In this article I’m going to do something that some of my friends warn me not to because they are so darn practical:
I’m going to tell all. Oh My God, I’m sharing with the entire world our pricing structure for wall murals. (Subject to increase by 10% every year…)
Why would I do something so daring and crazy, you ask? Because that’s what my blog is all about – uniting artists and sharing information so that we all can be successful and live the dream life.
In a second follow-up article, I’m going to give you our “secrets” for making mural clients so happy that they scream from their rooftops “Use this artist for your next project. She’s/He’s the BEST!”
But first, I’ll go over the money part – because for me, money is important. I love to eat good food and travel. And for some strange reason, it costs money to do that. 🙂
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT TO DEVELOP A STRUCTURED PRICE SHEET
You should have a detailed mural pricing structure in writing. And if you don’t have one already, you can use mine as a guide.
Determining what to charge for a wall mural can be tricky. But once you get a structure in place, pricing murals will be a smooth process.
This month we have two large murals that Drew has been commissioned to paint. One of the murals is for a new store called Yogurt Wave. We flew mural expert, Katie Staib, down from Spokane Washington to help make it look great.
The owners, Kerry and Tommy, contacted Drew because his fun style attracts young people that are into action sports, which is their target market.
Their first question was “what will it cost to have Drew paint a 46’ foot mural?” In just a few short minutes, I was able to give them a quote thanks to my nicely organized price sheet.
One of the most common challenges for artists is determining what to charge for a project. Developing a structure & system will make it so much easier for you.
Our current system is working well for us and our clients understand it. But there may be alternative ways to do it, so if you know of a better system, please share in the comments!
HOW TO DEVELOP YOUR PRICE SHEET
Your mural price sheet should be structured in a way that makes sense and that enables you to easily determine what you will charge based on size of the mural.
We charge approx. $25.00 – $35.00 per square foot with a minimum of 160 square feet. Knowing this makes it easy to establish pricing based on various sizes.
Below is a copy of the price sheet that we give to people prior to a written proposal.
Giving a client a price sheet:
- Weeds out the people who can’t afford you (so you don’t waste your time or theirs); and
- Demonstrates your professionalism. People tend to feel better about handing you a big check when they think you know what you’re doing.
Keep in mind, our pricing may be considered high by some standards and very low by others. We know of many artists that charge a lot more than we do. And then there are some that are charging half of what we do.
HOW MUCH $$$ YOU CHARGE IS RELATIVE TO: your experience, where you are located (some places are cheaper to live than others) and supply and demand of your art.
You are welcome to copy and paste the form below and adjust it accordingly for your own use.
OR buy my Mural Pricing and Proposal Package HERE (it will save you years of agony having a TEMPLATE on a mural proposal!)
SAMPLE MURAL PRICING SHEET
Minimum Price: Murals sized 0 to 160 Square Feet: Price is $5,600
Pricing starts at $35 per square foot and decreases with increased size of mural; at 290 sf price drops to $32/sf – at 500 sf drops to $30/sf – at 900 sf price drops to $28/sf.
(Square Foot is determined by multiplying the height x width of the painting surface)
*Price per square foot may increase if design requested is complex. This will be indicated in price quote and determined at the time that the final sketch is approved.
SAMPLE PRICING, per square foot:
| Prices per Unit Size (sample sizes) | ||
| DIMENSIONS | ²AREA | PRICE |
| Up to 10ft. x 16ft. | 160ft. | $5,600.00 |
| 11ft. x 16ft. | 176ft. | $6,160.00 |
| 12ft. x 20ft. | 240ft. | $8,400.00 |
| 13ft. x 20ft. | 260ft. | $9,100.00 |
| 14ft. x 21ft. | 294ft. | $9,410.00 |
| 15ft. x 23ft. | 345ft. | $11,040.00 |
| 17ft. x 26ft. | 442ft. | $14,144.00 |
| 18ft. x 28ft. | 504ft. | $15,120.00 |
| 19ft. x 30ft. | 570ft. | $17,100.00 |
| 20ft. x 31ft. | 620ft. | $18,600.00 |
| 25ft. x 39ft. | 975ft. | $27,300.00 |
| 28ft. x 44ft. | 1232ft. | $34,500.00 |
Non-Refundable Design/Sketch Fee: $2500.00 – Includes up to 2 sets of changes by client (Additional sketches charged at $250/sketch)
In my Mural Pricing and Proposal Package I also tell you how to handle and what to charge $ for:
- Travel fees
- Liability Insurance
- Unexpected changes to the art
- Adverse conditions on the surface of the wall (i.e. it’s not “paint ready”)
- Payment terms: How much $$$ to ask for UP FRONT before starting the sketch process and when the balance is due
- MORE things you never thought of!
PRICE SHEET EXPLANATION
Every detail and *caveat on the price sheet is necessary and came from us learning the hard way. Below are a few points and for ALL of the info get my Proposal Package:
Pricing Structure: I’ve talked to mural artists who charge $40 – $50 a square foot. For us, a starting price of approx. $35 per square foot works, because Drew is extremely efficient and gets a project completed rather quickly.
- You might charge less if you’re new at it or if you live in a low cost-of-living area, or
- You might charge more if you are very experienced or in high demand, or live in a high cost-of-living area (like New York or LA).
Minimum Price: We charge a minimum for small murals under 160 square feet because it’s a lot of work and time to set up at a location. It’s not worth it for us to have Drew go out to paint a small mural and only be paid a couple thousand dollars. You may want to adjust this number up or down, depending upon where you are in your career.
Realistically, for murals smaller than 160 sf, an artist is better off painting an original painting in their studio. It’s easier and doesn’t require travel or set up someplace else. The upside for the client is a piece of art that they can remove from the wall if they move, or that they can resell if they want to later.
Non-Refundable Design (Sketch) Fee: Every mural we do is designed on paper first. We offer the client the ability to pay just for the sketches first, because sometimes a client isn’t sure if you can do what it is that they want.
If they don’t like your design or decide not to use your services after all, they only lose the money they paid for the sketch fee and you are at least paid for your time to sketch it for them. We don’t sketch out anything without the design fee because it’s a lot of work. Just meeting with the person to discuss what they want can take a couple hours. You want to make sure that you are paid for that time.
Why You Should Limit the Number of Sketches: We have a limit of up to 3 sketches (2 sets of changes) and then charge for each additional sketch beyond that. When you do this, your client will be motivated to be very specific about what they want. If you don’t limit the number of sketches, they will just go on and on with changes. Trust me on this!
Wall Preparation: So far, we’ve never had to charge additional fees for wall prep. We’ve only had brand new walls to paint. But if Drew arrived at a location and the walls were in bad shape, we have this caveat in the price quote so that we can charge extra for getting the wall paint-ready.
Payment Terms: This is very Important! We require 50% of the total amount 2 weeks prior to the scheduled start date. This allows us to block out 5 or more days on the calendar (thus not accepting other projects for those days) and to purchase the necessary materials prior to the painting.
Paying a deposit is also a psychological thing with your client – you want to train them to view you as a professional who expects prompt payment, and they are fully committed when they pay half up front.
If you are just building your portfolio, there are other ways to handle the deposit, and I tell you how in my Mural Pricing and Proposal Package.
THE BALANCE is due on the last day of the painting. This is because I personally hate chasing money. I want to be paid and done with a job when it’s finished. Also, I have to pay our assistant on that last day as well. And if you know anything about me by reading my posts, you know that I got out of the Art Banking business years ago!
PROPOSAL PROCESS
When we get a call from someone interested in a mural painting, our process is:
1.) E-mail them the pricing sheet above. This is so that from the very beginning, your client knows your general pricing and they can determine if it’s in their price range.
2.) Gather details about the mural, such as: Height and Width of the proposed mural, physical location, the shape that the wall is in, and what design they want. (I ask the client for this – we rarely go out to see the mural space until after we know it’s a “go”.)
3.) Based on the information provided above, then I’ll write up and e-mail a written proposal. (My Mural Proposal Template available HERE)
Throughout the process I will verbally clarify, up front, how we work (meaning our payment policies). I’ll usually say: “We will begin the sketch process once you pay your Sketch fee. The fee includes up to 3 sketches, so please be as specific as you can about what you want. A 50% deposit is due 2 weeks before the painting begins. The mural will take approximately 5 days (or however many). We plan to work from 9-5 daily. Your final payment is due on the day it’s finished.”
Being clear and direct helps to prevent misunderstandings later. I don’t like surprises, especially when it comes to money. That’s why I’m so specific in both my written agreements and my verbal discussions with clients. Everything goes better that way, and clients appreciate knowing what to expect.
GIVING A DEAL/PRICE BREAK
Your client may ask for a deal on price. Sometimes it’s reasonable to give a small discount or freebie to a returning client.
For new clients: If it seems like it’ll be a less complicated design, sometimes I’ll offer to deduct their sketch fee from the mural price. Basically I’m waiving the sketch fee, but I still require a payment prior to the sketch process.
You could also offer to lower the per-square-foot fee if the mural is going to be very simple and easy, say, like a basic design. On the other hand, if the design they want is extremely detailed, you should consider increasing the per square foot fee.
ONCE THE SKETCH PROCESS IS COMPLETE
After we get the sketch drawn out, and the client is ready to move forward, we ask for 50% down and we schedule the dates that the painting will take place.
Typically Drew can get a mural completed in 5-7 days. Using a system of gridlines and efficiency, along with the help of an assistant, most murals, even very large ones, can be completed in that time frame.
In the end, the most important thing is to make sure that your client is extremely happy with your work. Read my article “Painting a Wall Mural – Ten Ways to Please Your Client” on how to make your client so pleased, that they are screaming your name from their rooftops!
SAMPLE WALL MURAL PROPOSAL TEMPLATE:
Artist’s Wall Mural Proposal Template Package
I hope this has been helpful to you. Please let me know in the comments below. (Or share your suggestions on how to make the mural pricing process better).
AND: Sign up for my informative Newsletters! In every newsletter I send by email you get FREE art business strategy coaching – my gift to you for being on my e-mail list!
Because of my freakish nature of ruminating over every little detail, it takes me hours to write these articles, and if I know that I’m helping people, I will keep on doing it!
AND, IF YOU WANT A PROFESSIONAL PROPOSAL PROCESS and TEMPLATE, check out this awesome package I created that has helped hundreds of artists proposal and price out murals:
Artist’s Wall Mural Proposal Template and Price Sheet
Luv, Maria xxoo
517 Responses
Great post. Very helpful. Thanks
Thank you, Maria. Very Informative and always helpful to see what other artists are doing!
Maria-
your advice is awesome and I truly appreciate you sharing all of it!
Maria,
Another great contribution…this is priceless information!
Great advice and structure to go by.
I really like the “Why You Should Limit the Number of Sketches”.
Cause we know how clients will keep changing it on ya.
This was a great post, really one of the most educational I’ve seen. I can only hope that I get to use this sort of structure someday in the near or distant future. Have there been instances in which you’ve LOST money completing a mural commission?
Does Drew use those pens for these, or traditional paints? If the latter, what does he find best for indoor vs. outdoor murals? Inquiring minds want to know.
Hey John, thanks for your questions. To answer:
1 – Have we lost money on a mural? Yes, there have been times where we under-priced something because we didn’t expect there to be difficulties or it was more work than planned. That’s why I now include the wording about adding more to the quote if there are unexpected difficulties.
2 – Drew will use house paints, spray paints and then paint pens at the end for details. Every mural is different – but he really likes Montana Spray Paints when he can use them. The colors are great and it’s fast.
Outdoor Murals: He uses the Montana Spray paints, airbrushing and paint pens as well.
Hi, Great blog! I stumbled upon your page, on a search for a good exterior paint pen. For some details to a mural and for writing a poem on an outdoor cinder block wall.This was much more than I expected to find! However, if you could tell me of a brand you have had experience with, that doesn’t fade or chip in the elements, it would be much appreciated! I noticed this seems to be old… So, I hope there is still someone at the other end of the line. Thanks so much!
This is for Francesca: Thanks for finding me! To answer your question – Drew uses Montana MTN 94 Spray paint for outdoor murals- it works great, holds up for years, bright colors. Highly recommend it!
Thanks, Maria! I was actually wondering about paint pens* I’ve been checking out Sharpie Oil pens, but I’m told they don’t hold up well in the elements of the outdoors. Any suggestions? I just wanted to use them for some details and also lettering… Seems like it would make life easier.. but not if they won’t hold up! haha. I have been hesitant to try them so far. Thanks, again for your help and input!
Maria
I wonder if you will allow me to post this article–or a portion of this article-to my blog, the Artist Marketing Salon? Along with your link and contact info or whatever other info you like?
Please consider giving me permission to repost to my blog. My blog is barebones design, but it’s a place artist visit for basic info for their art careers. I have been receiving 130-150 visitors per day and large spikes up into 300 hits.
oops, I knew I’d left something out!
Here is my blog link:
Artist Marketing Salon blog:
http://ArtistMarketingSalon.wordpress.com
To Marie: Yes, use any articles from my blog anytime you’d like. All I ask is links back to my site. Thank you so much for asking!
To everyone else: Thanks for leaving the nice comments and letting me know you enjoyed this article. It means a lot to me. xxoo
I wish I had advice like this 20 years ago. I haven’t done a wall mural in years. The last one I did I was pretty much just out of college and I had no idea what to charge.
I’ll be passing this link on. Thanks for sharing!
Excellent post !
Thanks Maria! I have posted your article to my blog (my blog link in my comment above). This is really a helpful article for artists. I added your link to the bottom of the article, your name under the article title.
The point being, that for allowing me to post your article, you will get some of my traffic!
Thanks for sharing!
Best wishes for a productive day, to all!
♥ this post and blog!
Thank you so much for sharing your pricing process. I am new a have never felt confident about my prices. I REALLY appreciate your guidelines. I now feel I have a sense of direction in how to determine prices depending not only on size, but also complexity and my own level of expertise. I can price lower than I might like right now, just getting started, and not feel bad about raising my prices when I feel I am deserve a raise! Thanks again!
Love this! When I was painting murals, I made many mistakes and a lot of them could have been prevented if I had used this sort of system! Painting murals is back breaking work, and you deserve to be paid well for it!
Thank you Maria,
I have been asked to paint a large mural a couple of times. I have been too intimidated to even quote one given the fact that I have never worked in very large format. This information in very helpful.
This is tremendously helpful! I was unprepared for my first wall mural, and was terribly underpaid (my fault, not my client’s). This makes wonderful sense!
FYI, I just wrote a follow up article to this one titled “PAINTING A WALL MURAL – TEN WAYS TO PLEASE YOUR CLIENT” – the link is here: https://mariabrophy.com/business-of-art/painting-a-wall-mural-ten-ways-to-please-your-client.html
Enjoy!
Thank you so much for posting this amazingly helpful information! I cannot tell you how valuable it is, nor how much I appreciate your generosity in sharing it.
Good information.
Great article. I have learned the hard way, like yourself, that i needed to include a design fee as part of the cost. But I like your way of doing it which will keep the design process easy and smooth- especially when you need to weed out the serious from the not-so-serious. I have done elaborate designs in the past for large projects that didn’t end up happening in the end. This was a waste of time and I didn’t get compensated for my designs.
I usually charge a per day rate so that my clients know roughly the cost of the mural. I can usually estimate pretty well on how long a project will take me, but it’s good to add the clause about “unforseen changes” if the client wants to add more detail. I’ve learned the hard way about that as well.
Terrific article! Thanks for posting it!
Thanks for this excellent post. I have also painted murals and this tip may help some of you. Following one of our south Florida hurricanes, a client asked for a mural for his medical office. I suggested three large panels for the mural instead of painting directly onto his wall. In case of hurricane the panels could be easily removed and stored in a more safe location. He was delighted. Plus, it made the job easier for me since I didn’t need to transport my painting supplies; I did the work in the privacy of my studio and on completion the panels were hung abutting each other with mirror hangers (unobtrusive). He had the effect of a wall mural and I had a much easier job of it! That particular mural is posted on my website where you can see the finished product and how it was hung..
I’m looking forward to reading more of your posts.
Thank you, mostly, for you generosity in sharing information that is sometimes hard to obtain from people. This post was extremely helpful to me being brand new to this endeavor and I am indebted. Continued success to you !
Thank you for this very valid information. it’s great for coming up with a ballpark price. and I like the fact that its clear, concise and no-nonsense to the point. Translating fine art from canvas to wall can be so tricky, there are so many variables to consider. i use Nova Colors from Artex in California. fabulous colors, formulated for outdoor murals with many wonderful mediums, etc to use.. I use them for all my fine art also. yea for “telling all” we gotta hang together, us creatives.
I am just starting my business. Over the past few years I have been requested to do a few murals around town. I have always felt honored to paint for friends and never really thought of doing it for a profit. I have recently received a request to paint for a new business after painting a mural for our local police department. This new business requested how much I charged and I did not even know where to begin. Thank you so much for this helpful information!
I was recently commissioned to do a mural at an elementary school and didnt know what to do…I am a recent art grad of GSU in atl ga…..this blog helped me tremendously….thank you so much. u answered every question i had…..and when i had another and thought the article was over u answered it again. Thanx!
Thank you for the great post. The way you described the process made it very easy to understand and I like your writing style. You described all the details and made it a fun and interesting post as well. Thanks.
Wow! really good proposal, and THANKS! for sharing your price list, this is something that not all Agents or Artists are wiling to talk about on a public space, also I want to ask you if this is the same price list for “any” client? because I have made some designs for some celebrities and sincerely I do not know how to treat them 🙁 and I do not want to charge as little because could look that I’m not professional and I do not like to charge more because I think the could think I’m taking advantage of their status, this is a huge dilemma or me
Thanks! luv your super blog
Dear Edel, thanks for commenting on my blog! So glad it’s helpful to you. Since i wrote this article, we have raised our base price to $40 a square foot – materials costs keep going up.
To answer your question: We try to be consistent with our pricing. It wouldn’t be fair to charge one person more than another. I would give the same price to Oprah that I would to the school teacher down the street. Maybe it’s not done that way by every artist, but I have found that consistency works best for us.
As an aside, I’ve also found, interestingly enough, that celebrities often expect to pay LESS than most people. Not sure where that comes from – but again, I stick to our general pricing for anyone.
The per square foot rate also goes up for complicated designs and/or situations where the is a lot more work involved. We also add on for difficult preparation and/or surfaces. The base price is really just a starting point.
I hope this helps answer your questions!
I’ve been commissioned for a mural and I just stumbled upon your website. I think Drew’s work is phenomenal and I cant thank you guys enough for the new level of inspiration that I’ve found in some designs I’ve been working on. I watched the video about the screaming skull motorcycle and its awesome to see another unconventional artist that is still down to earth. thanks again
Chris “Styx” Erickson
Hey Styx, thanks for all the great compliments! So glad you liked the show – thank you for watching. I wish you the best with your mural – keep us posted on it!
i am doing my first real art gig as an independent artist for a real big corporate company. they have a wall that they would like me to design and this blog is soooo amazingly perfect for my situation. i appreciate you so much for shedding some light on a new artist like myself. thank u thank u thank YOU!! *BIG HUGS* 😀
Thank you so much, this is really valuable information!
Maria- Thank you so much for all the insight and information. I have been a freelance children’s illustrator for 25 years and was recently commissioned to design and produce a series of large murals, having never done this before, I really didn’t know where to start and I need the work. So with your recommendations, some hard work and a little luck maybe I can at least make it look like I know what I am doing. Drew’s work is beautiful, I just hope I can follow suit.
great tips! Just what I was looking for
Thanks so much for these helpful tips and structure! I did my degree in Textile Design and Technology in South Africa. I’m an artist and love what I do but when it comes to the business side of things I truly suck!
Thanks again!
Now to convert all this to Rands an meters 🙂
thank you very much maria for the pricing tips that youve shared,,coz pricing is my problem evrytime i have a client for mural paintings..your great…..and not a selfish artist…thanks again..
THANKS a million…. this helped me soooOOO000 much!!!! ive been asked to do murals over and over again,but when the question came up of “how much will that cost” came up..i never had a clue,but this is a great guide to pricing!! AGAIN THANKS A MILLION!!! OAN:please tell Drew,that yougurt wave mural look great(which i figure he already knows lol!)
Rico, I’m so glad this was helpful to you! Thanks for the comment!
I’ve been an artist since the age of 2 (at least I knew I wanted to be back then) and I’ve been doing it now for over 4 decades. Over the years I’ve done a lot of murals and every time it comes to price I’ve simply winged it. Though the prices I’ve charged have always seemed good to me, I’ve always had a nagging fear that I was under charging. But what do you know! — based on your excellent article, I’ve found out I’ve been charging right in there! The one thing I like that you do is the minimum charge I’ve never thought of that, but that’s pretty good. Coincidently I’m in the middle of pricing out a job and your pricing structure came in a tad less than what I was estimating, but at least I’m not lower. Thanks! Here’s a question: What if you’re doing say six 40 sq. ft. murals (of the same basic look) at one place? Do you just add them all up and come up with a total? Thanks again.
This article was a great help! I teach at a college graphic design department in Florida, and I plan on including your excellent article in my curriculum. It addresses some of the main questions students want to know.
I honestly cant believe how little i was charging for murals!!!!!! >:[ thanks to this page i can finally start charging appropriately. i was charging about 2 dollars per square foot after i realized, now i’ve raised it to 7 and my customers are satisfied, as well as i!
This is a great guide.We are also using murals to fight climate change.
see more in our site.
regards,
Joram.
Thks a lot….you make my day.
thanks for the info, very informative! Was exactly what I was looking for. I think it is awesome how you share this info and your desire to create a sense of community to help each other!
THANK YOU!!!!
Thanks for this. I live on the east coast and appreciate your openess to share. My mural side business is extending out from mostly friends to other cientelle, and I needed some tips on pricing so that I can be as professional as possible. This was very helpful thank you for suporting the arts. waya
This was very helpful (as all the other posts I read on your blog). Please keep sharing your experience…
Thank you!! This is an excellent find! I have been toying with starting up a small mural business but felt completely lost on where to even begin with the “business” side of it. Lots of great info on here. Thank you SO much!
Thank you for being so open and helpful w/your information. That was amazing. Just curious…When you do your sketch, is it just a concept sketched out w/colors, or is it pretty close to looking the end product?
Thank you!
Ivonne Campbell
Hey Cricket,
Thanks for the comment. To answer your question: The sketch is without colors, it’s very close to what you will paint on the wall. We have our clients approve the sketch before painting. Once approved, there should be no more changes.
Yessssss…. this was very helpful & thank you so much for sharing. No one really has to share, so that’s a great thing that you did. Many blessings coming your way. 🙂
So yeah, I’m an Artist. Been all my life, so on my many past experience on any kind of freelance work, I’ve also learn that it get’s crazy when it comes to clients with the prices and all. People always expect too much for so little and happy with the design at first & start wanting to change up things once you’ve already started or even sometime when you’re done. No thought of paying any more for all this even comes to their minds or even how all you’re precious time & hard labor is going behind all this work. Gosh!!! LOL
So yes, this really does also help me a lot as I do appreciate you taking out your own time to teach me & others (Freelance Artists) on this subject as I found you be researching due to planing on going into the Wall Mural business for myself. Thanks!!! 😀
PS
It’s Tampa Florida a good place to charge those Nice Prices in your opinion if you can answer?
Zamir, thanks for visiting my blog!
Regarding Tampa FLA: I know a mural artist there who charges over $40 a square foot, and it’s all he does. I think the amount you charge depends on your experience level and reputation. The fees in this article are reasonable for the amount of work required to paint a mural. Since I wrote this article, we have raised our prices over 10%.
I’m in the process of being commissioned for my first mural and this post was EXACTLY what I needed to get started. I appreciate that you took the time to write this out for other artists and will use the information you provided to do my first job! Thank you!
This was so helpful! I’m working on a bid and waffling about a price, wondering if I’m asking too much. On a whim I googled pricing murals and got your article. I am by no means asking too much and this gave me the confidence I need to walk back into my customer and feel free to tell them that if it’s too much, they can’t afford me! Thank you for your honesty. Can’t wait to read what else you have to say.
So very helpful! thanks so much for sharing.
Hi
I am a self taught artist that has set up my own mural buisness, I started of just doing lots of residential things but have started getting lots of commercial work – so you guide was just what I was looking for.
Can you recommend which paint is best as your colours are amazing as I am now doing much bigger surface areas
Thanks
Your efforts did not go to waste, I used every bit of info you gave in your article, thank you! I now hope to soon have a contract.
Great article! Thanks for sharing.
This is EXACTLY the info I was looking for. Before seeing this structure, I would have charged WAY too little for a job that seems simple but is sure to take me at least a week to complete.THANK YOU!
that was very sweet of you to share, i need to understand more about the liabilty insurance, how do you seperate it from cost. isnt something that you pay yearly or is it by project?
my experience was all overseas, so that is new to me.
thank you Maria.
Rania, thanks for the comment. To answer your question about Liability Insurance: Some companies may want the artist to provide it. Since we are a small business, we do not have liability insurance in place. I feel it’s important for the client to know this, that’s why I included reference to it n the list of things not included in the price (and not included at all).
hi maria,im a mural artist from the philippines this was very helpful. thank you so much maria brophy.
Thank you for this great article it helps a lot. I have done a few murals and am trying to get into it more. I actually went and looked at a job last night and am working on a bid for them right now. The total square footage of the project is over 1300 and they dont want a real detailed mural but it is still a lot of area to paint . Its an apartment complex that is a warehouse style flat and they want some industrial scenes painted on the walls, when I say not detailed I mean realistic but stylized.
Your article is very helpful in the pricing and I appreciate the information about the insurance also.
Thanks again
Have a great day
Just what I needed. Very helpful and truly a blessing. By reaching out to others you make a difference and your information will help others reach their goals. Awesome Job!
Thank you very much this was very helpful… :0)
its a big helful for me but you did not mentioned how many days tobe finsh the work:-)
Wow, so great of you to be so forthcoming with your extremely valuable information! Just the kind of information that I can use being new in the selling my art world. I can’t wait to read more of your articles. I’ve just found you. Thanks again. Oh and please, do keep writing!
Thank you so much for this! Im starting murals for the first time and this was so helpful!
Hi From AZ! What a great article! VERY VERY VERY helpful and I so much appreciate the option to use your proposal as a template. As our company is *just* budding, I don’t think we’d have a minimum square footage (trying to build our reputation and portfolio). For very simple designs, do you think $20-$25 is too little? My partner and I also always do a colored final draft, is that too much without adding a design fee? Since we’re super new at this, do you think we’re selling ourselves short? Or will a drastic hike in price cause us to lose our client base? Any info is greatly appreciated!
Dear Jocelyn,
Thanks for the comment and the question. You should always have a base price (a minimum) that covers your paint, materials, planning time and travel time (gas, etc).
Customers who won’t pay a decent price are not customers that you want to have.
You can find the best customers by charging what’s fair to you. That weeds out the good ones from the not-so-good ones.
I hope this is helpful!
PS: Please Sign up for my email newsletter – on the upper right toolbar.
Hello Maria I have a long art and mural experience back from Canada and Czech republic. The 90’s were great for mural business down in Prague. Unfortunately I have end up in the West of Canada in Calgary. I must say art business is very bad over here(except Stampede art show-realistic western art,every year),trying to find clientele is very hard. Somehow the people they do not even know about the possibility to have a mural painted at home. So I have switched partly to airbrushing helmets,it was little bit better but nothing great,still have difficulty to get to the right clientele. Everybody seems to be so cheap but demanding high quality of work. I wish to be able to charge same money as you do back in US. Canada is all frozen for art..Beside most of my Kijjii ads had been removed for now apparent reasons(Iam complaining through email at their service). So Iam looking how to promote my art work. Would you know some tips,beside to move out of this cold cave..:)) Thank you a lot for your side it gaves me hope that somewhere far is possible to ask what we all deserve.
Hey thanks a lot I have been looking for some one that knows what there doing and if u have a facebook please add me you can look me up as Uriel Valencia custom canvas I’m trying to come up in the painting world and if you any in vice or tip please email me and thanks again hope to hear from you
While the grid system is fine and traditional. The drawing can be done much quicker however by using an opaque projector with the drawing projected on the wall. Tracing the drawing is so much faster than the grid system that I feel it worth mentioning. Of course you do have to work at night to make that drawing. I did a mural near 100 ft long and easily 20 feet high that way.
Wow you just opened my eyes. I didn’t know you could charge that much. I’m barely starting and I was charging $25 for big window size drawings and $80 for walls! You must be laughing. Thank you so much.
thank you so much for sharing. Your 100% right, artist should share info…stick together in pricing and never underestimate the value of our time or art. It is a gift to be able to do art, and it seems lately in my life, some folks, want alot for nothing or free…..I appreciate what you shared…all the best to you!
So here is my share…for those of you who don’t know about it already,
check out callforentry.org..There are heaps of art, mural calls and projects all over the US listed constantly. All you have to do is apply…
hi, i have been an artist/ designer for many years. i have painted some murals vases and vines for some of my design clients. i have recently been asked to paint store fronts(glass) and some characters and vines on a wall. these are small areas as compared to a large mural. How does this fall into the pricing chart. i would rather give a flat price than charge by the hour.
help
thanks
Isabelle, thanks for the comment and the question.
The answer is that you can come up with a per square foot price that is both good for you and that the client will pay. That number depends on a few different factors: your reputation & experience, where you live, your clientele, etc. Experiment and find a price that works well for you. Then raise it by 10% every year to keep up with inflation, etc.
I did a mural as a volunteer at my church, and now I’m getting requests to paint murals for money. This is going to be a huge help, I had no idea how much to charge for such a huge amount of work. Thank you for posting this, pricing is so intimidating and this will make things easier and keep me from getting ripped off.
Mil Gracias!! This honest information has saved me from imbarrasement. I am a professional artist, portraits and landscapes, who was asked to paint a mural on a family members office wall. All went well, except for the pricing. Mind you, this person would not object to any quote, but I want to be fair – you have made that possible. I too believe in sharing gained knowledge earned through experience.
Thank you VERY much:) I am starting my very first(paid) mural, and you helped me soooo…much. I also appreciate your freedom to give out your experienced knowledge. My pricing on ALL my art work has been difficult. Too high? Too low? You’ve given me some great tips. THANK YOU:)
Hi,
I am residing in Bangalore,India. I am doing Mural business. Mural in the sense it is a embossed mouled version which then applying resin on mud mould and then painted it for final finishing.
That mural will be clamped at outside home wall. So it appears like it is attached to the wall.
So i want to extend my business to US.
can you please suggest over some ideas in which type i can establish my business.!
Thankyou soo much. Ive been interested and told to do this by so many for so long. But never knew how to start. Thankyou!
phone number please
Thank you SO much for this! It is very informative and right to the point. I have just started out as a mural artist (I primarily tattoo or offer canvas paintings) and I had NO idea what to charge. Thank you again for sharing your info and plan sheets with us!
thanks man,may god bless u and the company to grow big.u realy enlighten my vision and now i know cause i can see because of your love you got for the artists.im from South Africa.and your spirit called me from a distance and i appriciate it man.once againg may the lord almighty grown you spiritualy.keep spreading that info *i call it the words and numbers of enlightment* take care.sharp sharp!
Great blog!, thank you for sharing,
I ask for the deposit and most times i get it and if they don’t pay i leave its just not worth it,
but i have been done over at the end of my projects a couple of times, where either the client has given me a check and it has bounced and another time where the client has said that they don’t have the final fee amount and i just had to walk away empty handed but i was paid the 50% deposit fee but the client did get the mural for half the price.
what should i have done in those situations?
any information you could tell me would be greatly appreciated
thank you
Joanne, thanks for the email and question! There are many ways to avoid someone stiffing you the final payment. They are:
1 – Do a good job of choosing your clients (make sure they are people you can trust);
2 – have every client sign a proposal/contract (it can be a simple one pager, just get their signature), and
3 – constantly remind them that you will require final payment on your last day.
Make sure there are no questions in their mind what you EXPECT of them. When we make it clear what we expect, people usually deliver.
I hope this helps!
I recently painted my first mural and thanks to Maria, it was a wonderful experience. One other comment I would like to add from having been a freelance artist for many years is:
If you go that extra mile and do a favor for a client ALWAYS be certain that they KNOW that you are doing them a favor, otherwise they come to expect you to do extra stuff for them and they really appreciate your endeavor to make them happy.
Thank you for sharing your pricing guide and terms. This has been very helpful to me in my current situation. I have been painting custom work for years; however, it was not until recently that I was asked to paint a large mural 20×30 foot on the side of a down town building. I had no idea what to charge for this since my current “per square inch” painting scale came out to be astronomical! I know that my potential client will be impressed with your setup (with a few minor tweaks for living location). Thanks again!
Jenn
This article has been really helpful to me. I am an Art student and I’m thinking of doing this mural for a business.The mural just consists of his business design which is just words but it’s my second mural, which is my first solo mural and I really lacked the proper mural pricing method so thank you soooooo much =) for giving me someeee =)
Your are a great help, i am new to this and this is exactly what i needed for a moral boost! thanks and cheers, please visit my site, your input would be greatly appreciated!
http://www.facebook.com/thor6692.
It was so wonderful of you to post this article. It is sad in my experience that artists don’t share information more like this. Love your blog! Love your work.
Blessings,
This is excellent stuff, so good as this will be the first time I have ever charged professionally for a wall mural. Love it…please keep helping.
Thank you! This is super nice of you to share the knowledge! Much success to us all!
Hi was just wondering if anyone had any advice on charging for lettering. I have been asked to paint a childs name and not sure hove to price this.
would also appreciate making contacts in the mural world please check out my link
https://www.facebook.com/thor6692#!/Mural.Designs
Hey Alison, thanks for landing on my blog!
Regarding charging for lettering: I would recommend coming up with a minimum fee (i.e. $500 minimum for lettering) and then add a dollar amount for each letter (i.e. $20 per letter or $500, whichever is greater).
So, using the above example, if the total number of letters/numbers added up to 35, you would charge $20 x 35 = $700.00. If the total number was 12 letters/numbers, you would charge the minimum of $500.
I hope this helps!
Thank you SO much for this information! As a lifelong Artist I have wanted to do murals for as long as I can remember. At age 52, having just graduated from college for graphic design, I now have the information to begin this process! You Rock!
Thank you for sharing your knowledge. I’m about to do my first mural, and your article has given me the perspective I needed to get my prices down. You rock! 🙂
I have really enjoyed your comments and blogg. I am an African American illustator with many years of art experience. It is nice to get a handle on the project ans hold onto it. You have helped. Irie Ites.
Wow, this was a wonderful and unexpected find, so tremendously useful. Thank you! I have been a commercial artist for years, (excepting the homeschooling-mommy-at-home years) and I have always found it exceedingly difficult to price my work, consequently I have usually cheated myself of my rightful compensation. Your site is going to change the way I proceed from now on. Again, thank you very much!!
Thank you, the information you provided has been helpful. My father and I are planning to start up a mural business, and it’s been difficult for me to have him commit to some solid “base pricing”. He wants to just do case-by-case at the site estimated pricing. Hopefully this will help him see the necessity of “base pricing”.
Hi Tillman you are lucky to start serious business at your area. If you live in Calgary Canada you will not have some worries as mural business is dead over here..GOOD LUCK IN MURAL ART..maybe one day I will move down to USA. But getting too old probably even older then your dad.. (all of the murals on my webside were done in Europe)
So helpful!! Thank you for taking the time to do this. You are a blessing, an answer to prayer!
Thank you so much for this article! I am a newbie learning along the way and this was do valuable for me starting off my first project!!
During many years i have struggle with how much to charge people, for illustrations, paintings and murals, many times i have fallen short, creating a feeling of being not satisfy with the payment, many times clients want more changes and del I’m sure you know…I just want to thank you, you have given the answer to my question, I had ask many artist before on how they go about pricing murals, but many don’t want to share.
Im very grateful to you for this information, it sure will change my dream now.
Hello Maria how can I price original painting on canvas that supposed to be mural at first. Thank you for your answer.
Hello Maria what is difference in price for painting on canvas or on the wall?Thank you for your answer.
Thank you for posting this I’m a new artist in my community and I have had several people request a mural. I was never really sure what to charge or how I should have handel it. Thanks for the help.
Hello Melody where do you live? You are lucky if someone ask you for mural. If it happened here in Calgary Canada it would be almost miracle. I even ask less for mural then half -Maria is asking for 1 foot square and they refused it, people here are so cheap.. One of my competitor got company name Starving Artist..I thought he might be joking,now I know he is serious. If I had more finance I would move out of here back to Europe,Montreal or to USA right away. Better province for art in Canada seems to be Montreal..
Hello Maria and THANK YOU for sharing your years of business experience with those who are just starting out. How very valuable and generous!! My daughter is 17 and an incredible artist. She did a mural in the band hall at her high school and the pricipal was so impressed that he has commisioned her (is there such thing as an unpaid commission?!?) to paint a HUGE mural of their mascot in the entry way of their school. She is about 80% complete. Since starting the mural she has been asked by several people to do murals. I need to know what to charge, and I was clueless. Thank goodness for the internet. I’m not sure we could charge what you are because of her age and being new to the business, but it sure gives me a great idea of where to start. I definitely think she has a future in this business!! Thanks Again
Do you ever run into the problem of going through the design process and then having the client decide not to go through with the mural… Only to find out later that they hired someone cheap to paint your design?
Kyle, that’s a great question! No, we have never run into that. But, recently we have increased our sketch price to $1,500.
The way we prevent a client from taking our sketches to another artist is in the written proposal: The proposal has a statement that says “All copyrights to the artwork remain in the ownership of Artist”.
Legally, they cannot take your sketch to another artist, because you, the artist of the sketch, owns the copyright to the art.
Excellent. Thanks for the speedy response, and thanks again for this whole post – extremely helpful for someone like myself who has been painting murals since high school… But has never gotten paid properly.
Thank you so much for this article! I’m a painter looking to start doing murals as a career option but i’m having a hard time getting things rolling. Any tips on getting started, finding customers etc..? Thanks again, i’m signing up for your newsletter =)
Maria
Thank you for helping those of us still struggling in the muck. It’s difficult to ask for money when one is doing what they love. Clients see that as a weakness and usually devour me.
I plan to be prepared on the next project.
[sending a virtual hug]
Ree
Hi Maria, I really liked your article. It is very informative,to the point and witty. I really appreciate it. Thanks,
S. King
Thank you so much! I’ve been a working muralist for 20 years and still find difficulty with my estimates. You are fantastic to share your experience with other artists in CA.
Best regards,
Jeanine
This was a life/time saver! I have commissioned to do a 600sqft fence mural and am new to a project this big and as such had no clue what to charge for actual painting. Prep work will be fairly time consuming too. Thank you for sharing this most valuable info!
Maria,
Thank you for this article! For years I have had problems knowing what to charge and even when I try to be firm people see me get wishy washy when i say the price (because im really never sure) instead of telling them the price it almost sounds like Im asking them. I know thats the worse thing an artist can do. After reading this article and a few of your others I’m sure this will be an easier process for me! Also I have NEVER charged a sketch fee and yes it’s a lot of work and i had one person change their mind about the whole design going from cute to elegant .. i wanted to cry and felt like i did the whole thing almost for free… Thank you, I am going to contnue to watch your posts.
Thank You times 3 for your post on proper pricing!! I am a new murals working on starting my own small company, and have struggled with the details of pricing. I have so far 2 murals in my portfolio, and learned the hard way when it came to cost and payment. So thank once gain for sharing. Keep up the amazing art work too!
Hi Maria, I was wondering if you can help me with my pricing problem. Someone asked me to paint a door mural for them. One is a double door and another a single door. How much should I charge them if I’m painting a landscape? or should I charge them per hour? I live in Las Vegas by the way. Please help.. Thank you
Thanks so much for sharing this information, I’m amazed and grateful that you’ve shared it freely, that’s a rare thing indeed.
I found it very detailed, there was nothing I was wondering that was left out. This will help me immensely in pricing my own mural quotes.
Thanks again.
Hi Maria!!
ur a life saver.. ive been painting all my life and finally i found the courage to take a step infront and get into mural painting.. thank you for the guidance and advices.. will be lookin up into ur website more often to get mor information.
loads of loce n support,
Gill
Wow !!! Really I don’t have much to say than …you are an angel of glory!you are sent by God to the world for a great delivery. Am from Nigeria. Pls don’t doubt. my comment here.
So than pray to the Lord to get same clients to Canada that would agree with that kind of prices..:)) that you ask in USA. There is no as question ..how long are you at that bussines or how talented are you.. right question is: WHERE DO YOU LIVE? WHAT IS THE CLIENTELE? ARE THEY GOING TO PAY SUCH MONEY FOR YOUR WORK? If many of you artists muralists down in States are getting that sort of money GOOD FOR YOU..you really live at the right place. People down here are hesitating to pay even the half what Maria is asking,so I rather go by estimate,otherwise I will not survive. To make money as an artist you can not relay just on mural work down here. I am in art bussines for many years.
Thank you very much for this article! Just what I was looking for. Much appreciated.
One thing works for me is to never work up more than a rough sketch for the 2nd interview and as well never leave that with the prospective client. If they are responding on the positive then I offer a more detailed drawing but make it clear that this will cost them in advance but will be deducted from the final bid if mine is accepted. Also if they have paid for a detailed comprehensive drawing then they are not allowed to keep a copy of it unless they commit to ordering the mural. Reason is there are lots of customers out there showing around drawings made by some poor slob like me wanting to get the job……..I tell the potential customer up front I will not work from another artist’s drawing for this reason.
The way to avoid someone having you sketch the design and then have another artist “steal it” from you is this: Make sure that you copyright your designs as well as mark it “(c) Von frese Studio” so that the client knows they cannot use your art.
It should also be stated in your proposal that all artwork copyrights, even the mural painting, are owned by the Artist.
Thank you Maria. I will remember that. Copyright is marked on all my work.
Thank you for writing this article about pricing wall murals. i needed verification that my pricing is good and i found that I am right in line with you. I have been doing this for a few years and was afraid to be too expensive. i have a very large client that I have worked with for the last 3 years and now just acquire another. This new project is going to be my largest yet at close to 2000 sq ft. I like that you have discounts in the pricing at the larger areas. Very helpful to keep my clients from turning another way. Thank you again and I hope to hear more of your insight in the industry.
i letter walls just basic stuff but i was wondering how to price i just did a 4 x 10 on brick just said shoes all caps no serifs white black outline had to rent lift what would u charge ps im in pa not ur competition tony
To those of you complaining about the high prices on this article. All you have to do is Google cost of living calculator and put in the Brody’s prices and have them figured for your part of the country or world.
Then you can adjust them for your level of experience. That is what I have done.
I painted murals and faux-finishes for about 18 months right out of college and got burned so bad and jaded that I just closed up shop not wanting to deal with “clients”. I use quotes because there wasn’t a level of professionalism that they acted like a client or I acted like a business woman as well as an artist.
Now after completing a large mural for a friend, business done for free as a gift…I am getting calls. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to pursue the headache of taking on clients. I now feel I have the tools to go into business and actually make a profit. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!
Thank you for sharing your experience in business.
With me it’s always been a roughly traveled road over time. Now I do not pursue murals unless the subject is something which I’m feeling personally connected to emotionally and politically.
Much thanks for the article / info Maria, I appreciate you and your efforts. Best Wishes to you.
Thanx 4 giving ,mural wall process start to end ,i need ur e-mail
Thank you so much for sharing your working process. I’d like to ask what is the best type of paint to use on an exterior metal fence?
Thank you for this article. I am an bouncy castle artist and have run my own business for three years the pricing has always stumped me but your advice will help alot. Cheers again .x
This was awesome! I am working to start my own mural business after doing a large mural project for a friends business. This was wonderfully simple to understand and gives an insight as to some of the obstacles i could potentially run into. You are an amazing person to share your insights and I truly aprreciate it. I look forward to reading more.
Wow, this was very helpful as I was creating my own proposal. Many factors that you covered didn’t even cross my mind. Thanks!
I was asking $28,000.00 not including scaffolding and other expenses such as motel and meals. The client countered with an offer of only 14,000.00 stating this was all their budget committee would approve for the mural project.
Should I accept or walk away?
I’ve been able to solve the funding shortfall by introducing corporate sponsors to not only make up the difference but add additional revenue to my project.
My husband has painted 3 murals in our house. All have been for our 2 son’s rooms. The first one was a beach theme on one wall for our first son’s baby room, the second was an underwater theme on all 4 walls for our second son’s baby room, and the third was a spiderman theme on three of the walls for our son’s 4th birthday. Every person that has seen them absolutely loves them. How do we get the word out that he is available to paint murals?
This has been extremely helpful. Thank you–it is so difficult to find info like this as a newcomer (professionally).
I am searching for advice on a new project: I was asked to paint 800sf of verbiage on an exterior wall of a restaurant ( think vintage hardware store with all products advertised on the outer walls). It will be black white, and gold, and a few different fonts in separate blocks, vertical and horizontal. Do I still use a pricing structure like this, by the square foot?
Thanks for any advice you can give!
Dear Jessica,
If you plan to use stencils, find out what it will cost to have the stencils made (probably from a sign company). Consider that when pricing it.
Or, if you are confident to paint the lettering on your own without stencils, that could be a lot more work to consider time-wise.
You are doing more of a sign painting project (technical) than an art project, but with different fonts it could be a lot of work.
In this case, you could charge by the square foot or you could charge by the letter. Either way, make sure you get paid enough, as this is going to be hard work!
You are a wonderful human being
Thanks a million for this post and for the whole blog! Tremendously helpful to an artist trying to really get started. Please keep blogging!!!
Thank you so much for the information. I have been painting fine art and murals since the late 80’s and looking at your pricing guide means I was giving away a lot of time and supplies. I have painted murals in large cities and small towns. People seek me out. And when we start talking about pricing they usually start telling me to be kind to them. That they don’t have much money. Very irritating to me. I usually tell them if they want to compare our checking and savings accounts. Ha! This makes them laugh! I have also told them to go on line and check out the murals and prices there. And compare my work with the other muralists. I do get really resentful sometimes. People expect you to paint a Leonardo or Michelangelo for under 500 dollars on a 90 square foot wall! And make changes constantly! Sorry for ranting! Just finished a mural today. The client calls me and texts me constantly, she loves the mural, now wants another. Embarrassed to tell you how much I charged her! Thank you again. Btw, it took me 22 hours to do this mural they wanted me to stop early, to ave money. Have you ever had that happen? I. The early years? And what can I do next time, to prevent this.
Kendra, thanks for the comment and for sharing your experiences!
Often, my conversations with a new client begin with the client saying “I don’t have a big budget…..” or “can you give me your best price, because I don’t have much money?”
My reaction when they do that? Nothing. I ignore it. I pretend I didn’t hear it at all. I give them a price quote that I would give anyone, a price that is fair to both me and them. And this is what you should do.
Recently we were offered $1,500 to paint a large wall, something we normally would charge $6,000 for.
When this happens, I say, “We charge $6,000 for this, however, if $1,500 is your budget, I can recommend a new artist still in school that might be willing to do it for that price.”
Please understand, people can’t take advantage of you unless you let them.
How to prevent the situation where you painted a mural for 22 hours and they asked you to cut it short? Very easy. Begin with a written price quote (see example above) and have your client sign it. Get 50% down before starting, and if you worry about the client not paying the full amount at completion, get a portion of the payment every few days or every week.
This will prevent most problems – a written agreement at the start and money down.
I hope this is helpful to you!
Thank you so much for your help! Really appreciate you knowledge and understanding. By the way I love the mural above, very creative and colorful! Thank you again Kendra
Awesome and SO helpful. We’re in the Olympia,wa area and have less experience but this is helpful as a bench mark! We’re starting with children’s themes!
Thank you so much for this article (and so many others). I’ve been trying to start up my own mural business and the information you’ve provided is invaluable. It’s made the process so much easier for me (pricing always gives me a headache). Thank you again for all your help.
Thanks so much for this information! My family and friends have been on me to start my own mural business however the pricing thing and terms and conditions part overwhelmed me! This has been a life saver and I greatly greatly appreciate it and all your hard work you’ve put in to make this assessable to me! Thanks so much again! 😉
Thank you so much for sharing this info am in Canada just finishing a Mural on Concrete stucco wall had so many problems getting this surface to take a color hue I did pencil sketches first my design could not get flowers to look exactly like I wanted hard to blend and do brush strokes on stucco spent about 80 hours easy on it so far almost finished had some really great feedback from on line friends actually quite pleased with finished product Urn and flowers are big each section is approx 5’highx 3′ something wide, have been paid $400 so far for both have spent around $100 on supplies and all my good brushes are killed with the rough walls also painting outside has many challanges Im feeling like Im really ripped off if you have the time would appreciate some feeback thank you so much Muriel
Dear Muriel,
So glad you found me here! Here’s a few things for you to think about:
1 – Don’t look at this client as having “ripped you off” because YOU are in charge of making sure you get paid properly, not the client. YOU are the business person, so you have to lead the client from the beginning. I’ll further explain in a minute….
2 – Chalk this one up to experience, and don’t beat yourself up for letting this happen. We all learn through trial and error. The most important thing is that you learned from this, and the next mural you will handle perfectly from the beginning. Here’s how:
3 – Before buying paint for a mural, or doing any work, make sure you properly price it out, give the customer a written price quote, and get 50% up front.
To properly price it out, give it a lot of thought – take into consideration the condition of the wall (in this case it ruined your brushes) and anything else that you might come across.
Add something in the agreement that says “Price does not include: Unforeseen Complex painting design / design changes, Liability insurance, Unforeseen additional work due to adverse conditions on surface that may require extraneous labor.”
This way, the customer knows that if you run into problems, or if they make changes, you will add to the price.
4 – Congratulations on this mural that you are pleased with! Look at this one as a learning experience, and vow to handle all future mural projects professionally, and follow the steps that I lay out in this blog post.
5 – It’s not too late to ask the customer for more money on this one, and hopefully they will pay it. But if they don’t again, it’s a learning experience and next time will go much smoother!
I wish you the very best! I hope this is helpful. 🙂
Thank you so much for your reply Maria I appreciate your help but I will never do concrete stucco again with acrylic mediums and artist brushes lol It is very kind of you to help us all wishing you great success for being such a wonderful person.
This is truly brilliant…I am from India and have been painting murals for some time, but I have never really made any formal proposals….and yes have run into silly problems with clients not letting me sign after the murals done….however, have this big mural coming up and a proposal needs to be made…here i am on your site…really helped me a lot thanks….
Wonderfuly written, thanks so much for the the time and effort 😀
Great article,Maria!
I have the same problem as Mike. I am a fine artist and I have painted a small mural for a friend and I really enjoyed it.I wish to reaffirm and improve my image as a mural artist, but I i’m having a really hard time getting things rolling,as Mike said.How do I find customers, should I contact local restaurants.I don’t really know how to promote my art..
Thank you 🙂
Maria,
THANK YOU for ALL THIS VALUABLE INFORMATION!!!!!
Thank you for the countless number of heartaches you
saved me! Please email me to verify your mailing address
so I can send you a check when I receive the balance of
my first mural. Yours immensely relieved and grateful,
Hil
awesome!!! thanks so much for providing this type of information.. what a great resource.
Your pricing sheet and sample mural proposal are just what I needed. I’ve been painting small and medium murals since ’99, but recently I have been asked to bid on a HUGE trompe l’oeil job for a client so important he remains anonymous even to us (the faux finishers and other artisans). I want to make sure we come across as the best suited for his project. Any other information you could provide on this topic would be awesome. Like, is it common practice to place a copyright watermark over a sketch given to the client (so he doesn’t get someone else to paint our design)? I’m sure I’ll have more questions as I work on the proposal.
Thanks!
Bea
Dear Bea,
Thanks for your comment and for reading my blog. Conrats on your new opportunity!
YES, put a watermark on the sketches, especially since you don’t even know who the client is. Make sure your sketches also have a copyright notice on the bottom that reads “Artwork (c) YOUR NAME HERE 2012, all rights reserved”
Let me know how it goes!
I am blown away by your willingness to share your prices and give all this wonderful advice. I have painted murals along with other projects and like many I have grossly underpriced myself. Your encouragement not to “bet oneself up” over what seems to be a loss is refreshing. Experience and a lesson learned is how I choose to view them from now on. I too, thank you for your article and help. After homeschooling two sons, I’m ready to get out there and make a living and be a blessing bringing joy through art. Thanks again!
I am just getting started in Southern Florida and found you blog very helpful. Thanks so much for your time,
Dorisann
Your blog has just freed me up. I have been asked to design for fabrics for run way and had no idea as an artist and an architect how to move forward.
Therefore I was lost.
Reading this has shown me that I need not fear using my design collections with a tight clear agreement, royalties with an advance sounds wise.
Pricing sheet is a little difficult as they will be computer designs done too.
But the architectural sketches are really the ones that differ, so I will focus on producing those and moving them forward for the fabric designs.
I guess royalties will be based on gross sales in all outlets and not net sales.
Kind regards,
And thank you for sharing.
Mubo.
Wow thank you for this. I have painted murals for some time now and I hate this part of the process. This has helped me a lot and I am certainly going to put it to use. Thank you so much for sharing!!
one greatful thank to u, ur sharing has helped a lot.
i am going to help my sister try to build up a business of mural.
she is really good at drawing and designing.
hopefully we will go well.
we r in sydney, australia. i think i will need to get some further info about price. cause diff country, right?
Thanks for the info you are awesome. Ive always had issues pricing on murals, this helped me so much thanks again
Hi Maria, Just wanted to let you know I found your article very informative an I feel it will help me greatly in starting my business. Your experience and advise is greatly appreciated and I look forward to reading other newsletters. Thank you again 🙂
I have been in the business for 17 years, and applaud your sound advice. It was also nice to hear my own business practices reaffirmed, too! Nicely done.
Thank you so much!
Thank you soooo very much! I’m starting an inner-city mural-making program and these are the exact questions that I struggled with answering. You are a saint!
Hi, I’m on the San Francisco Peninsula and looking to commission a very large mural on a retaining wall of one of our buildings. Was curious to price it out to tell my boss what we’re looking at price-wise so as not to get sticker shock later. This is so helpful! Now we can actually budget for it. Thank you very much! Cheers.
Hi, Thank you for this very detailed explanation for pricing. I have just started up and have a potential first client soon and I was really unsure of pricing. I’m not sure I would feel comfortable charging as much as you do as I am starting up but its a good base to go on. Also, your willingness to share your contracts on here is so so helpful. I dreaded trying to write up a contract with nothing to go off, this gives a really good basis to go on and adapt to my own skills and experience. Thanks again, Lisa (London based artist)
I AM STOKED! I just placed my first ad on CLto actually get PAID for mural painting. my wall are full and i’ve done much art, large art at our new baby, THE LUSTY AXLE bar and grill..I got an offer to bid almost immediately for a Thai restaurant and 2kids rooms. FREAKED OUT>>NO IDEA what to charge or say …absolutely NO clue and am now feeling on TOP OF THE WORLD! I love LOVE LOVE painting for my friends and family because of the sheer joy..the squeal …LOVE IT ..now I’m gonna get PAID to do that
THANK THAnK THANK YOU
This was very informative. I’m just starting out with this and that was my number one question: How do I know how much to charge? I will be following your Newsletter. Thanks again!
i do murals how can i get jobs
new to this trying to learn as much as possible. Have modeled much of my contracting after your s. I appreciate your willingness to help others.
Do you include the paint prices in your “flat fees” per foot,or are are they added later or separately?
I am just starting my 4th mural…so far, all have been community projects…this one is a gift…but I do plan to do them in the future.
Your BLOG is so incredibly helpful!!
Cheers, Carol
Carol, thanks for the comment! Yes, our prices include all materials. However, you can do it any way you wish. If you want to carve the prices out for materials and have the client pay for it separately, that works.
Thanks for your help….
I love your philosophy in sharing ideas. So many artists seem to hide away in fear of giving somebody else the advantage but I have long felt that the only way of getting along is by helping others, so thank you. This article has been very useful!
This was great thank you!
this is great information. Thank you!
I setting up the “Business” end of my business. I see your pricing does not include liability insurance. Dont you just carry an umbrella policy of a couple of million on your business? If not, now do you handle this? Thank you.
Great article, I been wondering about the liability insurance, last year I paid my own and is expensive, I only needed it for three month project but had to pay for one year! Who in these cases covers the liability insurance or do youz get it per job? Or does client pay for it? And then what about when you bring on other artists? How do they get it as well?
Thanks Maria for the information!! Please answer Martin´s Post. If the liability is not included in the price, how you charge it.
Martin, see this page: http://www.decorativeartisans.org/
http://www.decorativeartisans.org/?page=LiabilityInsurance
thank you so much for writing this and other posts! I’m a freelance artist just starting out having (sort of!) fallen into it, and I have been really fumbling about in the dark!
Found this article very helpful I am just starting out doing murals and was unsure about the process. It explains a lot and even confirmed some problems I had had with some clients with small web designs Thanks
I am a graphic designer and artist/painter as well. I will ne starting my first mural soon and this post was more then helpful!!! Thank you very much
O also on my first mural, i will be painting a very simple 2 color mural of the clients logo and then have a few walls with various sizes .. Should I charge a fixed price?? The other walls will be at my creative disposal to paint what ever i want.. Whats your advice on charging?? Tank you so much in advance!!!
Maria,
Thank you so Much!
I have been doing commision artwork for people for years and have always had a HELL of a time with pricing. I have recently been comissioned to do a 20′ x 60′ mural for our local soccer club. (it started out 40×80′!) After reading your blog (and a few other mural artists pages) I felt a lot more confident about the quoting process. I am going to be painting on MDO with house paint in the background (donated) and Golden Acrylics for the design and then installing it on the building. Unfortunatley our town is lower income so I will be charging less than you, but I figure this will be a great job to put in my portfolio. ( I am charging $25/sqft)
And it will give me a decent paycheck for doing something I love!
Thank you again!
Sandy
This site is excellent for me and you guys will be mentioned through my success, thank you much!
Thank you for helping other artists with your candor – pricing is one of the toughest choices to make as a creative!
very helpful. if a wall isn’t white, does drew prime it or paint it white before he starts his mural?
You have been sent from above, thank you thank you thank you!!
Thank you for being so open with your pricing structure! It’s fabulous to see all the comments posted and to know that others are experiencing exactly the same thing I am. I have been painting murals as a side job since the early 1990’s and have NEVER charged even close to what I should. I keep taking on jobs for clients that have a small budget thinking that I will get a “big” break and a mural business will take off. In some ways it has since I have been getting new and repeat clients by word of mouth only, but haven’t charged nearly enough to make it worth my while to quit my full time job. I’m finally to the point where I really would like to quit my full time job and start painting for a living. I believe that by using your pricing as a guideline and marketing myself through a website, I feel confident I could make things work. Thank you soooo much and I wish you all the best!
Very interesting. How did you go about getting your clientele?
Thanks you are very generous and kind for sharing
great advice
It is a kind and thoughful person who shares information without asking for anything in return; wishing you great success always!
THOUGHTFUL!!
HEY THATS NICE THANK U DO U HAVE OTHER PRICE QUALTS FOR A LESSER SQUAR FEET
PRICE
Thanks so much for sharing this information. I’m about to do my first mural (for a business owned by a friend) and I had no idea where to begin with baseline per sf pricing. I’m in Memphis, TN – a much more depressed economy than where you are – so I know my prices will have to be much, much lower. That said, I’m moving this winter to Austin, so now I know how to adjust my prices accordingly! Thanks again!
hello im zhayde and i would like to see if i can send you one of my wall murals that i did for my niece funny thing is it was just a project now people around the neighborhood want one and i just would like to know what you think i’m worth please and thank you
This is great advise, thank you for sharing your wisdom and experience.
I’m based in England but found your blog very useful as I am considering starting my own Art/Mural business. It has helped me to work out how to price without getting ripped off Thank you.
I really enjoyed reading this, thank you, and it was very good reading this after experiencing a client from hell! (Due to the urgency of their job I didn’t do my usual thing of taking a 50% deposit up front – etc.). My question is – what do you think it’s fair to pay an assistant given your pricing structure? I tried to get an assistant on my last job and the guy I asked wasn’t available, I had an idea of what to pay him but wonder how you price this?
Thanks!
Lauren, great question! We pay Drew’s assistants based on their experience. For someone with no experience, usually $10 / hour. For someone with experience, $30/hour or more.
Thanks Maria, that’s very helpful! I was going to pay him $10 per hour – don’t think he’s done a mural before.
i am an artist i do paintings murals mosaics woodinlayworks
stainedglass
sculptures
+91 9242370274
creativeworks07@gmail.com
How amazing of you to do this! This has been so helpful!
Thank you for sharing this valuable information! PS. Love following your adventures on Instagram 😉
A few commenters seemed concerned about getting stuffed on the final payment, or having the check bounce. Perhaps in the contact it could say that final payment be made in cash or cashiers check? Something like that. I’m just researching having a mural done and I know I can’t afford you! But kudos for you on your professionalism.
Hey, I think your site might be having browser compatibility issues.
When I look at your blog in Ie, it looks fine but when opening in Internet Explorer,
it has some overlapping. I just wanted to give you a
quick heads up! Other then that, very good blog!
I see this post was originally written in 2010…it’s amazing how helpful your information continues to be. THANK YOU you are a friend to all artist.
Hey there maria,i stubled across your article while looking for a good paint source here in australia for painting wall murals obviously all airbrush work,i have been using auto paints for years now only because i do alot of different services,i am currently looking for a water-based paint to use for my wall mural work….anyway would like to say thank you for the great info in your article and love ya work:)
Maria,
Wow! what a wonderful asset you have created here…Thank you! I have Been painting giant murals recently but have been donating them, im currently painting a giant grain silo that measures 100ft tall x 118ft wide, its a series of cylinders connected to each other, im donating this one as well… I know the cost of materials but have no clue as how to price this sort of project in terms of labor… any suggestions ? I will be painting more murals of this size and plan to charge.
thank you,
Rick Sinnett
Hautschicht realistische einem wird nur nicht die stark Aufkl
love your generosity of information
thank you
just got a call from a perspective client for a mural.. so helpful
thank you ! from Australia. Realy like your writing style.
Thank you so much for this very helpful post! It will assist us in creating our first pricing sheet after 15 years.
Hey Maria , Thanks for the helpful post. I am getting ready to quote a restaurant locally for inside and outside work and this info will help me a bunch!!! Maria you rock lady !!!
Wow!!! Thank you sooooo much! This is amazing and I appreciate you being so kind to share! I wish more people were like you! You have improved my life!
Have been painting murals for friends and family for years and love it!!!
They have always said I should do it for living…………but I was never confident on how to price a mural…….until now….massive thank you.
AMAZING thank you so much. What a clear synopsis. I was able to extract information from this post (legal terminology and wordage) and create a mural proposal in under an hour.
What a great help! I will sign up to follow your posts and share them with my art community in NJ!
Thank you ! It is really amazing you are sharing this information , like you said pricing can be very confusing, but this was really helpful!
This is very helpful. I have been doing this since I was in high school and never knew what or how to charge. I’m from Indianapolis and just recently moved to Houston. I have been asked to paint in a charter school and a church so far. The area is a low cost of living areaso I am wondering how much to charge without undercutting myself and the client since this is a source of income for me?
ently no
this is fantastic! thanks for posting.
Very informative post! This has helped me and relieved me from stressing when giving a quote.
Thank you!
Thank you very much. This article is very helpful. I am trying to get started in the mural making business and this is very helpful stuff.
Really love your firsthand advice and would appreciate it if you were able to send any additional thoughts or ideas…thanks Maria:) jay gille
ロンシャン+つ
Omgosh maria. Thank you so much for sharing this. This was very helpful iny research.
This was a wonderfully helpful post! I’ve been thinking about building my art and tattoo design business and to make it more professional for a little while now, but I had no idea how to go about it. Figuring out pricing was especially important to me and I will definitely be using this post to design my own pricing policy model! Thanks so much!
Hi Maria! I am so glad to have found your article. I’m a freelance artist in Toronto, Canada. My friend and I actually may have an upcoming mural commission and it was just great to have your advice. Your article is very much appreciated!
I was just wondering the average cost of painting materials…say for a 400 square ft. mural?
Maria ,thank you so much for the info as a new business and possibly on the other end of the country…. It means the worldl to me that another artist will share ,what so many of us need,I knew all these thing just didn’t know how to implement them.closed my business ARTFAUX now looking for work. You’ve made me rethink my job hunt and go for what I really love.MURALS sincerely
Maria, you are a dream come true!! My fiance and I have struggled with so many of these issues. I really appreciate your time and dedication to sharing the knowledge you and Drew have learned over the years. Nothing but love from us. P.S. We just saw a Drew Brophy painted rental RV van drive by. 🙂
Hi Maria,
This is the most comprehensive and well-constructed blog on mural pricing that I have found. Thank you so much for providing examples of your pricing sheets!
I am about to take on my first commissioned mural project and this has definitely helped me think about quoting the price.
How do you deal with surfaces that are irregular, such as railings on staircases, ceiling and floor moulding, overhangs, etc. ???
Cheers,
Adam
Hi Maria. I have a client that is notorious for changing things, and firing contractors and artists. He owns several very successful clubs around the world, and feels ” entitled” to micro-art-direct everything, and change concepts on a whim. How do I protect myself from running out of money on a flat bid project?
Dear Brett,
Thanks for the question. The answer is quite simple:
Take control of the situation by placing limits on what he can do for the price quoted.
For example, when giving a price quote or proposal for the next project, include a statement that places limits on his number of changes. If he exceeds that limit, then he is charged an additional $xxxx.
In all of our price quotes and proposals, we limit the number of changes a client can make to a sketch to 3. If they make changes after the 3rd sketch, they are charged a sketch fee of $150 per additional sketch. It’s amazing how limits keep people from changing their mind too much.
Another fix to this is: Fire this client and replace him with one that is a pleasure to work with!
Hi Maria,
Great article. We are based in NYC and our accountant says we should be charging sales tax on murals (artwork) to be safe. Do you charge sales tax for your services?
Thanks!
Thanks a lot! I am not a professional mural painter, but I have done a lot of murals round my neighbourhood here in Spain, and I just found this article so useful. We probably don’t have the same pricing structure here, but just knowing how to lay it out and appear professional is great. Thanks for all your time. Best wishes from Madrid! Linda
Thank you SO MUCH for this article.
So often I feel like I almost need to apologize for charging to paint murals or complete artwork for clients!
This information makes me feel very empowered!
Thank you again!
‘WOW’ THANK YOU VERY MUCH….the information you”ve shared was very helpful. I”ve been painting signs & murals for about 20 years now, and really never looked into how much I should have been charging ..But , I”m very thankful to blessed with a talent that I enjoy sharing with a happy and pleased customer…
hello, thanks so much for the information about this post. I am contemplating putting a mural proposal together for a wall in my neighborhood however it would be my first mural. I’m nervous about under or overestimating the time it will take. This article has helped to think about the process a bit more clearly. Any advice from anyone about estimating mural painting times? Its a big one 33’x16’…am i crazy to consider it?
Thank you SO much for this! This information has been very helpful for me.
Simplicity versus Tight detail, how does pricing differ?
Charles, If the client asks for a lot of extra detail that will require a lot more time, add to the price. We often do that. And, as well as the opposite, if the client has a tight budget, we will offer to do a mural for less $, but with very minimal details.
Thanks, that helped a lot, even though I didn’t read it until after painting the mural and then puzzling over how much to charge.
Experienced Artist,novice muralist,who found expert advice! Thx a trillion.
I found your articles just in the nick of time! I lost my job as a teacher and pursuing a career as a muralist.
REALLY needed this info. I live in Mexico so I will have to modify your structure. Thank you very much.
Maria,
Thank you for the excellent advice and help. It’s so great to find someone willing to help as you do. I now use you as my ‘go to’ source for answers to my art/mural questions.
I have a question on pricing if you would be so kind.
How would you handle the pricing on a vignette style mural? Say the wall is 16 x 10 – but I plan on doing a graphical style pattern that encompasses full color photo-realistic objects and scenes wrapped within it. So the ‘paint’ only covers maybe 1/3 or 1/2 of the actual wall? Sometimes the whole wall will be painted a base color that fits the color scheme of the graphic/scene. Do vignettes count as a whole wall? Only question I have left – as you’ve answered everything else. 🙂
Maria you are a treasure! I’ve been an artist all my life, but I’m just getting started in the world of freelancing and it’s intimidating! Thank you so much for what you do, I have a direction now 🙂
Thanks i’m just starting out and really wasnt quite sure how i should go about it. This has helped so much
Hey! Hey!
hi there
I have been comissioned to do my first outdoor mural and have no idea how much paint to use and therefore no idea how to build it into my quote? how do you work out how much paint you need/coverage etc?
thanks so much
This is SO HELPFUL! I am just straiten out and had no idea where to begin, especially with pricing! I’ve subscribed to your newsletter and am so happy I found your website!
Maria… thank you.
x
This is insanely helpful. This is actually THE most helpful information I have found about murals, pricing, and otherwise. THANK YOU an incrediable amount for sharing this information!
Thank you Maria. I’m off to see a potential mural client today and I will be working to this structure.
We are in a small rural area , carthage mo. How do we advertise and charge around here he does fantisy to realism
This was extremely helpful!! I love the way you simplified the information and how complex the details are for the contract. I recently graduated from College with my Painting/Graphic Design degree and your website will help me to bill my clientele with easy. Due to the fact that I have been taken advantage of before also; so thank you for your knowledge! Your work is Amazing! 🙂
I would like to thank you for making this site ive always made money off of tattoos I just never looked at other art that I did as a business but I received useful insight as too making more money out of art you are like an angel sent down to look out for the art community in general
Maria you are Great!!! Thank you so much!
thank you so much!!! I’m just get started doing this as a business and totally lost on pricing. I wanted to make sure not to under bid my self.THANK YOU!!!! Lou Walbourne
professional painter and Muralist
Alaa abdulhay mahmoud youssef Personal Information
Name : alaa youssef Birth Date: 30 March 1971
Gender : Male Nationality: Egyption
Additional Nationalities: Egypt Marital Status: married
Driving License Issued From : Egypt
Telephone in egypt: 00201064432393 .
Telephone in u.a.e: 0526783607
Email:- painter.professional@yahoo.com
Website :-
Here some of my painting canvas and mural it can tell u about me :- https://sites.google.com/site/alaamuralist/home
Academic Background :-
fine art college
Experience :-
1\ 22 years experience as muralist
2/the privet painter to k.s.a royal family for 2 years
The hobbies and skill :-
Mural painting \ traveling – Use computer \team work
The goals :-
i am professional muralist.22 years experience. can draw any pic with any size even if it will be so complicated. and the fastest u can meet in your life.
u can see some of my draw here .canvas and mural .i made big mural till 300 m for one pic.
u can just dream about your mural .and my job to get your dream come true.
Best regards : alaa yousse
Thank You, very organized and up front info. Very helpful! 🙂
thank you for your help good info.
suppose i get a contract for a 15 ‘ x 20 ‘ Canvas Mural,what kind of materials do i specify in my Contract,specfically the Primer for the initial Coatings and should i use a Full Acrylic Paint for such a very Large mural or can i use the common First-Class Brand of Latex Paints?Please guide me on this Ms.Maria Brophy~Much Thanks.
I have just started my life long dream of painting murals for people. Your pricing system has helped so much. I know i ma just starting out so it does seem very expensive but I also know that it costs alot to paint one mural. I have posted some of my work on my facebook and alot of people have wanted to quote them on pricing of pictures and mural paintings. So thank you for giving me an idea of what it would cost.
I googled “mural pricing” and of course the queen of art info pops up at the top of the list! I received all call from a local business that’s very interested in having my art in their new location. Your info as always is really helpful, Maria. Thank you for your guidance and willingness to share:) Much Aloha – Bryan
Wow, Maria! Thanks so much for posting such detail! Can’t tell you how much your information is forming the basis for my beginnings in mural painting!
I like your pricing structure. For all the hotel murals I did in Spain I got paid the same as a carpenter or electrician. $200 a day. Guess I got burned.
Richard, thanks for the comment and for reading my blog!
You didn’t get burned; you just didn’t charge them enough. It’s the responsibility of the artist to make sure they provide a written price quote and to charge what they feel they are worth. It’s not up to the client; often your clients have no idea what the artwork is worth.
For your next mural project, make sure you charge your client enough so that you can feel good about it!
On another note: electricians only charge $200 a day in Spain? Here, in California, it’s $200 an HOUR.
Thank you so much for this information, it’s very helpfull
Very helpful
Helo I’d like to say a uge thanks for sharing your information. Tis helps me greatly especially as I’ve just started out with both residential and commercial Mural paintings. Thank you I have now subscribed!
Thank you for your webpage. I’m an artist who also writes contracts for my artist brother. Your mural price sheet is an excellent resource! Thank you for all the work you put into providing this information.
Thank you so much for this guidance and advice. I’m considering setting up a business doing this kind of thing and although I am UK based, the information you are providing is invaluable and inspiring so thank you.
Gav xx
Wow, I finally found you! Thank you sooo much for this advise/posting.
Thanks so much. I found this very helpful. After painting all my life, I just completed my first outdoor mural. It is small compared to most murals 55″ circular. It is a mandala. It got a lot of attention, and I want to offer more to the community. My question: how to base the sketch price on a relatively small mural? (where I live would not support your minimum pricing)
Thanks so much!
Super helpful article. I’m sure a LOT of artists with first time mural gigs are loving you right now. I agree the hardest part of freelancing is the pricing guide. It can be very daunting.
Thanks for all the info!
Hey!
I stumbled across this just by sheer luck and browsing since I was looking at Drew’s work as style inspiration for some new project I want to start, and this was really insightful!
I’m a freelance digital artist so it’s always hard to know how and what to charge. Obviously I don’t use physical materials but the digital software I use costs a lot and I’m still paying it off. While there are obviously extreme differences from digital and traditional artwork, this was incredibly helpful especially with all the “fiddly” bits in contracting that I always seem to overlook. Such as the design fee. I often find myself surrounded with endless iterations of designs and hours and hours and hours of unpaid work which has gone into the concepts. Won’t be doing that again! Thanks so much for posting, nice to see it’s still as helpful and relevant today as it was 4 years ago on the original post!
Laura 🙂
G’day Maria,
Lesson learnt for me. I thoroughly enjoyed your advise and price guide.
Time for me to stop underselling myself.
Thanks for the info! What would you charge for a canvas painting if they just want the small mural?
Thank you so much for your article. it has helped us immensely with working out a quote for a large mural and not underestimating the amount of work involved.
Fantastic- and also for the sample contract
Hello…Cool! Bloggy Blogg!
Thanks Maria for the article. I paint murals for a chain of grocery stores. They hand me the design but most murals are repeats with some adjustments for size.
To save money, they’ve opted to do the next mural with printed vinyl! Somebody else is getting the job! Did I mention PRINTED VINYL!
Of course I immediately start doubting my pricing. Am I charging too much? Am I being greedy because I want a vehicle that is new instead of used? But after reading your article I’m more confident than ever that my price is bang on. I’d rather get paid what I’m worth (and more important, what it costs) than sell myself short.
I know what it costs to run this business. The commercial insurance, commercial property tax, new roof on the building this year. Scaffolds, rated ladders, trailer, health and safety training… and more. It’s easy to charge less and skimp on all of the above… until something goes wrong. When something goes wrong, I’m responsible. If I’m at fault I become liable.
It’s easy to charge less when you start out. You’re painting for friends etc. The occasional mural. You can’t believe that people would even pay you for something that you enjoy doing. But then you start doing work for people that you don’t know and it gets complicated. ALL the T’s need to be crossed and the I’s need to be dotted. And that costs money.
Yes, my feelings are hurt that I’m not getting the job… that my good client is getting cheap. But I’d rather not work than work for less than what it costs.
Thanks again for your article.
Hi Maria, Another Killer post!!!
A Buddy of mine is paintings a 8′ X 20′ mural at the Sega booth this weekend at Comicon. I am dismayed to say that he clearly got low-balled by Sega. Do you price differently for painting on moveable panels at a convention/ event versus a permanent wall? just curious. thanks again! tom
Hi Tom, thanks for the question! Often, we get hired to paint murals at trade shows. When doing it for large companies (such as Sega), we typically are paid anywhere from $15,000 to $25,000 PLUS travel & hotel costs. These types of projects pay more than a typical mural, for many different reasons. One, the larger companies have larger budgets (that’s why I prefer working with large companies!), and the other is that painting live at a trade show is extremely exhausting and requires longer hours, travel, and talking to huge numbers of people. It’s a lot harder than just painting a mural; that’s why we charge more. I hope he got paid at least $15,000 for it, because ComicCon is a tough place to paint live at! (And believe me, Sega has the budget.)
Hi Maria,
THANKS for your generosity with your time and info!!!!!! I think he got low-balled on this job. But he won’t be caught unaware next time!!!!
Hello artists,
We are looking to paint our exterior walls, 21′ per wall
Sky and clouds only!
jerry.hartman@guestinformant.com
where have you been all my life!!! bless you for sharing this. i always wished i had a manager to handle billing, submissions and clients, etc. over the years i’ve been thrown every possible trick to confound my business.haven’t we all? i believe this guide (with some adjustments) will help out immeasurably.
This is a great article. After painting a residential mural in my baby’s nursery (15ft x 9.5ft), I am hooked & want to paint more, but had no idea where to start in figuring out how to charge. I first thought about hourly + materials + sketch charges, but it felt too complex. This article provided me a great baseline to calculating out per square foot costs (but I’d be much lower since I’m just starting). Next I need to figure out how to market myself & get myself some clients! (any articles on that, Maria?) 😉
Thank you so much for publishing this article.
Thanx for all the great info on pricing! Might get my first mural and not having any spray paint exp. was wondering if I should use latex paints as opposed to acrylics? I have always painted with oils. Also noticed the great instrumental music Drew paints to so I have to share my sons music with him! “Scale the Summit”, Drew will love to paint to their songs!; just released their 4th cd and touring extensively! Enjoy,thanx again! Surfer & Artist as well… 🙂
Thank you. Very helpful
Hello, just wanted to say thank you for the time you took into making this post available for me to find. I paint murals but I have gotten my first possible customer and I got no idea how to go about the pricing. I never thought that this many details are involved. It is of great help to me that I am starting to find out about all it takes to do this as a buss.
It is my very first time dealing with a client on my own and I was totally lost not knowing how to deal with the whole thing. You have giving me all I need to start with confidence. I thank you so much for so unselfishly sharing your expertise based on your own trial and error so we don’t have to. You are a wonderful soul being.
Thank you!!!!! This is so helpful
Hello Maria,
Thank you so much for sharing this! I was just asked for an estimate on a mural. I had done a few in the past, and donated a couple to our church, but really hadn’t thought much about it. Thank you for sharing all!
Very helpful thanks so much 🙂
Any idea how to find a building (eg. in downtown LA) to rent in order to do a mural on the outside of it?
What do you suggest I charge for hand lettering?
Large letters on a large wall
I am a mural artist starting out on a business.
Thanks – I’ve searched for this kind of info before and your article is exactly what I was looking for. Appreciate that you are so openly willing to share with fellow artists.
Great article! Extremely well thought out and presented! Would you mind if I shared it on our Art Box Facebook page?
I appreciate you sharing this information. I didn’t set out to be painting murals but I have painted walls for friends and family and because I have a friend in the restaurant business who has moved around..I have painted 3 murals for her, I need to do something!. Now there are inquiries for me to paint for other folks and I am searching for information. Thank you so much!!
super valuable info..
This article was extremely helpful! Thank you!
Hello Maria, I am a artist. I use to work helping my husband doing murals but we got divorced and he is doing very well but don’t want to help me to get in the trade, he is very selfish,so please if you can help me in anyway please contact me. I am from Costa Rica-and I’m learning English.Thank you.
Hi Maria! My wife has been an artist/instructor for over 20 years and was approached yesterday to do a mural. She has a little experience in doing murals. Thank you very much for sharing your pricing structure….I created a similar structure for her artwork but not murals. I have read about your experience in the insurance industry, so you must have a really good reason for not including your own liability insurance in Drew’s mural contract. (Did I miss something there?) What protects Drew liability wise? Is Drew’s assistant required to provide their own insurance while on the job? Do you require that the client provide the insurance if the coverage is important to them? Does the client’s contract signature implicitly relieve Drew & assistant of any liability claim on the part of the client if “something” should happen? Please explain and thank you in advance. Rob
Nice article and good advice. Even as an experienced muralist, pricing is difficult. I like how you structured the pricing sheet so it gives the client a benchmark while still maintaining some room for adjustment.
Great info
Hello and yes!!! thank you so much for this information! my daughter is an aspiring artist at SFSU and has been commissioned to paint a few walls at her sister’s Cheer gym. we didn’t know where to start as she has done blackboard signs as a wedding gift and other art pieces as gifts. She just started selling a few of her original pieces on clothing, (her website above) but she can paint/sketch anything she is given. The wall art is basically sayings and a logo with some small pictures. This helps because although she is new at this I want her to be taken seriously. I am passing along this information and will be looking into your other articles as well. Thanks again!
I want to thank you for this helpful info…I’ma an art is but with very little experience on prices for murals…love your passion to help strangers…thank you and god bless you.
We are pursuing a grant for a series of outdoor murals in alleys downtown; I found your article very helpful in figuring out how to approach the budget portion of the grant proposal. The walls are original brick from roughly 75-100 years ago and we’ve been advised that it would be best to have the murals done on a medium that is hung on the brick, rather than the brick itself. Do you have any thoughts or experience with this type of outdoor mural? We liked the idea of the paint on the brick (so the texture shows through) but don’t know if it is feasible.
Fantastically useful!!
Thank you,
Erin
Thanks for sharing – loved it!
I’ve been looking for an article with everything you covered! Lifesaver, churr
Thanks so much for all the information. Very helpful and generous of you to share like this!
Good morning I came across your website/blog and even after being a professional mural artist based in chehire in the UK for over two decades i found your advice excellent for new people coming into the industry.
you are amazing for doing this! thank you so so much!
you are amazing for doing this! i am just starting to learn about all this + this has been the most helpful thang ever.
Hello:
I came across this site of yours as I should of been doing my homework regarding painting mural cost. I really screwed mt self badly, luckily no contract was sign.
I was hired to do a series of murals for these people who recently opened up a new hair shop and a jewellery store side by side in a new building.
These people are so cheap and I had got my self caught up in charging nothing like I have been reading in your web site. Two 2×24 foot murals above display units were of mountains, sky with clouds and trees as well as a few butterflies was painted at a embarrassing cost of $400.00 and coming across your very informative site I now feel like a complete fool. I do believe in giving away art for causes MS and cancer research but upon doing this job as a new trade as I am slowly phasing out house painting. I am a senior last year and being in good health I remain work, just not wanting to continue house painting as you may know it can be very demanding.
I will no longer continue to do work for these ones as I will never get any where close to your prices. JPM
Don’t feel bad! I’ve been there as well. People think doing art is easy and ‘cheap’. It’s not true. I came across this article just like you — to research murals cost. This is definitely helpful!!
I wish you good luck on your future artistic endeavors!
Thats my modeling website but I figured I’d throw it up there cuz I don’t have my art one up yet.
Anyway. Just wanted to email you guys and tell you that I love you for making my life SOOOOO easy. This information is invaluable and I’m so happy you shared!
I just finished sketches for a product line and made some mistakes and now after someone inquiring about a mural job I knew I needed to do my research and correct them. This was exactly what I needed and I just really thankful !
Best!
Olena <3
Howdy could you give me some information about how to get started Please.As I have a great interest in wall murals. Anything would be helpful, as I’m just starting out.Thank you so much Melissa
Maria,
I am professional artist ( painter), and recently started to paint murals, I realy enjoy doing it but its a new field to me and lots of learnig is part of it. I find your articles very helpful, well written profesional., I say the best advise I could find available out there in art buisnes world.
I realy appreciate it !thanks a lot for sharing your experience !.R.Diana
I truly want to commend you for this very informative and helpful article. I am helping a very creative and artistic friend who wants to get started in the business. The information you provided will be invaluable to her in assuring she is professional while at the same time giving her work the value it deserves. I work in a different field, but your ideas for pricing, having clear verbal and written expectations/contracts, etc. is valuable to all business endeavors. Thank you for being open with pricing, as that is sometimes the most difficult thing to establish when you are just starting out. KUDOS!
Hey Maria,
This article was soooo very helpful! I’m preparing a quote for a mural and can now send it with confidence. My husband and I are designers (keskillc.com) and photographers (dustylenscap.us) so we’ve developed pricing sheets before but hand done art is tricky. Thanks for your honest advice! I really appreciate your transparency.
Holly
This is great advice. I really appreciate how candid and honest you are. The transparency is BEYOND refreshing. I’m an experienced jewelry maker but am branching out into other forms of art and creativity and finding people who aren’t intimidated by others and are willing to share valuable advice is just beyond awesome.
Thank you.
Hello Maria.
I am so happy to have found your information. I need to sit down and thoroughly read this info on pricing but it confirms a lot of what I had already believed from the small amount of experience that I so far have with painting murals.
I am frustrated because in the area where I live (Edmonton, Alberta Canada) there are mural artists that advertise and work for starting at $5 per square foot. Which then makes it difficult to compete with them as it seems most of the customers simply are looking for the cheapest rather than the best. Leaving many of us in the starving artist category! Every time that I have quoted what I felt would be fair to me for my time, which was at about half of what you are charging, the customers run and do not get back to me. Most of what I have painted to try to build my portfolio was severely too low.
I do appreciate the great information that you have been providing.
Also thank you for actually printing what your prices are, I have been searching for this type of info with no luck finding actual posted amounts. Anyone that I had spoken to who does paint murals is always avoiding saying exactly what they do charge.
Except the ones who like to advertise that they start at $5 per square foot!
This is amazing!! Thank you so much for your help!! I am new at this and have some mural design opportunities coming up and this is soooooo helpful! Thanks again!!
Thanks so much for this info, it’s the hardest part of my business, but the most important!,
There’s little info out there on the pricing of art/ mural work, been doing this a long time, specializing in large murals, and airbrush, I’m quick, and talented, but like a lot of artist, the business side of me lacks!, still learning after all these years, but we never stop learning and improving!/
I’ll continue to check with this, and your e- mails, again, thank you!-
I just recently got asked to do a job on a large dance studio where my daughter dances at I’m really confused on what to charge them because I’ve known them for so long last time I tried doing the price sheet for the doctors that my daughter goes to they never got back with me. Which means they didn’t want me because it was too high priced what do I do? what would be a fair price to charge for New York City skyline and Hollywood skyline.
on a concrete floor, at 600 sq feet
Dear Jessica,
Thanks for the question. I would never assume that someone didn’t get back to you because your price was too high. It’s not always that. Sometimes it’s because they got busy, or they didn’t understand the pricing you gave, or they were waiting for you to follow up.
Always take it upon yourself to follow up with a client at least 2 days after sending them pricing. Ask “Did you receive my Price quote” and “Do you have any questions” and “What day do you want me to get started?”
Pick up the phone and call your client today!
I understand the original art copyrights but if I am painting from a picture they took of themselves what would I say? Would I copyright that as well? Don’t they own the picture if they took it?
Hi Penny, great question! If you are painting from someone else’s photo, the person who took the photo owns the copyrights to the photo. In this case, you would both agree to whom owns the copyrights to the final painted art. Or you can both jointly own the copyrights.
At 50 years old I am just beginning a Muralist career and this has helped me so very, very much! I cannot tell you how much I appreciate you sharing this important information! Tho experienced, much of my work was community/church volunteer so I will be starting at a low base payment until my reputation builds as a professional. You have helped me tremendously! Thank you!!
Yvonne, Thanks for commenting on my blog post! I’m glad the was helpful for you.
I would like to recommend my Artist Mural Proposal template; it helps you create a professional proposal for your clients.
Read more about it here: http://store.drewbrophy.com/artists-wall-mural-proposal-template-and-price-sheet/
Thanks, and I wish you the best with your career!
Hi, I paint murals using airbrush and charge £75 a day, a lot of people say my pricing is pretty low for the standard of my work, I really need to get a structure together that lets me charge more and helps the customer understand what the final price will be, I am very good at what I do but find it hard to understand a good way of pricing up jobs, ive never really been clever in that sort of thing, even your help on pricing jobs is confusing for me, but im going to revise it over a few times and hopefully get to understand it better, the last thing I want is to turn up to a client and hand them a price sheet that I dont understand lol. Its very frustrating for me because I am very good at what I do im just useless at making money from it.
Hello!
Could you think all that prices into a country like my country?
Portugal?
Here the people hasn’t too much mooney…
Thanks!
Angelo
I would like to have your point of view….?
Hello. Thanks for your helpful information. Does this pricing include materials, assistants and renting of ladders or special features for climbing high walls? Thank you, Priscilla
Deon O Kennedy
Hi Maria
Thank you for your advice on how to price a mural it will help us a lot we are from the west coast in South Africa thank you so much
Wow. Please look at my site older murals I’ve done I’ve now 100s of murals all over vancouver bc and all over British Columbia as far as North Carolina Texas Montana and Mexico I’ve always just basically looked at a wall I know how long it will take yes I give them what I refer to as a working drawing and will alter it if they want something changed my time works out to between 100.00and200.00 per hr most of the time .Ive worked with some amazing talent I am REALY impressed with what you are saying I feel I need to charge a lot more for my work which has realy come up in quality in recent years
Keep doing what you are doing. This totally helped me out! I’m bidding a job tomorrow and really need to be specific. Thank you soooooo much!! This is fantastic advise. Very professional and simple.
Hi Maria,
I came upon your site while I was helping out a friend who has been approached by another friend in the Middle East for some mural work for a new hotel. I absolutely loved your article. Amazingly helpful. Would you know an approximate pricing for mural projects in the Gulf and Middle East? Would truly appreciate some help on this to my email address. Thank you once again!
Warm regards,
Prema
Bangalore, India
Thank you for your honesty!!! I am an NYC based muralist and I’ve been doing this for over 15 years and I STILL panc when setting a price. You are a rock star.
Grazzi Grazzi for this article!!!! So helpful and awesome of you to share
I paint murals and am a ceramist. Love it. This was one of the best price & information breakdowns, that I have come across. Thank you so much. You validated that I am definitely worth so much more.
Wow! This is perfect! This saved me hours and hours of work. Thanks so much for sharing. We just finished a mural that was done as part of a project and have leads to paint more and had no idea how to price them.
Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!!!
…for being so so kind and sharing…
You have no idea how long I’ve been searching for such a helpful site RE: ALL this invaluable info…
Smiles,
Olenka
(teary eyed with excitement)
P.S. Good luck with all your projects and adventures!!!
Thank you so much for your transparent article with pricing points. I am new to the field and am still shy about asking for money. I’ve done murals for a couple hundred bucks in the past and I know I am worth much more than that. People around this area don’t have a high demand for this type of work, but it’s something that I love to create, so I tend to undercut myself. But in the end, I’m just insulting my own work. I am worried about people not being able to afford me if I went with your pricing structure. Even though the job I’m bidding on right now would be in a well-to-do area (by my standards anyway) and in a commercial place, I am worried about losing the job completely just because I ask for too much money. But since there isn’t a lot of competition out here for this type of work, I’m not really sure where to even begin with pricing. I also don’t know if I should make my business completely legit with EIN and insurance when I’ve only done a handful of jobs in the past few years. Again, not a high demand for this type of work where I live. I wish more people like you were around here to kind of help guide me as I get started. I am talented, I know this, but I am shy about the money aspect. I guess, in the end, I have to be sure I ask for the amount that I will feel proud of by the time the job is complete. Thank you again for your article. It validates that my work is worth much more than what I’m asking.
I must say when I came across this article I was pretty surprised. The info given in this article has always been information that you learned from trail and error and just lists of mistakes in the process. I cannot tell you how many times I shot myself in foot just to get the sell, or how many times I just mis calculated. As a big fan of both the Brophy’s art and culture I thank you for sharing such a valuable resource. It seems in today’s kustom art culture you must pay for just about any knowledge or training. I enjoyed the read and look forward to further articles. Keep paintin.
Thank you so MUCH. I have been trying to work out how to cost my paintings and you have made my life so much essay.
THANKS ONCE AGAIN.
HAVE A NICE DAY. 🙂
THANK YOU so MUCH. I have been trying to work out how to cost my paintings and your advice has been of great help.
THANKS ONCE AGAIN.
Thank you thank you! I’m an artist just starting to get into murals. I had no idea where to start and this is more than I could have imagined stumbling upon!
Nice weblog right here! Also your site rather a lot
up fast! What web host are you the use of? Can I am getting your affiliate hyperlink on your host?
I wish my site loaded up as quickly as yours lol
Hi I’m wanting to get some wall art done in my bedroom and are a little confused with pricing my wall area is 80square ft. I want to use a costum design with a little bit of help from the artist regarding colour and shape overall this should be quite a easy straightforward job.
Plz contact me via email
MARIA,
YOU ARE AN INCREDIBLE HUMAN BEING. THE FACT THAT YOU TAKE THE TIME TO SHARE YOUR KNOWLEDGE/EXPERIENCE WITH OTHER ARTISTS, ENABLING US TO REAP THE SAME BENEFITS THAT YOU’VE WORKED SO HARD FOR…
TRUE SELFLESSNESS. YOU JUST SAVED MY FREE-LANCING BUTT A LOT OF STRIFE.
NEED MORE PEOPLE LIKE YOU IN THIS WORLD, SWEAR IT.
PLEASE ADD ME TO EMAIL LIST.
WITH LOVE AND GRATITUDE,
MISS KRIS
I agree with miss kris. Its rare that artists will share their pricing or painting techniques, which if we all did, then the general public/client would value art as a profession and not a hobby (or that they are doing us a favor to have us paint for them) Anyway, thank you for your open heart and info.
Cheers, CC
This is all very helpful information, thanks for sharing. The question I have is ownership.
If the client wants to reproduce portions of the art and use it in other ways, perhaps on merchandise.
How is that handled?
What rights do they own?
Thank you
Hi Tim, great question.
We retain ownership to all copyrights of Drew’s artwork. So if someone hires him to paint a mural, we retain the rights to reproduction. If they want to reproduce the art in any way, we would work it out in a separate licensing deal. However, some murals are hard to reproduce, as it’s difficult to get a good enough photo/scan of the art.
excellent information! Thank you for sharing your knowledge and wisdom with the rest of us! I agree with your thinking, but a shame that most agree with your friends. Art is a collaboration….and artists need to collaborate so that no one has to reinvent the wheel. I so appreciate you sharing what you have learned. I am now better prepared to discuss the value of creating my murals. I also, will feel much more confident in presenting the proposals. For those just starting, remember , it is easier to raise your prices, than to lower your prices, as this will give the idea that your work is not worth as much as it was prior. It’s ok to do a few beginning jobs and not make full value. There is so much to learn about the process…use those first few projects, or first few years to work out the kinks and gain confidence. Every mural you do, gets your name and work out there.
Again- your post has been invaluable. I will be a frequent flyer to your site! 🙂 Thank You
Thank you very much for this article. It’s exactly what I needed. I do portrait paintings and graphic designs mostly as volunteer work or side jobs to gain exposure. I was just recently asked by a large company to do a very large mural and had absolutely no idea how to bid the project. I’ll meet with them soon and they’ve seen my work through a friend. This article gave me clarity on what to expect and what to offer with absolute professionalism. Thanks a million!
Hi Maria!
This is an amazing article which I’m sure will help me a ton now that I’ve started getting client leads. I live in Mexico so I will have to adjust prices and I am not well know (yet) so I won’t be able to charge as much right away. Anyways, I love what you are doing. Your writing is clear and very friendly, thanks a lot!
A mexican word for having the same name as another person is “tocaya”…we are “tocayas”!
Hi Maria!
Thank you for all of your information. I am a former art teacher and I came across Drew’s work a few years ago and used him and his style in my classroom. My middle and high schoolers loved him!! Please know that I thank you both for the fun and growth my students achieved through our Drew inspired projects. And I’m so thankful again as I’m considering starting a mural business. It’s something I’ve done a bit over the years but never as income. My husband unfortunately had a work accident that may prevent him from ever going back and I left teaching to stay home with our now 9 month old baby. I’ve always wanted to start a mural business but honestly lacked time and courage. I have time now and I’m gaining situational courage and wondered about scheduling and the time line of ya’lls business. I read in your article that you plan for a 5-7 day work week from 9-5. While I would love to have a regular set schedule, I’m not sure if I will be able to b/c I care for my husband on his less functioning days. I am concerned it would seem unprofessional if I needed to block my schedule out over a week at different times. For ex Mon 9-12, tues 1-5 and so on. I know it would not be professional to make a time frame commitment and not keep it but if the painting is completed by promised date, do clients view this as unprofessional? Also, I am curious how the business started for you and how long did it take to grow before it was steady?
Again thank you both so much! I still have my Drew inspired example from my classes and I can’t tell you enough about the happy fun memories I have from those days. Young minds were inspired in SC!!!
Dear Sacha, thanks for the kind words, and for sharing Drew’s art with your students!
To answer your questions –
Re: Time frame/not sticking to a regular schedule of painting the mural: If you are painting a mural in a commercial space or public space, it’s very important to put in full days, consecutively, so that you can get the job done as quickly as possible. This way you won’t be disturbing the work space any more than you have to. Being efficient is crucial – otherwise you become a problem for your client, not an asset.
Also, by dragging it out, you are more likely to run into problems and in the long run, you’ll make less money due to the ineffeciency of it.
If you’re painting in people’s homes, in a room that they don’t use and don’t walk through, then pro-longing the project probably isn’t as big of a deal. But I personally wouldn’t want an artist coming in and out of my house for a long period of time. I’d want it started, worked on and finished quickly so I could get back to my life. I think most of your clients will feel this way.
A solution to your dilemma would be to get a babysitter or have someone help you with your child and husband when you have mural projects. Or, hire another artist to help you with the mural so you can knock it out efficiently.
How the biz started for us: Drew’s always earned a living by painting; he started as a young teen, painting surfboards and designing tee shirts. When I came along, he was 25 and had been earning a living from art for quite a few years. Having me work on the business side helped the business to expand. And here we are, all these years later!
I hope it works out great for you. If you haven’t already done so, please sign up for my newsletters (at the top of my website page) and you’ll get free coaching for 2 months. I think you’ll like it.
Thanks again for the sweet words, we appreciate it!
Thanks so much for this info.. I found it just in time and created a proposal document based on your info and pricing. Question: Is the $1500 non-refundable design fee included in the price per square foot or is it a separate fee from the price per square foot ?
thank you !
-Katie.
Sometimes I include it in the overall fee. It just depends on the project, the client, etc.
Thank you!!!
Thanks for the marvelous posting! I quite enjoyed reading it,
you might be a great author. I will make certain to bookmark your blog and will eventually come back down the road.
I want to encourage you continue your great writing,
have a nice weekend!
Hi!
How do you charge for unusual working conditions like odd hours? I just received my first mural commission. The mural is on a large set of security doors in a high traffic area of a residence home’s dementia unit. The best time for me to work without the doors constantly being opened/closed or the residents trying to help (or getting agitated) is after 9pm. I typically go in at that time and work until I get tired. Usually 1-2am. When we made the initial agreement, the client did not inform me of the possible issue with keeping normal hours. I don’t think they thought it through. Only after discussing with a nurse what she felt would be less disruptive did I find the late hours more suitable to the job. The up-side is many of the residents never see me working, and look forward to getting up in the morning to see the progress! The nurses tell me they are fascinated. 🙂
Thank you so much for sharing your experience and information. I just subscribed to your emails and look forward to growing my business following your example!
OMG thank you so much for this. Super helpful!!!
Hello. As a high school student who’s good in art but has never done a wall painting, how much do you think I should charge for a simple scene on a wall of 60 sq ft. I have no idea but I don’t want to scare away a potential job! Any suggestion would be appreciated. Your web site has already helped a lot.
Perhaps it would be nice to have a price category for highly detailed work versus quicker basic projects.
That is an excellent article. Extremely detailed very nice! I have been burned a few times now on the preliminary designs and not charging enough.
This is an interesting article, however arbitrary unit prices without data to back them up means you don’t truly know what the project is going to cost you.
I estimate by how many hours it will take to finish a mural. I have production rates established for the field painting, backgrounds, figures, various landscape features, etc. I know how long it will take to prepare the substrate. I know how long it takes for the design phase. I then need to figure access to a site. Am I working off of lifts? Scaffolding? Then I calculate my materials. Then an understanding of my overhead and insurance costs get factored in. Once my costs are established, then I can play with my profit rate based on the specific market condition.
Understanding your costs will allow you to make better business decisions as to whether or not you would even accept a particular project. If you aren’t covering your costs, then take a pass on the project.
An added benefit to understanding your costs will make your accounting much cleaner. Comparing estimated costs to actual costs will allow you to refine your future estimates. This will take more surprises out of a project and permit more reliable profitability.
One more benefit is you can be smarter and provide more value engineering options to your client when you understand your costs. Maybe it would be cheaper to paint a large scale interior mural in your studio on canvas? A controlled environment permits better quality and efficiency. Then you can just install the mural. The client gets a better quality product with the added benefit of a reduced schedule for actual time on site.
Essentially, we need to be smarter as an industry. Granted we see ourselves as artists, however our processes are similar to construction. We need to start planning and calculating costs as construction companies do. Construction has spent decades (or longer!) solidifying a process for estimating and establishing cost controls for the implementation phase. Why should we operate any differently?
I with you Matt, then I’m not, then I am. On one hand, I don’t like the idea of commoditizing too much of what we do. Doing so feels like an opportunity for the client to argue why if the tube of paint cost $20, I’m charing you $200. And I think that’s what I like about the standardized matrix. But on the other, it is good to know how much the job is costing you, as the artist.
In other words, I’m getting the impression that the best way to operate is to know your costs, understand them, but to have a client facing price matrix that quickly filters out clients who aren’t serious. It only becomes a ‘one size fits’ all scenario if an artist never does a cost/profit analysis.
The only real benefit I see to keep the pricing matrix mystic is that it obfuscates what you are charging as an artist to the public in general. To me, that’s actually the opposite of what we want. The more people see that a project costs thousands of dollars, the more they’re accustomed to the expectation of art costing thousands of dollars.
I agree with both of you. The price matrix helps the clients understand cost without them being able to pick apart cost. And yes, certain materials cost more, certain colors definitely cost more. That’s why you can have a scaled matrix and charge more per square foot based on what your client request. It gives you the opportunity to put a cost scale on your website, and gives you the freedom to go higher as needed after your initial meeting.
Hello guys!
thx to the author for article. Very helpful.
it’s one more way to make our wall more better 🙂
Besides, I with my wife was using a “glue-way”.
thx to poster printer we printed our family picture. It was really magic! 🙂 some one can use our way 😉
Thank you so much for your clarity & assistance in writing this amazingly helpful article. The explanation of what you charge & why you structure it the way you do helped me to create a pricing structure of my own that makes sense & doesn’t constantly present problems & losses. Kudos to you!
Ditto to Tracie T
Late to the party, but want to echo my appreciation for this article (& spot on comment by Tracie Tolentino)!! Just starting out and needing the advice (hence the Google search that landed me here.) Thank you!!!!!
Thank you for sharing this valuable information with us! Just today a potential client proposed a mural project to me and i had no idea how to charge him for it. This is incredibly helpful. I will be checking out the related articles you alluded to as well. Thanks again!
Woah, so helpful..thank you so much!
Very helpful. I appreciate the information and the well thought out plan.
Annette
Thanks for this informative price structuring formula. I underbid jobs regularly so as to get the job and I get emotionally involved w the client and want them to afford to have their dream manifested on the wall. They use the I can’t afford it card on me and I say I will work with them. Yes, I am a soft touch . I am extremely good at trompeloei murals and decorative finishes and so many times I “give” my work away. I have been in business for 35 years. I am a fast painter and so I don’t charge by the hour and so don’t want to penalize myself and a I have also felt uncomfortable w charging by the square foot because you can put a lot of detail in a 12″x12″ area and little detail in a 10’x10” there are variables and so how is sq footage considered in this scenario? I liked your article so much and think you are right when you say it makes the client more comfortable when you do give them a formula. In the beginning of my business I used to do free sketches and have been burned by customer canceling and even keeping my painted sketches ..yes painted,,, I don’t do sketches anymore. I just do a 2 min pencil sketch in front of them and say if they want any changes as I go I will do it. I always say I don’t give prices over the phone and I will go to their homes to give free estimates. Then I just give them an price.. Based on supply and demand and how easy or difficult it is for me, kinda what the market will bear. I know spoken like a true artist that needs structure and guidelines. Or a manager. Most of the time I will add extra painting just because I like the customer and they get so happy and excited and I like them to be happy. Truthfully By not having structure I end up underbidding the job. Thank you so much. This formula will help me stop this nightmare.
Thanks Maria for this informative price structuring formula. I underbid jobs most of the time because I do not have a formula. I also get emotionally involved w the client and want to work w their budget that they usually tell me about. I want them to let their dreams manifest when in actuality I need to learn to say no. If I underbid then I am missing out on a regular paying client. I am great at what I do and have been painting trompe’loeil murals for 30 years. I am very fast as well so I do not charge by the hour as I do not want to penalize myself for it. I also don’t really feel comfortable charging by the sq ft because much detail can be in a small piece and simplicity in a large piece. I liked your article so much and think you are right when you say it makes the client more comfortable when you do give them a formula. In the beginning of my business I used to do free sketches and have been burned by the customer and even keeping my painted sketches. Yes painted. I don’t do sketches anymore .I just do a 2 min pencil drawing in front of them and say if they want any changes as I go I will do it, I show them pictures of the theme they are interested in and merge the pictures together etc. I always say I don’t give prices over the phone and I will go to their homes to give free estimates. Then I give them a price based on supply and demand and how easy it is for me. Kinda what the market will bear. I know I speak like a true artist that needs a manager or agent so I Can concentrate on the art only. I envy Drew that he does not have to concern himself w the business end of it..I need to hire a Maria. I hate dealing w the business end. Much of the time I will add extra painting just because I like the customer and they get so happy and excited and I always connect w my clients. I have made many friends through the years w my clients which really makes it hard to bid jobs after I have return jobs w them. I am tired of underbidding my jobs and I thank you so much for this formula .
Barbara – its seemed like you wrote this for me!
i am an interior designer in Texas. have done more kids murals then design work and to tell the truth i enjoy them more- i love the look on the kids faces when they see it for the first time. like you i have given away, done it for free, got attached to client and added extra design or details on the Murals. i have a hard time saying this is what i charge!- this article is very helpful and an eyeopener in some ways. Thanks for posting Barbara and thank you to Maria for this great tips.
Thank you for the much needed information Maria.
I’m a portrait artist that works primarily with pastels or graphite. It is my hope go further my talent by learning more mediums. I was recently asked to do a wall mural for a local business. I’ve been experimenting with pastel on dry wall. The surface texture is much like that of the papers and boards designed for pastel. So, at the least I can fall back on them if I’m unable to immediately grasp the different methods I’m about to attempt. The info on your page has helped me tremendously in determining how to market myself.
I sure wish I had read your site first! This was my first mural for money. 11x 44 outside and they kept changing their minds once I got started…plus I had made a prelimiary sketch first…anyways next tme will be a lot different.. our local school has asked me to do some touch up on an old mural….live and learn
We are all living and learning Susan! And living and learning the hard way as Maria stated in her informative article. Kudos to you for putting your uncertain foot forward and being bold!
Very helpful, I appreciate this as I am a fine artist pitching a large mural to our city and typically do smaller easel work. This gives me a good set of guidelines as to how to operate. Thanks!
I typically do a wall size murals that might be 10 x 10 or slightly larger. I’m currently pitching a job which is a 3700 square-foot Mural. It’s an underwater ocean aquarium scene which includes in this tunnel style walkway a ceiling painting finishing both sides of the walls. I can’t miss out on this job for my portfolio which is why I’m really thinking hard about what to charge without being insanely expensive. A team of four could finish this in a 2-3 weeks im sure being that I’m spraying the whole area ceiling and everything out with the ocean blue undercoat as a start. This article was very helpful but even at $30 x 3700 sq ft it’s $111k which I know is in sanely off their charts for a Mural. I am honestly thinking of charging a quarter of that. Insight?
it’s very nice mural painting.How long have finished it?
Maria, thank you for sharing! This article has been extremely helpful, but I am left with one very important question that has been running through my head… What happen’s if an exterior mural (the only kind I do) is vandalized or damaged? Is this something you are prepared for and include in the initial contact, or is it something that is handled IF it happens? I am fortunate that I have not had to deal with it yet, but I want to be ready when and if I am in this situation.
Thanks!
Theresa, this is an excellent question! The artist should not be financially responsible for any damage to the mural during creation or after creation, due to unforseen circumstances, vandalism or any act of God (weather, disasters). This could be included in your contract or proposal (and should be). Should there be damage due to these items, by no fault of the artist, the client is responsible to cover the costs to have the mural repaired or made whole. The client’s business insurance should cover any damage caused in this case.
Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and wisdom. I am so grateful to have found you and so grateful for your advice.
I paint murals on cement retaining walls. I have always painted for the joy of painting but have realized that maybe it is possible to have your greatest pastime earn you a living!
Why not me? Seeing that others are doing it makes me see and even begin to be.ieve that O can be one of them.
Especially with all the help available to be professional .
Thank you so much
I am a newbie. Its really helpful! tks!
Thank you so much for this article!!! I’m considering working on a room mural for a friend from college and I didn’t know where to begin. Some people may have some issue with the pricing from reading the article but I don’t.
Thanks so much. I’m going to bookmark this piece.
Hi Maria. I first read your mural pricing article five years ago, and it was extremely helpful to me in developing my own pricing chart. It gave me the courage to have a minimum project fee and to post my mural pricing online. Thank you for writing the article and for doing what you do to help artists with the business side of things.
This is a great article with much needed information for artists. I have been painting murals & much more for many years and found information & tips I had not thought about.
Thanks
Fabulous article! Thank you for sharing your thoughtful and organized process and tools. I have shared with a community of artists on FB…who are discussing the difficulties of the art & money relationship. It will be very helpful! Keep writing!😘(FB: Eli Trier, Beautiful Creative Life.)
Hi, Thank you so much for all of this information. I have always wanted to paint murals but not knowing what to charge has been holding me back. I was wondering how much detail do you have with the sketches, and do you have any advice on advertising?
Hi Maria!
I truly your effort to reach out to artists globally through your very beautifully explained article. I am an amateur artist from India and have currently started murals. I haven’t followed a defined structure in implementing this business. your guidelines are well applicable for running this artfolio stratergically! Thanks much!
Great article, GREAT pricing structure… people seek YOU out for a service and all too many times, the artist is underestimating their own value….it’s YOUR skill, YOUR creativity, that is being hired, not the amount of paint value… Value yourself, your skills and others will too.
Hi Maria,
A lot has changed since 2010 (when you first posted this article) in the industry of printing. Have you used large decals of your artwork instead of painting it? Just curious.
ty for this article!^^ God bless
Wawu…..finally i found the lost treasure…lol this is a really wonderful article that i have been looking for ages. This is really helpful… you never know how many dead souls you just resurrect from dead’…i really appreciate your effort. Please keep the good work going… 🙂 cant say about anybody, but for me, this article is 99% be of help to me.
cheers
Does this pricing per square foot also include the cost of paints? I imagine at this point you have a collection of paint at the ready, but what would you recommend to someone who doesn’t do too many painted large scale murals do in regards to painting supplies (mostly just the paints).
Also, thanks for this article, it is amazingly helpful!
hi, so here’s a question…how much would you charge for a firm to do a one time only reproduction of an original painting. It would be for a 8′ x 20′ wall. I’m at a total loss as to how to charge. My originals are roughly $2100 for a 2′ x 4′ panel. I’m trying to figure out what to charge for the one time rights to reproduce one and it’s totally new territory for me.
my God! how come that i was so late to read this article! Thankyou so much! It helps a lot… ^_^
Amazing guidelines, going to adapt to my location as advised. Thanks so much! I’ve subscribed!
Thank you for this article! I just found you and look forward to reading more. Ive been painting and sculpting for years, and now I’m working on my first mural for a family member. The payment structure is very, very helpful!
Omg I’ve asked at least a million people for these answers and never once gotten even close to a straight answer ! So thank you ! To say you helped me would be an understatement! I have a few more qustions how can I contact you ? Is that possible? My email is prinntasticart@gmail.com thanks again, Prinn
Hi Prinn, great to have you find me here! I’m glad this blog post was helpful for you.
Yes, you can contact me and the best way is to set up a consulting session. You can do that by clicking here: https://mariabrophy.com/work
Thanks!
This was helpful. I want to paint murals and have done three so far but only for family/friend, so I’m kinda nervous about branching out “professionally” and working with complete strangers. I put out an ad online with examples and had some responses, and coming up with a price quote wasn’t easy! I want to do this professionally, eventually, but don’t want to overcharge since I’m technically not a “professional,” and am just looking for opportunities to build a portfolio. I believe I do good work, but again, don’t have much experience. Any advice on pricing for a total newbie? Should I just be honest and say “I haven’t done this much,” or stride right in with all the confidence in the world?
This was awesome thanks! I may be commissioned for my first mural for a client. But done many of my own designs on the street 😉😉. But this helped a lot. Thanks again.
Wow, I love this, I really have an issue of pricing but this has helped me a lot… Thanks a milli.
Thank you so much for this article! I have done a handful of murals, but they were all for schools with a tight budget so coming up with my own price structure is a challenge.
Yes I’m working on doing a school mural with 4 bathrooms. I’m just going to put the price out there and hope they will work it. Yes, these schools do be on a budget.
This has been so incredibly helpful to us in so many ways. It’s astonishing how many people have no idea the amount of blood, sweat, and tears that go in to producing a work of art that both client and artist will be proud of. Having a clear cut system takes all the stress and uncertainty out of creating a fair quote for both parties. Thank you! – JF, Street Artist in Residence
really a valuable article which i was looking all these days..really its very informative. you have done a fantastic job for these artist community.
The best article I could hope to find. Thank you!!!
Bless you. Exactly what I was looking for.
Beto
Amazing.. Wanted to start a long time ago, but thanks to your advice – now have the guts! Thanks a mil!! (South Africa)
Thank you for this! Very useful! Has your pricing gone up by the 10% per year you predicted in 2010? Would you be interested in sharing 2018 prices? Also, are these all for interiors and what sort of caveats or multipliers would you have for exterior walls, if any?
Thanku .. this was EXtreamly helpful & saved alot of aggervation .
thanks a lot. incredible sounds!
clear and helpful.murals painting is our proficiency career (mamo stuido) but often had trapped in fogy zone about prices and estimate with clients cause of these unique jobs. our previous cost based on comparative with printed wall paper which located between 15$ to 20$ in our area(Toronto) that absolutely is not a handmade and art job,just machine based work;so your experiences are more close to artistic rights and values of this kind of works.
Now we can talk to our clients more clear and make a professional conversation.
Thank you
sincerely
mamostudio
So valuable, information!!! I learned from Jim Rohn how valuable information can be.
I instantly purchased your book which I’m already listening to and will buy your mural proposal template.
Thank you, Thank you!!!
Hi all,
I’m new to this site and it looks like great advice. Transparency is always appreciated. My follow-up question, and I’m sorry if it’s buried somewhere in this site and I haven’t run into it yet, but how do you determine how much material you should get based on the wall dimensions?
My goodness you are heaven sent! This article is exactly what I was looking for! Thank you so much for taking the time to share it!
Kristina Sanchez Mills
So good to read your article as was just writing on this topic on my website when a friend pointed me to your article.
I love the point about having a minimum set fee for a mural, made a lot of sense.
Thanks for sharing.
would the same fees apply to a ceiling mural? if not how would it effect the pricing? great article by the way was very helpful.
Hi Batu thanks for the question! For a ceiling mural you would charge a higher price, due to the nature of painting upside down, how complicated it can get, and how it will add a lot more hours to the project.
How much do you pay your assistant? Not yours, specifically, but if I am working with an assistant, how much should I pay him/her?
Thank You so much for writing this article!! I am just about to start my first job for a client and have been unsure about pricing and other professional practices I should follow in this field. Now I have a much clearer idea! We creatives need more people like you to be open about pricing work!
first off – THANK YOU! I did my first mural back in 2014 which I ultimately had NO clue what I was doing. Even used house paint which did not blend well and was difficult on an uneven wall. In 2019 I got commissioned for another mural (54’x13′) and felt confident enough to tackle as an artist but uncomfortable in the professional aspect – what to charge, written proposal, what would it even say, timeline of payments etc.. I have been searching for a website like this and even thinking of starting my own since it’s so rare! This information is incredibly helpful and I’d love to contribute to fellow mural artists/sites if interested! I’m currently on my 3rd mural with many future requests and this truly helped fine tune my professional aspect of my – what I used to call hobby, but now career!
Again, thank you! 🙂
$1500 for a design/sketch…People surely don’t pay that for even an original art piece in Drews style. I find it hard to believe people pay $1500 for a cartoonist sketch. I just can’t… Please clarify how you would justify this to the client when they say “$1500…hmmm and what exactly do I get for $1500 other than a few cartoons?”
Hi Ben, you brought up a great question! Why would someone pay $1,500 for a sketch? It’s not just a sketch, it’s a rendition of a mural that will be painted. When we do murals that require City approval, a lot of work goes into it.
Sometimes creating a well thought out sketch and design can take up to 20 hours, especially if you have to research a subject first, before sketching and designing.
Now, if you are painting a cartoon, as you referenced, and it’s your own cartoon, maybe the sketch would take less of your time and therefore you could charge less.
That’s for you to decide.
I hope that helps clear things up for you!
Thank you so much for sharing. This is invaluable information! I appreciate your generous heart!
Health and Happiness to you and yours!
Kimberly 🙂
Thanks a million MARIA BROPHY
Thanks for this post. I am trying to give my daughter work to do a mural at my office building. I was trying to figure out what to pay her so this helped a lot even if she is only 13!
Thank you for your sincere input and for the very valuable information.
very nice and explicit
Wow, what a helpful article. Can you (or anyone) tell me what you’re now charging per square foot in 2021?
I am a young painter from Egypt and I was very happy with your mural proposal template but it is expensive for me in my Egyptian currency because one dollar for 16 Egyptian currencies and I need it a lot but I am sad because I do not have enough money now, I am very serious and drawing is my only talent and I want to work with it
Quick question – does your pricing structure include supplies? Or do you request those to be provided on top of your price?
My 14 year old son has been asked to paint a big mural on one of our newly renovated downtown buildings so we are blindly trying to figure out how to give a quote!
Hi Robyn,
The pricing structure includes supplies. Note: for a 14 year old, I don’t recommend using my pricing as it’s based on decades of experience of a professional artist. For a young person new to art, I recommend adjusting the prices to match the experience level.
Oh yes, we were definitely going to adjust the pricing!!! Way lower 😂
And thanks, I’ll go look at the spreadsheet 🙂
Like your advice. Would love to see your works. ( Do u paint together?)
Is it kosher to incorporate some spray paint? And speaking of paint , what brand do u use? Thanks!
Thank you that was very helpful as I am terrible with that sort of stuff and I appreciate your time and your knowledge on these matters. I love doing the art but the business side is always hard for me.❤️🙏🏻
Thank you so much for sharing this thoughtfully-written article. I can tell a lot of work went into it. I did some public murals (for no pay) in a tunnel nearby this past summer, and just had my first client reach out based on that work. Your advice is invaluable!
Is the sketch fee part of your complete mural budget or is this a separate engagement?