Asking for a friend - how much would you pay for a painting like this of your dog? (photo and painting attached)

[LimitIsUp]

She has painted this for a friend and its gone down well - to the extent that others have seen it and want her to do a painting for them. She has no idea what to charge.

Thanks

Those who are suggesting £50 or £75...that is a ridiculously low price for an original painting. The material itself used to make the painting will cost the artist a fair amount so don't insult them by suggesting these prices! A print (which is just a copy of a work) would cost you more than that. A fair price would be £200 and above.

I recently paid £175 for an A4 watercolour painting of my cat. Very talented artist, a friend of a friend. She makes a small but steady amount from her illustrations and paintings, but not enough to leave her day job.

My cousin tried to make a living from pet portraits but gave up as she wasn’t making any money she wasn’t very good

(NC for this, it's not my first post, not really relevant).

It's worth a good £150 -£200, and I'm basing that on a friend who paints and sells hundreds of pet portraits. She has an Etsy shop, paints from a photo and can produce several a day (depending on size). She works 3 days a week and earns a really good wage. Her customers are world-wide, pictures are sent electronically and completed paintings are posted out. They vary in size from A5 to A2.
Your daughter is very talented and could easily have a successful business.

Minimum wage for a 20 year old is £6.45 per hour and she shouldn't consider charging any less than that. Plus all materials - best quality, she's very talented. The more she develops her skill and style the quicker she'll become and the more she'll then be able to increase her hourly rate.

If people can't afford her hourly rate, they are not her target market. No-one tells John Lewis they should sell their clothes at Primark prices - nor Chanel at M&S prices.

Being kind and charging £50 for 20 hours work is not being kind. Its being taken advantage of.

I'd def be happy paying £150 for a good likeness (which this is)

My friends an artist (different medium) but some of the things people offer her for jobs is insulting.

Good point - she has a minimum wage production line Saturday job packing sweets into a presentation box which involves considerably less skill than painting

She needs to get quicker though

At the painting, not the Saturday job

Regarding art schools, it's worth considering illustration courses rather than fine art if she's interested in figurative work.
I have an MA in illustration which was entirely based in traditional observational drawing. Have a look at Anglia Ruskin in Cambridge.

My husband sometimes does dog portraits and he charges £150-£200.

About £200, though I am unable to see the quality as the image is quite small. If it was A4 the price would not change much, it might even be higher than A3, for a portrait of a dog's head. I bought a horse, slightly larger than A3 landscape, action shot and an original in oil and that was £2,400 by an experienced artist. Another experienced artist I have bought from produces animal portraits 16 x 13 for around £650 per picture. Prices vary a lot depending on whether it is active or not, the number of subjects and the background alongside the important execution and brush work.

It doesn't matter whether it takes her 20 hours or 2 hours - what matters is what other people are charging for similar work. On Fiverr you can get this kind of painting for £50. Some people may prefer to pay someone local rather than online, so she may be able to charge £75 or £100.

Well as I said, she doesn't need to make a living out of it - it's a side thing. So in this basis I will be advising her to produce paintings and sell only to those who value what she is doing.

Its really cute, i love it

NCed for this. My DH is a portrait artist.
So DH is much more knowledgable about this than I am but from a bystander's POV I think it's not so much the price point of the work in starting to build a business (as PP pointed out you shouldn't undersell yourself and you should factor in materials etc) as the marketing - it all seems to be via Instagram these days - I'm not good with that, I can barely use a mobile or draw a matchstick man so please excuse any incorrect terminology - as well as word of mouth. (Word of mouth only gets you so far as you eventually exhaust the supply of family and friends and friends of friends. Plus the temptation is for mates rates).

There is a huge amount of art and artists on Instagram so to charge "premium" prices you really have to be extremely talented to "stand out". If well known respected artists/celebrities in your field of art follow you (or even buy!) it does wonders. There seems to be a very large amateur group and then within specialisms (eg line drawings/charcoal/photo realism, although I may be confusing the terminology with tattoos!) there are more well known artists.

There is so much "competition" though as so many people are doing it and are very talented but it's so interesting and getting feedback is easy to do (again friends and family and MNers ) will perhaps be more enthusiastic and artists might give more useful and constructive feedback). From my POV I love the picture and think she has talent and as she is only young has lots of time to develop as well.

Again (and this is from my POV again!) you may only see her for five minutes of the day as she will always have a pencil/brush in her hand and be very distracted. She will spend lots of time thinking about eyebrows etc. I am in awe of people who are very talented in any field really, I always feel a bit envious

I’d say £100

I loved this and bought it from my grandson about 4 years ago for £40

@tessiot
Have you seen this guys work
Johnny Dawson Ellis

I have just had one done that's very similar and he charges £90 or £70mates rated (which I got )!

Can I say a tenner and than order three hahaha

£150 - £200

Do you know any rich people? Pet artist on "Posh Dogs" programme charged somebody £4,500😮 for a (not very good likeness) oil portrait of their dog unframed.

Sadly no, Takeittothebuses

Boss!
Not buses

I love it- it's got real character and captures the dog's expression beautifully. I would say around £140-£150 at the absolute minimum.

On the basis that if it took around 20 hours she could only turn out two in a "full time" week she'd need to make half of whatever a weeks money would need to be if that makes sense! I'd be thinking around 150 if it was her living.

If it's a sideline maybe 75-100 but no lower than 75. She's very talented!