10 Steps to Writing an Impressive Artist Resume

As French artist Henry Matisse once said, “Creativity takes courage.” You need to be bold to work in the art industry. From painting to makeup to performances, you will find that artist-related positions generally have these responsibilities in common: 

• Generate creative ideas and designs through various media.
• Develop arts that are meaningful to the targeted audience.
• Research the supplies, tools, and resources needed for the art.

Before you can start expressing your ideas in the art industry, you will need to compose a professional artist resume. 

Art resumes allow you to convey your professional history to the employer so that he or she can decide if you are the right person for the role. 

Whether you are creating a fine artist resume, a motion graphic designer resume, a modern artist resume, or a performing arts resume, the following ten steps will guide you to your artist resume masterpiece.

The layout of your artist resume is similar to the composition of your art, where you will want to ensure that everything is harmonious. 

• Resume length: A typical artist resume should be no longer than a page length to keep the employer attracted to your profile. 
• Fonts & Size: Stick with classical styles, such as Calibri or Times New Roman, in 10-12 pt. 
• Margins: Show professionalism in your artist resume by setting the line spacing at 1.2-1.5 and the margins at one inch on all four sides. 
• Resume file: To ensure that the layout and design of your artist resume stay the same, you will want to save it as either a PDF file. 

There are various resume formats that you can use to accentuate different sections of art resumes. You will want to decide which of the three most common resume formats to use for your artist resume.

• Chronological resume format:
  • Displays the most recent work experience first. 
  • Career gaps are obvious in this type of resume.

• Functional resume format:
  • Focuses on skills and knowledge instead of work history.
  • Not expected by employers.

• Combinational resume format:
  • Emphasizes both skills and work experience.
  • Can make your artist resume quite lengthy. 

Just like how a title given to various art pieces you create, you will need to provide the essential contact information in your artist resume for the hiring manager to tell whose resume they are reading.

Create a brief description of yourself to attract the hiring manager’s attention at the very top of your artist resume. 

• Attract attention to your artist resume with capitalized letters.   
• Ornate the title of your artist resume with strong credentials and experience. 
• Creativity has no limit but there is a limit to your artist resume headline (10 words or less).

For most pieces of artwork exhibited in galleries or museums, you will find a short explanation next to them. Similarly, you will want to provide a summary of your artist resume for the employer and help them better understand you. 

• Style the summary of your artist resume by beginning with a strong descriptive word. 
• The subject matter of your artist resume should match the job description for the particular artist job. 
• Your strongest virtuosities should be displayed in your artist resume summary.  
  

If you are crafting an artist resume with no experience or an art student resume, you will want to write an objective statement rather than a summary. Instead of including your strengths and career achievements, you will add your career goals as an artist to your resume. 

You will have various skills, techniques, and knowledge to write in your art resume. Arrange your art skills for your resume by opting for one of the four styles: 

• Bullet lists - a simple outline of your skills for an artist resume.
• Expanded bullet lists - a detailed outline of your artist resume skills.
  
• Integrating skills with work experience - incorporates your skills into your work experience entry in your artist resume.
  
• A categorized skill section - presents the wide range of your skills for an artist resume in an organized manner.
  

List of Art Skills for Resumes:

Work experience, for artists, is an important part of the resume, which helps convince the hiring manager of their ability. Even if you are creating a self-taught artist resume, adding work experience and achievements to your artist resume shows the employer your dedication to art.  

✅ 3 tips to help you successfully display your work history in your artist resume: 

• Tailor your artist resume to the specific art position.
  For instance, a VFX artist resume should include animation work experience, while a game artist resume should emphasize computer graphic projects.  
  
• Include numerical examples in your artist resume.
  Provide additional information that tells the employer how much, how many, or how long the examples you mention in work experience entries of your art resume.
  
• Give color to work experience examples in your artist resume with action verbs, such as painted, illustrated, filmed, sculpted, developed.  
  

Any art resumes, such as a visual artist resume or creative artist resume, provide the artist’s educational background or training. Even if you are writing a resume for a freelance artist role, you will want to show the employer that you have the suitable training for the position. 

When you write an artist resume with no experience, you should have the educational background positioned after your objective/summary section while an experienced artist’s resume should have the educational background set after the work experience section. 

For people writing a self taught artist resume or an artist resume with no experience, additional sections can be beneficial. 

• Hobbies & Interests: 
  • Included in the “areas of interest” section. 
  • Example: painting, designing web, etc.  
    
• Volunteer work:
  • Included in the “work experience” section. 
  • Example: Volunteer at Art in Action
    
• Certification & Awards: 
  • Example: Contemporary Art Prize Shortlisted
    
• Projects:
  • Example : Modern Art Projects Blue Mountains (MAPBM). 
    
• References:
  • Example: Mr. Suina Osyka | Director of the Art Gallery

• Contact Details - paint out a background for the employer with your full name, email address, phone number, and address at the top of your artist cover letter. 

• Introduction - start your artist cover letter by addressing the employer by his or her name and providing a brief section introducing yourself. 

• Motivation - elaborate to the employer what caught your attention to the art role or what attracted you to the company. 

• Qualification - mix in the skills you mentioned in your artist resume and address how you utilized these skills and knowledge with some examples. 

• Closing - put the finishing touches to your artist cover letter by signing off with a polite closing and thanking the employer for their time. 

Be confident in sending your artist resume for the gallery, written with the help of these ten steps, our sample artist resume, and online art resume templates.