Pricing your art

Claudemir Bonfim · 04-08-2006, 07:45 AM

Hi Enzie,

Thanks a lot for the email. I think I'll save you a lot of work.
Here is the link to the article http://www.portraitartist.com/media.htm

Richard Monro · 04-08-2006, 10:26 AM

Some have asked about adjustments to the pricing formula suggesting that complexity and number of figures has a part. Indeed they do, but I woke up this morning with another epiphany.

The real adjustment needs to be how strong or weak the piece is. Every artist, including the masters had great works of art as well as clunkers. The great works command high prices while the clunkers are deservedly low priced.

Therefore, here is my suggestion. Pick your price point ala price per square inch and then adjust up or down by how strong or weak you and trusted advisers might feel that piece is compared to your overall body of work. This does three things:

1) It automatically adjusts price for complexity and figures if they add strength

2) Price automatically gets adjusted upward as we acquire more skill and expertise.

3) Our art gets priced in the same fashion as the public perceives it.

Richard Monro · 04-08-2006, 10:41 AM

Picking your individual price per square inch price point requires honest soul searching and a lot of visits to different galleries. After viewing enough different works of art you will get a feel for how your art compares to what is being sold in the marketplace.

Be honest. Most of the forum artists produce art that is better then most of what I see in the galleries. Yet I suspect that a lack of confidence is leading far too many to low ball their prices. DON'T LOW BALL! Price your art honestly according to the market as you and trusted advisers perceive it. Use advisers to help you get past any emotional issues of self worth that may be clouding your judgment. You do yourself and all other artists a favor by doing so.

Maybe we should have a members only pricing section on the forum, where our fellow members can be our board of advisers. They can collectively rate our body of work (say five pieces we think represent our best work) on a one to ten scale. Then as we produce new works they can be rated on the same scale. A comparison of an individual piece to our collective works will determine strength or weakness thereby helping us to adjust our price point for that piece.

Enzie Shahmiri · 04-08-2006, 10:41 AM

Richard, I would also add pieces that have won an award to that latest
adjustment list.

I think a section for group pricing is not a bad idea. Who better to judge one's work than one's peer.

Michele Rushworth · 04-08-2006, 11:05 AM

I will ask Cynthia about a members-only section where we can discuss our specific pricing as it relates to our own work.

Mary Sparrow · 04-09-2006, 10:58 AM

Oh, this whole topic just makes my stomach feel funny. Pricing has been a sore spot for me. Two or Three years ago Michele gave me some great advice and I followed it. It was something similar to what Richard is describing with his "trusted advisors". I went through the SOG artists and found artists that I thought might be similar in style to what I offered and printed them all out and mixed them up with some portraits of mine that a group of my friends had not seen. I think they actually thought I was showing them a batch of "MY" paintings.

I asked them to rate them in order from like to dislike, bracing myself to be last in their choices and was SHOCKED to come in so high so often. Unfortunately, this is where I stopped following Michele's advice. I at that point should have felt more than confident to up my prices and still didn't have the nerve to do it.

I'm getting ready to work with a rep, so I am going to HAVE to raise my prices in order to give her her cut. But the whole thought of the money situation really makes me feel ill. How do you over come that?

I like the idea of a members only pricing help forum. Maybe if someone else told me what to charge I'd get the nerve to do it.

Richard Monro · 04-09-2006, 11:34 AM

Mary,
Don't get down on yourself. Art is a right brain activity. Pricing and the business of art is a left brain activity. The more one is right brain oriented the harder it is to perform well in the world of marketing and pricing. The starving artist appellation has a real basis in physiology.

More on art pricing:
As I conceive of the art pricing section. The ratings of our fellow artists on our collective work would comprise a narrow range on the 1 to 10 scale....say for example 5.5 to 6.3 with most ratings centering around 6.

That range would be proportionate to the $0 to $58 art market range (which by the way is a curve and not a flat line). Thus equivalent pricing for the artist rated above might be $17 to $23 per square inch with the center around $21. The artist now has a suggested range to work in for pricing.

Individual pieces would be rated in the same way. A strong piece might break open the range and suggest to the artist that it is time to raise prices again.

However, it will always be left up to the artist to set his own sales price. He or she could accept or ignore the advice of the pricing section. So in the final analysis, the artist must have confidence in setting their own price. it is my hope that the pricing section will boost that confidence and allow the artist to receive the income they justly deserve.

Michele Rushworth · 04-09-2006, 11:44 AM

Cynthia indicated that the feature that would allow a members-only section for discussing our pricing is not working due to some technical glitch, so I don't think we'll be seeing a section like that any time soon.

Mary, price your portraits as if they were someone else's work, as if you were the marketing department selling the creations made by someone else altogether. That helps give you some distance and takes the personal feelings out of it.

In your case, ask your soon-to-be rep for her advice on where your prices should be. You may find her aiming a bit on the low side as that will make it easier for her to sell, but it's also to her benefit to get you a good price for the work, too.

Mary Sparrow · 04-09-2006, 11:46 AM

Richard, how much emphasis should be put on geography and pricing?

Joan Breckwoldt · 06-28-2006, 06:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Richard Monro

As I conceive of the art pricing section. The ratings of our fellow artists on our collective work would comprise a narrow range on the 1 to 10 scale....say for example 5.5 to 6.3 with most ratings centering around 6.

That range would be proportionate to the $0 to $58 art market range (which by the way is a curve and not a flat line). Thus equivalent pricing for the artist rated above might be $17 to $23 per square inch with the center around $21. The artist now has a suggested range to work in for pricing.

Hi Richard,

Nice to meet you. I read this thread you started a while ago but now I'm rereading it. I may need some clarification because these prices seem awfully high. At $21 per square inch, that means a 16"x20" portrait would sell for over $6000. Whew. I suppose this is a gallery price and if I'm selling direct then it would be half, which is certainly more reasonable but way below what I'm charging.

I guess I'm out of touch with the market . . . .

Joan