I don't draw for free, even if I draw for fun

[earl colby pottinger]

But

Flip side of the coin is that I've seen artists who overvalue their work as well. Not as many, and in a number of these cases, it's people that are banking on their name as much as their talent...

How many of this people still make sales because someone says, "If it is that expensive, it must be good!".

If an artist is not on the edge of straving, they should raise their prices just to see if they make more money. The worse that could happen is that they could end up rich.

[Kristev]

I agree. 50 dollars is a perfectly fair amount for someone as talented as you are to do a basic drawing. The woman who did two of my book's cover arts charged me 150 the first time and 200 the second, because the second one is more complex than the first.

[Lachrymose]

You want a promo piece or educational video? You could be looking at $20k if the editing takes more than two or three days.

Could you make me an education video that shows how to make educational videos for more cheaply than you would charge?

[EricKei]

I am sure that Kinko's does not let you be kinky while using their machines.

Pffff. Then why do they call it that?

One guy, who asked me to do a Bugatti for him...flipped out on me, in fact. Seems he felt that the $20 he was going to pay me was "generous." $20 wouldn't even cover the cost of the kit...let alone the materials! Of course, he said he could do it better. And yes, it looked like shit.

Wait, he wanted you to put together a kit like that, and offered you a $20...when was not even providing the kit itself?! What a moron. I don't even do artsy stuff or kits (not to say I haven't *tried*) and I know very well that twenty bucks is more like the *tax* on some nice kits >_>

[Kisa]

I got a new commission for a friend's grandaughter. She adores Yoda so I was asked to do a 8"x5" sketch of Yoda to be framed. Does $30 seem like a good price?

[Kogarashi]

I got a new commission for a friend's grandaughter. She adores Yoda so I was asked to do a 8"x5" sketch of Yoda to be framed. Does $30 seem like a good price?

Sounds fine to me. Wiser heads may prevail.

[Lurandah]

Reminds me when I started knitting. People would start asking me if I could make this and make that. When they found out how much time a HAT can take.. and how much I'd be asking for it (because with those people-forget even just asking for the price of the yarn) well they complain.

[NateTheChops]

My sister in law just started making a boatload of bank with her twenty dollar charcoal portraits. She also makes hemp jewelry that she sells for way too low. I've seen hemp clothing going for close to a hundred dollars a shirt and I honestly hope her luck lands her in that range.

[taxguykarl]

I got a new commission for a friend's grandaughter. She adores Yoda so I was asked to do a 8"x5" sketch of Yoda to be framed. Does $30 seem like a good price?

Sounds reasonable to me.

[LillFilly]

Your prices sound just fine!

At a convention, we were quoted 120$ for a 3-person line drawing. We loved the artist's style, but her attitude when dealing with us was less than pleasant, as though we were bothering her for choosing her. Then she was never there when we were supposed to pick it up. Then it wasn't finished and she said she didn't know what this and that was supposed to be. We observed when we finally picked-it up that it wasn't fully inked, but she still wasn't around so, meh. Another artist did us as full color one for 45$, and was very pleasant!

[fireheart]

While these might be a little hard to come by (YMMV), has anyone ever heard of or used Lyra Polycolour/Aquarelle/Aquacolour?
I currently have a set of Lyra Super Ferby colour giants which I'm slowly adding onto and the colour from the Lyra pencils is AMAZING. I don't have to push down incredibly hard to get smooth colour and they're great for blending. The non-Super Ferby type are what my class uses in their Main Lesson books. (they're known as Colour Giants and there's no huge difference between them except that the Ferby are triangular, the colour Giants are hexagonal)
The ones I mentioned above are their version of Artist pencils (polycolour) or Watercolour Pencils (Aquarelle/Aquacolour, I've seen both names pop up). And while they can be a tad expensive, they don't break and last AGES. I bought some a month ago and I haven't needed to sharpen them yet.

[Amanita]

I'm learning chain and scale maille, and being a night shift security guard, I've been known to practice at work between rounds. One former coworker wanted me to make her an entire skirt out of leaf scales, so she could wear it clubbing. I told her that a skirt of that size would end up being at least 5 square feet, and that it would take 300 scales a square foot. So she was looking at at least 1500 scales, and anodized scales sell for somewhere in the range of $5 for a bag of 100, not counting all the rings needed to hold them together. She would be looking at over $100 in material costs alone, let alone labor for putting them together. And scale mail takes freaking forever! And here's the really sucky part- she didn't want to pay for my time- she felt that if I worked on it in between rounds, I was already being paid for my time. Her plan was to wear the thing out clubbing, and refer people to me when asked where she got it.

Needless to say, that never happened. My bosses might be okay with me doing bits of scalework or the like for myself as a way to keep myself awake at night. But they might seriously frown on larger projects done for others on the job. And if anyone this lady referred to me did call asking about a scale skirt, the price tag would probably send them running for the hills. And that's not even getting into the engineering issues a skirt like that would present- it would need a massively heavy leather belt to hold it up, not exactly the sexy, feminine look she had in mind!

[RayvenQ]

I'm learning chain and scale maille, and being a night shift security guard, I've been known to practice at work between rounds. One former coworker wanted me to make her an entire skirt out of leaf scales, so she could wear it clubbing. I told her that a skirt of that size would end up being at least 5 square feet, and that it would take 300 scales a square foot. So she was looking at at least 1500 scales, and anodized scales sell for somewhere in the range of $5 for a bag of 100, not counting all the rings needed to hold them together. She would be looking at over $100 in material costs alone, let alone labor for putting them together. And scale mail takes freaking forever! And here's the really sucky part- she didn't want to pay for my time- she felt that if I worked on it in between rounds, I was already being paid for my time. Her plan was to wear the thing out clubbing, and refer people to me when asked where she got it.

Needless to say, that never happened. My bosses might be okay with me doing bits of scalework or the like for myself as a way to keep myself awake at night. But they might seriously frown on larger projects done for others on the job. And if anyone this lady referred to me did call asking about a scale skirt, the price tag would probably send them running for the hills. And that's not even getting into the engineering issues a skirt like that would present- it would need a massively heavy leather belt to hold it up, not exactly the sexy, feminine look she had in mind!

Thankfully, I've never gotten anyone asking for freebies for chain mail (although, I'm currently only dabbling) what i will do is charge at slightly above or at material cost, if i like the person or if its a small project or something that seems fun, except, giving discoutns is up to ME not THEM, but anything big, forget it. People will use all sorts of excuses like "oh but it'll get you future business" Future possible business may be good and all, but when you're out financially because of a freebie, not so good.

Someone once asked for me to do them a shirt like mine (pm if you want pics) for them for free, although they were joking, if looks could kill. a shirt I'd definately not do for free for anyone, if anyone asked, I'd just ask them how'd they like working 60-100 hours for no pay.

[tropicsgoddess]

She was one "speshul snowflake" to think she could get you to work on a commissioned piece for her for free. Your prices are more than generous, IMO. I'd say charge a little more based on the cost of the supplies and the time it took you to do the artwork.

[Girlysprite]

I am also curious; can the Op give me a link to a website with his/her artwork? I am curious now

And you'll find that everyone who has practical skills will get hounded for free work. It reminds me when a computer savvy guy complained that everyone wanted free works done on their computer, and ended with 'No one asks a carpenter to work for free, so why should I?' The carpenter in the room laughed - The kid assumed wrong.