#pricing your art

[acrylicalchemy]

I welcome you to join me for this online artist workshop on Monday, July 6th, from 4-6pm pst. I'm a career artist with over a million dollars in art sales, and I'm going to share honest, candid tips and insights from my decades long journey. Please feel free to let your artist friends know 🧑‍🎨

You can learn more on my site. I hope to see you there ❤️

[howtobeaconartist]

Kiriska: An excellent crash course in pricing, markets, and psychology. The whole channel is filled with great finance-related education as well.

[cniska]

Have you ever had encounters with entitled people? Demanding you do art for them for free in exchange for “exposure” or anything like that? If so, what is your most outrageous example? If not... then yay! I’m glad you didn’t have to put up with that. Your work is amazing, and no one should expect you to put in that time and effort for free!

Hello, anon! First of all thank you for thinking my work is amazing, it warms my heart :> !! Second, I’m very sorry for how long this answer is lol, I have a lot of opinions surrounding this topic.

It’s been a while since anyone had the nerve to wholeheartedly ask me to do something for free. There were a lot of times in high school and college it happened but the one that comes to mind right now is the first time I tabled at a con. A guy walked up and asked me to draw his daughter a mermaid for free, wasn’t even all that appreciative either, didn’t converse with me at all and at the time and I was very bad at telling people no when they’ve crossed a boundary so I doodled something quick and they left. I’ve gotten better at saying no with time but I’m sure everyone can relate, it takes some practice putting your foot down.

Lately I’ve had more experiences where freelance illustration jobs will try to offer insultingly low payment for an extraordinary amount of work. Like $100 for a fully illustrated children’s book with promises of sharing earnings after it gets published. Or $150 for a set of 25 full color/background illustrations with “I wish I could pay more but I don’t have the money.” Personalized art is not a necessity, if you can’t afford to pay artists then you can’t afford your project, sorry. If it’s something you want, then save up and come back to me when you’re ready and I’ll be happy to help. 

What’s equally annoying is that other artists are taking these jobs and making people think it’s okay to underpay artists. Or the comments that “well at least you like art so it should be easy, right?” Art is hard! Schooling or not it takes thousands of hours to hone your skills and even if it’s a fun project? Enjoyment and exposure isn’t paying my rent or putting food on my table. 

Also hey! If you’re a young artist and aren’t sure what you should charge for your work, ask me questions, or other artists questions. Anyone is more than free to drop in here and ask me advice for this sort of thing! I’m aggressively protective of young artists okay, do not let people take advantage of you.

I see so many commissions posts and I want to tell people, hey you owe it to yourself to be charging so much more than this, but I honestly don’t wanna make people mad just dropping in and telling them what to do. If you think you could charge more, you’re probably right. And don’t misconstrue that as trying to squeeze all you can out of clients, it’s about setting a fair price for your time and skill. It’s ridiculous to charge $25 for a full color full body piece that’s gonna take you 4+ hours to do. 

Last thing, commercial pricing is a whole other monster. I know it’s a bit expensive, but do yourself a favor and go pick one of these up to have on hand, they have example contracts and stuff in the back and I’ve referenced it a lot. https://graphicartistsguild.org/product/the-graphic-artists-guild-handbook-pricing-ethical-guidelines/ 

[kikidoodle]

On pricing your artwork:

I wrote this originally for Artist Alley Network International, but it struck a chord with a lot of people, so re-posting here!

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Your artwork, and your merchandise, is WORTH SOMETHING!

1. You are producing something no one else can.  Even if there are a hundred other similar items, only you are making artwork like you.  That is worth something even if you don't immediately see it.

2. You aren't walmart.  You are a small business owner and need to charge what you're worth rather than race to the bottom to see who's the cheapest.   This ties into #1... so what if someone else has acrylic charms for $3. You are the only one selling YOUR art, so price it at it's worth.

3. Shipping, storage, packaging, presentation, and protection are all worth extra.  Your item may only cost $1.50 to produce, but you also spent .10 to upgrade the quality.  You spent .50 cents to ship it.  You spent another $1 on packaging, and you spent $30 on the display it's on.  You rent your apartment or garage for $500-1500/mo.  Your table cost you $300 to rent.  Your online store charges you .20 cents per sale plus a transaction fee. Your item will sell at a loss if you sell it for $2 or $3, even if production was less than that.  Factor in all these costs when you sell your item.  PLUS, your worth.  If you spent hours making the design, you deserve some of that in compensation!

4. Perceived value is actual value.  Customers who see an artist where everything is $2-3 probably will perceive it as less valuable than the artist who sells everything from $20-30, even if the artist selling cheaper actually puts more time into their work.  Perceived value also will change the way a customer approaches your artwork.  Will they cherish it and save it and frame it, or will they punch holes through it with a thumbtack, or will they forget it's in their bag and find it bent up hours later?  Sometimes pricing your art higher actually creates DEMAND, because it now looks like it's worth something.

5. fast sketch does not necessarily = cheap price.  Did you spend money on your art education?  Are you experienced in your field?  Is there a lot of demand for your artwork?  Do you work professionally with many clients? Did it take you years and hours to develop your style and speed?  All of these are separate from how long it takes you to draw.  Which is why a 10 minute sketch might be worth $40 rather than minimum wage x time spent drawing.

6. We are all in this together.  If you fight with your neighbors on who can price art the cheapest to get the fastest sales, you are fighting a downhill battle which will ultimately make ALL of your artwork worth far less.  Instead, look at an artist and go "Wait a minute? They charge HOW MUCH?  That means I can charge that much, too"  When I sit in a row of artists charging what they're worth, I notice that ALL of us make far more sales than if we underprice one another. This also reflects in the market, too.  If a client who wants to charge $1000 for 24 illustrations is turned down by countless artists they'll realize they have unrealistic expectations.  When people start seeing the $ sign, instead of factoring in their time and energy and take these low paying jobs, these clients will become upset when they see the artist they really wanted turning them down.  Obviously artists from different countries will price differently, BUT, if you're selling to someone in a different country with a higher dollar value, ask for that higher value!  You're competing against THEIR dollar rather than your country's dollar at that point.  Same goes for pricing commissions online.

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Good luck everyone.  We're all in this together!

[acrylicalchemy]

Join me for my artist support talks, live and free on YouTube and Facebook.

[howtobeaconartist]

[nyxulansis]

Tips for Negotiation and Pricing: Animators and Digital Artists