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.

Marcie Colleen

In the fall of 2011 I was a nanny in Brooklyn, NY. My days consisted of playgrounds, snacks, and nap times. During nap time I became reacquainted with children’s picture books and fell in love. I decided then that I would seek out to learn how to create stories of my own. My education started at the library. I read every recently published picture book that I could get my hands on. And I say “recently published” because the form has changed a lot since the books I read as a kid. I wanted to know what picture books were being published in the last 5 years. Read more>>

Messieurs Swank

I literally took a full year (the global pandemic, lockdown year of 2020) and devoted the majority of my time and energy to learning how to create music for visual media (TV/Film, ads, video games, etc.), which is known as music or sync licensing. I invested in education, resources, tools and equipment, and as I learned I started building relationships in the field. Read more>>

Cheryl Derricotte

I took my first glass class at the Washington Glass School in DC. During my second class, I made a lighted sculpture about world poverty that was written up in the Washington Post. The co-director of the studio, Tim Tate, encouraged me to go to the Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina as that is where he had learned to blow glass and develop as an artist. Read more>>

Abby Sholar Lampton

So, I started photography when I was 13 years old. I got my first camera and jumped right in, though I didn’t actually start my professional photography until I was about 16 years old. The time in between was spent learning as much as I could: How the heck do I shoot on manual mode? What is ISO? What is shutter speed? What is aperture? I was intrigued by the idea that I could create a pretty photo by learning the ins and outs of my camera and how it functioned. Read more>>

Kristin Durfee

I struggled with reading when I was younger and was lucky to have a fabulous teacher who finally helped it all click. Once I was able to do it, I read all the time. I was definitely one of those kids who was told “put the book down and go outside and play!”. Luckily my parents did encourage my reading and I remember my mom always reading a book at night. Read more>>

Sam Small

I first learned how to use a pottery wheel during a semester-long class in high school. I can’t say I was good at it, but I absolutely fell in love with the craft. About 5 years later, I was working full-time and living in San Francisco, and I decided to take a six-week pottery course at a community studio. I fell in love with pottery all over again, and I haven’t been able to get enough of it since! Read more>>

Michael Finn

My knowledge and learning comes from many sources, but my successes and biggest moments of growth came from taking risks and believing in myself. I started acting at a young age, and followed that passion through college where I took a few courses in directing theatre. There was a student run theatre company at my school as well, and after graduating, I decided to roll the dice and try directing a fill length production. Read more>>

The Jazz Witnesses

Originally, we all were in high school jazz band. We learned the basics of swing and big band jazz but it was only when Xander (21, Upright Bass, Trombone, Piano, Banjo) introduced the idea of the New Orleans style that we all came together to learn it. Surely our learning process would be accelerated if curriculums in school focused on the traditional jazz style but unfortunately it is commonly overlooked. Read more>>

EMILIO APONTESIERRA-PARETTI

I learned to do what I do by observing, practicing, making mistakes, learning from mistakes, and experimenting with new methods, materials, and concepts. The conscious learning process that led me towards my artistic career began with my first art class with Colombian artist, Nora Parra Leyton, who introduced me to the world of painting, acting, and Puppets in 1981 during my high school days at the National Loperena School of Valledupar Colombia. Read more>>

Nikki Franco

Like many people, during the height of the pandemic, I came across many inspiring crafts and mediums. This is how I discovered polymer clay in 2021. After watching dozens of videos and researching this art form, I decided to give it a try. I bought my first clay kit, which to be honest, didn’t have the best quality of clay, I later learned this through trial and error, but it had the essential tools to get me started. Read more>>

Livi Birch

I don’t think I did anything at the beginning other than be me, which I guess is in fact a big part of acting: making every audition your own and having faith in yourself. I love being on set or taping an audition with a coach as I always learn new things whether it be from a director, fellow actor or a crew member. I’ve taken quite a few acting classes and workshops now and I always learn something new in every single one. Read more>>

Eve Cauley

During my childhood, I spent A LOT of time drawing and doing various crafts. Through high school, I took any art elective I could and picked up cosplay as a hobby after graduating. So over the years, I learned a good amount of ways to be artsy! I learned a lot from my teachers, but honestly, YouTube was my best friend haha! Being so actively crafty came with a negative after-effect, unfortunately. After being dedicated to my artistic side, I kind of went through a good solid 5 years of not simply drawing or painting. Read more>>

LaNique Monae

Being a musician and artist took time and years of dedication and work. I learned so much growing up by being eager to learn from those around me who I looked up to. From my grandmother to my cousins to my mentors and the list goes on. If I had the knowledge back then that I know now, I would have stuck with consistency on content and being able to reach those that didn’t know me. It was when I decided to spread my gift to the world is when my life changed for the better. Read more>>

Liam Pammer

Learning the craft is a true journey, with many arrivals along the way. We learned through youtube, mentors and friends. Rate of learning seems to be attached to curiosity about the subject. For us, we always stay curious about new possibilities which keeps us on our toes and ready. Read more>>

Anastasia Hera

I am still learning my craft – writing- by reading and listening. Specifically with music and songwriting, I began by listening repeatedly to songs that resonated with me, transcribing the lyrics and identifying the song structure. It’s important to be efficient and creative with wording, to understand the power of repetition and pauses. I’ve also found it helpful to focus on writing like I speak, which lends an authenticity to my work. Read more>>

Ernest Ayayo

When it comes to learning things about content creation, all it took was research honestly. I was a big fan of some smaller youtube channels that I follow alot and have connections to some of the creators personally. Watching their behind the scenes videos and watch tutorials on Youtube taught me alot on how to be a content creator. Read more>>

Tai Nguyen

I started watching and admiring comedians like Chris Rock, Richard Pryor, Bill Hicks, and Jerry Seinfeld. I never thought I would have the skillset nor courage to become a stand up comedian. I didn’t pursued stand up until I turned 27 years old. At the time I was working customer support at AT&T, I would crack jokes at work and impressed my co-workers. They told me I should do stand up comedy. One day during work I looked up comedy open mics in Austin, TX then I drove to one after work. Read more>>

Tommy Tsu

I’m actually self taught . I started out wanting to make music and by needing beats, mixing, promo videos etc. & having very little money I ended up teach myself to just get started. As I continued, all my skills developed to the point where other artists and businesses started to reach out for my services. It really is all mindset. You have to constantly keep yourself in the right frame to be open to being taught. To collaborating, to fixing your mistakes. To improving on your next proj. You have to want to seek knowledge. If you look at all as one big experience, the process becomes much more pleasurable. Read more>>

Ashly Lovett

From a very young age, I showed a strong interest in drawing. I was always the nerdy art kid assigned to do the school mural projects. When I started looking at my future, it was my brother who encouraged me to apply to an art school, and later that year I was accepted into Ringling College of Art and Design and majored in illustration. My four years there were wonderful. I learned the fundamentals of design, had incredible instructors, and built many strong relationships with my peers. Read more>>

Jennifer King

My artistic education started when I was pretty young, as my mom taught me some basics on how to draw and paint (she had studied Commercial Arts and her grandmother was a painter). I furthered my artistic journey quite a bit in college, when I chose to major in Fine Arts with a concentration in painting and drawing at Cal State University Fullerton. After I received my BFA, I took time off of school to build my portfolio, develop my artistic style, and focus on color theory. Read more>>

Andres Simonian

I learned to do what I do like everyone else, by taking classes and just doing it every single day. Class wasn’t enough so I looked for work in a theatre and was soon acting in plays and I went out of my way to look for short films which were the most accessible projects to me at the time. Knowing what I know now, I don’t think I’d change a single thing. Everything happened the way it had to for me to learn from my mistakes and get to where I am now. Read more>>

Milla

I didn’t start to learn anything about music until I decided to stop paying someone to do it for me. Meaning; studio time, recording, mixing, mastering, cover art, etc… The person recording me most of the time was a good friend so I was comfortable with asking him to teach me how to do all these things. With in a year I was fully self sufficient and the freedom that came with it is such an asset. Read more>>

Luna Soleil

I was first inspired when I started to discover cute illustrations by others artists online. Specially art that was made with such genuine sentiment of healing and happiness. I started to fall in love with the therapeutic aspect of drawing. Art is an ongoing process of practicing your craft. Anything that inspires you can be your art. Read more>>

Erika Steele

In 2015 I took my first silversmithing class with a wonderful teacher named John. I went to a small bead shop outside of town where a total of four students learned the basics of the trade. I took this class a total of three times where each time I went I made something new and did intensive note taking. It gave me the basics to start working on pieces at home and implementing what I had learned in Mr. John’s class. Read more>>

C.D. Gorri

Everyone who says writing is a craft is actually right. Whodathunkit? LOL. Seriously, I have been self-publishing since 2014, have released with several independent presses since then, and remarkably the writing process is the one thing I can say without a doubt that has consistently evolved during the past few years. Read more>>

Shani Walker

There’s so much information out there that it can sometimes be overwhelming! And my co-host and I started from absolute scratch – no AV experience, no podcast experience… we barely could edit photographs for content! I think the most essential skills are marketing and AV. Because without great marketing, no one will know about your show! And regarding AV; a clear, crisp podcast will make your viewers stay for the full episode and come back. Read more>>

Rachael Dowd

Observation first…then practice. You can practice all you like but it’s going to be much harder to grow if you’re not actively seeking ways to learn your craft. I would have improved quicker had I done this when I first started back in 2019. It wasn’t until I started watching other models that I really began to thrive and grow. Learning should be a constant. The most essential skills have been my flexibility and willingness to try new things. You have to really get out of your comfort zone. I was my biggest obstacle for quite some time. I kept myself from doing what I truly wanted to do. Trusting yourself is a huge life changer. Read more>>

LoKii AD

When it comes to music recording and mixing, I honestly had to get on the internet, ya know? There weren’t any classes in middle school or high school that taught music production at this level. Then noone is really expecting it from me. I went to YouTube to learn the basics and went from there. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to afford paying others to record and mix my music for me when I started. Plus I’m a hands on guy anyway. I’d definitely say in making songs, that the Eq and compression of the vocals are the two most important things. After those are good, you can worry about the other cool effects. Read more>>

Carl Adams

The violin was my first instrument. I was 11 and played it through middle and high school. Around 15 or 16 I picked up the bass guitar and actually started writing songs. I didn’t have a computer, so I’d just write note names on index cards and pray I remembered how the song was supposed to come together rhythmically. This led to some ideas that I’ve long since forgotten, but as time went on I no longer needed to write anything down. Read more>>

Joy Ekpin

Wow! Great questions! I would have to say, I learned on the job so to speak. Each cake/dessert order is unique (because each person ordering is unique). So they come with different requests. Those requests would lead me to practicing new skills. Many times, learning those skills would come through trial and error (self-taught) or by way of YouTube University. I do not believe there is a way to speed up the learning process. Read more>>

Natasha Williams

Writing wasn’t something I really learned, it was something that was creatively apart of me. I wrote journals and poetry growing up. It was a therapeutic hobby for me. I simply perfected my craft with a deeper interest as I grew older. I could’ve probably invested more time into that as I was growing up if I actually took it more seriously as a career path back then such as more writing classes, more research of the career path of an author and possibly actually going to college for creative writing to enhance my literature skills. Read more>>

Elysia Fernandez

The learning process within the craft has been interesting i’d say, but definitely very rewarding. I decided to take the non-traditional approach and teach myself mostly everything I know. I definitely had some help from my fabulous mutuals that share the love of the craft and of course, YouTube videos. The only thing that really comes to mind that would have helped my learning process, would have been to start developing my own film sooner. Starting more of a hands on approach as opposed to reading article after article, watching video after video. Read more>>