Help me price my art work!? (Pet portraits)

[Furcoatwithknickers]

I’m a pet portrait artist that works in charcoal

I’ve recently ventured into pastel portraits which a lot of people are enquiring about but I don’t have the confidence to sell them yet. Anyway, after yet another request I think I’m ready … but have no idea how to price them.

What would you expect to pay for something like this? Example below

I’m no expert, but that’s amazing!

I would start with working out how long it takes, charging for your time and materials at a very minimum.

hopefully someone will be along soon with better advice!

It totally depends on how long it takes to do.

I've always set my prices for things at an hourly rate. I know roughly how long it takes me to make something, then I charge around £15/20 an hour, plus materials (I do a few different art and crafting things and set my hourly rate higher for the things i have more experience in).

So if that takes you 3 hours, you set your hourly at £15, then materials, so £50.

There's no point charging £30 for something that takes 6 hours to make.

These take me about 8 hours in total but the materials are expensive! The paper alone is £50 for 12 sheets

It’s a market, so check out what other artists are charging on eg Etsy, Folksy, and other websites. There are a lot out there offering the same thing. It’s not really fair to people whose living this is to deliberately charge very little because you aren’t running it as a business.

If you’re serious about it then you should be charging for materials and time at realistic rates - do you think you want to pay yourself minimum wage, or more than that? How much profit on top will the market take? Will you need to factor in paying commission to whatever platform you advertise on?

Then you're probably looking at £100+ per portrait for you to make any money from it.

Where are you getting enquiries from at the minute?

I think you need to be charging £200 a portrait based on your time and materials. Once you get a name for yourself you will be able to charge much more. From my favourite local artist I pay about £350 for a large framed print. I know his commissions and orgianals will be much more, but he has a shop, business and following.

Don't undersell yourself.

No point selling for a loss. You need to allow approx £15 an hour plus materials to ensure that you don't lose out. Even at that you will probably be earning less than minimum wage overall when you account for all your admin, marketing, prep etc.

Lots of people don't understand the time or costs and will expect a portrait for £50 don't devalue your work (or that of other artists) by trying to fit their expectations. Selling one portrait at £500 is better than selling 10 at £50.

Amazing op, defo £120-140 portrait, but I would check Etsy first.