Pricing ART

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Permalink Reply by Brian on October 26, 2011 at 7:59am

You must price according to your costs for the work and what you feel your time and energy are worth. most of that comes down to (materials x margin)+(man hours x pay rate) = your cost. if there is a commission add that onto the price. done.

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Permalink Reply by Mo Mapes on October 26, 2011 at 4:37pm

Leave it to Brian to cut to the chase! Excellent advice.

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Permalink Reply by Heather Gordy on October 27, 2011 at 5:05am

There are several ways to price your work. One way is what Brian suggested. I've used this before, but the problem arises when using different materials. For instance I work much faster with marker, pencil or water color than I do with acrylic. I found that several local artists price per square inch. This is what I've recently started doing and it works rather well. I find I'm right in line with what other artists in the area are charging. If it's something other than acrylic I price at $0.75-1.00 per square inch and for my acrylic paintings on canvas, usually $1.00-2.00 sq inch. If I do really large paintings, I find that $2.00 per square inch makes the price high and it may not sell in certain galleries/venues so I tend to keep those under $2.00 per square inch.

Here's an example using the per inch method as well as breaking it down to what I made hourly.

The most recent painting I sold was 16"x40" and it sold for $800 which was $1.25 per square inch. Material cost for me was around $20 and time spent on it (I keep track) was about 19.5 hours. That pretty much averaged out to $40 an hour.

Also keep in mind if your selling in a gallery, most take some type of commission upwards of 40%. You'll want to add that to your price. So if my $800 was sold in a gallery taking 40%, I would have priced it at $1,350 to ensure I received $810.

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Permalink Reply by Brian on October 28, 2011 at 12:21am

I would still use my basic formula if the art took 5 minutes or 5 hours ... the materials don't matter, just the cost ... your future customers will go through the same motions  ... i.e. "welll ... this one is a real painting ... so it should cost more ... why does this marker scribble cost the same?"

If the time costs make painting with acrylics prohibitive to making money ... need to work faster and looser.

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Permalink Reply by Heather Gordy on October 28, 2011 at 2:28am

It really depends on the market...simple as that. I sell my acrylic paintings just fine priced at the square inch formula and are what majority of my sells/money come from and I still make a decent living. I don't appreciate the "need to work faster and looser" comment as every artist has their own techniques and styles.

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Permalink Reply by Brian on October 28, 2011 at 11:27am

If that is all you took from my reply ... I'm sure you didn't appreciate it.  To each their own though.

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Permalink Reply by Jay on October 27, 2011 at 8:42am

There are a few ways to go but there are a few basics

!-materials

2- time spend on it

3- what do art works simulair go for arround u

4- how known are you, name does add to the price.

Or you can go, materials + time in hours (minimum wage)= rough price..But dont forget you do not want to be the cheapest or way hight then everybody else..

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Permalink Reply by Brian on October 28, 2011 at 12:37am

+1 on not being the cheapest.  Your popularity does help add to the cost but that depends on how many gallery shows and museum collections you get.  Also, it's good to note, if you do have pieces in a gallery ... sell for less than the gallery ... it's unprofessional and they can stop showing you there as well as impair your ability to get new venues if you have the reputation for wholesaling.

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Permalink Reply by Heather Gordy on October 28, 2011 at 2:35am

If you're represented by a gallery, yes... it's not very ethical to offer the same paintings at a cheaper cost because you sell it out of your trunk or studio. Most of the time there are contracts with said gallery that prohibit this. The pieces I create for gallery shows always reflect the higher price even after the show. They do not get dropped in price unless they've been sitting around my studio for over a year. Then it's a matter of discounting them to get them out of the way.

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Permalink Reply by Brian on October 28, 2011 at 12:52am

Figured I should show an example of what I charge for simple design and illustration work.

The art for one of my customers recently was a mascot for their fantasy football game.  Overall time spent on this design was 2 hours.  If I calculate my overhead and materials it would come out to about $50 (for power, computer, software, sketching supplies, etc).  My margin is a 100% margin (which covers the cost of this job and the next ... or a major oops on my part.) My normal cost of labor is $65 per hour (to account for taxes, pay, insurance, operation costs, etc).  Now with design work I do have an additional cost of Exclusive Use if they wanted to be the only one to ever use that art (for logos, branding, etc) ... this cost was not included because they did not want to opt for it.  so if I use a basic formula, materials and margin come to be $100, and the labor was another $130.     So in all, this design cost my client $230 + sales tax. 

keeping accurate track of your materials will be the hardest part ... I always suggest for artwork you do not price for the single piece ... price for multiples and series of works of similar theme and materials.   It lets you account for your man hours as a whole split across per piece making for consistant pricing.  I have spreadsheets that list all my materials used on paintings, I have timeclock software that i use to keep track of jobs and time spent on them. and keeping imaculate records will help in the long run.   oh, and pay sales tax and income tax on your sales ... you don't want to end up like Willy Nelson.

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Permalink Reply by Mo Mapes on October 29, 2011 at 2:40am

Great advice, Brian. I got a lot from this post and the others.

BTW- nice graphics!

 

 

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Permalink Reply by Lola Irizarry on November 7, 2011 at 7:40am

Hi guys and gals

Now my head is spinning!!! thanks guys for your help but maybe I should explain and then from there you can help. I placed an bad pic at the bottom sorry my phone sucks. I am using chip board i found in the trash. My friend cut it to 4"x4" squares for me to make coasters. I am showing them in the show along with 8 other Nail polish art pieces. As you know I use nail polish to paint with. the majority of the nail polish is donated from friends  maybe like 98%. I also used some wall primer my neighbor was tossing . the only thing i payed for  was the clear coat. ps as nail polish drys FAST it take less then one hr to do four coasters..

maybe all together because I do other things over the nail polish some times it could take about 2 hrs to finish 4 coasters... I am confused not to mention all the other stuff i am showing has a similar story found here donated there! and they are all very small 4"x5" 6"x8"  the only thing that really could help move the prices is no matter how hard I try I can not do two alike

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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