How to Start Pricing Your Artwork

So you want to sell your art, but don't know how much to ask? 

I recently had a question from another artist who wanted my opinion on what price she should put on a particular painting. It took me a few days to get back to her because I didn't have any ready answer to her question. The short answer is, "It depends."

What is it worth to you?

The long answer is complicated, and might not tell you what you want to hear. There are a lot of variables that can go into the pricing factor. If you're new to selling work, and you have no other examples of size/quality/price from any sales you've already made, than the simplest way to go is to ask yourself what is it worth to you? Make sure you are getting a return on your supplies and your time, and then add a bit more for how good you feel this one is compared to other work you've done.

What's the size?

Once you have a few sales under your belt, you can begin to price on size. For example: You sell an 8x10 acrylic on canvas for $200. Then any other similar paintings (genre, level of detail, etc) in 8x10 will be $200. You can then set your other price sizes based on this price per square inch ($2.50.) When demand begins to exceed your production, you can raise your prices a bit. 

What's the Venue?

It can also depend on the selling venue, and what other artist's paintings are selling for in that same venue. For example: If you are in an art festival or gallery where the average painting in your genre/size is selling for $800 to $1200, then your $200 8x10 is at the risk of being viewed as inferior by the collectors shopping there, because most collectors at a certain level believe that artwork is worth what they pay for it, and they'll think you must not value your work if you price it too low, and that there must be something wrong with it. (This mentality took me YEARS to finally "get"!) 

On the other end, if you're in some small town crafts fair where the range of merchandise price points is between $10 to $75, then $200 for an 8x10 panting might be out of the customers' price range. However, that wouldn't necessarily mean you couldn't still have the $200 price tag on an 8x10 original there, but you'd do better selling simple, small paintings, and prints in the lower price ranges.

If you're not selling in any venue that includes other artists, it becomes more subjective. For instance, if you're just selling to a friend, you need to weigh your need for an income with how close is this friend, and how much can they afford? In my experience, friends and family usually want a really good deal* (*i.e.: free.) In essence, you'd need to weigh the value of the friendship against the value of the painting. Some fortunate artists have wealthy friends who appreciate the value of the artwork. ;)

What about Online?

If you're selling online, the venue (some kind of art-selling site? Or just off your own blog? Facebook?) can sometimes have an impact on price, but not so much I don't think, because of the sheer volume of public out there that can have access to your art if they know where to find it. Online art buying does tend to be lower priced than other more traditional outlets (gallery, art festival, brick-and-mortar art show). Usually because of the high level of competition that artists face on the internet, and the low overhead (almost all of the sale price goes to the artist, except for payment fees, like paypal, site fees if listed on a subscription-based site like DailyPaintworks, etc, and any other brokerage type fees, if in a web-show that takes a cut, for example.)

How to price your art on the web, if you haven't sold your work before? 

I would recommend one of two methods:

1) Fast method: What did the materials cost you? How much time did it take? Consider materials plus $20 - $50 / hour depending on how fast you work. Then round to the nearest "easy amount". Example: the 8x10 canvas was $6. You bought the paints for $60, but expect to get a lot more use out of them, so maybe just factor in $3 of paint. You put a $50 frame on it. The painting took you 4 hours. So that's $80 - $200, plus supplies is $139 - $259, which you can round to $150 - $250.

2) Time-consuming method: Research! Look around online at other artists work that is similar to yours in genre, medium, style... When you find artwork that has prices listed, read up on the artist's website to determine their level of experience. Collectors might also be looking at this data to determine whether this artist's work is a good value. Artists with more experience, awards, shows, commendations, gallery representation, etc, will have a higher perceived value. When you have come up a list of artists who's work is similar to yours, and have noted their prices for certain sizes of work, you can make an estimation of value for your own work, comparing to your experience level to theirs.

Perhaps this method will leave you more confused and unsure than ever. I've not done any research like this online, but can imagine, especially having seen sites like DailyPaintworks.com, which has pretty huge pricing variations between artists, and an endless variety of artists from beginner through professional. (That site might be a good place to start a research actually. Many of the member artists have their own websites as well.) Just know that for a beginner, you have to start somewhere, and it's easiest to start low, and increase your prices as your experience, quality, and clientele increase.

A place to start..

I've just touched upon these pricing concepts from my own viewpoint, but hopefully have given you a place to start. There are more aspects to be considered, such as when to increase your prices, how to be flexible and still be consistent, and pricing commission work. You can read more thoughts about these topics and more concise info on pricing at these great sites below:

http://www.agora-gallery.com/advice/blog/2016/03/29/how-to-price-your-artwork/
http://www.artbusiness.com/pricerealistic.html
http://theabundantartist.com/5-art-pricing-lessons/
Read more about pricing artwork per square inch on this good blog post I found on artistrunwebsite.com.
And this post on artworkarchive.com explains about three good formulas for pricing your art.

Scan Pastel Paintings for Better Prints

A recent question from an artist friend asked about how I get good image files for making prints:

"I wanted to tell you that I think your art is beautiful and inspiring. I work with pastels also. May I ask you a question: If you do giclees, what is the best way? Is there such a thing as scanning the art, do you take a photo?"

Here's my answer (with a few revisions to make a better blog post!)

Yes! Scan it!

I do scan all my artwork, whether I make prints or not, so that I have an accurate, high-resolution image file for my records. I highly recommend scanning artwork (and pastel is perfectly fine being placed down on the glass.) My current scanner is an Epson V700; it's been the best one I've had so far, and has lasted the longest.
Scanning small works are easy, as they fit well in the scan bed:

I've also learned not to be TOO picky with getting an exact color match on the print (I had a cheap little hp scanner years ago that really captured exact color - except couldn't separate the very darkest values [has to do with D-Max rating]) Every scanner will be a little different and you just get used to learning how to get the best out of it. This Epson came with Silverfast SE software which I really like.

Scan vs. Photo 

Sometimes I will just photograph a painting if I'm away from home and need a quick post. The best way, in my opinion, to photograph artwork (if, like me, you don't have all the expensive photography lights and meters to balance everything perfectly) is to set the painting on a shady porch in daylight and, standing right over it, aim straight down with your camera and zoom in to just around the painting, making sure the edges are squared with your viewfinder. (If the painting is too large to stand over, lean it against the house instead.)

Cameras with better lenses will capture better quality images of your art, but there can be variations in temperature that are hard to manage without professional lighting and know-how. And, in my own experience, the clarity and crispness of the tiny details always seems to fall short through a camera (at least with pastel anyway.) Usually, a good camera photo will be sufficient for an image posted online, what with all the variances in other people's monitors anyway, but I really prefer a scan when I want to make a print.

To show you an example of a painting that I photographed and also scanned, here's "BFF" (16x16 in.) in both images. The slightly warmer image on the left was from the photo. The other is much more accurate tone and clarity (scanned.)

This is even more noticeable at full resolution, which you can see in the cropped images below (click and zoom in for a better comparison.)

Large Pastels on Small Scanner?

And yes, the scanner is just a normal desktop size, but with larger work I scan in sections and splice it together in Photoshop. I actually lay the scanner on the floor, move the painting carefully between scans without dragging, and wipe off the glass every few scans. (A heavy book comes in handy when weighting edges and corners to keep the large painting on the scanner bed.) It is labor intensive but still MUCH cheaper than going somewhere that has one of those huge flatbed scan things. (It's also much easier when working on a stable surface like gatorboard or some other board. A large work on paper would really need to be mounted on a firm surface to keep it flat over the scanner.)

Here is what one of my large paintings look like right after I scan it, and before it's put together. Each of the separate parts is one scanned area. In Photoshop this would be 16 separate layers.

The extra section with the nibbling ear is the first section I scanned. I always start with an area that has the highest contrast so that the scanner can get the greatest range of lights and darks accurately metered. I also overlap each section to give myself leeway when assembling the whole. (And also because when the painting is face down on a scan bed, it's hard to see where its scanning! So I move it in short increments to be doubly sure I'm not missing any parts.)

Then, after it's all put together (that might be info for another post...) ...Voila! A 300dpi full-sized image ready to print.

Breaking out of the Creative Rut

"Lennui" (Boredom) by Gaston de La Touche, 1893

A friend sent me a message last month abut what to do to get out of a creative rut. It was a timely question, as I was just then trying to pull myself out of a 5 month dearth of creation.

She wrote, "My hubby says YOU SHOULD DO SOME PAINTING... I know, I know... I don't know what to do to inspire me... What methods would you use to get yourself out of a rut?"

I replied:
GOOD QUESTION! Especially now when I'm kind of in a painting drought myself. However, mine (or so my excuse goes) is not a creative rut, but a lack of time. Weeks ago there were other variables involved, but now it's become an unfortunate habit to fill in the days with 'necessary life functions', previously-ignored household and business chores, and newly-developing family obligations. Couple that with getting older and moving slower and the days seem like they're each about 2 and a half hours long! Before I know it another month is gone.

But I'm not helping much in that last paragraph! Sorry!

When I'm in a creative rut, the best thing to do is something different. When I was tired of painting cows etc one summer I did a little series of road sketches from photos out the windshield on vacations.

If you're having difficulty actually getting started, then start with a list. Over wine (or coffee, or your favorite refreshment, or bubble bath) have a little relaxation time and let your mind wander. Think about "what ifs..." what would you like to paint/draw if there were no obstacles, scheduling conflicts or painters block. This is easy to imagine because you can let it be a fantasy... When you're not actually in front of your blank canvas there's no pressure! Just imagine.

Now, write down all your ideas and go to bed.

If you're lucky you'll dream about actualizing your art ideas, and the next day you'll be excited about getting into some of them!

If you still can't just jump in, let your list of ideas brew for a few more days while you make a schedule of 'drawing/painting time' and put it on your calendar (put it in all the empty places after all your immovable priority necessary life stuff is written in). Then go back to your list and start planning. Visualize. Set goals.

Then, when it's time to jump in, you'll be a little bit more prepared. It still might be difficult but the starting is the hardest, as you probably know is true of so many things in life. Once you start the rest is easy and you'll wonder what took you so long!

A favorite quote from James Wyeth: "I do more painting when I'm not painting; it's in the subconscious."

Some other anti-rut ideas:
Visit a museum, walk in a park, browse art magazines, see a ballet or symphony, visit a zoo (my favorite!), take a road trip, watch a demo, take a workshop, browse youtube art videos, join a plein air group, enter a theme-specific art show, browse through your 300+ gigabytes of photo files (my other favorite!)

Well, sorry for the book here. But thanks for giving me an excuse to exercise my creative art-writing brain! (And I might actually use this as a blog post... multi-tasking, yea!)

Good luck, hope this helped!
Rita

PS: this post might have some helpful info also: http://ritakirkmanjournal.blogspot.com/2013/01/what-inspires.html

Spring Cleaning (the pastel box)

IAPS 2015 Pastel Convention Next Week!! Yay!

I'll be driving up early in hopes to be pulled off the wait list for the Sally Strand pre-convention workshop, but in case I'm not, I'm looking forward to some mornings plein air painting in Old Town. 

A quick decision had me cleaning out my travel pastel box (a Heilman backpack box) last evening, mainly because after I'd cleaned it out four years ago (before the 2011 convention!) I'd noticed that I'd put the cool colors at the front and the warm colors at the back.

my box in 2012

See the little holes near the hinges in the middle? The convenient easel slides in there, so that's actually the back or "top" of the palette. Since I like working with my warm colors closer to me, this arrangement makes it inconvenient to use the attachable easel.

I wish I'd gotten a photo of my box before I cleaned it last night. (this shot's from at least 3 years ago) I hadn't realized how desperately it needed cleaning until I got all the pastels out and started slapping the foam strips against the inside of my trash can... Woah! Time to turn the air cleaner on Turbo! I ended up taking the vacuum cleaner hose attachment to each strip as well as the lids. Since I didn't have time for soap and water, it worked well enough, and by flipping the foam over it was almost like having a new box!

I also ended up with a huge pile of bits (almost) too small to use and shards of old pieces that were buried in the cracks...

A few of these are old favorites, so one of today's tasks will be to (try to) find the other halves of these among my extensive backup stock, if I still have them.

I've made a little box of cherished gems that I know I will need to search for at the IAPS "Candy Store" since I'm pretty sure these are the last bits of these colors I have...

Yea... any excuse to shop for new pastels! Lol!


And here's my clean box, ready for some plein air painting, and with plenty of space for some new colors in there among the blues and greens maybe...

So tell me... Am I the only one who goes years between cleaning out the pastel box?? When was the last time you cleaned yours? I'd love to hear from you!

Value and Temperature (Or How Do I Choose My Colors?)

       I've recently had a few inquiries about how I use color or how I choose my colors in my paintings. This might seem like a simple question, but the simplest sounding questions are often the most complex. Here's one of the first inquiries I had on this topic:

Hi Rita, I am looking forward to your demo for PSST in. January. Can you tell me what you plan to cover in the mini-workshop and at what level? I don't need a basic course but would be interested in leaning more about how you use color in your work. Thanks so much! Kathy

Hi Kathy,

Thanks for asking! I tailor my workshops to whoever is there, from beginner to advanced. In my 30+ years of using pastel, I've learned just about all the technical ins and outs. I teach best with demos, where I explain what I'm doing as I do it (usually) and then answer questions throughout the rest of the workshop and one-on-one advice.

I can give you a head-start tip on "color" by saying that I've gotten so good (in others' opinions) with color by not thinking in terms of color (hue), but of value and temperature. "Value is more important than color" is one of my mantras that I learned from several other experienced artists, and I like to add "...and temperature" (cooler or warmer) because really, if you have the value and the temperature correct in all areas of your painting, the whole thing will work regardless of color. Even if you only have value correct it will work, but with temperature I'm able to achieve that feeling of intense warm light in my current work. (I was gratified to hear in a recent workshop I took from Clayton Beck III, that he's a strong proponent of 'value and temperature' in his work and in his teaching!)

"Is This Seat Taken?" in grayscale (value scale)

 

"Is This Seat Taken?"

 But in contrast to that, my more recent workshop with Casey Klahn taught me that it's ok for color to have nothing to do with value or temperature, but to love color for it's own sake. Although I believe he has an innate master's grasp of value, he seems to put more emphasis on the playful and instinctual use of color, and his work accentuates intensity vs. neutrality, plus an amazing compositional genius!

(Can you tell I love learning too! ;)

Well, sorry for the long response. Look forward to meeting you in January!

Rita

 

To add to that, It has taken me the last twelve years of conscious effort improving my artwork (beyond the ordinary effort of copying someone's photo of their grandkids) to understand the importance of value and temperature on the effect of light and color. Honestly it's only been the last five years or so that I've even been aware of this relationship enough to use it and enhance these effects in my work.

To put it in basic terms, "Value" means the relative lightness or darkness of a color. "Temperature" means how warm or cool the color is. For example, the warm colors are red and yellow (think 'fire' and 'sun') so the warmest color really is orange (red and yellow combined.) The coolest color (think ice, or arctic water) is blue. All the colors between these are what I call 'neutral', for lack of a better term for a color that is in between warm and cool. 

Picture a color wheel:

You see that orange and blue are compliments (meaning they are on opposite sides of the wheel.) All the colors closer to the orange are warmer, and all the colors closer to the blue are cooler. Blue-green is cooler than yellow-green. Red-orange is warmer than red-violet. Etc.

This gets more vague as the colors get in to true neutrals (greyed colors) meaning colors that have been toned down with their compliment (Aak! I can't even find a decent color wheel online that shows this!) but if you remember that any color that is a green or a violet is going to be cooler than any reds or yellows, and warmer than any blues. THIS is why I LOVE greens and violets! They are SO beautiful in shadows, where there's reflected warm light shining into cool shadow colors. They can be warm (compared to cooler blues) or cool (compared to warmer reds or yellows.)

Having worked so long with subjects that are in sunlight, I'm used to working with the "warm light, cool shadows" precept. There is also the "cool light, warm shadows" scheme, which is prevalent among artist who prefer north light windows in studio work, or overcast, cloudy light outdoors, which will frequently be a cooler light. There's enough of that subject for another book, so I won't elaborate here! (One of my paintings "Marjoram" does illustrate this cool light/warm shadows concept pretty well) :

Reflected light, if you noticed the mention above, is another subject worth a long post of it's own!

Here's a pic of Maggie Price's pastel box, arranged by an x/y value/temerature scale. This is the photo I took to arrange my own box the same way

Notice the cool colors at the bottom and the warm colors towards the top.

Here's my own new studio set of Terry Ludwigs in my Mike Mahon box. I like my warm colors on the bottom and cool colors at the top. Violets and greens are in between, mixed up by how relatively cool or warm they are. If you see some that look out of place, it's because I organized this by value first, each row, then by temperature. Plus I have my Diane Townsend Terrage pastels in the seams of the foam inserts, and my Great American Artworks iridescents at the far right. For travel I use my Heilman box (like Maggie's) where I have my colors laying down flat and arranged a lot like hers!

Let me know if this helps you! :)

.

Ren Faire Portraits and How I Find Collectors

Renaissance Portraits Sold

Recently I had an inquiry from a fellow artist about my Renaissance Portrait Series and how I find collectors for them. Here's what she asked:

"Rita, I love your Renaissance Faire portrait series and I was wondering if you've ever had a show that focuses specifically on these paintings. I paint Ren Faire portraits, too, but I've been having a tough time selling them. If you wouldn't mind, can you tell me how you get the word out about these paintings and how you find collectors for this subject matter? I see you've won numerous awards for these paintings. Do you usually sell them at the shows where they're being exhibited? I would appreciate any suggestions you can give me. 
Thanks so much!"
~ Sharon Matisoff

My reply was long and wandering, but contained so much varied marketing advice I decide to use it for a Journal Post!

Hi Sharon,

(Good questions! Difficult answers! You may want to read in installments, lol!)

I've been lucky I guess. The Renaissance Portrait series started for me as a couple of paintings that I whipped out for a "People and Places" show at my local art league in 2009, and then one of them was awarded and sold from that show; the other was accepted to the PSA annual and was awarded and sold there! So I said "I need to do more like that!" (Most of my series have been prompted and encouraged by 'buyer participation', ha!)

I like to do the small format (eg: 8x6, as are all my Ren Ports are) because 1) cheaper to ship to shows and 2) easier to sell because many buyers are low on wall space, or 'traveling', or can't afford thousands on a big painting but will spend 900-1000 on an exquisite award-winner.

I also usually do the portrait/figurative work for exhibits and competitions because I feel like portraits have an edge with judges because of the human factor. Most people, even artists (mistakenly or not) still believe that the human portrait is the most difficult thing to draw/paint. And I believe that all other things being equal, an excellent painting that is a portrait will win out over an excellent painting that is a landscape or still life.

Anyway, I've kind of gotten sidetracked! I have done most of them for specific shows, but some I've just painted first and then decided what to do with them. 4 have sold at exhibits. 4 have sold at art fairs. One was sold at an art demo, and one was donated to a silent auction. One was purchased off my website by a long-distance client in NYC. But all this has been over the last 5 years, so it's slow, but ongoing. I still have 7 (and one in the works) and am deciding what shows to send each to next.

In the beginning (after the first 2 sales) I did have fantasies of doing, like, 50, and having a show, but I can't bring myself to hold on to each new one long enough to do the 40-something more of them that I would need. Plus,18 in five years is not very prolific (compared to the 300+ 5x7 cows etc that I've done!) Besides, I remember something Robert Genn said about rarity and value. But I still have that plan in the back of my mind, alongside a couple dozen others!

As far as 'finding collectors', it's a long, slow process that builds up and can occasionally snowball every now and then. But it's also akin to investing in a volatile stock market, so the most important rule is 'don't put all your eggs in one basket'. I really can't pinpoint any one thing that says "This is where my clients come from" but these are some of the things I do (in no particular order):

- Keep track of all buyers in a database that you can print address labels from (I use WorkingArtist), for occasional postcards for shows and other mailings. Also get email addresses when possible, and permission to add them to your e-news list.  

- I've done fine art fairs and festivals, about 3-5 per year, since about 2006. These are the best way to sell lots of paintings fast and gather lots of client data. (Zapplication.org is a good source)

- I have artwork in 5 galleries in south Texas, two of which sell fairly regularly (maybe $3k each per year, my intake) the other 3 range from not much to a few hundred bucks, but I keep them because the owners are nice and because YOU NEVER KNOW!

- I've also been lucky in being invited as one of the 50 Featured Members on DailyPaintworks.com, right before they decided not to invite anyone else, and instead opened it up to general membership. This has brought me an average of $5k per year through the auctions, and has also found me a couple of clients who went on to purchase  larger work off of my website!

- Get on Facebook (if you're not already) and find all new clients on FB if possible, within a week of each sale. Send a message thanking them again for the purchase. Join FB groups having to do with your medium and genre (PSA has a group page, etc)

- Get accounts/pages in every other social media site out there that is popular (currently Pinterest, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Instagram, and maybe others I'm not into yet)

- Post all new art to your blog, website, and all social media sites, daily if possible. This is a habit that is slow to show results but can pay off big in the long run.

- I learned from Carol Marine, a prominent Daily Painter, that it's also important to leave comments on others artwork on blogs and social media like FB. This is networking and making yourself known. (It's also fun to meet new artists and connect, I've made a few good friends this way)

- I send one email each month to everyone on my list, outlining my schedule for that month and any news of awards, shows, workshops, etc. (I also post this newsletter to my FB page, and Twitter.) (I use Constant Contact, but FASO has a newsletter capability as well.)

- I've taken what I call a "Bio-Building" approach to my career since 2002. I work to improve my work, to enter competitions to win awards, to 'build' my bio up with impressive data, in order to impress the buyers into buying my work! (from the look of your resume, you understand this concept! ;)

- I enter competitions, online, magazines, and gallery shows (mostly pastel societies) as many as I can afford and the best work that I have to send. (I keep a list w/ deadlines and show dates.) Being in a show each month also gives me news to brag about, even if I don't win anything. (This also keeps my work constantly improving because I'm very competitive and I like to win!)

- I make a point to take at least one really good workshop each year, sometimes 2 or 3. And every other year, go to a convention (pastel, portrait, oil painters, plein air, caricature, whatever helps me improve my work!) I've also made valuable friends and connections at these, and learned a lot.

- Join any and all art organizations near you, and go to meetings, and get involved to the limit of your available time. I spent 5 years as membership chair for my local art league. Now I still have a variety of valuable friends there who have a wealth of experience creating, showing and selling their art. And among all the emails I get from various associations, there's always a paint out, or a trip, or a demo, or exhibit, that I can take advantage of if I have the time.

- There have been 3 workshops/seminars I've taken that have helped my career more than any others:  

1. Sarah Eyestone taught a "Business of Art" workshop when she lived in San Antonio. The most important mantras I picked up from her is "First you have to do the work!" and "Work in a series!" 
2. In Carol Marine's workshop I learned that to "Paint Daily" is a magic mantra, and one that supersedes and essentially incorporates both of Sarah's quotes. When you paint daily (and by that I mean complete one small painting a day) you ARE 'doing the work', and you usually MUST 'work in a series' or at least several small series, in order to come up with enough subject matter for 30 days a month.  (Disclaimer: I've only averaged 17 paintings per month since 2011. 30 paintings per month is still a goal of mine!) 
3. The 3rd most valuable advice I learned was to never underestimate the power of social media, which was a strong point of the "Marketing Boot Camp" given by Eric Rhodes, editor of Plein Air Magazine, at the 1st annual Plein Air Convention. His main message was that no one is going to know who you are or what your art is unless YOU TELL THEM! (And that people buy 'brands' because they're familiar... so learn how to 'brand yourself'!)

- Oh, and for the last few years I've been giving workshops; about 1-4 workshops per year, in various places around Texas, and 2 so far in Kansas. I really enjoy teaching other adults about pastel, and sometimes the workshop students will buy the demos ;) This also grows your mailing/email lists.

OK, I know it sounds like I've got a lot of miscellaneous advice, and not a lot of "How do I find collectors", and sorry for writing a book here, but really, there's such a variety of pathways to finding buyers and selling artwork, and each path will work differently for different artists and different personalities. I'm sure I'm not even taking advantage of ALL of the ways that exist. Just the ones that I've wandered into or learned about along the way.

To sum it up, I like a quote I found somewhere (FB I think!) by Maya Angelou “You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don't make money your goal. Instead, pursue the things you love doing, and then do them so well that people can't take their eyes off you.”

It's true, but it's not a quick fix...

Hope all this helps!

Rita

Renaissance Portraits Available

2023 update: The only ones left now are "Bandit" and "Valentina". Three more not yet painted as of this original post have also sold. (I better get to work on more... ;)