Sounds good.

I'm a mechanic, so I get paid flat rate. The best way to go about this is to let the commissioner tell you exactly what he/she wants and you come up with a time frame of how long it should take you. Don't time how it takes you to do the art work and then charge them, that's hourly pay not flat rate. Lets say I want a simple black lizard at a carnival with fireworks in the background, don't draw and charge how long it took you to do it. Come up with a am est time frame and charge them that. If you beat your time you make money, you fail to beat your est time you lose money. It's a fair way of selling art because you won't overcharge for being slow and you won't undercharge because you determine how long it should take you.

A simple way to compare it to how a technician gets paid. A typical brake job (front brakes for this example) consists of changing the brake pads, and machining (cutting) both brake rotors. Ford (company I work for) says it should take 2.5 hours (2 and a half hours) to do all that. Most techs can get it done in an hour, and they get paid for 2.5 hours of work. Did we over charge the customer? Not at all, we just learn the short cuts to getting stuff done quicker, but 100% correct. So you need to set a fair time on each individual piece and learn to do it quickly, but right.

If you do decide to do flat rate art I'd only commission you with a set price before you start. Because if you do it by how long it actually takes then you could be slow on purpose to make more money. You could even do it with our noticing, it's an unconscious bias.

That's just my 2 cents, you can real flat rate (set the price before you start work) or the misenturprited flat rate (have an hourly rate and multiply it by how long it takes you)

Maybe I used the wrong term. What I meant by that is the hourly rate would not be different regardless of whether someone is getting an icon or a detailed painting, if that makes sense.

Of course, I am by now more than capable of estimating the time frame in which something would be calculated. I just figure it would be an easier way to ease some people into the mindset of it, as opposed to "my full digital pieces are now $40 instead of $20". You'd be surprised at how much of a turnoff a price jump like that is to some people.

Also, the flat rate doesn't take into account the customer asking for multiple changes.

Ugh sorry to reply to this comment again. If we're going by your definition of a real flat rate, then what I'm charging now would be considered that.

Yea, it pretty much is. That's why I kinda questioned (in my mind) why you used the term "flat rate". I say real flat rate because what I said was the actual definition, alot of people don't know the definition. Then I kinda went into a long rant :p

I can understand the "ease into it" but I couldn't really explain a better way to say it because I'm a technician, not a service writer. They get paid to explain the technical terms we use into everyday language.

For making changes, you could charge "X" amount of time to make that change.

But in all it's your decision to make. I just think a customer should get some kind of idea of what they're expected to pay within a reasonable range. Like $40 +\- $10

You do what is best. :3

It seems fair for quick doodles and small piece.
However i think it would be important, as someone said above me, to make an estimate for the customer before starting the drawing. Also, since you'de be charging based on the time, it would be essential to record the process to assess the time you spent on the work.

You could also create rules/regulations that would explain what the estimate represents

Just try it out : ) Your art is lovely!
And you'll never know till you try!!
And anywho, pricing is such an iffy thing cause it's hard to find that sweet spot for each individual artist :I

i saw you mention this on the forum and personally i agree with you but also with Alanator said above.

my take would maybe say i charge X an hour and show examples of what you can do in certain amounts of time, then let the commissioner choose how long they want to pay you for, be it $10 for 30 minutes, or $100 for 5 hours, it's up to them and you can put yourself on a count-down timer, when time runs out, you stop working. no if's and's or but's unless the customer wants something fixed (then you can charge extra like.. $5 per fix or something depending on how long said fixes take you.)

i mean, its up to you but i know Sidian times her artwork. 30 minutes for a sketch and you pay $15 for it. and when she's streaming she keeps her timer on screen for all to see and pauses it whenever she isnt actually working, like looking at references or checking notes and such.