This is a question that always comes up whenever I speak to fellow artists. Whether you are a beginner or have been in the art game for years. What do I rate my commissions at? How much should I ask for my art?
And these are pretty important questions we should be asking. We as artists love creating, but lets be honest…most of the time we are too timid, self-aware and too reluctant to say our say when it comes to selling our art or pricing our commissions correctly.
So, I’m going to share with you what I’ve learned over these past 3 years as a fulltime artist in the world of putting value on your work in a respectable manner.
Please note that this is how I rate my art based on a few factors such as the economy, the country I’m in and my typical type of audience.
First thing, first. How do I rate my commissions?
I use this formula to calculate all of my commissions.
Hourly Rate x Minimum Time + 30% from the total of hourly rate x time
For example my Hourly Rate is R250.00
And I need to create a full body character that will take a minimum 6 hours
R250 x 6 hours = R1500.00 + 30% (R450) = R1950.00 The reason why I include 30% extra, is for the event that I might spend 7 or 8 hours instead of 6, I get to then cover at least an 1h30 worth of work. In reality we never know how much time we will end up spending on an artwork as we can sometime over do it.
There is another crucial part I want to bring attention too. And that would be international transactions. When you get a client from over sees, I do not want you to ask your local fees.
For example, I live in South Africa. My prices are lower to accommodate my local audience. However when I get a client in US then the Rand value is much lower compared to the dollar value.
So on top of the commission rate of R250 x 6 hours = R1500.00 + 30% (R450) = R1950.00 + 30% = R2535.00 This will insure that it covers any additional costs such as currency conversion rates and allows you to get a bit more from the project since 9/10 times an international client would be willing to pay your fee.
I used character design as an example, which is digital based art. But the same formula applies for traditional art. However the only difference would be that you now have to include material, shipping and packaging costs. And I personally double my hourly rate to R600.00 since my client base from the painting side are more willing to pay higher prices for good quality physical art.
How do you figure out your hourly rate?
Well I personally believe it’s determined on 3 factors.
Talk with a few local artists you know or follow and ask them if they mind sharing their rates or go on their websites. Now that you have their rates. I want you to put aside your art next to theirs. I know a lot of artist are going to comment, YOU SHOULD NEVER COMPARE YOUR ART WITH ANOTHER ARTIST…
But this is the best way to assess whether your rates should be lower, equal or higher than that artist. It’s a good way to assess your current skill level.
I’m not discouraging the beginners. I’m just saying there is a starting point for everyone. When I started making art fulltime my hourly rate was R150.00 three years ago. Now it is between R300.00 to R600.00
I want to leave you guys with one last thing. And that is increasing your commission prices yearly. There are 2 absolute important things on this. Living expenses always increases and you have to accommodate with that if you want to survive. And secondly your skill level in your art will increase year to year. So you should match your skill level with your fees.
There is kind of a lot more we can go into depth with….if you have any other question let me know in the comments and I might make a part 2.
And that’s it. I hope this has been even a small shred of helpfulness.
