Printmaker
Also called lithographer, screen printer, relief printer
Printmakers engrave or etch metal, wood, rubber or other materials to create images which are transported onto surfaces, generally using a printing press. Printmakers often use tools such as etcher-circuit processors, pantograph engravers, and silk screen etchers.
What you'd do
Visual artists · ILO- Conceiving and developing ideas, designs and styles for paintings, drawings and sculptures
- Arranging objects, positioning models, and selecting landscapes and other visual forms according to chosen subject matter
- Selecting artistic media, method and materials
- 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
- Creating representational or abstract drawings and paintings using pencils, ink, chalk, oil paints, water colours or through the application of other techniques
- Creating drawings and engraving or etching them on metal, wood, or other materials
- Creating cartoons to depict persons and events, often in caricature
- Restoring damaged, soiled and faded paintings and other art objects
- Indoors
- A mix of sitting and standing
- Some contact with people
- Good freedom to decide
- Usually 40 hours a week
- Deadlines most weeks
- Some repetitive tasks
Will there be jobs?
Average prospectsA typical number of jobs will need filling by 2035.
Solid: measured. Dashed: forecast.
What does it pay?
Above averagePay depends a lot on the country: from about €1,800 a month (Bulgaria) to €8,800 (Luxembourg), before tax.
Pick a country at the top of the page to see typical pay there, for people under 30, and compared with all jobs.
Among professionals in the EU, women earn 21% less per hour than men. Professionals · Eurostat
What do I need to study?
Usually a degreeA degree is the usual route.
Pick a country at the top of the page to see where to study and the official course finders.
Will AI change it?
Very littleAI could help with only small parts of the tasks.
Average task score 0.21 on a scale from 0 (AI can't do it) to 1 (AI could do it fully).
See the score for each of the 8 tasks
Based on what AI could technically do when assessed in 2025. It is not a forecast for a future year, and not a forecast of job losses. Scores for visual artists. Source: ILO (2025), adapted (credits).