How To Price Portrait Commissions

hello lovely to see you welcome to my channel I'm Jane and this is JD art a common question and a big problem for many artists is how much to charge for their portrait paintings this is something that many artists struggle with and something that I struggled with too for a long time when I was just starting out so I thought this week I would share with you everything that I take into consideration when pricing one of my portraits in the hope that it will help you too [Music] first of all try to work out roughly how much all of your materials cost you I keep invoices for all of my art material purchases so I know what I spend I don't spend much on brushes I found a brand of brushes that I really like that don't cost much as acrylic paint tends to ruin brushes pretty quickly I prefer to buy them regularly and replace them once they wear out so my brushes cost me around 3 Euros each and I use up at least two brushes over the course of a painting so that's six euros for brushes next comes paint which cost me a lot more I think it's really important to use high quality paint as I want my paintings to last forever basically so I use two makes Amsterdam and Vallejo I'll put the Amazon links below both of these brands are not cheap but they're quality and pigmentation is excellent I estimate that on average I use the equivalent of one and a half full tubes of paint per painting as all of my portraits are painted in at least three layers of paint a tube of top quality paint costs about 18 Euros so the paint for a portrait will cost me around 25 Euros then there's the varnish and the canvas to consider I use about five euros worth of varnish on a painting and a canvas costs me between 10 and 30 Euros depending on the size so on average let's say 20 20 euros so materials come to about 56 Euros let's round that up to 60 to account for any extras like mediums for oil paints brush cleaning products canvas gesso Etc this portrait costs my customer 1490 euros this is how I worked out the pricing remove the 60 Euros for materials so you get 1430. it is a 60 by 80 centimeter canvas which is 4 800 centimeters squared so divide 1430 Euros by 4 800 centimeters and I can see that I charge just under 30 cents per centimeter squared I use this as a Rough Guide to check that the different sizes of my work are fairly priced price per square centimeter decreases as the size of the painting increases which is fair as there's a similar amount of prep work involved in painting a 50 by 50 portrait as there is a 60 by 80 centimeter portrait for example to better understand your prices you need to factor in the time it takes to paint a portrait I've become faster over the years but painting a portrait this size still takes me between 40 and 50 hours of work from start to finish that's around 30 Euros per hour this is where it's important to figure out what hourly rate you are comfortable with also you need to consider the percentage tax you will have to pay depending on what country you live in I feel comfortable with this as an hourly rate based on numerous personal factors the factors will vary from artist to artists when I was an English teacher I used to earn 35 Euros per hour when I taught classes at the local University I had many years of experience under my belt and I had to prepare those glasses thoroughly beforehand the University was paying me for my time and my expertise and knowledge as a painter my customers are not simply paying for my time they're paying for my expertise and over 10 years of experience in portrait painting I know what I'm doing and how to do it to a high standard and the customer can be confident that I have the necessary skills to produce an accurate portrait on top of this they're paying me to create something entirely unique in my very personal style which they won't be able to get from another artist they also have the option of choosing the color scheme to fit in with the colors of their home which makes it even more personal they'll end up with a piece of art that is the result of years of practice they're also purchasing something that will last a lifetime provide endless moments of pleasure when they look at it a talking point for friends and family and above all something precious and totally unique which can be kept in the family for years it's not easy to put a price on that one more thing to consider is that they're investing in you as an artist I'm only 40 years old I have many years in this career ahead of me and many exhibitions and competitions that I intend to enter the value of my work will in all probability increase over time as my work becomes more well known their portrait is therefore also an investment not a sure one by any means as with any investment there are many factors that will influence how much an artist's work increases in value if you want to see a video I made about investing in art I've linked it in the description below buying art from a living artist is in any case an investment and I certainly intend to make it pay off for my customers so there's no set formula that you should use to fix a price for your portrait commissions but more a list of factors that you need to consider these factors will be different for every artist depending on your experience the time it takes you to produce your art how well known you are the type of materials you use and what you personally feel comfortable with as an hourly rate for your work if like many artists you feel uncomfortable discussing price with your customers then just do what I do and refer them directly to your website where you can include a clear price list here is mine I've selected the size options I most often work with and the prices for a portrait of one and two people as these are the most common requests I give a selection of five sizes that I'm comfortable working with and then give the option of adding an extra person to a portrait for an additional 200 Euros per face the customer can look at this price list in their own time there are no awkward face-to-face moments or conversations over the phone or messenger where I'm waiting for an answer the prices are clear and if it's over their budget at this time that's absolutely fine they'll come back to me if and when they are ready to make an order in the future I do let people know that I'm happy to take payment over a number of installments if it helps the customer I find that post-dated checks are the best option if a customer wants to do this I believe you can also set this up via PayPal before I begin a commission I always ask for a deposit depending on if I know the customer at all or not this varies from about 25 to 50 nobody has ever had a problem with this one thing I like to do as a type of insurance really is to send regular photos of the progress of a portrait this is both interesting for the customer as they get to see the creation of their order and it also ensures you as an artist that you won't have a problem once your portrait is complete you stay in touch and if the customer sees anything that they're not 100 happy with they can tell you well it's still easy for you to modify it I've linked another video I made about what can happen when you wait until the portrait is complete before you send the picture it can be quite stressful and I wouldn't recommend it when I'm painting a porch light I really like to use a little phone because I can zoom right in on the feature that I'm focusing on and it's just really easy and handy to hold as I'm painting with the other hand so working on the finishing touches of this portrait and it's probably the most clicky part because it's difficult to know quite when to stop and I've been looking at it now for so long that I'm not really seeing everything properly so I will take a whole week off before I come back and really finish it because I'm sure that after a week of not looking at it I'll start to see things I hadn't noticed and wouldn't notice if I just finished it now I do allow a small amount of room for negotiation depending on how the customer came to me if it is a repeat customer or if they're ordering more than one portrait or if they have helped promote my work in any way then I think it's fair to offer a small discount on my standard pricing remember though that you have a business just like any other business and you shouldn't have to feel that you need to Discount your work in order to sell it you need to charge what you're comfortable charging or else you will feel resentful and you can't build a business feeling this way towards your customers if you respect yourself your customers will respect you too before I go I just want to say a massive thank you to all those of you who've subscribed to my channel it's growing quickly and it's really exciting and I can't wait to make more content for you thanks for watching right the way through I hope this video has answered some of your questions and if you have any other questions go ahead and pop them in the comments below and I'll do my best to answer them for you also if you're an experienced Portrait Painter or not even experience and you have some tips to share absolutely go ahead and put them in the comments take care stay creative and I'll see you again next week bye for now [Music]

Channel: Jane Dieu Art

Views: 222

Keywords: how to price portrait commissions, how to price commissions, how to price your artwork, how to price your art, how much to charge for commissioned artwork, how much to charge for commissions, pricing my artwork, pricing for portrait paintings, how much should i charge for my art, how much to charge for art commissions, how much should i charge for art commissions, art pricing guide, artist hourly rate, selling portrait commissions, how to calculate price of art

Id: QCyBGttmPgo

Length: 11min 17sec (677 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 23 2022