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So you are tired of working the long hours that owning an airbrush business requires and just wish you could take some time off. However, you don’t know anybody that knows how to airbrush. What do you do? How do you go about finding somebody reliable to hire and train so you can take those well deserved days off?
Here at Anything Airbrushed plus we have had great success in concentrating on contacting all the local art teachers at high schools as well as all the local art colleges.
At the High Schools we are looking for their best Junior and Senior art students. At Colleges we are mostly looking for Freshman as most college students start co-op programs in their Junior and Senior years. It is a lot of initial work getting the email addresses or other contact information for all the art teachers. You have to take the time to visit all the school websites and find out the names and emails....or call the schools and explain to them you are looking at hiring and want to send some information. But it is worth it in the long run.
In most cases, If we hire a junior or senior in high school we are able to keep them through their junior year in college, some even longer especially if they have trouble finding work after college. In the Cincinnati area we have had artists hired in high school and go on to such colleges as the Art Academy of Cincinnati, DAAP program at the University of Cincinnati, The Art Institute of Cincinnati, Columbus College of Art and Design, The Modern College of Design in Dayton as well as artists who attend out of state colleges such as SCAD(Savannah college of art and design) and work with us on a seasonal basis.
People will ask us, “why not hire experienced airbrush artists?” The first thing you have to consider is the simple logic of the math. There are very few airbrush artists out there to begin with, let alone how many of those artists may be located near you. If you do happen to have an experienced artist near you that is not already running their own business then you have to ask yourself “why do they not have their own shop?” The chances of a well rounded, responsible and EXPERIENCED airbrush artist applying are slim and it has been my experience that they do not last long….hence the reason they were looking for work to begin with.
Hiring a high school student gives you the opportunity to train them from scratch. You won't have to deal with breaking bad habits, arguments about the way they used to do things at an old shop they worked for as well as what an experienced artist prefers to use as far as equipment and paint. With a completely new artist you get to train them the way you want them to be.
Below is the typical type of flyer we email to the Art Teachers along with the typical wording I use in the email itself.
"Dear Art Instructor,
Attached you will find some exciting information for your students. Currently Anything Airbrushed plus is looking for artists to work at our (insert location).....this job is all about doing ART all day, everyday. This is a very exciting job opportunity for your best Art students. It is very flexible, which works well for High School students and is an opportunity for them to learn a new medium as well as actually make money using their talents.
Artist Position; Duties will include: Custom painting of apparel and miscellaneous items with standard airbrush designs, as well as custom artwork requested by the customer. Ideally we are looking for your best Senior Art students who have good drawing ability and outgoing personalities. Airbrush experience is a plus but not particularly necessary. We want to see a portfolio which shows us airbrush experience(if any), drawing ability, a grasp of color, form and perspective. Please have them contact us at the phone number included to set up a time to meet with us.
We would appreciate it if you could post this flyer for your students or forward the information to those students whom you feel would be interested. Please feel free to contact us yourself with any questions….as a matter of fact, feel free to stop by anytime to see for yourself what a great opportunity this is for your students.
We look forward to working with your talented students.
Sincerely,"
______________________________________________________________________________________
Once we start getting phone calls we set up times to interview the students. They are required to bring a portfolio. We usually suggest between 6-10 of their best art pieces. While we will look at Digital art we tell them we have to see mostly original, traditional art. When they show up for the interview we have them fill out a typical application(see ours below)....you can even get pre-printed applications at your local office supply store.
The two biggest factors that help decide on hiring are art ability and availability. Those with the strongest portfolios and most availability are usually the ones who get hired. How many we hire all depends on what we are looking for at the time. As I said above we are usually able to retain young artists that are juniors or seniors in high school through their Sophomore/Junior year of college. So sometimes its a few years before we hire again.
With all this said the next question we get is "how do you know you can trust them". The simple answer is...you don't know. At the time of decision making you have to look at a couple of factors.
1.) Did they show up on time for the interview?
2.) were they dressed appropriately?....this does not have to be formal dress but it should show that they cared about their appearance.
3.) What was their personality like during the interview?...were they outgoing or quiet? Did they answer and ask questions intelligently?
4.) Last but not least....Check their social media!!....All employers do it now....some even ask for social media on the application. While we do not specifically ask for their social media it is usually easy to find. Almost as soon as a prospective hire leaves the interview I immediately try to find them on social media. For better or worse our social media says a lot about us.
You should conduct the interview very casually but professionally. You should make them feel comfortable enough to feel like they can open up to you and joke around. This takes practice for anyone who has not interviewed another person before. Review their artwork noting their use of color, words, perspective, general layout, drawing ability etc… Try to look for something positive to say about each piece. Ask them about their pieces, is there a background story to the piece?, was it a school assignment or was it a personal piece? This helps force them to engage with you which in turn helps you get a general feeling for their personality.
End the interview in a way where you are not making any promises. I usually just say “We still have more applicants to interview and will contact you one way or the other”. In most cases you usually know as soon as they are leaving whether or not you are going to hire them. However you do not want them to know this.
Once you think you might want to hire a certain person the next thing you do is check any references they put on their applications. If they had no previous work experience(as a lot of high school students do not) You can always ask their art teachers for their thoughts. For those that we decide we want to hire we personally call them. For those that we do not want to hire we have a general “Form Letter” that we send them, but either way we do not leave them hanging.
Once a person is hired we set up training sessions for usually 2-3 hours a day for 2-4 times a week.(depending on how soon we need them to actually be trained and ready to start painting for customers) Since they train in the store they are exposed to not only learning how to airbrush but also how to handle customers, how to price and all the normal everyday responsibilities of any retail location.
It is also a good thing to point out that all new hires here at Anything Airbrushed plus receive a 30 page "Artist Handbook"... just like any other type of job this handbook outlines all their responsibilities. It is very important to set guidelines and expectations as soon as you hire someone.
As we said on the flyer...it is paid training so as soon as we hire them we do start paying them. Since we pay hourly plus commission they immediately start earning their hourly. The commission does not come in until they start doing orders for customers. Usually an artist with a strong portfolio and good artistic skills can be trained to do the simple standard designs within 40-60 hours of starting.
The paid training is an area that is also somewhat controversial as some places choose not to pay while training. It is our belief however that this job should be no different than 95% of any other job out there. These young artists should be paid for their time. By doing so you will attract people who are much more responsible and dedicated. Lets face it, airbrushing is not easy to learn and people get frustrated very easily. They are more likely to quit if they see no hope in making any money.
So there you have the basics on how to hire an artist. Hopefully this will help you in your search for a new artist so you can take that well deserved time off.
As always feel free to leave comments or ask question