Top 12 Artist Skills to Put on Your Resume

Crafting a resume as an artist isn’t just a roll call of degrees and gallery walls. It’s a showcase—tools, taste, process, and judgment—stitched together to prove you can dream boldly and deliver cleanly. The skills below mix software fluency with creative control, giving hiring managers and clients a fast, confident yes.

Artist Skills

1. Photoshop
2. Illustrator
3. InDesign
4. Procreate
5. After Effects
6. Maya
7. ZBrush
8. Blender
9. Unity
10. Unreal Engine
11. SketchUp
12. CorelDRAW

1. Photoshop

Photoshop is the industry standard for raster image creation and editing—painting, compositing, retouching, texturing, and concept art all live comfortably here.

Why It's Important

It lets artists push pixels with precision. From non-destructive edits to painterly textures, Photoshop is the backbone of digital image craft.

How to Improve Photoshop Skills

Level up by drilling into the essentials and building speed:

1. Shortcuts and workflow: Memorize core hotkeys, create actions, and use the Properties and Adjustments panels to move faster.
2. Layer discipline: Name layers, group wisely, lean on Layer Comps, and keep edits non-destructive with masks and adjustment layers.
3. Smart Objects: Scale, warp, and reuse assets without quality loss; swap sources when needed.
4. Brush engine: Customize jitter, texture, and dual brush settings; build a personal brush set for repeatable style.
5. Selections and masks: Combine Select and Mask, channels, and blend-if for clean, believable composites.
6. Color mastery: Manage color profiles, understand blending modes, use Camera Raw and Curves for tonal control.
7. Retouching finesse: Heal, clone, and dodge/burn on separate layers for clean, reversible polish.
8. Stay current: Explore new tools (Generative Fill, Remove Tool, gradient updates) and fold them into your practice.

Consistency wins. Practice builds instincts; instincts build style.

How to Display Photoshop Skills on Your Resume

2. Illustrator

Illustrator is a vector powerhouse for logos, icons, lettering, and crisp illustrations that scale infinitely without losing detail.

Why It's Important

Artists lean on vectors for precision. Clean curves, flexible styles, and production-ready files—no pixel fuzz, no surprises at print time.

How to Improve Illustrator Skills

Sharpen control and keep files tidy:

1. Pen Tool fluency: Master anchor placement, handles, and Bézier logic for buttery curves.
2. Shape Builder and Pathfinder: Build complex forms from simple shapes quickly and cleanly.
3. Appearance and Graphic Styles: Stack strokes, fills, and effects; save reusable looks for speed.
4. Layers and artboards: Organize variants, exports, and responsive sizes within one file.
5. Color systems: Work confidently in CMYK and RGB; use Global Colors and Recolor Artwork.
6. Typography: Variable fonts, outlines, optical kerning, and styles for consistent type systems.
7. Asset export: Use Asset Export and SVG settings for clean handoff to web and product teams.

How to Display Illustrator Skills on Your Resume

3. InDesign

InDesign handles page layouts—books, posters, portfolios, zines, interactive PDFs—with laser control over type, grids, and production output.

Why It's Important

Your art deserves strong presentation. InDesign turns scattered assets into editorial systems that feel deliberate and print flawlessly.

How to Improve InDesign Skills

Think like a layout artist and a print technician:

1. Styles everywhere: Paragraph, character, object, and table styles keep large documents consistent and fast to update.
2. Master pages and grids: Establish rhythm with margins, baseline grids, and repeats; design spreads, not pages.
3. Typography craft: Hyphenation, justification, optical margin alignment, and ligatures for refined reading.
4. Assets and links: Manage Links and Libraries; package files cleanly for printers or collaborators.
5. Color and preflight: Spot vs. process color, ink coverage checks, and Preflight profiles to catch issues early.
6. Export expertise: Dial in print-ready PDFs, interactive elements, and EPUB settings without guesswork.

How to Display InDesign Skills on Your Resume

4. Procreate

Procreate brings portable, pressure-sensitive painting to the iPad—fast startup, fluid brushes, time-lapse recording, and a studio in your backpack.

Why It's Important

It’s instant. Sketch on the train, paint on the couch, refine in the studio. A nimble workflow that keeps ideas moving.

How to Improve Procreate Skills

Dial in the feel and your files:

1. Gestures and interface: Learn two-finger tap, QuickMenu, and QuickShape to keep momentum.
2. Brush craft: Build and tweak custom brushes; explore grain, taper, and jitter for signature marks.
3. Layers and blends: Mask, clip, and mix with blend modes for depth without destruction.
4. Color control: Use Palettes, Harmony, and Reference layers to stay consistent across a series.
5. Canvas planning: Choose resolution and color profile suited to print or screen from the start.
6. Stabilization and StreamLine: Smooth strokes for clean line art without losing energy.
7. Practice rituals: Short daily studies beat rare marathons; keep a sketch log.

How to Display Procreate Skills on Your Resume

5. After Effects

After Effects is for motion graphics, compositing, and visual effects—titles, transitions, animated illustrations, and post magic.

Why It's Important

Motion tells stories still images can’t. Artists use AE to breathe, pan, blur, and spark ideas into life.

How to Improve After Effects Skills

Work smarter, then wilder:

1. Keyframes and curves: Ease, Graph Editor, motion blur—timing is everything.
2. Precomps and parenting: Structure complex shots, reuse elements, keep timelines sane.
3. Expressions: Automate with simple code snippets to link properties and build parametric rigs.
4. 3D layers and cameras: Add depth, parallax, and cinematic movement without overcomplicating.
5. Masks and mattes: Rotoscope cleanly, harness track mattes for layered reveals.
6. Plugins and scripts: Explore tools like Duik, Overlord, and particle suites to extend capability.
7. Organization: Naming, color labels, and folder structures reduce chaos and render mistakes.
8. Render pipeline: Choose formats, proxies, and pre-renders wisely to hit deadlines.

How to Display After Effects Skills on Your Resume

6. Maya

Maya is Autodesk’s flagship for 3D modeling, rigging, animation, and rendering—film, TV, and games rely on its deep toolset.

Why It's Important

It’s a full pipeline in one place. From blocking to final frames, Maya handles complex, production-grade work.

How to Improve Maya Skills

Build fundamentals, then branch out:

1. Modeling clarity: Clean topology, quads where it counts, and smart use of the Modeling Toolkit.
2. UVs and texturing: Unwrap efficiently, layout islands cleanly, and prep assets for Substance or Arnold.
3. Rigging basics: Joints, constraints, deformers, and skin weighting—believable motion starts here.
4. Animation polish: Graph Editor, motion paths, and breakdowns for timing and arcs.
5. Shading and lighting: Hypershade organization, Arnold lights, AOVs, and denoising workflows.
6. Dynamics: Bifrost, nCloth, and particles for controlled chaos.
7. Scene management: Outliner discipline, referencing, and project structure to keep files nimble.
8. Continuous learning: Explore courses from LinkedIn Learning, Gnomon, and peer feedback communities.

How to Display Maya Skills on Your Resume

7. ZBrush

ZBrush (by Maxon) is the gold standard for digital sculpting—DynaMesh, SubTools, and Polypaint unlock wild detail and expressive forms.

Why It's Important

When you need character. Organic shapes, intricate surfaces, and concept iterations thrive in ZBrush.

How to Improve ZBrush Skills

Think like a sculptor, work like a technician:

1. Primary forms first: Big shapes before pores—silhouette and proportion lead the show.
2. Brush literacy: Clay, Move, Trim, DamStandard, Inflate—know what each does to your surface.
3. Subdivision and polish: Climb and descend levels to refine without destroying volume.
4. DynaMesh and ZRemesher: Iterate quickly, then retopologize for clean detail and export.
5. Surface detail: Alphas, Noise, and Morph Targets for layered realism.
6. References and anatomy: Constant visual checks keep forms believable.
7. Workflow to other apps: Export clean maps (normal, displacement) and scale consistently.

How to Display ZBrush Skills on Your Resume

8. Blender

Blender is a free, open‑source 3D suite covering modeling, sculpting, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing, motion tracking, and video editing.

Why It's Important

No paywall, no ceiling. Artists can prototype, produce, and publish full 3D work with a thriving community at their back.

How to Improve Blender Skills

Lean into breadth, then specialize:

1. Model fast, model clean: Modifiers (Mirror, Array, Subdivision), snapping, and precise transforms.
2. Cycles and Eevee: Understand path tracing vs. real-time; light with intent and manage noise.
3. UVs and texture painting: Smart UV workflows and non-destructive materials with nodes.
4. Geometry Nodes: Procedural systems for instancing, scattering, and clever generative setups.
5. Grease Pencil: 2D/3D hybrid illustration and motion inside one scene.
6. Rigging and animation: Constraints, NLA, Graph Editor, and pose libraries for smooth performance.
7. Asset Browser and add-ons: Reuse assets, enable targeted add-ons to speed repetitive tasks.

How to Display Blender Skills on Your Resume

9. Unity

Unity is a real-time engine for building interactive 2D/3D experiences—games, simulations, installations, AR/VR—where artists shape worlds and performance.

Why It's Important

It lets artists assemble scenes, materials, lighting, and animation into responsive experiences that run smoothly on many platforms.

How to Improve Unity Skills

Aim for visual quality without tanking performance:

1. Editor fluency: Hierarchy discipline, Prefabs, and Scene/Game views for quick iteration.
2. Import settings: Optimize textures, meshes, and animation clips at import to save memory and time.
3. Materials and Shader Graph: Build stylized or realistic looks without writing code.
4. Lighting: Balance real-time and baked lightmaps; use Reflection Probes and light probes effectively.
5. Post-processing: Tone mapping, bloom, depth of field—tastefully applied, not overcooked.
6. Animation tools: Animator Controller, Timeline, and Cinemachine for shots and sequences.
7. Profiling: Use the Profiler and Frame Debugger to find bottlenecks early.
8. Organization and version control: Clean folder structures, consistent naming, and Git or Perforce for teamwork.

How to Display Unity Skills on Your Resume

10. Unreal Engine

Unreal Engine powers high-fidelity real-time worlds with robust rendering, animation, and VFX tools—equally at home in games, film, and visualization.

Why It's Important

Artists get cinematic lighting, complex materials, and large environments with real-time feedback—ideal for ambitious visuals and tight timelines.

How to Improve Unreal Engine Skills

Work like a world-builder:

1. Materials: Master material graphs, instances, and parameter collections for scalable looks.
2. Lighting: Learn real-time and baked techniques; in UE5, lean on Lumen for dynamic scenes.
3. Blueprints: Add interactivity and logic without deep coding; make art reactive.
4. Sequencer: Craft shots, cameras, and edits for polished storytelling.
5. Niagara: Build particle systems that feel alive—sparks, smoke, weather.
6. Megascans and Marketplace: Study and reuse quality assets to prototype faster and learn standards.
7. Optimization: Use Stat commands, profiling tools, and Nanite-aware assets (UE5) to keep frames high.

How to Display Unreal Engine Skills on Your Resume

11. SketchUp

SketchUp is a quick, intuitive 3D modeler—great for architectural forms, props, installations, and spatial exploration.

Why It's Important

Rapid iteration. You can sketch in 3D, test proportions, and communicate ideas before heavy detailing begins.

How to Improve SketchUp Skills

Keep geometry clean and scenes nimble:

1. Inference system: Snap with intent—axes, midpoints, and guides reduce errors.
2. Groups, Components, Tags: Prevent sticky geometry and manage visibility like a pro.
3. Scenes and Styles: Create presentation-ready views with controlled linework and overlays.
4. Extensions: Add rendering (V‑Ray, Enscape), parametric tools, and cleanup utilities as needed.
5. LayOut: Produce scaled drawings, annotations, and page sets from your model.
6. Post-processing: Light paint passes in an image editor to add mood and texture.

How to Display SketchUp Skills on Your Resume

12. CorelDRAW

CorelDRAW is a vector design suite for illustration, layout, signage, and print work, known for flexible tools and strong color management.

Why It's Important

Artists get precise, scalable graphics and reliable print output—essential for branding, packaging, and large-format work.

How to Improve CorelDRAW Skills

Polish precision and pace:

1. Vector tools: Bezier, Pen, and Shape tools for clean paths and quick edits.
2. Styles and Object management: Object Styles, Object Manager, and Layers keep complex files under control.
3. PowerClip and effects: Non-destructive containers and live effects for flexible experimentation.
4. Typography: OpenType features, variable fonts, and paragraph styles for consistent systems.
5. Color and print: Spot/process setup, overprints, trapping awareness, and preflight checks.
6. Templates and libraries: Reuse assets and page setups to speed recurring jobs.
7. Shortcuts and workspaces: Customize panels and hotkeys to match your flow.

How to Display CorelDRAW Skills on Your Resume