Comments on: How to Price Your Original Artworks

By: Maria Brophy

Maria Brophy — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 01:25:20 +0000

Li, just as I said in the article above, do a little research. See what other successful artists are selling their work for, those that use a similar style and medium as you. Then use that as a general guide. If you’re just starting out, go lower and see what the market will bear. I wish you the best!

By: Li

Li — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 18:13:11 +0000

I just graduated with my BFA and I just created my web site. I didn’t post any prices, because I wasn’t sure what I should charge. Would $1.00 per square inch be a good starting point? $0.75? $1.50? I want to think beyond just my area, because I plan on doing direct selling and we have the world wide web. I plan on opening an etsy store and maybe selling some of my work on ebay. What do you all think? Is $1.00 per square inch too cheap to start with?

By: Paul

Paul — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 11:09:46 +0000

Linda I think you are right re. the precious-ness – it is your own work, from your own head, heart and hand. In an ideal world it should be valued at whatever YOU think it is worth.

However if you do want to sell your work there is a fuzzy line between the value you place on it and what other people might pay. The art becomes a trade-able commodity when it is put on the market and unless someone recognizes some extra value, its worth is established by non-artistic things like what else is available of a similar medium, quality, size and your prior sales history.

An artist’s own emotional connection to the art has little relevance at all (usually) to a buyer. The critical thing is purely the BUYER’s emotional connection, and whether it is strong enough to pay the price you are asking.

Once you’re established with a sales history, as soon as you put a blank canvas or paper on your easel it already has a projected finished price, based on previous sales of similar work. Then it is up to you to produce art that justifies that price to maintain your reputation.

Of course, some artists choose to remain “pure” and not “commercial” and that way they can value their artwork in any way they like.

By: Maria Brophy

Maria Brophy — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 04:34:25 +0000

Linda, I think that many artists feel the same way that you do – their work is a piece of them and the value is difficult to place.

For artists who rely on selling their artwork to earn a living, they have to price their work in a way that validates the value of the art, and at the same time ensures that it sells.

By: linda

linda — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 03:43:07 +0000

Its all very hard for me to base , my Arts Value(price) off the size and my cost and yes even MY TIME….
My emotional attraction ( connection) to my work,and how I feel about my design,and originality, represent a Much larger Value to me .
My process ..its diffrent each and every time.
But the consept is just as Precious?
What do you think…. no or yes or is how I feel ,is this a GIVEN to every one? and I am not understanding.
peace

By: Travis Rice

Travis Rice — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 20:47:49 +0000

I had never thought of doing this by a per square inch bases, but as I go through the size and price of my wall sculpture it comes out about the same per square inch, a little more for the small ones and a little less for the larger ones. Before I ran the numbers I thought I was charging more for the big ones, but it turns out not. This will make pricing my work from here on a whole lot easier, thank you. Before I was calculating material costs, including hours spent, plus profit margin. I included hours spent in the materials since that was what I pay myself for the work, and what you get payed is what is used to pay the house hold bills.
now if I can just figure a way of applying this to full sculpture which I have been under charging for (paying myself less than minimum wage for the hours spent) only case is the market doesn’t seem to support one of a kind dragons for 5000 or more… or at least I haven’t found where I could sell them for that, well, not yet anyway. Let’s face it, when a full dragon sculpture uses 600-800 in raw materials and it takes 400 hours, 1000 hours if done with scales. It should cost a lot. Now that is where the difficulty in establishing a price per square, or cubic inch becomes difficult. Do I let my clients know they have different choices for different skin textures with different prices, or do I just price it for the most difficult one?

By: Laura D

Laura D — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 01:28:08 +0000

I really can’t agree with your last sentence Meltemi. I’ll tell you why,,,

One of my 11 x 14 paintings took me over a year to complete because of the techniques, subject complexity, care needed to handle the colors and so on. So it’s priced up there with the larger paintings which I can finish in a month or so.

In short, there are exceptions to every rule.

By: Meltemi

Meltemi — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 09:12:12 +0000

The pricing structure that I use [spread sheets] one for plain stretched canvas and another for gallery wrapped stretched canvases involves a standard cost per square centimetre and a cost per cm of my gallery standard frames…Think about it all paintings have the same costs all paintings must make a contribution to your bottom line. That thing called profit? Why else would you paint day after day? That establishes a cost of a framed painting, then its rounded up to the nearest whole £…now add the shipping cost…and transfer the data to your e-commerce [online shop page]…its easy. You cannot agonise over the trivia: that this artwork is more detailed, this artwork used more expensive pigments, that this one took more time [unless a very large canvas err? why?].

By: Are your prices confusing your customers? | Pricing - Maria Brophy

Are your prices confusing your customers? | Pricing - Maria Brophy — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 19:23:46 +0000

[...] to create a structure when there are so many dang variables. Just in art alone, deciding How to Price a Painting can be torture. The cost depends on the medium, complexity of the subject matter, size, and [...]

By: Anthony Sesack

Anthony Sesack — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 03:48:04 +0000

I like the $1.50 – $2.50 per sq in price guide. I don’t often do a “fine art” piece, which does help keep my expenses down. I don’t have to keep inventory of canvas, sheet metal and other blank goods to paint on. My customers usually bring me things they want personalized.

But when I do (whether it be a metal sign blank, goalie mask, motorcycle helmet, motorcycle, etc) I charge $75.00 per hour. Then I try to “guesstimate” how long that particular job will take me to do.

I paint a goalie mask every few months. Some I can get top dollar for. Others think because I paint t-shirts, that airbrush art is cheap. The other day a kid came in with a real rough sketch of a zombie face he wanted on his goalie mask. I quoted $200.00. I thought he was going to swallow his tongue. I explained that there was a whole prep process, I use automotive paint which is not cheap and it’s cleared with a high grade automotive clear. His mom said they would get back to me.

I did another mask for $350 which took me a little longer than expected. I told the customer if anyone asks, he paid $500.00. He said No problem. He could see it was worth that much. He loved the finished piece.

So some jobs are hit and miss. Other times I quote jobs because times are slow and I need the work. Not that I’m out of pocket with materials. Most stuff is around the shop. It;s just the amount of time I spend on a job. You can’t get that time back and it sets you back if you have other jobs on the bench waiting to be painted.