1. WORK SAMPLES.

2. ARTISTIC CREDENTIALS.

3. SPEED.

4. PERFORMANCE CREDENTIALS.

5. PROFESSIONAL RECORD, REFERENCES OR TESTIMONIALS.

Back to "HOW TO HIRE" INTRO

ALWAYS insist on seeing samples of work done by the artist who is offering (or being offered) to work for you.
Demand that the samples shown to you are by the artist or artists themselves. MANY agencies and caterers will send you a brochure with some samples drawn by an artist OTHER than (and, of course, BETTER than) the one they propose to send to you. Their work may bear little or NO resemblance to the work by the artist being offered!
Demand that the samples reflect the style and quality of the kind of work the artist can do in an event situation, on the spot, under the pressure of performing for a live group. Samples done at a leisurely pace in the studio with tools that cannot be used at an event are helpful in determining the artist's best potential and in checking the artist's ability to capture a likeness (when the drawings are of famous people you can compare them to). But they can be misleading if they are the only ones seen.