How Much Should I Charge for My Painting - 5 Tips on Pricing Your Artwork

It's the elephant in the room question and by far one of the toughest to answer as an emerging Artist just starting off. Shoot, I have been painting for 3 years and still struggle with pricing. Have you ever wondered why it is so hard to put a price on your art work? Check out this article that discuss IF you should even be charging for your Art and why it might be so darn hard to do so. But I must say it has been getting easier as the years go by and here's what helped me. 

Pick a Good Starting Price
When first starting off selling your artwork pick a number that you are comfortable with, whether it is $50 or $500. Whatever the number is just be confident about it and know that you can always raise your prices afterwards. When you raise your prices it shows to your audience that you are growing and truly emerging into the art scene. When you lower your prices, it appears that you may be struggling and any buyers that bought at the higher price point will feel jipped. Start off with a good, comfortable number and then build on that as time goes. 

Tell Your Story
I believe Art Collectors buy not only the Art but they also are buying into the artist. So it is important to tell your story. Tell the story of the Art and why you create and what inspires you. Sometimes buyers buy the Art because of the emotional connection they feel with the piece, and other times buyer buy the Art once they hear the story behind the piece or the story behind the artist. Your story gives your Art more value so tell your story. 

Check Out What Other Artist on your Level are Charging
A good idea for a starting point would be to check out what other artist are charging. Now this is solely for you to have a baseline and to get an idea of a good price point. Now if you are a beginner artist I would go compare my Art to a Mater Artist. Look for artist creating similar work as you and same number of years of experience. Again this is only to get an idea of a good starting price point for you. 

Charge Based on Size
Charging based on size is the best method for pricing artwork in my opinion. It helps make the the process of figuring out numbers super simple and that is by pricing by size. It's similar to when they put prices on house. It is based on square inch. So you start off with a base price and then the math begins. For a more detailed explanation when charging based on size check out this article How to Price Your Artwork - Charge By Size.

Consider Your Materials and Supplies
Are you using professional high quality material? Are your pieces archival? This also has an impact on how much you should charge for a piece. You always want to consider the materials you are using to be sure that you recoup the cost of material. A good rule of thumb is that you want to charge enough to be be able to buy the materials 3 times over. Just in case you create the piece and their is an accident and you have to recreate the piece. 

So combining all 5 of these tips will help you set prices for your pieces and to feel and be more confident pricing your artwork. Let me know in the comments which tip you like the most.