Pricing Your Art
Introduction
For a very long time, I struggled with pricing my work, and I still do. It's not a fun process and I'm sure most artists would do what they do for free if it ensured they could live a comfortable life, but nothing in this world is for free, and in order to make a living from something you have to get paid according to your work. There are a lot of factors to keep in mind when pricing artwork, and I think from an outside perspective it may often be seen as expensive, especially in the current global market where you're competing not only with other artists but also with factories able to spit out work for almost nothing. I have been selling my work full-time now for over a year and wanted to discuss some of the things I take into consideration when pricing my work as well as speaking about different practices when it comes to pricing your work no matter the medium. This text will serve as a guideline in helping you get what your work is worth as well as explain to the uninitiated why handiwork and the crafts are so "expensive". Before we dive into the four main things I consider when pricing let's first talk a little about the dangers and true costs of selling your work short.
We all have sold ourselves short at some point, it's natural and comes with the territory. I just want to make it clear that selling yourself short to friends and family isn't a bad thing; if you're a hobby artist who makes handmade gifts for your loved ones or takes on cheap commissions there's nothing bad about that. I still to this day give a discount to loved ones and close ones, not because I want to charge them but because they want to support me - a discount then is a middle ground where I can compromise on my willingness to gift it to them and they can still support me and the work I do. My culture is a little awkward about money as I imagine most are, and I often struggle with charging friends and family, I am forever grateful for their willingness to help support me and my little business. So lowballing friends and family isn't that bad, but learn to accept the support they offer instead of doing everything for free as you might wish.
The true cost of selling yourself short is if you're a professional or a hobby artist who wants to make a career out of it. Selling your work for less than what it's worth isn't only bad for you but for others in the business, as it helps reinforce a negative price and the stereotype that art isn't something valuable. That it is a mere hobby and should only be made for entertainment purposes but not something that makes you a living. By selling your work short it gives the impression that others are overcharging and that they are scam artists looking to take money from people by selling their work at higher prices. If a talented and skilled artist - professional or not, sells their work at a very low price it sets an unrealistic standard on the pricing. Don't get it twisted it's the same for overcharging but I think underselling is far more common even if the money laundering galleries at the top might have us believe otherwise. Your work, your time and the passion you've put into your work have value, and don't fool yourself into thinking otherwise in this money-hungry society we live in. Sure people want stuff for cheap but don't compromise and compare yourself to the Chinese factories and AI artists that can mass-produce unrealistically cheap goods. Handiwork takes a lot of practice, time, and resources and to be paid fairly to that may seem unrealistic to some, but those who are in the know and value it will never compromise on the quality. With these words - let's dive deeper into the main four factors I look at when pricing my own work. We seek to answer the deceivingly simple question: How to price your art?
Research and Development
Research and development or R&D is the first step to any creative process; it's most often associated with fine dining but has a place in any artistic pursuit. It's the time, energy, and money an artist spends on honing their craft and preparing for a particular project. This may look different for different people, for some, it's years in school, for others its buying new and expensive ingredients every week, and for others, it's doing the same idea again and again until it comes out just right. It's a costly procedure that needs to be done to achieve the right result. Without this preparation a dish isn't perfectly balanced, a concept isn't fully fleshed out and any piece of art simply isn't what it needs to be. The Norwegian painter Edvard Munch famously painted the same painting over and over again - his most famous work "The Scream" has a few sketches, and at least four full paintings as well as a lithograph of the same motif and idea. Munch was never happy and constantly revisited this work before its finalised form. The same goes for a lot of other works by Munch like "The Vampire" and even the background from the scream is found in several other works by the painter. We can consider these earlier versions of the painting his research and development of the concept. When operating a business R&D must be taken into the price calculation and it is often a topic I see disregarded in the discourse of pricing your work. For your finished work to be finalised and able to support you it also needs to support this research and development of ideas. You can't sell unfinished work and sketches unless you're a very renowned artist and if you've taken on school debt to become better at your craft you've got to find financial compensation for your time, money, and energy spent on making what you make. When pricing your art you also have to take into the calculation the emotional distress and trauma the art requires. This is why a piece that maybe took less time and material than another can be a higher price, because while the one painting was finished quicker the way to getting there and finishing it in that time required hundreds of others before it. You pay a professional more per hour because they have the skill to do it quicker, and the know-how and they need to be compensated fairly. With R&D comes the inevitability of failure. Failure is part of the process of experimentation and surely you will make food that isn't good enough to serve, or paintings good enough to hang, or music that isn't worth playing. Failure takes a good chunk of time and it comes at the cost of materials.
Materials
The second thing to consider in your pricing is the most obvious one: namely materials. It is a well-known fact that whatever goods you sell they need to be more expensive than the material it took to make. Your price always has to cover material cost no matter what, because if it doesn't it's not going to cover making any more. When using premium and high quality material the price will naturally be higher. If you're pricing your art too low it may indicate low-quality material being used. This is the reason so much junk food and clothes are as cheap as they are because the material, as well as the labour, is cheap. If the price of a hamburger is lower than the price of the meat you need to think about what's in it. We constantly see companies cheating when it comes to this kind of stuff as cutting down on material costs will always ensure a bigger profit. If you can use cheaper replacements or worse quality material it will often lead to capital gain. This completely goes against the idea of handiwork and handcrafted goods, as craftsmen should always strive towards better quality and ensure an end product with a premium quality. The competitive nature of capitalism is good in theory because of this; because hypothetically it would lead to competition that would ensure higher quality goods compete better. However, we see reality being very different; it's not a matter of quality but rather quantity and a low-cost end product competes better. This is largely because companies aren't honest with what goes into making the product. Recently there have been a lot of discussions regarding the harmful chemicals used in making clothes, especially from countries like China. Oftentimes regulations aren't strict enough and as consumers, we don't have the full know-how and even given the full information, it's therefore very difficult to judge a product on what it contains. Another culprit in this is of course alcohol - the only food products that don't need to contain a full ingredient label. Red wine has especially been under scrutiny because of this. With this said strive for quality both as a maker and a consumer, it's better for you, the environment, and really all of us.
Time
The third is also a fairly obvious one: time. Time is the labour required to make the product and this should account for not only the time needed to make the product but also all the time that goes into it and the business at large. As a small business, this may be especially important. Now you can't be expected to be fully compensated for all the time you're going to be putting into your business but it at least needs to cover most of it. When working a 9-5 it's simpler; you're paid for the time you're at work, and what you're selling to a company first and foremost is your time, followed by your expertise. This is especially true for simpler jobs that may not take a lot of expertise, where you're almost exclusively paid for your time spent. As an artist, this is a little trickier, but your price at least needs to cover the base, it needs to pay minimum wage for your time spent. If your time isn't compensated financially you can't be doing it - it's as simple as that. This isn't always straightforward and can be very tricky for artists to determine; what is a good hourly wage?
It probably needs to be higher than most regular jobs, because your time isn't always as straightforward especially not in a creative process. In my personal life, I often find that there's a lot of time spent on a painting that doesn't go directly into the making process, and this can make the process of determining the time spent obtuse. While a lot of goods can follow the simple formula of (hours spent) x (hourly wage) x materials = price. Art isn't that straightforward. That's why you need to take the other two factors into mind. The takeaway here is that your pricing must cover your time spent on it and that it needs to be in accordance with the amount of time and energy you put into any given project.
Participation
The final fourth factor to keep in mind is the difficulty of any given artwork along with the experience and impact. I refer to these three as participation: not only in the creative process but everything that surrounds it. Let's break down these three points into one: participation - beginning with difficulty. Difficulty when it comes to art is varied and very different depending on what kind of medium and artistic practice you have. It may be the difficulty in technique, in creative struggle, and novelty, there's no one way to sum up difficulty. In my personal experience difficulty is a very subtle trait, I like painting and music because you're always just one stroke, one note away from complete ruination. Any art walks this line between perfection and complete trash, this is especially true for abstract and experimental art and I didn't appreciate this kind of art until I fully understood that. An abstract painting is always just a couple colours away from being bad, and that is what makes it so exceptionally good. The perfectly balanced dish is easily ruined with just a bit too much salt or any one ingredient that could offset the whole thing, this subtlety plays a big role in determining the quality of something. The way to overcome difficulty is experience.
Experience is intimately linked with experimentation, and plays a big role in R&D but also the rest of the process. For how long have you been making your art? How much have you experimented, conceptualised, theorised, and practiced to get to the point where you're able to create what you create? Of course, the work of a journeyman is pricier than that of an apprentice. This experience ensures a higher quality end product and allows for more advanced and complete art. If you're good you will remain a student all your life, but you must also improve and hone your craft and the price will match this. This improvement in skill will improve your art's impact.
Impact is a broad and vague word covering a lot of different things. This ranges from your impact as an individual on the larger market but also on an individual level. The way your work resonates with your audience and with the people around you as well as yourself. This requires participation in more than just your work. If you're well-established and have a good public record people will pay more. Some people may find it alluring to listen to online gurus to price their work very highly because it indicates high worth, but it's not true. If you don't have proof of it and can backup your claims of selling your art to the price you claim then it will not convince and it will not sell. Earning a reputation as trusting, hardworking, and honest goes a very long way and when other people recognise the worth of your work it will cement it for its true value.
Final Words
Consistency is very important, and while we as artists may be tempted to price a piece according to our own emotions towards it it becomes problematic. Not only because it makes the pricing very inconsistent but also because we run the risk of overvaluing or undervaluing our work., it's important to price your work consistently and that you don't fluctuate too much in your pricing. An increase over time is natural as your skill and participation increase, if you sell well and consistently are approached with requests you may also up the price. However, if you find yourself on a hard year or not selling too well don't raise the price but also do not lower it - know your worth. Keep the price and look to expand your arsenal and skill. Depending on the art you're trying to sell there's a large variety of different methods which you can employ to price it properly, I am a painter myself and I mostly sell paintings. It's always a good idea to compare your prices to people who do similar art and within a similar range of experience and exposure. When it comes to painting there's a simple method I use and would highly recommend.
To determine the price of my work I take the factors mentioned above into account and make it a price formula that relates to the painting's size. The numbers I came to is about 2€ per square cm. This means larger paintings are more expensive and smaller ones are cheaper - this allows for a consistent price range that is available for everyone. While some smaller paintings might be more hours and more work the price is compensated by the selling of larger works. This method of pricing is very common in Europe for artwork and is pretty much standard, though the price per sq cm may differ depending on the factors mentioned and more. Some work that is particularly difficult or produced under special circumstances may fetch a larger price. When I was trying to first price my artwork I found it very difficult and even to this day comparing myself to others doesn't make it easier. I find that my prices are both lower and higher compared to others that make similar work with similar experiences, however, I have stuck to this formula and the numbers add up.
I hope this text has brought some clarity to you and I hope you keep the four factors in mind: R&D, materials, time, and your personal participation in the process.
