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.

Raymond Belling

This might read more like a checklist. Learning how to dj is spending many many hours learning the art of djing. The basics. The equipment to use. Mixing two records on beat. What is a crossfader? What is a needle and cartridge? What is a pitch control? How do you balance a tonearm? Knowing when to mix or drop a song in. Knowing how to read a crowd. How to deal with requests. Do you wanna scratch? That’s like taking another major in college! What equipment to use and what suits you best. Is it CDJ’s, Turntables or controller. Then comes music selection and practice. Many, many hours of practice. Read more>>

Joëlle

I started to compose from a very young age; with the age of six, I began to learn piano and singing and went to operas, theaters and ballets, which shaped me musically. Next to school and without yet an official training in composition, I started to write my first music pieces for piano, but it quickly developed into writing for different instruments, resulting in compositions for ensembles and orchestras. I participated in several competitions, workshops and masterclasses, simultaneously taking part in the talent promotion program for composition at the Music Academy of Basel. After high school, I pursued a bachelor’s and master’s degree in composition and additionally completed a conducting diploma.  Read more>>

Joey Barness

After the initial bowl carving experience, I decided to take a woodworking class at the Station North Tool Library, where I learned how to make a coffee table. Finishing that class and going home with a new coffee table brought about the same feeling as the bowl. At this point I became obsessed with making and always had a new project to work on. I signed up for as many classes as I could, and spent nearly every waking moment thinking about projects or actively working on them. I continued iterating on my work, getting better each time and eventually building up a small inventory of products I could sell at craft markets. For me, the key to learning was threefold: Read more>>

Rhia

I honestly just started by talking to people. I always wanted to learn another language, but didn’t know the best way to go about it. I learned Spanish in school, but it felt more like a requirement than a choice. Korean was different, the language learning community really took me in and helped shape how I learn now. If I could go back, I’d stop overthinking and just enjoy content in the language more. I’d also push myself to actually use what I learn, instead of just studying it. The biggest skill? Consistency. Language learning is slow, one day it’s a few words, the next day you’re thinking in a whole new language. The hardest part was the lack of guidance. There’s so much out there for learning English, but when it came to other languages, it felt scattered, and half of it was outdated. Language is always evolving, and that made it feel like I was chasing a moving target. Read more>>

Carolyn Brown

I think to better understand my learning process, it’s helpful to understand my background. I am diagnosed with ADHD and depression, so figuring out a way to help myself feel better, in a variety of ways, was the start.

I’ve always been a creative person with a million ideas (watercolor, mosaics, photography…) and I taught myself most of these skills through trial, error, and a little obsession. I’d get deeply into one material or technique, watch tutorials, read blogs, and just start experimenting. I overcame the fear of perfection and started creating. Read more>>

Bruce Turk

I learn mainly by trial, error, and practice. I started painting in high school and went on to take drawing and art history at Northwestern University, while studying acting. After college, I spent four years in Japan, training and working as an actor in a theatre company. At that time, I was mentored by the painter Ikuo Nishinarita who introduced me to the world of handmade papers and taught me to trust that artmaking is a form of “walkabout,” in which the work itself becomes a map to be followed. I’m reminded to listen to the work more than myself. Read more>>

Jaffa Martin Frye

I started learning basic photography in Spring of 2020 (Age 16), not really knowing much of what to do, but continuously trying and practicing composition. After about 6-months of being stuck at home due to COVID contact restrictions, I was finally able to start going out into the world and practice my skill in real time. I started booking my first clients on a very low scale and understanding not only how to take photos but communicate with others to serve a creative vision. This was very abnormal for me since I am naturally introverted and I was working with clients, their families and people who were signifacntly older at the time. Read more>>

GirlSpit X

I’m a self-taught stencil artist. I originally began creating stencils for street art. When I first started, my work was very much at a beginner’s level. In 2020, I decided to shift my focus and start showing professionally, which marked the beginning of my transition from street art to galleries. I began preparing for my first solo show, which was a pivotal step in redefining my artistic presentation. Read more>>

Cassie Riley

Photography has always been a passion of mine. Growing up, I was that friend who never showed up without a camera in hand. Whether it was a school event, a sports game, or party, I was there capturing the moments.

I took a few photography classes in high school, where I got my first taste of the basics and even worked with film. But most of what I know today came from trial and error, late nights digging through free online resources, and gaining knowledge from fellow photographers I’ve met along the way.  Read more>>

Nicholas Marinoq

I have been a self-taught artist since the earliest age I could remember, which was around four years old. I take influence from my father because he, too, was self-taught and later in life, took some art courses at his university. He would show me art work he completed in college using various techniques such as wood carving portraits, charcoal drawings of famous celebrities and we had two large drawings in the house that he hand drew of the town he grew up in and the Vatican City. Other influences became my maternal aunt who was an interior designer and allowed me to work summers for her, so I was exposed to various fabrics, textures and design work looking through magazines. Read more>>

Rachel

I have spent the entirety of my twenty-seven years doing and making artistic things. My favorite memories of childhood are all related to coloring, drawing, playing on my first computer with Photoshop, MS Paint and all those fun programs! Read more>>

Laelius Smith

Everything I have learned as an artist has come from exploring the world with an earnest curiosity. In some ways this may sound vague or nebulous, but the majority of what I have learned has come organically, and from trying to understand how things work, and why. Music has always been one of my greatest passions, and my education in it started at an early age, from playing with instruments casually on my own, to learning music in school, to then joining my school’s orchestra and band. From then on, I would spend a lot of free-time singing or teaching myself songs on an old Yamaha keyboard my mom had lying around. Read more>>

Zhishen Li

As an illustrator, I have taken many detours. I was having a hard time searching for a distinct voice. During my time at university, I began to explore this more seriously. After discovering digital painting, I experimented with various brushes and eventually became drawn to the airbrush tool. It heightened my sensitivity to light and shadow, sparking an interest in rendering form and atmosphere. This tool became central to how I expressed the dreamlike, soft-edged language of my sci-fi visuals. Read more>>

Amanda Couture

When I was 10 years old, I was gifted the Dixie Chicks “Home” album. I played it on repeat for months and decided right then and there I wanted to learn how to sing. I started taking singing lessons that year and continue to take lessons to this day. Initially, my lessons were grounded in classical music.

What I know now is that those lessons taught me the fundamentals of being a strong vocalist and resilient performer. I am able to sing dynamically, safely, and really tell a story – and I believe it’s from being trained from such a young age. My voice took a long time to mature – I listen back to songs I sang when I was in my teens and I sound very young and there isn’t much power there. With that being said – I was taught to never push my voice as that can cause irreversible damage. Now, my voice is more powerful and mature, and I don’t have to strain to hit the high notes. Read more>>

Mathias Kandilah

I record memories. Every since I had a phone that could record videos and take pictures, I have always been interested in storing memories and making short stories about special moments. I learned how to capture memories by recording everything. starting with my friend’s I would record game nights, dinners, parties, trips, and even time capsules. To speed up this process I would try to find a partner to help with the business end of things while I focused on the creative aspect of the business. Communicating skills and also learning how to edit in different softwares were essential to creating my business, without either I would have taken a longer time to be where I am today. Read more>>

Kennay Powell

I learned makeup from practicing and also going to school. I attended Beat school of makeup artistry in Pikesville MD. I graduated May of 2025 and received my certification from the state of Maryland. My hands-on practice combined with formal training has prepared me for my new career. I was recently hired by Sephora as a LBA. As a licensed Beauty Advisor at Sephora in Towson Mall I offer a variety of services such as personalized skincare consultations, makeup application, product recommendations, beauty tutorials, and helping customers find the best products that suits to their skin types and preferences. Read more>>

Theodore Haber

I began taking music lessons when I was very young, learning Ukulele and then the Violin. Craft in those contexts revolved around learning other music and perfecting the technical approach to this music. As I got older and my interests changed craft became the creation of unique boundaries for exploring sound. Instead of practicing Bach I would restrict myself to two pitches and see how far on the violin I could take that, or I would turn my bow around and try to make sound that way. My craft became more exploratory. I likely would not have adopted this attitude without having the freedom to imagine the instrument differently. I was very fortunate to have teachers who encourages that kind of exploration. The biggest obstacle I encountered were for sure my own belief in myself. Especially creating boundaries I had to trust my own process. Read more>>

Kisha C.G.

I’m an educator & content creator. In the film space, I write, direct, produce, act, & create music. In both career areas of education & content creation, I’ve always had a curious mind to explore & find answers. I also enjoy encouraging others. This led me to be the co-founder of III Productions, a film company, with co-owner, John Rachwitz Jr. In 2018, Natasha White, a great asset to the team, joined us because of her multi-talented nature that spanned from teaching theater to acting, writing, directing, singing, & producing film. The focus of III Productions is on creating inspirational content & its purpose is to “ignite, infuse, & inspire others”. Read more>>

Philippa Radon

1. Instinctively and intuitively – two key traits critical to inner confidence & being a good designer. or life coach. Training, trial & error, and an obsessive/compulsive love of well thought out design. 1b. Through the process of the craft – and it is a process, that navigates the creative journey from a basic, familiar plan that then allows one to deviate from and explore. Read more>>

Kirsten Salpini

One of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned as an actor (and creative overall) is that artists are truth-tellers, but we are also translators.

And to my surprise, I didn’t learn it in an acting class.

Although my primary art form and my living is as a performer, I also paint and draw for fun. For a long time, I was focused on depicting what was actually in front of me. Focused on the truth, the realism, the accuracy… But in painting classes, my teachers would eventually show me that sometimes you change the colors to give the 2-d painting more depth. Just because the flowers aren’t <i>actually</i> that bright, doesn’t mean they don’t <i>need</i> to be that bright to tell the story of the image, for that scene to make the most sense to the viewer’s eye. Read more>>

Michael Kellman

I learned by doing, and I really believe that’s the only way to learn. You can read about basketball all you want, but until you’re out there practicing free throws, you aren’t getting any better at playing it. I got a little bit better with every script I wrote and every short film that I made. With filmmaking especially, you have to <i>make</i> the mistakes to learn from them. There’s only a small number of the many classic pitfalls you can avoid by listening to the advice of others. For 90% of those pitfalls, you have to fall victim to them yourself to avoid them in the future. I could have sped up my learning process by making more films and doing so earlier in my life. I made my first short at about sixteen, and didn’t make another until I was nineteen. Read more>>