How do you approach pricing your art?

I'm in the midst of writing a lengthy article on this very subject. Stay tuned and I'll share here by this weekend.

I've won a lot of awards with my art. Was in jury exhibitions with artists who were getting double and triple what I was asking. That's when I knew it was time to increase my prices. I also broke it down if I was spending five hours on a painting and only getting $250, that wasn't enough. I have paintings and smallest 3 x 3 for $300 and paintings as big as 5 feet wide for $19K. the little ones keep me alive, the big ones are like hitting the lottery.

As promised, here's the whole article on the subject. I just published today. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/artskairos-ugcPost-7436859119258669056-hLeX

I’m coming from an architectural concrete background and fairly new to the world of painting. But with concrete, I made a pretty comprehensive spreadsheet of all the costs associated with creating a piece of work, and I’d imagine there could be a parallel here.

There are hard costs like your studio rent, utilities, gas, insurance (health and liability), accounting, etc. Those are non negotiable and need to be paid every month. No electricity means you can mix the concrete or acrylic in this case. You can break this down into how much you need to earn per day/week/ even hour.

Then there’s how much the materials cost for each piece of work. Paint isn’t super expensive and you can use one tube for multiple pieces, so that’s tricky to put an exact number on, but you can guess. You know how much your canvas costs and your brushes are sure to need replacement every so often so add that in there.

Then there’s your labor. Hours much do you want to earn per hour/day/week/year? How long did that painting/photograph take? Do the math. Now take the total from each section and mark it up 10-15% to cover a margin for error. When you look at the result, you might be shocked. If you are just swinging from the hip, you may be really undervaluing yourself.

If that total doesn’t look big enough, add some money on it, after all you’re creating something unique and wonderfully you and there’s no way to put a legit price on that. Also, definitely ask more for originals than the print companies we use here on ASF are charging for prints.

I price by square inch on a sliding scale with miniatures being more per/sq/in than my largest paintings. I revise the prices slightly upwards every year or so, based on sales. Also, I drew a hard line with galleries years ago that has been beneficial to sales and also, to my credibility as a painter. My oils, pastels and watercolors of comparable sizes sell for the same prices, with some adjustment for framing (pastels are more expensive to frame). It doesn't matter how long I've worked on something, or how much I like it, or if it's won an award-- pricing by size keeps me in the left side of my brain and eliminates those pesky emotional pricing dilemmas. (Drawings and colored sketches are priced from a much lower scale of course, but still roughly based on size.) Oh, and I keep my prices consistent for all venues including my website, although I do offer short term VIP preview prices through my emails and run website sales on work not held by galleries or exhibits.

I have been all,over the map with this. I get feedback from arty..I check price structure of other artist that I know sell in my medium. Then I provide a wide range of prices at shows. My small watercolors i price for “gas money” . My large new paintings with professional frames and mats get priced higher. An easy price structure for me is hours worked times my wage/hour, plus material costs gives me the price to charge.

One seasoned artist explained pricing by the size equation/er sq. inch. So $3.00 per sq. inch, etc. Artist determines the worth, and the system adds consistency to a body of work. This system should be modified to make sense, perhaps up for minis, and perhaps down for large works. (Still a gut thing!)

How can I access help to price my art?

Gut pricing X 2 until it scares you. It's not the pricing, it's the room you are selling in.

I think a gut reaction of price is always exciting. If there's something in me that say's I know its worth that amount I feel like I can better communicate that value to potential collectors. However, with that being said, I think its very valuable to understand the work, effort, materials, and time that was put into any given piece to better set baselines and apply value to the whole system of producing the piece.

I found another ASF photographer whose work I admire and consider myself on par with. They were priced higher than me, and I believe I've been under-valuing my work. It makes sense what I read that ASF recommends going high to show we value our own work, and get the price we want when work goes on sale.

Changes in effect.

I usually price by size and keep pricing if I’ve sold paintings. I don’t want to undermine the value of

At this point in time I am using Arthelper 's price my art since most of my work is sculpture. Arthelpt gives a range of prices and I am tending toward the lower end of the pricing now. Arthelper price my art many times not only has pricing info, but a whole marketing campaign laid out to follow for the piece.

Until I get my 'artist legs' under me, I simply followed the pricing advice of the marketing experts from ASF.

I choose this Lxlx0.08 for all my artworks ( as i change a lot and mix walnut, acrylic and oil and a lot of different supports) at start and moved to 0.15 for canvas this january, and at 0,09 for polyester film

I start with size equation method and then adjust for venue. Gallery with the highest and craft/art fairs the lowest. Etsy is somewhere in the middle. My wife, a ceramic artist, has adopted a what the market will bear pricing. She raises her prices as the demand increased and then lowers it when the demand falls off. The other consideration is the amount of inventory one has on hand. I have a lot of mugs taking up space which I want to unload at the craft/art fairs this summer. I may take a slight loss but it is better than taking a total loss.

I am new to pricing original artwork and really struggle with it. I am open to hearing people’s pricing structures

Depends on the time spent, and the overall representation of the piece.. So a little bit of gut too..