How much to charge for paintings - opinions, please!

[twelveinchesmyfoot]

I would be really grateful for some feedback.

I am working towards my first painting exhibition in July (very exciting!). I'm not sure what to charge though.

I'm not taking on any commissions at the moment, but I'd be really interested to know how much you would expect to pay for one of these portraits if you had commissioned one for your child?

www.alicebeaven.co.uk/

Thank you!

Some prices on here - take a look, I'm not an artist but I expect you could figure out what standard your work meets (I think you're immensely talented!) and price accordingly.

link

Thank you BOaC - that's incredibly useful.

Blimey your paintings are fabulous. Couldn't possibly afford one but if I was in London and rich I would commission you

wow quite alot I should imagine 1k + I would also imagine if you are being specifically commisioned you would need to take time and travel into consideration.

you are very talented.

I'm massively vain so I'd pay £250 for one of me and probably £150 of one of my child (as they change so quick).

Your portraits are really lovely. You could probably charge a lot more than I would pay though - if you tap the richer London market I wouldn't be surprised if people would be happy to pay 2 thousand ish.

How long do they take you - apologies if thats an 'how long is a piece of string question'.

Lovely portraits - the general rule is to work out an hourly rate + materials. The hourly rate depends on how much experience you have. Painting sells better than any other medium, so thats a good start.
I wouldn't worry too much how much you charge for a first show - think about the long game. If its too cheap your prices will go up of their own accord. If its too expensive, you'll just feel slightly silly and greedy (like I did). I'd let the gallery price them to be honest.
Good luck with first exhibition!

these are really very good. freind who is portrait artist charges between 8 and 10 per commission. he spends 3 or 4want months full time on each. Obvs he did not start there, but worked up to it.

Have you thought of trying to get a profile on the Saatchi site?

I would expect those to cost between 500 and a thousand depending on size...they're blinking lovely btw.

I like the one of Lilli best though they're all lovely....they're so appropriate for childrens portraits...not saccharine or glum which many are!

They are brilliant. I would pay more if from sittings than if from photographs. Probably £500-£1000 from a photo, more from sittings. How long does each one take?

Thanks everyone - it's all really appreciated.

If I could work on them solidly, they would take about three and a half full days to do. I need to price it so I can justify cutting back work and paint in the day (at the moment I can only do it after work when the children are in bed). Having looked at BetteronaCamel's link, I'm thinking of charging about £850. That works out at about £30 per hour, which I hope is reasonable.

I work from a mixture of sketches and photographs, because it's in the nature of children to not want to sit still(!)

Well I think that sounds like a price which is very reasonable...I DO think you could possibly charge more, but if you're wanting to get a customer base then it's an atractive price.

Can I suggest that you consider doing a pay as you go thing? Might be hard to police I know but there ae many people who would love a painting like that, but couldn't dream of sspending that...but were they allowed to pay off a bit at a time, then they would go for it...I probably would...maybe you could secure most of the payment befoe beggining the work so you don't end up with a fraction of the money and a painting you don't want.

Maybe there's an online widget which would manage such a scheme for you?

How big are they and what's the medium?

They are 16" by 12" and in oils or acrylic (mostly oils). I will post after the show to let you know how it all went.

Private view happened last night! It was a big success - over fifty people came. I bottled it just before and dropped my price to £760, but have picked up 10 commissions (two families with three children and two with two).

Excitingly, one of the people turned out to be a patron of the arts and a friend of David Hockney to boot (honestly, I'm not making it up - he owns the company one of my friends works for). He was talking to me about painting his daughter and said that he will be in touch.

All in all a brilliant night. Better go and buy some new brushes.

Apologies - I forgot I name changed from twelveinchesmyfoot to Illgetmycoat.

Congratulations! I think that your pictures are absolutely stunning and I'm sure there will be many many more commissions.

If I could afford it I'd order one of each of my children, you're very talented.