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Professionals · code 2651

Visual artists

Visual artists create and execute works of art by sculpting, painting, drawing, creating cartoons, engraving or using other techniques. Tasks include - (a) conceiving and developing ideas, designs and styles for paintings, drawings and sculptures; (b) arranging objects, positioning models, and selecting landscapes and other visual forms according to chosen subject matter; (c) selecting artistic media, method and materials; (d) creating representational or abstract three-dimensional or relief forms by shaping, carving and working and combining materials such as wood, stone, clay, metal, ice or paper; (e) creating representational or abstract drawings and paintings using pencils, ink, chalk, oil paints, water colours or through the application of other techniques; (f) creating drawings and engraving or etching them on metal, wood or other materials; (g) creating cartoons to depict persons and events, often in caricature; (h) restoring damaged, soiled and faded paintings and other art objects. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Cartoonist - Ceramic artist - Illustrator - Picture restorer - Portrait painter - Sculptor Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Industrial designer - 2163 - Graphic designer - 2166 - Painting teacher (private tuition) - 2355 - Potter - 7314 - Decorative painter - 7316

None of this job's tasks scored high enough to count. It ranks 156 of 427 for holding up against AI.

Also known as

  • sculptor
  • glass artist
  • printmaker
  • video artist
  • storyboard artist
  • drawing artist
  • art restorer
  • artistic painter
  • mask maker
  • conceptual artist
  • cartoonist
  • ceramicist

Job titles from the EU's ESCO list. Search for any of them on the jobs page and you'll end up here.

79
Holds up
against AI Not Exposed

AI could take on 21 of 100, on average
so it holds up at 100 − 21 = 79

That's the whole sum, and you can check it against the ILO's study.

44.2
How hands-on
out of 100

From O*NET, averaged across 2 US jobs

36.2
How fiddly
and cramped

finger skill 52.7 · hand skill 50.9 · cramped spaces 5 · averaged

Kind of hands-on work · hands-on under 50 Less than half hands-on

Less than half of this job is hands-on. Robots still matter, but for a smaller part of the work, so we don't sort it any further.

estimated O*NET 31.0 BLS occupational crosswalk chain ISCO-08 to 2010 SOC (Aug 2012, rev. Jun 2015); 2010 to 2018 SOC (Nov 2017); O*NET-SOC 2019 taxonomy data 0.7-work-setting measures chosen by Frey & Osborne (2017) · the grouping is a sorting, not a measurement

What this number leaves out This job rates 44.2 out of 100 for how hands-on it is. The score above only looks at AI tools, not robots, but for work this far from the physical that matters less.

The tasks behind the score

The score is the average of these. A job is really a bundle of tasks, and an average can hide how uneven that bundle is.

The task AI could do most of scores 25.5, while the average is 21. A big gap means some of this job is wide open to AI and some of it barely at all. That's quite different from a job where everything sits somewhere in the middle, even when the averages match.

  1. 25.5

    Arranging objects, positioning models, and selecting landscapes and other visual forms according to chosen subject matter

    Low
  2. 25.5

    Creating cartoons to depict persons and events, often in caricature

    Low
  3. 24

    Selecting artistic media, method and materials

    Very Low
  4. 23

    Creating representational or abstract drawings and paintings using pencils, ink, chalk, oil paints, water colours or through the application of other techniques

    Very Low
  5. 21.3

    Conceiving and developing ideas, designs and styles for paintings, drawings and sculptures

    Very Low
  6. 19

    Restoring damaged, soiled and faded paintings and other art objects.

    Very Low
  7. 15

    Creating drawings and engraving or etching them on metal, wood, or other materials

    Very Low
  8. 14.8

    Creating representational or abstract three-dimensional or relief forms by shaping, carving and working and combining materials such as, wood, stone, clay, metal, ice or paper

    Very Low

8 tasks · the High to Very Low labels are the ILO's

from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.7-work-setting

Helped, or replaced?

The score above can't tell a tool that makes you faster from one that does the task instead of you. Jobs and Skills Australia looked at those two things separately, and this is their result, matched to this job.

2 Australian jobs match this one, and we've simply averaged them. Treat the numbers as a rough guide.

AI helps you
60.5
AI does it for you
32.5

Helping wins by 28 points.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.7-work-setting matched to Australian jobs 2114, 2324

Compared with similar jobs

There are 92 jobs in the “Professionals” group, averaging 61.1. This one is above that.