I’ve lived in a cocoon of art and creativity practically all my life. So when a friend asked if I wanted to go to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), I agreed eagerly.

A few years back, I took Marshall Vandruff’s composition class, where we broke down the structure of paintings and learned that the great masters sometimes spent more time composing their infamous paintings than they did actually painting them. This little bit of knowledge had me seeing paintings in museums in a whole new way. Now, whenever I visit a museum I am always armed with a sketchbook and pencil, ready to unlock the secrets of the masters.