Pet portraits - what kinda price?

[BeesandGees]

Hello, I’ve recently taken up art as a hobby and much to my surprise i’m getting requests for pet portraits. Started off as freebies for friends and family but now people I don’t know are asking and I have no idea what to charge if I do go for it. Research shows that prices vary enormously - from so low that it’s not worth the hours they take - to many hundreds of pounds. Quality of work varies too and obviously what one person thinks is great might not please the next person. If any of you have had your pets portraits done could you please give me a rough idea of what you think is a fair price for my level ( I know i’m nearer bottom of the scale than top so won’t be offended, plus i’d rather be decent value than overpriced!) usual size is 30 x 40 cms and they are pastels. Thank you 😊

Your work is really good.

How long does a portrait take? If five hours, then minimum wage is nearly sixty pounds, plus you’ve got materials, advertising costs, packaging, etc so I thing a hundred pounds is reasonable. (Disclaimer - don’t know how long a painting takes). .

Not sure about prices sorry but your work is amazing, I personally prefer it to many of the established pet portrait artists I see advertised. I have a sighthound and the picture of the grey dog (Irish wolfhound?) captures the sighthound character so well. I'd pay £150 if that were my dog.

Can I just ask - you said in your OP that you’d just taken up art as a hobby - there’s skill here that looks like it’s taken many years to develop. Did you just pick up art and start producing these?? How?!

I’ve only had photographic portraits done, by a well established professional pet photographer , so don’t know if that’s any use. The initial sitting cost just £50 , the finished framed photos approximately two foot square in frames I got to choose from a selection were £300 each. Lots of photos ,the sitting was about an hour, taken & there was another appointment to pick the ones I liked along with size preferred & frames which varied a lot in price.

I see a lot of people advertising pet portraits on Facebook. I wonder if some of the artists are using AI tools. You can upload a photo of a specific dog and ask for it to create a pencil sketch or painting, and it’ll do it instantly.

Obviously you couldn’t then sell that to anyone as they’d notice it’s a printout and there aren’t any brush strokes / pencil or charcoal lines. But you could trace from it, and that would really speed up the process.

I wonder if this is something that’s starting to happen? And if so, does it have an impact on what a pet portrait is worth?

It’s great that you’re getting into pet portraits and that people are interested in your work. For pricing, I’d say starting around $50 to $100 for a 30 x 40 cm pastel portrait is reasonable, especially if you’re just starting out. When I got a pet portrait done, the artist was in the same position as you—new but passionate. Their prices were very fair, and the quality was amazing. I think setting a price that reflects the time and effort you put in, while still being accessible, is a good approach. Also, check out how impersonateme.com/products/custom-pet-portrait-poster-only handles their pricing for some insight.