marlene burns 03 Jul 2011

jessica, your pricing depends on several factors: 1) your going rate for similar art in a similar size 2) your market, whether it be local or national or international 3) gallery affiliation 4) the economy and how it has impacted your client base.

no one can give you any worthwhile advice until you can answer those questions...and then oyu should have the answer without our help.

03 Jul 2011

Alexandra Sloan 03 Jul 2011

I think everything Marlene said is pretty good, but also it depends on how well you're known. If no one knows who you are and you have a gorgeous master piece no one will want to buy it for that price. However if you're wicked famous or better known than people will be willing to pay that price, probably more, because it's so good.

Nathalie Chavieve 04 Jul 2011

If you have difficulties to estimate a price of your work you can simply follow those steps : You can calculate how many hours you have spent on this piece and multiple it to value of number of working hour in you country ( for example 1 h - 50 US$ X 100 hours of work ), add materials and studio expenses ( pencils, paper, electricity, water and etc.), add the cost of frames ( if any ) . Then add a gallery expenses ( if there is any ). Then add 10 % or more! for good measure . It is very important that your artwork price always go up, so start with the intention of alowing prices to rise. Never sell your art for less what have been estimated by gallery. Remember that some buyers may ask for discount. I think you should never rate your work with similar art and give the similar prices -you have to think of you self as an artist who creates a unique and remarkable art. Good luck !

Marty Yokawonis 04 Jul 2011

if that's a gallery price it seems fair to me. However if you are selling either online straight to a customer or in a street fair you would only get about 60 % of that price or about 1500.00 and that would have to be from a motivated buyer.

I disagree that pricing is about how many hours you put in or size or media or fame. It's really more of a perceived value kind of thing. If I am putting a work in a museum juried show where I have to pay to enter, pay to frame the piece probably pay for shipping/insurance, pay the gallery/museum/art center for the privilege of being in their show 30 to 40% then the price goes up waaay up. I can sell the piece for less if it's a "private" sale especially if it's out of my studio to an individual who has contacted me personally. So that 3900 minus about 60 percent for overhead costs of showing etc. becomes a profit to me of about 1560.00 which is about what a private buyer will pay.

Collector's aren't stupid. They know about the behind the scenes costs of showing your work. What is somewhat treacherous are the people who wait until the end of a show when it's been taken down then call you to see if you will do a cheap deal. It's always a tough call for me. Most of the time they aren't really going to buy they just want to see if you will cave in on price. I have lost sales from shows because people loved the piece but hated my frame and wouldn't pay the full price so the gallery wanted me to reframe the piece at my expense so the customer would be happy. I have lost sales when someone wanted a print rather than the original and the gallery requested that I supply a print price and if the customer accepted I would have to pay to supply a giclee print and not a half- assed personal computer deal. A real giclee print is pricey.

Your piece is really nice. I would take some of your work to a gallery and ask for an appraisal. It would help you know how to market your work.

Marty Yokawonis 04 Jul 2011

another reason why per hour rates don't work for fine arts people is that you aren't in a "trade" capacity. Even free lance graphic artists don't usually work on an hourly rate. It's more fee based. If you were working a fee based job as an illustrator for example you would be contracting with a customer based on a set of illustrations to the specifications. So the customer would be setting the terms of the contract.

In fine arts it's driven more by the perception that the artist's work is an investment as well as a collectible item. The collector is investing in the career of the artist and hoping to enjoy a profit down the road if the artists' work continues to command higher prices.

marlene burns 04 Jul 2011

when i was in college in the middle ages, the formula was expenses ( not hourly rate) x 5. i am up to about expenses x 15-20 now, after 40 plus years. hourly rate is never factored...i've sold some 15 minute masterpieces for the same price as others i labored over.

p.s. do NOT call your art "stuff" in that price range!

Nathalie Chavieve 05 Jul 2011

I shell disagree with Marty about hour price. I do understand that it might not work for watercolour artists or artists who's works in fast drying media as you don't spend many hours on your piece, but I work with oil and the technique I paint is Flemish technique of Old masters which requires multiple colour layering, glazing and drying time in between layers at least 2-3 weeks. I do pay attention to small details of the painting .So for creating a medium size painting usually takes at least 6 month and MANY hours. I haven't been thinking about this "hour thing" before myself until my customers, galleries visitors and even my friends start to ask me how many hours I work on some particular paintings ? I didn't know the answer. Then I decided to write down for myself hours I spend on paintings. I shell tell - I started now a large painting and it's half way done and following my calculation I have spent on this piece already 36 hours. When I'll complete this painting the hours will be probably double or close to 100. So when I will estimating a price for this work I will definitely consider this factor . I think my time is valuable no less than a time of an office clerk or a pilot or prima ballerina. I didn't meant that you have to go around and scream on each corner how many hours you have spend creating you art. This calculation you can consider for yourself while estimating a price of your artwork.

I do understand very well that each artist create art for the art sake . But on the other hand each artist desperately want to sell art. If it is so then you have to be just a little bit of a businessmen and you have to consider all factors what can influence the price?

I agree that collectors, buyers they are not stupid, but everyone has they own criteria to judge art . Some ones will not spend a penny for buying my art, and will ready to spend a thousands for yours and the opposite. Some one will appreciate that I have been working hard on a painting, some one will even think about it. People are so different and you can not satisfied all. When you estimate a price of your work first of all you have to respect yourself and your creation, otherwise if you don't why someone else should ?

Nathalie Chavieve 05 Jul 2011

I have a question for Marty. On what basis you estimating a prices of your works if I may ask ? What is a most important criteria for you ? In your opinion what artists should consider when deciding on art work price ?

Marty Yokawonis 05 Jul 2011

Nathalie One good way to find your pricing niche is to look at art sites and see what similar work to yours is actually selling for. I was just looking at a watercolorist's blog that I admire tremendously and she was showing matted and framed works for under 400.00 They were 5 inch by 5 inch images. She's not famous. There is a watercolor painter named Stephen Scott Young who was taken up by a gallery/agent when he was exhibiting after graduating from Ringling School of Art & Design (1985). They started selling his works on paper which take about a month to complete for approximately 75,000.00 and upwards. The last I saw his works are now going for 250,000.00 and up. He's represented by many galleries now

In the first example I mentioned the paintings are completed quickly. So time cannot possibly be a factor in pricing really and materials would be rather cheaper as well. The frame might cost her maybe 70.00 in materials. So why would someone pay her a "profit" of about 300.00 for a little picture? the answer is that she has appeal, she is perceived as a real bona fide artist and people feel privileged to buy her works. Now this artist is a hard worker, a great teacher - she does workshops and teaches locally n her state too, great business acumen and she has made smart associations throughout her career. She has self published one or two books and has been included in four other publications. At this point her numbers will continue to go up because momentum is building on all those years of hard work and smart choices. Collectors are vying for her work now. In my second illustration the artist was discovered and guided into the big leagues by a gallery who made him a star. Hourly rates, materials, framing etc. did not enter into the picture. I called him once years ago and in the conversation I found out that he didn't even have a clue as to who was buying his work. nada. The gallery owner was in total charge of all the details and all he was required to do was paint.

The majority of us can probably relate to the first painter. After all she has been her own agent and advocate for her work. She has lived the ups and downs of creating, showing, protecting and selling her work. I certainly relate to her. So my short answer is your work has to be priced as valuable to you. It has to reflect your desire to be taken seriously as an artist. Art is not my 9 -5 job. It not's my trade. I'm not competing with a skillset. it's my vocation, my passion, my poem to life and I believe it is precious. I price it accordingly. I have to say that I spent 18 years selling expensive home goods in a retail store that I owned and I learned that price is only contended by people who don't want to buy from you. When their need and desire is genuine prices are not a barrier to selling.

05 Jul 2011

Chris Callahan 05 Jul 2011

Don't forget to some degree pricing is about status. Well established and well known and in demand artists can ask more for their finished pieces than individuals earlier in their career. If you've been getting this for this size and kind of work then fire away, if you haven't been selling much or are relatively unknown, you might want to lower the price, or hang on to it until you can command a better price. In general works on paper command less than those on canvas. Its a very nice piece incidentally.

Nathalie Chavieve 06 Jul 2011

Marty, personally I don't have a problem to estimate a price of my works. I think we just have here general discussion about art works pricing and trying to help Jessica.

I completely disagree that an artist should make the similar prices with other artist's similar works. Why one should look at "some kind" of similar works and make the same prices ? Don't artist have to think about his (her) self as a unique artist ? I think sometimes with a high prices ( higher then average similar works) you can even motivate buyers, you can challenge them. They will start to think " Why your prices are different? You must be special ?" and for them it's means something.Then you must use your chance to prove it that your art is really unique and special. People full of "similar" things in their daily life's and they always looking for something different, extraordinary and unique.

Shellton Tremble 10 Jul 2011

This was tremendous...I've learned so much for this discussion! I do think my work is unique, but the marketing and gallery representation is hard to acquire. Oh, well...back to the laboratory to produce more work!

Gail Caduff-Nash 10 Jul 2011

always get what you can - spectacular work - not going to be duplicated - and good luck with it.

Marty Yokawonis 22 Jul 2011

well the point I was trying to make is that fine art is a unique thing Natalie. It's not just a result of hard work, time, materials or skill. While all those factor into what we make they are not the real reason why something we make as art is valuable.

I see lots of art and it does nothing for me at all then I see something and it strikes a chord in my heart. That invisible connection is why people buy art. It's really the main reason people buy something that is actually not an essential to living. So why would I price my work as though it were a couch or a toaster?

we are really pricing an intangible substance made of heart and mind and spirit that has been translated into a medium like watercolor or oils or acrylic or pencils or whatever medium you used on whatever surface you used. the intangible things are priceless aren't they?

stuart Williams 24 Jul 2011

a price can only be determined by the buyers. If things don't sel it is purely down to 4 factors. 1. price to high 2. customers don't know the item is there. 3. the customer doesn't like the work 4. the customer can't afford the object (not to be confused with to high a pricec)

Price something to either sell , or price it to the value you think your time is worth. Mainly get the picture seen by the prospective buyers though so spread it around with links to where it can be purchased.

Lynda Stevens 25 Jul 2011

I don't enjoy the marketing side if this biz either. I do find that a lot of people seem to expect me to sell my work for absolute peanuts and I suspect I would need to change countries yet againto find a place that is receptive to my work.

There must be something about the marketing. I recently saw an artist, producing similar work to my own, but in all honesty, I thought his work was just so much gloop, with not much in the way of finesse. But he was selling.

I do hate the way it can all just come down to 'name.'

Your pencil work certainky refelcts the labour and carftsmanship that went into it. Maybe, if it is all about the stinginess of people outsdie the snob-circuit of galleries and bankable names, you could try to sell reproductions andprints of the work instead?

It is just an idea - as said, I don't really understand themarketing side of things myself either.

cramer 26 Jul 2011

charge as much as u can get away with!!!!

Anna Smith 26 Jul 2011

I always struggle with pricing my artwork too! I would agree with previous posts, create your own hourly wage. It's an amazing piece and it's one of a kind, you can tell it took 6 months to create. The reflections in the beading are perfect.