---
title: "Scenic Artist"
description: "Paints sets, backdrops and surfaces to look like stone, wood, marble or aged materials for theatre, film, TV and theme parks."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/scenic-artist"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Scenic Artist

**Category:** Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Media · **SOC code:** 27-1013 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 27-1013.00

Paints sets, backdrops and surfaces to look like stone, wood, marble or aged materials for theatre, film, TV and theme parks.

Also advertised as: Charge Scenic Artist; Scenic Painter; Scenic Charge; Lead Scenic Artist; Backdrop Painter.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $55,490 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $26.68/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $31,630 to $144,210, with the middle half between $37,560 and $83,200
- **Total US employment:** 11,220
- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's
- **Preparation required:** Some preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** -2.9% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 2,200 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 38/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 11,220 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $31,630 |
| 25th | $37,560 |
| 50th (median) | $55,490 |
| 75th | $83,200 |
| 90th | $144,210 |
| Mean (average) | $73,150 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| OR | $98,540 | $95,336 | Not published by BLS |
| NV | $81,630 | $81,647 | 160 |
| NY | $78,870 | $73,081 | 1,400 |
| WA | $72,430 | $67,683 | 350 |
| CT | $71,210 | $68,729 | 100 |
| MD | $66,180 | $63,053 | 80 |
| GA | $65,010 | $67,513 | 350 |
| NM | $63,090 | $68,418 | 70 |
| MN | $61,730 | $62,593 | Not published by BLS |
| CA | $58,240 | $52,601 | 2,560 |
| UT | $57,270 | $57,928 | 80 |
| AZ | $56,160 | $55,782 | 110 |
| PA | $54,270 | $55,620 | Not published by BLS |
| IL | $53,850 | $53,873 | Not published by BLS |
| WI | $53,350 | $56,698 | 100 |

15 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 30 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/scenic-artist/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/scenic-artist.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 28,900 in the 2025–2035 base year to 28,000 by the end of the cycle — a loss of 800 jobs, or -2.9%. Declining: -2.9% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 2,200 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's degree (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Some preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Long-term on-the-job training.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| Some College Courses | 37.0% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 35.1% |
| High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) | 27.3% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 0.3% |
| First Professional Degree | 0.3% |

## What the work involves

- Interpret designer paint elevations and samples
- Mix paints and match colors to design references
- Paint faux finishes such as marble, wood grain and stone
- Lay out and paint large drops and backdrops
- Age and distress surfaces to look worn
- Lead a paint crew and plan the paint schedule
- Touch up scenery during runs and shoots

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Critical Thinking — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 2.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operations Analysis — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 2.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Design — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Computers and Electronics — importance 4.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Production and Processing — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Fine Arts — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Education and Training — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Originality — importance 4.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Fluency of Ideas — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Visualization — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Arm-Hand Steadiness — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Visual Color Discrimination — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Artistic (A), Realistic (R), Enterprising (E).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| A — Artistic | 7.00 |
| R — Realistic | 4.76 |
| E — Enterprising | 3.40 |
| I — Investigative | 2.68 |
| C — Conventional | 2.34 |
| S — Social | 2.28 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| INFP | 80.7 |
| INTP | 78.3 |
| ENTP | 73.6 |
| ENFP | 70.7 |
| INFJ | 62.9 |

Best-fitting types: INFP, INTP. The bank also flags this occupation as introvert-friendly, meaning O\*NET work-context ratings put it low on public contact and performing for the public.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Fine Artist, Including Painters, Sculptors, and Illustrators](https://nuecareer.com/careers/fine-artist) — median $55,490
- [Special Effects Artist and Animator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/special-effects-artist-and-animator) — median $102,030
- [Graphic Designer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/graphic-designer) — median $62,960
- [Craft Artist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/craft-artist) — median $46,080
- [Etcher and Engraver](https://nuecareer.com/careers/etcher-and-engraver) — median $43,310
- [Art Director](https://nuecareer.com/careers/art-director) — median $114,850
- [Set and Exhibit Designer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/set-and-exhibit-designer) — median $75,240
- [Photographer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/photographer) — median $44,660
- [Painting, Coating, and Decorating Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/painting-coating-and-decorating-worker) — median $41,600
- [Commercial and Industrial Designer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/commercial-and-industrial-designer) — median $83,910

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/scenic-artist