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On the price of art
11 years ago
Recently a dear friend of mine, who charges 35USD at most for her amazing works - was being harassed by people telling her that those prices were too high - and that they would take their custom elsewhere if she didn' t lower her prices.
As someone who actually buys a fair amount of art - couple of thousand worth this year alone - I can say I would never tell an artist their price was too high. Simply because it is none of my business what the artist has decided to charge for their art. I have sometimes had to say I cannot afford their art - for now. But even then I make it very clear I'm not trying to hanggle down their price.
There are very few artists who actually can live on the income from their art. So most don't and for them it depends very much on what their motivation to do art is: I know artits who do art because they love it and the price they set on their art is pretty meaningless to them - a kind of token payment to keep away too many requests for their art forexample.
But most artists are poor with no other income - they need to buy supplies and materials, as well as pay the bills just like each of us. So let us consider what a typical artist charges for a fully shaded drawing. Depending on the their style and the complexity of the request they will be using anything from a couple of hours to dozens of hours to finish a single piece. Add to this the time it takes to communicate with the customer and deal with numerous commission requests that don't result in a sale.
Even if an artist is charging 40 or 50 USD on a single commission, they are probably not making more then 10 dollars an hour for their effort. That is below minimum wage in most western countries. Some really talented artists I know are being paid less then someone sweeping floors for their amazing works - and all personilized to your tastes. And you dare to complain that their prices are too high?
As someone who actually buys a fair amount of art - couple of thousand worth this year alone - I can say I would never tell an artist their price was too high. Simply because it is none of my business what the artist has decided to charge for their art. I have sometimes had to say I cannot afford their art - for now. But even then I make it very clear I'm not trying to hanggle down their price.
There are very few artists who actually can live on the income from their art. So most don't and for them it depends very much on what their motivation to do art is: I know artits who do art because they love it and the price they set on their art is pretty meaningless to them - a kind of token payment to keep away too many requests for their art forexample.
But most artists are poor with no other income - they need to buy supplies and materials, as well as pay the bills just like each of us. So let us consider what a typical artist charges for a fully shaded drawing. Depending on the their style and the complexity of the request they will be using anything from a couple of hours to dozens of hours to finish a single piece. Add to this the time it takes to communicate with the customer and deal with numerous commission requests that don't result in a sale.
Even if an artist is charging 40 or 50 USD on a single commission, they are probably not making more then 10 dollars an hour for their effort. That is below minimum wage in most western countries. Some really talented artists I know are being paid less then someone sweeping floors for their amazing works - and all personilized to your tastes. And you dare to complain that their prices are too high?
This kind of drama follows all artists. I have learnt just to ignore it.
As a student with a part-time undergrad job I can't afford everything I would like to, but I'd never demand that someone lowers their price for me. If I can't afford it, then I have to move on. And I've usually left a nice tip on top of the commission price too. But on the other side, there certainly are good deals around in all price ranges, you just have to look around for them. Just if you want something specific, then you're stuck with the price tag. Kinda like with every other kind of product, really.