We’re here to help you get your dream job as a graphic designer, illustrator, or visual artist.
We’ve reviewed as many artist resumes as we could find to figure out exactly what goes into a good artist resume. This guide will help you write your own resume. Let’s get started!
Methodology
The goal of this guide is to give you real data what the “must haves” of artist resumes are.
To do that, we compiled and analyzed data from artist resumes and 36 artist job listings to get the data used for this our artist resume guide.
In addition to artist-specific resume data, we built a database of nearly 1 million resumes and job listings, and we use a propriety machine learning model to understand the anatomy of the best resumes in general.
Quick note: using the data below can help you build a competitive resume, but it’s always important to be creative, unique, and personal to stand out.
If you want more info on our methodology, you can check it out here.
Artist resume objective data + artist objective examples
Pop quiz: do artist’s really need to use an objective?
In general, whether or not you need an objective or professional summary can depend a lot on your personal career level (check out our article on resume objectives), but this is what our analysis found for artist’s specifically:
- 33% of artist’s included an objective section
- 26% of artist’s included a professional summary
- 47% of artist’s included neither an objective nor a summary
Artist objective examples
A highly creative artist , and a resourceful individual looking for a responsible position to gain practical experience.
To secure a position as an artist in a reputable gallery or studio, where I can showcase and develop my skills as a painter, sculptor, or printmaker.
To leverage my experience and expertise in digital art and animation to create visually stunning and engaging pieces for clients in the entertainment industry.
To utilize my passion for illustration and graphic design to create unique and compelling visuals for publications, websites, and other media outlets.
Skills for artist resumes
These are the skills that occurred most frequently in in artist resumes, which means they tend to be core competencies or highly desired skills.
Of course, you should only list skills that you actually have, and you should prioritze skills most relevant to the job you're applying for. But these are good core skills to include on your resume.
To get more detail on building a powerful skills section, take a peek at our article on resume skills.
*Note: to find skills our machine learning model basically looks for common words, so take these with a grain of salt and use your best judgment.
Most common artist resume skills
Most common hard skills for artist resumes: drawing, typography, autocad, composition, and customer service.
Most common soft skills for artist resumes: communication skills, customer-service skills, interpersonal skills, listening skills, and patience.
Other good artist resume skills
- Painting
- Communication
- Illustration design
- Adobe photoshop
- Adobe illustrator
- Graphic design
- Collaboration
- Ability to take criticism
- Detail-oriented
- Critical thinking
- Creativity
- Interpersonal
- Self-confidence
- Asset design
- Concept development
- Design creation
Artist skills section examples
Note: these examples are formatted the same here just because it’s simple, but we have more detailed formatting advice (and examples) in our guide to resume formatting.
Artist skills example 1
Painting | typography | illustration design | adobe photoshop | composition | customer service | adobe illustrator
Artist skills example 2
Communication | communication skills | graphic design | customer-service skills | collaboration | interpersonal skills | ability to take criticism
Artist skills example 3
Asset design | detail-oriented | patience | listening skills | creativity | customer-service skills | interpersonal
Work experience for artist resumes
Your work experience section is almost always the most important part of your resume. Because it’s difficult to pull trends from this kind of section, this section is mostly just examples.
For some advanced strategies for writing about work experience on a resume, refer to our article on building a strong work experience resume section. We also have a guide on writing a resume with no experience if you’re just starting your career.
For now, it’s good to remember that the most important experience for any artist resume is the most relevant experience.
A couple examples for you:
Artist work experience examples
WORK EXPERIENCE
Sr. Associate Artist
Olivia Pope & Associates, 2020-2022
Responsibilities
- Monitor financial markets and the performance of individual securities
- Contact prospective clients to present information and explain available services
- Manage the finances of the facility, such as patient fees and billing
- Oversee the maintenance and repair of machinery, equipment, and electrical and mechanical systems
- Address complaints regarding food quality or service
WORK EXPERIENCE
Associate Artist
Hooli, 2017-2022
Responsibilities
- Repair or replace malfunctioning components, parts, and other mechanical or electrical equipment
- Bathe animals, trim nails, clip hair, and attend to other grooming needs
- Collaborated with artists on designs and large projects
- Adhered to strong typography standards and followed brand guidelines, as needed
- Utilized problem solving and issue resolution skills to create signs in English
WORK EXPERIENCE
Artist Intern
Moxie Group, 2010-2012
Responsibilities
- Drafted mock-ups of website designs, prepared files for print, including, crop marks, dye lines, bleeds
- Created final PDFs for printing and upload, prepared visual assets for print and digital for website banners, printed materials and email marketing ads for skin and hair products
- Do prepress work for files to print, including spot and 4-color work
- Recompose existing creative to new formats both for print and web
- Oversee job activities as necessary to assure timely completion
Education for artist resumes
For most positions, work experience is more important than education, although it can be important for new grads or for fields in which specific classes are industry-standard.
So it’s not a big section, but it’s still important, and often, artist job postings list a minimum education requirement.
Check out our blueprint for education on resumes for our full playbook on education sections.
Data from our sample of 936 artist resumes
- 9% artist resumes listed an associate’s degree
- 60% artist resumes listed a bachelor’s degree
- 26% artist resumes included a masters degree
- 1% artist resumes mentioned a doctoral degree
Artist resume education examples
EDUCATION
Bachelor of Science
Southern Illinois University Carbondale, 2020
Awards & Honors
- Salutatorian
- Valedictorian
- AP Scholar
EDUCATION
Associate of Applied Arts
Alliance Medical and Health Sciences College, 2017
Certifications for artist resumes
Certifications aren’t a strict requirement for every job, but there are almost always certifications you can get to boost your chances of success.
If you want to see how to build these sections, we have a guide about certifications on resumes.
We did a little research and found certifications can help artist’s specifically, according to CareerOneStop.
Artist certification examples
CERTIFICATIONS
Autodesk Certified User
Autodesk, Inc., 2020
Apple Certified Pro-Final Cut Pro X
Apple Computer, Inc., 2017
CERTIFICATIONS
Autodesk Certified User, Apple Certified Pro-Final Cut Pro X, Avid Certified User for Pro Tools
Artist resume action verbs
Using our database of nearly 1,000,000 publicly available resumes, we compiled an index of action verbs and cross-referenced it with our sample of 936 artist resumes and job postings to uncover which action verbs are most commonly used by artist’s and artist employers.
The most common action verbs on artist resumes are: program, process, assist, prepare, and manage.
The most common action verbs on artist job postings are: lead, plan, review, handle, and field.
Other action verbs for artist resumes:
- Perform
- Develop
- Design
- Test
- Direct
- Create
- Monitor
- Track
- Organize
- Resolve
Full artist resume example
Lastly, we wanted to give you a couple full artist resume examples..
Please note: you can write a better resume than this. This is just a quick illustration to show you how these pieces might fit together.
If you’d like to see “perfect” resumes, we have a showcase of resume examples.
Artist resume example
Anthony Perez
Artist
4070 Davis Street, Augusta, GA
To leverage my experience and expertise in digital art and animation to create visually stunning and engaging pieces for clients in the entertainment industry.
WORK EXPERIENCE
Sr. Associate Artist
Olivia Pope & Associates, 2020-2022
Responsibilities
- Redesigns, repeats and colorways using Photoshop and all styles hand paint techniques
- In charge of conceptualizing info-graphics and other desired imagery for multi-million-dollar federal and non-federal business proposals
- Create cross company print and digital marketing collateral (e.g., slick sheets, power point presentations, social media imagery/assets)
- Developed creative solutions that drove engagement with published content
Associate Artist
Hooli, 2017-2022
Responsibilities
- Reviewed product and marketing content to identify room for improvement. Aligned designs with brand image while meeting usability and website standards
- Communication with clients to improve services
- Evaluate a project and feed back to the main funder or sponsor
- Working with Production to troubleshoot and prepare electronic files for output
Artist Intern
Moxie Group, 2010-2016
Responsibilities
- Prepare designs and send it for approval electronically to the customers, color separate the multicolor files, run jobs and perform quality control
- Utilized traditional hand-drawn graphic techniques as well as computer-generated images and video sequences
- Use traditional 2D and 3D art skills in the production of environments, including the construction of high-level compositions and proxy models from which final assets will be built
- lize drawing skills in Photoshop on a Cintiq, along with any existing client assets to produce and deliver multiple images within a tight deadline. Created Storyboardista.com brand to support concept art and storyboard client work
CERTIFICATIONS
Adobe Certified Associate – Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Systems Incorporated, 2020
Apple Certified Pro- Final Cut Pro X
Apple Computer, Inc., 2017
SKILLS
Painting | adobe illustrator | time management | interpersonal skills | communication skills | drawing | detail-oriented
EDUCATION
Bachelor of Science
Southern Illinois University Carbondale, 2020
Associate of Applied Arts
Alliance Medical and Health Sciences College, 2017
What experts say about artist resumes
Before we wrap it up, we want to leave you with some advice from other experts we admire.
“Put artist statement on the beginning as well because it’s really important, it gives them context and content about your work.” – How to write your first artist CV
“You must write the certificates and licenses you obtain.” – How to Write an Artist CV
“Don’t put your personal skills in the column. ” – How to Write an Artist CV
Want help with your artist resume?
We put a lot of love into our guides, so we hope you found them useful. Hopefully, this will help you craft a top-notch artist resume. If you see anything we missed or anything that could be improved on, let us know!
