I price my art to essentially $25/hour, because it is my labor. A number of people are happy with that. Typically because the furry fandom especially is a penny-ante fandom, prices are very low for getting professional work done. I've frequently see artists charge $40, 50 dollars for about 15 hours of work.

While I do have a day job, the cost of living here is also a lot cheaper, and I was able to still make it making half of what I do now. It depends on a whole bunch of factors.

There are a number of artists who, because of the low price for their art, get caught in the "cycle of hurting" where a calamity strikes and they have to add more emergency commissions, which just adds to the backlog and contributes to burnout.

Presumably the living wage would take into account local conditions as well as personal situation. It's a lot easier for me because I have a full-time job and I strive to work quickly since I actually don't have much time to draw. But there are other pressures for most other furry artists.

It's clear from your situation that you are underpaid and overworked for the conditions you're in.

Just as another thought occurring to me, that generational difference with financial means is likely because younger people are saddled with massive loans for school, and lower wages in proportion to those loans. Older generations who crow about "being able to work a summer job to pay for school" were able to do so in an era where such jobs would net you enough for that relatively. There is no job I'm aware of that'll get you the equivalent of (charitably) $5000 over a summer plus living expenses and that's for low-price public, in-state tuition. We haven't even gotten to the cost of books yet.

There has been a generational disconnect because not only are college degrees required for most jobs that would let you make a living, but the wage scale has dropped comparatively. Making this worse, there's an emphasis on free labor (unpaid internships) in a number of fields.

When idiots write thinkpieces about millenials doing X to a market and doing a bad because they don't buy houses, this is why. Most millenials are screwed over to start. I was lucky to go to college in the time that I did; it really was the dying age of college affordability. Anti-tax initatives and reduction of state support have caused public education costs to go up as well, meaning you have very few opportunities to make it without some form of financial damage. Almost always you will be subject to the usurious rates of lenders unless you have rich parents or were otherwise born on third base.

Oh gosh.

"Is most artist idea of a living wage. Which is usually 2x or more an hour than I make."

Do you get weekends or regular days off, any kind of pension plan, any kind of benefits whatsoever? Do you get any paid sick days? Do you have a regular income you can depend on? Do you get paid even while you're taking a pee break? Do you need to be 'On 100%' all the time, or can you afford to sort of have a 'slack day' here and there when you're not feeling 100%, where you just put in the bare minimum? Artists can't do that -- we either don't get the work done we need to get paid from, or we would make less quality work.

I charge $25/hr, when I can manage it. Usually I make less, but you've gotta sell the slots to attempt to pay your bills. Paypal takes some. I PAY taxes at the end of the year -- I get nothing back most of the time. The only weekends I'm getting off are the ones I work extra hard for in the week so I can afford some time with my family.

We are NOT making a living right now; not even close. And I've been doing this a long time. We're lucky enough to have some family we can live with who are paying some of the bills right now, but we cut expenses really hard and can barely afford power at this point. We can afford food if we're careful and help out a little bit with the rent, but barely. My earnings are considered 'good' by some on Patreon and I'm making just about $400. Per month. I don't hear the end of that -- people say 'wow, it must be nice being able to just get $400 for drawing pictures!' ..... It drives me insane. People have no idea that this is the majority of my monthly income, and it's also BACKBREAKING effort and long, long hours I put in every day. I can maybe manage another few hundred outside of that. FOR THE WHOLE MONTH. And then I have to do it again next month to try and make enough income for the next month's expenses.

I undercharge, absolutely. I try not to, but I also don't want to lose my favorite clients or raise my prices too high, or look like I'm trying to do this for the money. Good god, I am not. If I wanted more money I'd go work at Mcdonalds and avoid the serious wrist and body strain of working at the computer all day. I try to stretch every 20 minutes, but I still spend at least a half hour at night doing a mandatory wrist massage/huge stretch.

It's the fact that I love working with my clients and I enjoy making people happy with a well-done piece of art that I do this. I do NOT make tons of money. Few people do -- but you need to really manage your entire business a certain way to do so, and it takes a lot of practice to find that balance.

Oh, it also took literally YEARS AND YEARS AND YEARS of doing this for free, or for almost nothing, to get to the point where I can almost reliably sell slots when I post them. It's no guarantee, though. If I post slots one week and sell two of them at $120 for a decent 2-character painting that takes a few days to complete even at my quickish speed, and I try again next week, I may sell nothing. We're considering selling our van for about $700 just so we don't have to pay insurance for about $70 every month... And getting rid of the cellphone. We just can't afford to live right now like this.

We are planning on moving out to the area that we own land on (that we bought while we were both getting paid $5000+/mo driving heavy haul trucks), to build a tiny shack with a few solar panels that we can afford to live on rent-free so that I can actually afford to do this shitty-paying job that I enjoy. But, you keep trying so that you might continue to gain watchers so that you may be able to actually sell enough pieces at a liveable wage one day that you can work reasonable and not-body-damaging hours and actually live comfortably.

So if you're not making enough to afford art, you need to perhaps move up in a career ladder, cut out expenses, or move to a less-expensive situation. Most of us certainly aren't overcharging. Some people do, and I laugh at how ridiculous it can get. (I saw a piece not nearly as detailed as one of my own paintings that I sell for $120ish (too little, I know), for 600 euros... as if that's going to sell at that quality. You still need to realize you're competing with tons of other artists and have at least SOMEWHAT reasonable prices. But overall, people don't nearly charge enough in the fandom because it's a small fandom -- and somehow many people assume it's their right to get cheap, high-quality art when they don't realize how much time and effort actually goes into making it.

I have to go, though, I should be working. This is just a topic I see come up a lot and NOBODY seems to understand that as artists, we're self-employed and mostly we make a pittance for a TON of hard hours, and we pay tons of expenses. Doing a painting for even $90 (which is what I have been charging for 1-character pieces) takes at LEAST one day, usually more, and people think you just pocket that and spend it on video games. (WOW, 90 for one piece, you must be rolling in it to draw all day for money!) -- and that's the sentiment I hear a lot.. but people have no idea that all of that money literally goes to feed us the cheapest foods we can afford while still being healthy (Like potatoes and some meat), and attempt to pay off our other bills and not go further into debt for it. If I get the flu and can't work efficiently for a week -- well, we're likely to be dipping into our credit card debt again and going backwards. It's a very thin line.

Anyways, I should be working right now, so here I go.

What is a living wage to you, Where in the world approx are you? If I'm making 80 USD a day, that means we can easily pay our bills down and live comfortably paying all the bills. That's what I aim for. (That's every day; I don't take weekends off). As an artist, that is. It equals about 100CAD, which is where I live. Currently a very expensive part of Canada. That would be a 'let's not worry so much' wage. Around here, you still couldn't DO much of anything for that amount.

Mostly, I don't make that much. Maybe 50 CAD a day when you average it out. (About 38 USD a day). I'm being optimistic. We're leaning on a huge crutch right now and not having to pay rent, but something needs to change.

Do you under price your art or try to equal it with being able to live off it? My art is severely underpriced but you can't just jump it up overnight. I very much try to make a living off my work. It's an ongoing process and a learning experience. Only been doing this maybe 4 years now for money. I believe when my slots are selling out easily, it means I have enough people who are aware of my work that believe it's worth the current price. If they sell out too fast, I need to rethink the prices.

If you aren't an artist and a buyer like me, What is your price limits to get art from someone?
I am CHEAP AS HELL because I try to live cheaply in all aspects to make life easier. So, my preference is to spend less than $75 on art. I did buy a really beautiful one from someone before they were more well-known for about $80 USD not terribly long ago when I had slightly more money than I do now. It was easily worth $300. I always tip, because I know how much people appreciate tips and I know how hard it is to make a living as an artist.

If I had tons of cash, I'd probably cap out at around $150 myself-- BUT - I'm not someone who spends money on art, generally and I'm very cheap. I almost never buy things for me. If I was a more art-focused person and had tons of cash, I'd expect to spend about $300 on a really nice 2-character piece. That seems more in-line with the hours and experience that go into most nice pieces.