Are you an artist creating original artwork
and you're completely confused on how to price it will stick around
because today I'm giving you a completely customizable formula for how to price original art.
Hi, my name is Mei Pak. And I help makers artists
and designers make a consistent income from selling their handmade products online.
I believe that pricing is one of the most important aspects to running your business.
It doesn't matter how high quality
or item is or how interesting your products are or how much great marketing you do.
If you're not charging the right price
for your art your business is going to struggle to be a success in general.
You should be charging for your products based on the materials.
The labor that has gone into
it and also a profit margin
but that formula kind of flies out of the window
when it comes to something like original art people aren't paying you
for the amount of time you spend painting this piece.
They're paying for the end value. It brings to them.
So to give you an idea of what I'm talking about.
I want to tell you a story you've probably heard before because it's pretty famous.
So one time Picasso was outside doing his drawings and someone asked him to do a little sketch.
So he did a quick sketch in less than five minutes
and the customer asked how much it would cost
and Picasso told the customer and the customer said that's outrageous.
It only took you five minutes to do and because the replied it didn't take me five minutes.
It took me 30 years and therefore it is worth it.
So what goes into a piece of art
and its value isn't literally the amount of time that you've spent creating it.
It's the years of training. It's your eye.
It's so much more so Want to make sure that you're charging something
for those 30 years or 10 years
or whatever it is for you so that you're getting a fair price for your piece.
I mean the same can be said for regular handmade products,
but it's especially important for original art.
Now. Let's start with a formula now. This is just a starting place
then we'll adjust it based on a number of factors
until we get to a final formula that you can
use for your unique business and this is going to be different for everyone.
Okay. This will all depend on your experience level and your reputation.
Ation level and your materials.
So a standard way of pricing original art is based on a price per inch
and that's going to vary but it's nice to have a consistent pricing model across all of your
pieces of art which is why I like to use the price per inch method.
So let's say that you charge five dollars per inch you would
calculate the total cost by using the square area.
So, you know 16 inches times 20 inches times the price per inch.
So let's say you have a 16 inch. By 20 inch canvas original painting you would
take 16 inches times 20 inches times the price per inch
and that would give you a number
and you would add that onto any specific material costs like the frame
or the price of the canvas or other items that aren't already calculated in your formula.
So that would give you a starting
point and a huge advantage in using a formula like this is it
makes it really simple to calculate prices
and it also makes surprise.
Seeing consistent across a range of art this also reflects that
obviously people are willing to pay more money
for a larger piece of artwork than they are for a smaller piece of artwork.
So let's take that as a starting point. And now we need to adjust it.
So first of all, I want you to think about your creative process how many pieces of art?
Can you make in a month? And how many can you expect to sell in a month?
So say you're only able to create two pieces a month
and you're on track for selling those two pieces a month now,
I want you to Get your formula
and see can I actually make a living with this pricing formula given I can make install to a month.
Now. Some people may have the capacity to create three pieces a month
because maybe their process is simpler,
but other artists might have a really complex process that's super time-consuming
and they can only make those two pieces a month,
but using the five dollars per inch formula.
It's not enough for you to pay your bills with well now you know
that you need to alter your per inch formula
for your pricing.
And so maybe five dollars an inch doesn't work for you,
but now six dollars an inch would okay.
So that's what I mean by using a base formula,
but then adjusting it to what works for you.
Another thing you need to consider is your reputation level
when you're just starting out you're not going to be able to command the same prices
as someone who's been established
for years and years and has to work in lots of galleries
or who has a rabid following so I'm not suggesting that you underpriced your work,
but I do want you to keep in mind. Demand on the market
and know that you may need to start a little lower and slowly raise your prices over time.
Once you become more established having said that higher prices are perceived as more valuable.
So if you put up a painting that's $5
and you put up a painting that's $500 people will assume the $500 painting is better.
This has been shown with wine bottles
and how valuable people assume the wine is and Banksy the famous street artist.
Has even done this experiment. He's an artist who commands a lot of money for his pieces,
right? Like seven figures for one piece.
And one time he went to a craft fair
and was trying to sell his art which would probably go
for a million dollars just at a craft fair and I think he only sold two pieces for like $30.
So that just goes to show that the value is relative.
So pricer pieces high and people will assume your piece is more worth it.
And if you're able to stand by that price
and you're able to make the sales that allow you to earn a sustainable income.
Then you are in a sweet spot. Another thing that will help inform your personal formula
for pricing is comparing your work with other people.
So when you see someone else's original art,
you know what size it is, right?
So you can actually divide the numbers
and figure out what that person is charging per
inch and if you go to a site like Etsy or you shop around you can see which pieces are selling.
So like if you go to galleries you can see if an art has been
sold or if it hasn't sold
when you keep track of this information you can start to Compare your prices
and pieces to other people that are selling in your similar market.
Like are you more expensive
or are you actually less expensive than other
people and of course you want to compare apples to apples here.
So look for other paintings that use the same medium and style as yourself.
What are other oil paintings going for?
What are other pastels going for?
You also want to consider how unique the work is that you're doing?
So if you're doing landscapes in a very traditional style with oils,
you probably want to hang pretty Your competitors.
However, if you're doing a very avant-garde style that's completely out of the box
and it's hard to find competitors.
But you have the demand for it. Then you can probably command a slightly higher price
because you don't have as many competitors in your ballpark.
Another element to keep in mind is how much time do you actually
spend painting versus doing administrative tasks?
For example, if you do commission's you may have
hours and hours of back-and-forth with just talking the to the customer that's time.
That's Going into your business as a whole but it's not painting time,
right and that needs to be calculated in as well.
So custom work might encourage you to raise your per inch rate a little
bit because of this back and forth time now my final note on pricing.
Your original art is to let customers go who aren't willing to pay your worth.
I know this is hard because you want to make a sale,
right but you will always run into people who think they could paint
what your painting or claim that they saw another artist selling it for a cheaper price.
I sent you now when that happens, you do need to be okay with walking
away because your work does have value and once you calculate your price and you stick with it,
you will find that your customers are attracted
to what you do and they're willing to pay the price for it.
So I encourage you to find your personal formula
for calculating your original art prices that you can apply
consistently over your different pieces of
Art and also compensates you fairly
for your time and positions you in the right spot among your competitors.
So by using a Per inch calculation you can price your original
art and by making the adjustments
as I've suggested you will find the sweet spot where your art is selling
and you're earning an income that you're happy with.