Pricing Your Artwork
The biggest question, and the hardest answer to come to, is when an artist decides to sell his or her artwork and they ask themselves, "How much do I charge for it?"
Sure, you can charge ANYTHING you want for your artwork, but the point is, how do you price it to SELL? It is just as easy to under price it as well as to over price it, but how do you get to a FAIR price for it? May I dare say, a reasonable price for it?
How Much is Your Time Worth?
Whether you decide to put a price tag on your artwork because you want to make a living from your art or you are tickled silly that someone just wants it, at a minimum you should have an idea of a fair hourly wage for yourself and what did it cost you to create it? That equals:
Hourly Wage x Time to Create the Painting + Cost of Materials = $?
That's only a starting point. Obviously, a newer inexperienced artist will be at a bit lower hourly wage than a long-time more experienced professional artist that has been selling art for years.
There are a few things to do to come to a reasonable price and we'll go through them here.
1. Keep
track of how much time it takes to do the work. You'll also need that information when building a proposal if you are asked for commissioned work so that you have an idea how to price that work too.
2. Keep track of your cost of materials. Obviously, look for the best prices for the best quality of materials you can afford, but if you come across a sale or free art supplies (!), you don't necessarily have to pass along those savings in the artwork price. What would older art supplies have cost you in TODAY'S purchase prices?
3. Are you selling outright as an independent artist or in a gallery, in an artist group, at an event, or on something like Etsy? You will need to figure in fees, costs and their cuts that help to have your artwork seen in the first place.
In other words, are you selling:
Wholesale - Will you be selling directly to your customers?
Retail - Will you be selling through an art gallery or art group? Know what their fee structure is. If you are lucky, it could be as low as 10-15% of your posted price OR it could be upwards of 50-60%.
Do Your Homework
We are not recommending you to "compare" your art to someone else's work but we are suggesting to research comparable artwork and see what they are charging
for their work - and hopefully they are a selling artist as well.
Go to your local art galleries and art shows and see what's selling. (By the way, those red dots on the label mean that the work is sold.) Or look at some of the online art sites and find work that is of similar style and medium to see what they charge. Find 3 or more artists that are painting pieces similar to what you do and get an average. Take note of course of the size, medium, canvas, if it is framed or not.
For the beginner artist, an important consideration is your talent, your skill level, your current position in the art world. By doing your artwork homework, this will give you a ballpark of where you may be able to step in.
An aside from these notes is to understand what most of your audience's location/area, show, or gallery will support or spend. As an extreme example, a known gallery in New York would have higher priced artwork than a small art show in a small town somewhere.
Cost of All Materials
What are the cost of all the materials you used to create your art piece?
All Cost of Materials: Canvas (Paper, Board, etc), Gesso, Paints (Acrylics or oil, Watercolor or Pastels, Inks, Markers, etc), Varnish, Fixatives, Wiring, a Frame - etc.
Speaking of Frames: DOUBLE the price of your frame when adding to the art price so that you recuperate your time and expenses, matting etc.
Look at Other Costs: these can include a percentage of your website hosting for the year, travel expenses to get to the show, art fees to enter the show, and/or percentage of sales to the art group or gallery. Realize that there are hidden costs too which could be your art space, heating, cooling and water bills, etc.
What did you pay for the printing services for those art prints?
Did you purchase art equipment - say a printer, weight scales, or an easel to paint that giant canvas?
What will you be paying for shipping to send the artwork across the country or across the world? The size of the artwork can potentially wildly add to your costs. Consider total weight and distance, shipping materials, label, postage.
Also include the applicable taxes or duties, especially if allowing "free shipping".
See, there is potentially a lot that went into making that artwork.
Options
Charge per Hour Plus Materials
Charge per Square Inch - here is a look at how per square inch would play out. I don't recommend starting at under $2.00 psi - it's there to see.
Artwork Commission Calculator
Try this calculator out too!
Some Do's and Some Don'ts
- Do be consistent in your pricing - and don't have the same artwork listed at different prices in different locations.
- Don't sell yourself short, cover you costs!
- Do know your experience level as a starting point.
- Don't put artwork "on sale" for the most part (for consistency) - your artwork should slowly go UP over time as you grow in experience and art sales.
- Do document all of your sales and track your expenses.
- Comparison shop and purchase your art materials on sale and at the best price whenever possible.
- Do try placing certain pieces in specific places, especially if you have the inventory to manage that. Perhaps your larger pieces for gallery events, some medium sized works for art shows and smaller, easier to ship sized for online sales as a suggestion. Do what works for you of course, but experiment to see what works best too.
- See the Artistry Spin's blog post on Commissions: https://artistryspin.blogspot.com/2021/10/post-48-request-for-commission-for-your.html
This is a big subject, so I do recommend the following videos and web links so that you can be fair to yourself, to your potential buyers, AND actually to your fellow artists. Those artists that price their artwork terribly low don't do justice to the value of anyone's art.
Some Great Reading on this Important Subject
How do you price your work? Do you do something different?
Local Art: Visit us at Open Space Arts at Stonebridge in Woodbridge, VA on Saturdays and Sundays from 1 to 4 – it’s free to see the artwork! Want to join PWAS? Go to https://www.princewilliamartsociety.com/membership
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