How to Price Your Artwork for Profit

One of the things we hear most from artists is their struggle with how to price their art. The topic is usually cloaked in emotion, which is right there a major part of the problem. Creating art has to feel emotional, but pricing art shouldn’t. Just like any other business, there is a simple cost to produce the good, a perceived value accepted by the consumer, and a profit margin the maker/manufacturer desires. Sounds simple enough, right?

Whether you’re a painter, a photographer, a ceramicist, or a jeweler, knowing how to price your artwork is challenging when you’re getting started selling online. If you look only to potential competitors to analyze their pricing, you’ll notice that the range of prices is vast and it’s not always clear why their pricing is what it is— and the thing is, you don’t need to understand someone else’s pricing but you do need to understand yours. That’s why it’s so important to have a formula for pricing your work- it will change your entire relationship with your prices! 

Here’s one of our go-to ways to price our artwork:

1. DETERMINE YOUR WAGE PER HOUR AND KEEP TRACK OF YOUR TIME
   What is your time worth? And think beyond just working an hourly job. You are a talented craftsman, with a very unique set of skills, honed over years of training and practice. Charge accordingly.
   Also, be sure to factor in ALL of the time that goes into creating your work — from the early development and sketching stages, to finishing touches and preparing to ship
2. KNOW THE COST OF YOUR RAW GOODS AND MATERIALS
   Everything you purchase that goes into creating your artwork is considered a raw good. A raw good is essential for making the final product. This is another reason to keep track of your receipts, even before tax season (if you have questions about tax season you’ll enjoy this post.) 
   It may be hard, or even impossible to know exactly how much paint or dry material went into each piece so it’s okay to make estimates. Once you’ve calculated your cost of raw goods a few times you’ll notice patterns emerging that’ll provide a helpful framework when you’re working on new sizes and new products.
   Your cost = (Time x Wage) + Materials Cost
3. Determine Your Retail Price
   Now that you know your cost for creating your art, you need to set the price for selling it. In order to be profitable you need to set your retail price higher than just covering your cost. If you’re selling privately on your own site, we recommend your Retail Price= Your Cost x 2. This way you have a cushion in case of any overhead costs or other time spent not accounted for in your original formula.
   **TIP: If you think you’ll ever offer your work on wholesale or consignment, we recommend your Retail Price=Your Cost x 4. This allows enough cushion so that if you were to sell wholesale at 50%, you would still have a decent profit margin. Wholesale products could be print reproductions or lifestyle products, but also consider if you were to sell your art in a gallery that takes commission on consignment pieces. Be sure to factor in that commission! 
4. DO YOUR MARKET RESEARCH — WHAT DO YOUR COMPETITORS CHARGE?
   While we don’t think the market should be the primary factor in determining your pricing, it is an important element to realistically consider to make sure your work is within the same ballpark as comparable artists.
   Look to other artists working in your same style and medium, and appropriate galleries/shops where you could realistically see your work fitting — are your prices comparable?
   If your prices are far lower than those artists, RAISE THEM! You are doing yourself and those artists a disservice by undercharging for your work.
   If your prices are far higher than those artists, consider why and examine where in your process you could potentially cut costs. Efficiency and time management tends to be a big factor — could you streamline your process and batchwork more to lessen your time investment into each piece? Could you buy your materials in bulk to get at a less expensive cost? 

Other factors to consider:

SIZE — using the formula above as a guideline, create a pricelist for the different sizes of your work, in proportion to their sizes. Buyers are accustomed to paying more for larger works, and while that may not always perfectly align with your time investment for each piece, it's a good rule of thumb to follow to help potential buyers make sense of and trust your pricing structure.

Otherwise, expect questions and be prepared with a very clear explanation of your pricing structure.