How to price your art?
Are you looking to price your art? If yes, then you should know that it's a most complex task that every emerging artist or painter faces while pricing the artwork. Usually, artists experience challenges when they establish their own art business or start working with galleries. Reading different articles on the internet about art marketing is easy, but the real task comes when it is time to implement it.
Some artists deal with emotions to make it more complicated, and some overprice the artwork to make it look more valuable and impress the viewers. There are more conflicting contradictions between art value and capitalism in the art market. You will not find fair game rules and not the right recipe in the art market. If you genuinely want to know about pricing your art, then keep reading to get an accurate answer with a pragmatic approach.
The perfect guide for the art pricing
- Maintain a personal record of your pricing
An artist must maintain consistency in pricing the artwork. If you are selling your painting of art at some price, then you should try to continue selling your other painting works at the same price or near the previous price. Basically, you must depend on your past experiences and shape the present artwork pricing. It is a business strategy that most popular companies follow.
For example, the iPhone 11 was sold at $ 1,000 ; the iPhone 12 should go between $ 1,200. It means you should maintain a personal record of your pricing. It is important for artists to understand the difference between retail and wholesale and maintain consistency in their pricing for artwork.
- Cross-check the similar style of artists
Research shows that your business always runs smoothly when you are updated about your competitors. In this case, you can enquire about your fellow artists to know what they charge for a similar artwork style. You can also ask your schoolmates from where you have taken your graduation.
Different platforms are available online where you can easily look at the prices and compare based on your art style. Visiting galleries can also be a great option if you have a plan to sell your artwork locally. For instance, if you want to exhibit your artwork in a specific gallery, you should ask your friend's help to inquire about the prices of artwork at the gallery.
- Testing until you get the best
This advice may make you feel kinky or a bit radical, but it's good to test when you don't have any idea. Many businesses are unsure about their product prices, but they stick their hand in the air and set some random prices for their products. The same thing you have to apply to decide the artwork price.
When you keep a random price for your artwork, many opinions or feedback will come from potential customers who may say it's too cheap or it's expensive. Considering those opinions, you must set up your artwork price until you get the right price range.
- Take help from professional evaluators
The fine arts profession is growing with vast scope, and it has many evaluators, professionals and gallery owners in art. You can take help from these professionals to set up pricing for your art. However, you need to ensure that the consultant has no conflict of interest in helping you with the artwork price. For this, you must hire a regional consultant who has familiarity with your niche and ensures you get the best price range for your artwork.
The right formula to price artwork
If you are beginning your career in artwork, you must have yet to learn how to calculate the price of the artwork. Experts recommend calculating the overall production costs as the baseline price. When you know the production cost for your artwork, you can easily determine the margin that you wish to add as per your need. Let's check out a simple formula to price artwork.
- Labor cost and art rate
When pricing the artwork, remember to consider yourself. At the very beginning, you should keep a minimum wage for yourself. For this, you need to identify your regional minimum wage and multiply it by monthly spending hours on a painting. Once you have gained more experience in the field of painting, then you can try to increase your payment.
- Paintings cost
You need to determine the painting cost to price the artwork. You should identify the essential things that are required to make your art, such as canvas, frames, paints, etc. Along with this, you need to consider the required equipment like projectors, easels, and computers because they can slowly start breaking down with time. Based on the lifespan of the asset, you should amortize every year.
- Marketing cost
Usually, the calculation of the marketing cost relies on the business cost, but artists can invest in marketing their artwork without even running their artwork as a business. Here, creating a marketing budget is crucial for an artist. If you are dedicated to your career as an artist, you need to learn how to prepare a marketing budget to gain more profits.
For example, you can take the help of social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, etc., to promote your artwork across the globe. Moreover, you can also choose to have a web store or website to show your presence across the world and promote your business through digital marketing. However, you may need the help of professional photography services to click good pictures of your painting. Overall, it can be said that whatever you are doing to promote your work is an integral part of the marketing cost.
- Business cost
Experts say business cost is an integral part of your artwork pricing. Usually, the business cost includes the overall incurred cost in developing the art business. It means that the costs relating to your entrepreneurial status, like an office or studio rental, business license, payrolls, social security contribution etc. If you are not considering your artwork as a business and taking it as a hobby, you can reduce the business cost significantly.
- Taxes
Taxes are a crucial part of any kind of business. You may have to collect VAT or sales tax from your users as per the government rules. Here, you need to know how much you should charge them; then, you can take the help of your local CPA. But, you can not add your personal income tax into it because it is not your art business's part as it is your personal responsibility.
- Other unexpected costs
There are more chances that your business may experience an unexpected event with the expansion of business. In such a case, you may have to hire a lawyer to get consultation for the issues where you have to pay them. Even some unexpected damage restoration may be needed here. Thus, it is recommended to save money for emergencies and charge 10% on top.
Overall, these mentioned canvas prints costs can be calculated in a period of time and divided by the number of completed artwork during the period. It can give a clear-cut idea about the minimum amount to charge for your artwork.
Things to consider while deciding to charge from art
There are some specific qualities that can help to decide the artwork pricing because the art market needs to run based on a logical base. Thus, when you plan to sell your artwork through a dealer or directly, you must consider the following qualities.
- Art skill level
As an artist, it is important to keep learning new techniques and skills to improve your artwork. Usually, professional galleries give you a chance to exhibit based on your art skill level. If you have a high art skill level and stay on top of your niche using the right methods, you may have a chance to charge more for your creative artwork.
- Consistency in production and availability of stock
Usually, many dealers look for artists who can offer them stock artworks on time and maintain consistency in production. It means that if you need to ensure how many pieces of artwork, you can give them on a monthly basis while maintaining consistency. If you have enough stock, you can fix the deal at higher prices without any hassle.
- Provenance
If you know that your customers can add value to your artwork business dealers, you can raise pricing for your artwork. Similarly, If you have existing galleries or collectors representing you, then also there is a chance that you can increase the pricing as it adds value to your personality.
- Market trends
The consideration of market trends is important as it gives you a clear idea about the present art market situation and how much pricing you can add to your artwork. If your art style is in the market trend, you can raise your artwork's price. If not, you can also include some art elements that are going on trend.
- Place of residence
The place of residence also matters the most when deciding the pricing of artwork. If you are selling your artwork in a local market, it will not range to a higher price, but if it is selling out of the local market, then the price range will differ effectively and get you more opportunities and profits.
- Online presence
Another important thing that can influence your pricing artwork is the online presence of your artwork. If you are on all major social media, then consider how many followers exist for your artwork. Moreover, if you have a higher engagement rate, then you can also higher the pricing of artwork.
How to support your price for artwork?
You can get the preferred pricing for your artwork if you know how to support this pricing. It is essential to defend your price by giving a valid justification. It can be difficult for beginner artists, but when you have the skill to support your pricing, it can help you get a great deal for your artwork.
- Research and development
You can charge more money for your artwork by investing in research and developmental activities. Such kind of activities helps you to know the current market trends and helps you to charge the amount. For example, you are using pitch-black paint in your paintings, so you can take this point to support your pricing.
- Use of quality raw material
The raw materials are the important things that you buy to create the artwork. It has been identified that the use of high-quality raw materials can raise the pricing of artwork. For instance, if you have used diamonds or gold in your painting, then you can increase the pricing. It is the best way to justify your pricing for artwork.
- Customer experience
Customer experience is crucial for all kinds of businesses; the art business is no different from that. If you want to sell your artwork, then you must focus on improving customer experience. As a result, it helps to get you higher pricing for your artwork. When you are giving an amazing customer experience, then they will not mind paying you the price.
- Consistency
When you visit a restaurant, you may find it a little costly, but you like the food. What will you do in such a situation? It's quite obvious that you will prefer to go as you got the taste in frequent two visits. Here, the business strategy is maintaining consistency in supply and quality. The same thing is applicable to your art business. When you maintain consistency in your artwork, many galleries and professionals will show their interest in investing highly in it.
- Brand story and value
When you grow your life as an artist, it will be considered a luxury brand. Thus, it is crucial to work on your brand identity, like your brand story or value, so that you can charge a premium price.
Apart from these, it is recommended to give small discounts or larger discounts online, offer an alternative, pay in installments etc., while selling your artwork at the best price. Likely, you can get your preferred pricing for your artwork.
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