He was paid to paint sign and adorn bust (8)
I believe the answer is:
leonardo
'he was paid to paint' is the definition.
(Leonardo da Vinci)
'sign and adorn bust' is the wordplay.
'sign' becomes 'leo' (star sign).
'and' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'bust' is an anagram indicator.
'adorn' is an anagram of 'nardo'.
'leo'+'nardo'='LEONARDO'
(Other definitions for leonardo that I've seen before include "US actor, - DiCaprio" , "Italian boy" , "The Mona Lisa was painted by . . . . . . . . da Vinci" , "Great Italian artist ........ da Vinci" , "- Da Vinci, Italian painter, engineer, sculptor" .)