How To Price Your Art (8 Formulas I Found)
It is a real struggle for a beginning artist (and even experienced ones!) to fairly price an artwork. Let's look at most common strategies.
Probably the most asked question online among young artists is how to price my original art, what to charge for a commission, what price to tell if a gallery or a collector approaches me?
Do we bake in the shipping, import taxes, export taxes (yes, there is also legal side of the question I will cover in an another mail).
I’ve set myself onto finding all possible recommended pricing tactics ( I will of course credit the original author) and we will try to see if something works for us.
Some tips ahead:
it is good to start by researching what other artists in similar style and similar level (it is important not to reference to Matiss of course) charge for their work. Note that when you check prices on galleries - it includes the gallery cut.
consider your future buyer. What are their income and where they will hang/put up your art?
consider the region and overall economic and political situation. It is better to be in touch with reality than be stubborn.
when a person will ask you why your artwork costs X, will you be able to calmly explain and break it down or this question makes you nervous?
It is better to start with reasonable pricing and then, when you see that everything or most of works you publish are selling out - increase pricing step by step. Artfinder recommends by 10%
If you are not from US/Euro zone, consider conversion rates and how it can affect your prices.
If you will sell through Etsy or online gallery and will use platforms like Stripe or similar, they will all charge a fee. Bake it into the price.
Get into a habit of tracking how much time each work takes. You will forget to track it many times but to get an idea and to have something to work with when you go through different pricing models.
Works on paper and photography tend to be cheaper than art on canvas.
If you art is 3D add Depth measurements to all formulas.
I don’t know what curators would say (and I didn’t fin any tips) but if your canvas is round, I would go with closest square measurements, so if the diameter is 50cm I would go with 50x50 in formulas.
Art & Commission Pricing Strategies
I will update the formulas once I find new interesting ones and if you have a tip or formula to share, please do!
1) Linear Inch
Formula: (Height + Width) × Price per linear inch
It is a very simple formula but often the suggested prices ends up being way too low for original art.
Price per linear inch starts from $2.5 to $20.
1a - variation Linear inch x Coefficient
Formula: Width (cm) + Height x 100 x artist's coefficient.
Which for an artist with short resume (not too many shows) could be 0.75-0.85. If your resume is empty you can start as low as 0.25-0.35.
Ex., 70x90cm > 70+90=160 > 160*10 = 1600 > 1600*0.75 = 1350 euro/usd.
If you use expensive materials you can add those costs as well.
This formula was suggested by an amazing curator of a group show in Europe I took part in.
Alternative formula based on artist coefficient and accepted in Euro countries: [(base + height) x ArtCoefficient] x 10 = price in euro (€).
There is even a website that can estimate your art coefficient but it doesn’t seem to work :/
Artist coeddicient can also be called career multiplier.
According to some sources, there is a certain hierarchy in artist career:
hobby artist
amateur
new emerging
advanced emerging
mid-career (at this point you will be represented by a/some galleries and they will take care of pricing and sales).
I made a spreadsheet based on what pricing strategies are the most common. You can make a copy and play around. Here.
*Please note this table is for my subscribers exclusively and for your personal use. It is not the ultimate truth. It is not for sale or for sharing without giving credit. Be fair. I spent 5 hrs creating this. I will of course find out if that happened.
2) For prints showcased OUTSIDE Europe/UK/US
When we just starting we may participate in international print exhibitions in countries that are not necessarily US or in Europe. Which can signify that people won’t expect to spend much on a print (and they may as well have lower income levels).
For one of such shows I was recommended to keep prints prices (size up to 30x40 cm) reasounble - under $40.
Be prepared however that it can also happen that nothing will be sold during some first shows. Do not get discouraged.
3) Saatchi Pricing Model
I’m listing my art with Saatchi and they have a whole blog for artists with FAQs. They also have a post on pricing.
Formula: (materials cost x 2) + (hourly rate x how many hours it took you) = price
Please note that materials should include shipping packaging and all additional expenses making every painting has! Not just art supplies.
How to decide on hourly rate?
Saatchi suggested $20 in the example, Artists Union of England recommends £24.66 per hour for freshly graduated artist. For US, Ziprecruiter suggests $25 for entry level.
My advice - if you will be working with an agent/gallery, remember the commissions. The end price - the money you will get should make sense to you! Some agents take up to 50% off you.
The pricing on Saatchi also has a threshold. You cannot set up a price lower than 100usd. So if it is not yet a price for your small works, better stick to another platform.
When you will type in the price in Saatchi studio, you will see the break down - commission, shipping etc and how much you’ll get at the end.
To be honest I’m quite against hour-based model of pricing. Different types of art can take different amount of time and some abstract works take less time than huge detailed realistic portrait drawn with charcoal by hand.
4) Artfinder Pricing Model
Artfinder has an article on pricing.
Formula: (horly rate x hours) + materials cost = price.
Compared to Saatchi they do not multiply materials cost by 2!
5) Cost per inch
Formula: H x W x Cost per square inch. + materials
Cost per square inch. for beginners can be $1-2. For small works can be 0.5 USD and much more for large canvases.
And you can always add gallery commission on top.
6) Size
A very basic model is to multiply width by height. You can upgrade that formula by multiplying that number by your artist coef.
Formula: HxW=price or HxWxArt coeff. (0,5 for beginners)= price
If you don’t feel like calculating - can always use an online calculator (while it’s not rocket science makes it easier).
7) Based on how much profit you want to make
Formula: (hourly rate x hours + materials) + (( (hourly rate x hours + materials))/ 100 * % Desired Profit)
100% means you will make x2 and so on.
8) Emotional Value Model
Yep, it exists - you can name any price you want based on what value the piece has to you.
WIll it be easy to justify? No, absolutely not, especially when you’re just starting your artist journey. When the fame hits, maybe you can do that.
Pricing Commissions
Pricing commissions is a whole animal in itself. It can depend on what kind of art do you do.
If it is portraits, you can even price based on how many people you will paint, what kind of frame you will use, the size of the painting etc.
But overall, it will follow the same formulas we discussed above.
How do you price your work and what is your experience with selling? I think it is one of my biggest struggles but at the same time I love the fact that a rt is one of the niches where we don’t have to and really can’t force someone into buying.
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