Posted: June 9th, 2010 | Author: Sean | Filed under: Projects | Tags: advertisement, art business, business, commission, company, drawing, remodeling, stencil, van, whitefish bay, wisconsin, working with others | No Comments »
One reason I don’t like to do commissions is I get selfish with my vision. Trying to fit muiltiple visions together can be frustrating. When it works it is beautiful, when it doesn’t it still can be beautiful. I had a lot of fun doing these drawings of an idea for a van stencil for a local remodeling company:
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Posted: June 2nd, 2010 | Author: Sean | Filed under: Thoughts | Tags: art business, art market, artwork, basics, cost, forumla, galleries, hours, markets, pricing, pricing work, prints, street festivals, survival tactics, the basics, value, wage | No Comments »
How much does a bag of chips cost? It depends on the chips. I personally prefer Kettle Chips because I think they are delicious and affordable when on sale (3.99 for a jumbo bag of Lightly Salted chips, awesome). This is besides the point though because the real question I want to ask is how much does a piece of artwork cost? And more importantly how do you determine a price for your work?
Pricing Work
The simplest way is to use this basic formula (cost of materials) + (hourly wage)(hours spent) = value. In this case the hardest choice you have to make is how much your hourly wage should be. Some artists say $50/hour others say $5/hour. There are many ways to think about this. Are you a student? Should you have a lower wage because of this? Why or why not? Do you consider yourself a professional artist? If yes or no how should you price yourself accordingly?
Art is just like any other product, its value is based on demand. This means that your work is worth only what someone is willing to pay. When you put up work in a local coffee shop you must be aware of the clientèle. If you factor in materials and an hourly wage of $20/hour and charge your work for $1000 at a cafe with the patronage of poor college students you probably won’t sell any work even though your art is awesome and worth $1000. Try the same thing at a Starbucks near the hottest new condo development in town and you might have some luck. If your work is in a Gallery versus a hair salon or a local street festival versus a nationally known art fair you should adjust your prices to fit the market. This means the (cost of materials) + (hourly wage)(hours spent) = value formula isn’t always the best thing to follow. Sometimes you will have to price your work more than you feel you deserve and other times it will feel like less than you deserve. You may have to bargain with a buyer in order to get a sale. Other times a buyer might offer you more than you think a piece is worth. What it all comes down to is your judgment. Your artwork is unique and original and so you are the one who has the right to decide what your work is worth. Guess and Check is a viable method to test the waters of the market and see how people react to your prices. Go to other shows and see what other artists have their work priced at and if it is selling (look for little red dot stickers or “sold”). Learning from others is an invaluable way to gauge the art market.
Presentation can confirm or disqualify your prices. Simple adjustments to your work can make a huge difference. A quality framing job makes a drawing look a lot more attractive than a piece of paper pined up to a wall. Cheap frames are alright if you are selling your work at low prices, but for higher prices you need a nice frame with acid free matting, backing, and non-glare plexi or glass. With oil paintings and canvases framing isn’t as necessary, but a clean boarder on your painting is. For 3D mediums a good pedestal/display and lighting is critical for making your piece even more attractive. Whatever your medium is figure out how to make it look its best. No one wants to go on a date with a guy who has greasy Kettle Chip stains all over his clothes.
It is not a good idea to lower your prices after selling work at higher prices.
The reason being is that if you sell a work for $1,000 one place and sell a similar work at another for $300 you might seriously upset someone who paid three times as much for almost the same thing. As you start to get more shows, sell more work, and make better work your prices should remain consistent and increase slllooowwly. Drastic changes in price are not good, but a slow steady rise in price makes sense. When listing work online it should reflect the work you show in real life. If someone comes to a show and sees a work listed at one price, goes online, and finds the same thing at a different price it can be a major turn off.
One way to appeal to wealthier and poorer markets at the same time is fine art prints. These are great to sell online, offline, to rich, and poor alike. A high quality print for $15-$30 is affordable to many. This allows you to not sacrifice the value of your original works if they aren’t selling. Patience is critical. Unless you are completely desperate and need to lower your prices to make a sale, don’t lower your prices. Don’t sell your work for less than it is worth because you will regret it later when your work becomes more valued by the art market.
If you are selling work through an art gallery then often they will help you work out prices because their income is based on your work. Many galleries have experience in appraising work. They probably know their patrons better than you do.
Whatever you do, be aware of how people react to your work when they hear or see the price. Try and understand whatever art market you are delving into and adapt to it. There are many ways to cheat artists, and often artists cheat themselves. Artists are not seen as professionals by many, but you must consider yourself a professional and present yourself as such if you want to make a living off your creative enterprise. Have faith in your artwork, its creative value, and its monetary value. If you want to sell work be flexible with your prices to a degree, but don’t allow people to rip you off, because you are a professional artist, craftsmen/woman, and a creative enterprise not a surrogate for free art.
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