 8 years old, I would trace Dragon Ball Z characters from my folders, repeating these techniques for years until I discovered other artists like Ernie Barnes and Vincent van Gogh. Looking back, I realize that a formal art education might have provided a stronger foundation. Read more>>

Kevin Norris

I am a self-taught stained glass artist. During the pandemic when everyone was baking bread, I was thinking how hot my place would be with the oven on all the time. Like many others during that time being home alone, anxious and depressed I needed to find an outlet. Living alone, my only companion was my faithful dog, Tyga. I started to pass time by creating artistic interpretations of him. I thought a stained glass portrait of him would be unique and personal. Only one thing holding me back…how to do it. Read more>>

Sadie Monroe

I started college in Tennessee studying Entrepreneurship, having no clue what I wanted to do but knowing I wanted some sort of freedom. I ended college in Chicago studying Fashion Design and Business. A wise woman and professor, Beata Kania, opened my eyes to creativity and taught me how to see. She pointed me in the direction of leading an artful life. Since then, I’ve tried a lot of things. Read more>>

Majo Rivero

Everything started growing up in Mexico seeing my sister sing and dance her heart out. We started taking classes together just for fun not knowing it could be, and soon would be our careers. I always saw performing as a priority and I would even get in trouble at school for missing homeworks, until they gave in and would ask me to organize performances at school for the students, I even started teaching dance classes to my classmates and neighbors. Read more>>

Shainu Bala

In a nutshell I realized that the hardest part of learning this craft is constantly telling yourself you’re not as good as you think you are and trying to get better. I think lot of people move out here to LA. Take a class get a agent book one costar and they think they’re good enough to not keep training, but the reality is the levels of this craft or far beyond what you first think you need to know and the only way to get there is to humble yourself And work on yourself this craft exposes all your blind spots on who you are and if you’re willing to humble yourself, you will build introspection and learn to understand who you are on a deeper and profound level because only when you truly understand who you are, will you actually be able To be Vulnerable enough to portray, genuine performances. Read more>>

Britta Anderson

My journey into the world of oil painting began with a deep fascination for the arts, which sparked in me at a young age. I found immense joy in working with paint, and it quickly became clear that this would be a lifelong passion. I nurtured this interest by taking art classes throughout school, choosing them as electives whenever possible. This early exposure paved the way for my decision to pursue a bachelor’s degree in Studio Art/Education. My formal education continued with a Master’s in Fine Art, which allowed me to delve deeper into my craft, refining both my technical skills and conceptual ones, along with my understanding of what art world I wanted to be a part of, and how to achieve that. Read more>>

Kate Szekely

The desire to be a storyteller was quite inherent in my being from quite a young age. I engaged in dramatic play from when I was a toddler. I also had a lot of trouble fitting in with my peers as a child (and well into my teenage years), and often immersed myself in my imagination to escape that sense of isolation. Somehow, I was most comfortable and free when I located myself in some great narrative. So I supposed I started to learn storytelling from a very instinctual place. Read more>>

Jill Shah

Learning and honing skills in any design or creative industry is never a straightforward journey with fixed rules or a clear roadmap. If you talk to any creative professional, they’ll likely share a mix of diverse experiences, ranging from applied sciences and engineering to more personal passions like cooking or biking. I’m no different. The finer, more abstract skills that I’ve developed—critical thinking, strategic design, attention to detail, and visual communication—were largely shaped by my time as a practicing architect. I started my career designing functional yet beautiful residences for clients, which naturally led me into the world of Interior Design. Read more>>

Nyajuok Kueth

I learn to do what I do through watching the greats that came before me. We are taught unfortunately that all it takes is a pretty face to be a model but that’s completely wrong. There is so much more knowledge and skill that’s needed to be a successful model. Not only do you need to know the art form itself; like how to pose, walk on runways, how to know where your key light is at depending on the lighting set up, how to help the photographer get the best shot.. etc. you also need to know the skills of everyone on set and how to market, it takes a lot of skills. Read more>>

Fairy Boy

Before i started making all my own visual my friends Hyperjuice and bassmemory had made my previous single cover arts for me and they were nice enough to do it all for free at the time which i am forever grateful but thats not something i could do all the time cause they both deserve to be paid for their art. It was basically out of necessity that i started to learn how to make my own things in blender. I just have a hard time focusing on things especially tutorials so i really had to force myself to pay attention if I really wanted to learn the Blender software. luckily theres this artist named Ducky3D on youtube who post super short tutorial that are easy to follow and i was able work on my skills that way.. Read more>>

Amrit Atwal

Learning and going through the process of concept art was not an easy path. I myself never done art until 2018 seriously. Coming from a sports background and getting into mechanical engineering, never would have thought I would have made the switch. I learned a lot through Brainstorm School on how to design and making cool environments. Want to really shout out Thomas Brillante and James Paick for all that Brainstorm has offered . Knowing what I know now, I would have totally got into concept art in high school, it would have sped up a lot of things. Read more>>

Crystal Derosier

All my life I have been a creator of THINGS. Drawing, sewing, writing, crafting…you name it, I had probably tried it. There was one thing, though, that had eluded me – and that was working in metal. Metal was so mysterious in how it melted and bent, forming these solid and sometimes intricate structures in our world. I was always fascinated when I was younger seeing bronze sculptures and wondering how on earth someone made them. Being a solution-oriented person, if there was something I wanted to try, there was going to be a way to make it happen. Read more>>

James Centeno

Learning music was quite a ride for me! I mostly picked up my skills from high school music classes, diving into YouTube tutorials, and just experimenting on my own. YouTube was definitely the game-changer. There’s an abundance of good content out there that helped me dive into techniques and styles that I was curious about. Knowing what I know now, I’d definitely set clearer goals and have a more structured practice routine. Sometimes it felt like I was just wandering around and skipping steps here and there. Having a better practice schedule and tracking my progress would have helped even more. Read more>>

Morgan Buckert

I delivered a pair of cowboy boots to a client last weekend. The stress of a delivery is almost crippling. Will they fit? Will she like them? These questions keep me up at night. She was trembling with excitement while opening the box. Her gasp, a couple of tears, and the pop of sliding into a perfect fit calmed me down. It never occurred to me when I started down this path that I would be so emotionally attached to each pair, the process, the client, and making things perfect, but it’s one of the ways that boot making fulfills me and has changed my life for the better. Read more>>

Hadar Kleiman

Even though I have an MFA and focused on Fine Art in both my undergraduate and graduate programs, I learned many of my practical skills after graduating. I was fortunate to have some amazing faculty, and my studio classes provided basic tutorials on tools and materials, along with access to great facilities. However, both schools I attended placed a strong emphasis on the conceptual aspect of art-making. I soon realized that to bring certain ideas to life, I would need to dive deeper into research to discover the right techniques. Read more>>

Michael Ajerman

As a teenager, art school became this far off ideal that I constantly pined for. I thought it would be my salvation to all my problems. I was lucky to get into the Cooper Unions Outreach Program, created for New York City teens for a term. I somehow convinced them that coming from New Jersey was not a problem. There we had an array of legitimate classes: life drawing, conceptual drawing/design, writing, and sculpture. I was there for three terms where the students were incredible and everything seemed possible. Getting in for my undergrad did not work out which sabotaged my plans. This lead me to Washington DC. I left art school in DC after a year and a half. Even with inspiring teachers, I was fed up with the city, the program, and the way we were taught. Read more>>

Ximena Uribe

Like many, I am an actress and filmmaker and learning the craft has not been the most linear path. The way I got into it was purely out of curiosity for the art. When I first started I remember seeing kids my age on Netflix shows and feeling like I got into it way to late. Now looking back I see that there is no right or perfect time to get into something like this. I wish that was something my teachers imparted on me more, so that I could’ve had more fun in my earlier days. That was another thing only time and experiences taught me, was that making films is not saving lives (at least not immediately) therefore you should be able to not take yourself that seriously. Read more>>