Artists and Related Workers, All Other

Mixed — a routine tier and a judgment tier. Concept boards, style frames, character variants, and reference-driven sketch passes — the bread-and-butter billable hours in this bucket — are now produced in minutes by prompt-and-iterate tools, which is what pulls this to 8; the physical build-out of a mural, a site-specific installation, or a hand-drawn courtroom sketch under a no-cameras order still can't be prompted, which keeps it out of the 0-6 floor.

Some physical or field component. A muralist on a lift working a wall in weather, or an installation artist rigging into a gallery ceiling, is genuinely uncontrolled-environment labour — but a large share of this SOC works digitally at a tablet delivering files, so the 9 is the average of two very different working days rather than a description of either.

No licence, no signature requirement. There is no licence, board, or statutory registration to make art in the United States; a commissioning contract and maybe a scaffolding permit are the only formal gates, so nothing stands between your rate and a client who decides a model output is good enough.

Some relationship component. Commissions come through curators, art directors, and repeat clients who chose you off a body of work and want your hand specifically, which is real relationship value — but most engagements are project-scoped and end on delivery rather than becoming an ongoing advisory tie, so this sits at 10 rather than in the teens.

Meaningful discretion. You make real interpretive calls — how to read a brief, what a site can carry, how far to push a client's uncomfortable idea — but the stakes are aesthetic and reputational, not safety or money-at-risk, and a rejected concept means a revision round, which is why this lands at 9 and not higher.