Bread is tricky. It is more about feel and instinct than the actual recipe in many cases.
Knowing that high hydration doughs will have a more coarse, open crumb like crusty artisan bread and that the finer texture comes from less hydration. For a high hydration artisan bread the no knead breads produce fantastic results.
I worked on my bread technique for quite a while, and I now know how to make it by feel and sight. I use my Kitchenaid for the mixing and kneading and can tell just by looking at it, if it's the right hydration.
Creating steam in the oven and cooking at a high temperature until it is completely baked (190-200 degrees) will insure a nice crusty bread.
Bread can be intimidating at first but the only way to get good at it is to keep researching and make a lot of it seeing how subtle changes effect the outcome.