Pricing Paintings To Sell
Whenever an amateur artist starts trying to sell their paintings, they often ask the question of how much they should charge for a painting or piece of original art. Although there is no specific answer to this question, there are some guidelines that you can follow to decide on your prices as you start and continue to sell your artwork.
The price that you decide to charge needs to reflect how much you value your work as well as the kind of price that you think might be acceptable in the particular market you are selling. In other words, the best price takes into account both the artist’s and the market’s perception of value.
How Much To Charge From Art
What you should consider:
When you sell art directly or through dealers , here are some qualities that can help you price higher and no calculator can really take it into account. The Art Market never really worked on a logical base.
#1: Stock, Consistency in production. How many pieces of new works can you send to your dealers every month without fail?
#2: Art skill level. Are you top of the class in your niche using your techniques?
#3: Market trends. Is your art style trending in the market today? Can you add elements that are trending?
#4: Provenance. Do you have existing collectors or galleries representing you? Can your customer portfolios add value to your dealers?
#5: Online presence. Are you on all major social media platforms? How many followers do you have? What is your engagement rate.
#6: Place of residence.
Where To Sell Your Paintings
There are many ways you can start selling your paintings. You will want to think about what would be best for you and your business.
Here are some ideas to help get you started:
- Local Craft Shows
- Open House Studio
Outlined above are the most common places to sell your artwork. If you think outside the box, you will be surprised by how many ways you can start selling your paintings.
For example, you might want to become friends with a Real Estate Agent or a home decorator. The options are endless!
Join my free weekly newsletter. I will send you valuable information on starting and growing your online art business.
Also Check: How To Paint Wooden Furniture
Can You Negotiate Art Prices
As a buyer of art I seldom negotiate art prices as I respect the time and effort and skill that is required to create art. As a seller of art I get lots of potential buyers ask if they can get a cheaper deal or a discount if they purchase more than one work.
I prefer offering the latter option as it preserves my value as an artist and it allows me to increase the amount of revenue I can get per customer. I learned that in business school. They call it Average Revenue Per User. It is why fast food outlets ask if you want fries with that. Its all about the upsell.
So if someone asks for a discount, perhaps you can counter with I value my artworks and cant really discount the price and as you are buying my works you want my prices to go up not down. If you purchase a couple of extra works I can give you a bulk discount on the total price?.
This allows you to sell more works and the buyer still feels like they got a discount but actually paid more.
If you are happy to haggle with a buyer to find a price that they are willing to pay and you are willing to accept then by all means do so. Art sitting in storage is of no benefit to anyone and a sale is better than nothing.
Expert Advice: How To Price Your Art
Hear from actual artists how to price your art including digital art, art commissions and private sales and galleries.
Figuring out how to price your art is a huge part of growing as an artist, a brand, and a businessperson.
Your art career is a full-time job, and it takes time to grow and build your business, says professional artist James Corwin in his Skillshare course on how to price your art work. If you want to make an incredible living off of your art, then you have to put in an incredible amount of effort, he adds, speaking not just to your work itself but to the logistics of pricing.
So, how do you determine the value of art? And equally important: what are some shortcuts for pricing artworks in a way that makes them more likely to sell?
To help you figure out how to price your art, weve rounded up lots of helpful advice on how to price different types of art and commissions. Heres what to know.
You work hard on your art, and youll likely work hard on pricing and selling it too.
Recommended Reading: Paint Color Ideas For Kitchen
What Are Acrylic Paintings
Acrylic paintings are created using acrylic paints, a fast-drying paint that is often waterproof when dry. These paints are used just like other paints, and acrylic paintings can depict any scene the artist can envision like floral paintings, landscapes, and abstract acrylic paintings. Artists can mix colors and styles to create a one-of-a-kind piece of art. Some artists sell easy acrylic painting kits so you can create art at home, too. Acrylic paintings are available in all different sizes, color schemes, and styles so its easy to find one that works well in your space. You can select just one acrylic painting for a wall or create a gallery wall by grouping multiple paintings from one or many artists.
Price Your Artwork With This Formula
1. Multiply the paintings width by its length to arrive at the total size, in square inches. Then multiply that number by a set dollar amount thats appropriate for your reputation. I currently use $6 per square inch for oil paintings. Then calculate your cost of canvas and framing, and then double that number. For example: A 16-x-20 oil-on-linen landscape painting: 16 x 20 = 320 square inches. I price my oil paintings at $6 per square inch. 320 x 6 = $1,920.00, and I round this down to $1,900.
2. My frame, canvas and materials cost me $150.00 . I double this cost so that Ill get it all back when the painting sells at the gallery. Otherwise, Im subsidizing the collector by giving him or her the frame for free. $150 x 2 = $300.
3. Then I put it all together: $1,900 + $300 = $2,200 . When the painting sells from a gallery, my cut after the 50 percent commission is paid comes to $950 for the painting and $150 for the framing, for a total of $1,100.
For much larger pieces, Ill bring the price per square inch down a notch maybe a dollar or two lower so that I dont price my work beyond what my reputation can sustain. Alternately, for smaller works, Ill increase the dollar per square inch because small works take almost as much effort as larger works, and I need to be compensated for my expertise, even when the work is miniature.
Recommended Reading: Pictures To Paint On Canvas
What Types Of Acrylic Paintings Are Available On Etsy
Etsy sellers create many different types of acrylic paintings including custom paintings, allowing you to select the colors, subject matter, and size of the painting. Many acrylic paintings on Etsy are ready to ship. You can also work with an Etsy seller to create a custom acrylic painting just for you. Custom paintings are a great gift for grandparents and anniversaries. Simple acrylic paintings are a popular pick because they bring some color and scenery to your space without drawing too much attention away from your other decor. Abstract acrylic paintings are an easy way to bring in some new colors to your room or to complement your existing furniture and rugs.
How Much Does It Cost To Package And Post Your Artwork
Its a fact that everyone loves getting something for free. Its also a fact that nothing is ever really free!
From my personal experience, I have found that advertising my artwork with free postage and packaging makes the artwork a lot more desirable and I have gained more sales since removing this as a separate charge. It also seems that Etsy will favour listings that offer free delivery.
I learned the hard way on this when I sold a painting last year and, after buying the packaging materials and paying for postage, I made a profit of just £3! Hardly worth the effort! I so wish someone had written this blog and sent it to me beforehand!
So, make a note of the cost of postage and packaging for each painting.
TOP TIP: Make friends with your local post office and ask them to assess your paintings for size and weight to provide an estimate for postage costs AND NEVER POST 1ST CLASS – seriously, it makes no difference at all to the speed of delivery .
ANOTHER TIP: Buy bubble wrap, parcel paper and card wrap in bulk – it is much cheaper that way and will keep your costs down. I also re-use all of my outer cardboard packaging.
Recommended Reading: Front Door Paint Colors Pictures
Where To Go From There
Your prices wont stay the same forever. As you get more sales under your belt, youll want to raise your prices youre in demand now! If you find that youre selling half of what you make in a six-month period, then thats a good sign that its time to charge more for your work. Raising prices by 10 to 20 percent is a good starting point.
newWin.focus ” rel=”nofollow”> or check out our Artful Resources archive.)
Should you lower prices if you arent selling? Dont be too hasty. Make sure you or your gallery are putting effort into promotion before you blame your prices. However, keep an eye on comparable artists for a rough idea of where to price.
Avoid putting artwork on sale: remember, you want to present a consistent price to the public. If your buyer sees work sometimes goes down in price, theyre less likely to buy it at the original price. In general, your prices should only go up over time .
The Sales Landscape For Acrylic Pour Paintings On Etsy
When you look at the data for acrylic pour paintings from eRank, youll see that the competition is steep on Etsy. At the time of this writing, there are over 57,000 listings.
The average monthly searches for acrylic pour paintings is a bit over 1,200 a month with about 660 clicks. With 57,000 listings and only 660 clicks to go around, you need some stunning listings to stand out from the crowd.
To be clear, all art is competitive on Etsy. The platform has become saturated and, no matter what youre selling, youll have competition.
Heres what I see for acrylic pour paintings though. Even with 57,000 listings, a lot of those on the first page are from stores with few reviews and/or sales.
This is both a bad sign and an opportunity.
The reason why this is a bad sign is because broad keywords are dominated by big players with lots of sales and lots of reviews. If theyre not, it can be an indication that buyer intent isnt there.
Yet, theres an opportunity here. If theres a broad keyword and new and unestablished stores are ranking on the first page for it, youll have an easier time joining them there. A first page ranking wouldnt be as much of a battle.
Recommended Reading: Xpel Paint Protection Film Cost
Pricing Based On Time
While some artists like to be paid a specific amount based on the amount of time spent on a piece, I personally dont. First, as I stated above, its not something most customers really understand. Second, when youre a newer artist, much of the time you spend is in trial and error and in fixing things that dont look right. Top that off with the fact that when youre newer you wont really know for sure how many hours a piece will take, that makes it nearly impossible to give a clear price quote to a client who is interested in hiring you for a commission.
Many years ago I used to do a bit of web design for other people. I was not an expert. I could do it, but I did so VERY slowly. Should my clients have to pay extra for my lack of experience while I was learning? I dont think so . Art is the same. The longer you paint, the faster you will get. In part because you will make less mistakes that you need to troubleshoot.
That said, you may want to incorporate how long you think it will take you to complete a painting into your price per square or linear inch. What do I mean by that? Well if you want to be paid $10 per hour , and its going to take you 10 hours to paint an 8×10 piece, that means that you want to make around $100 for that painting. That puts your price at around $5.55 per linear inch.
Calculate The Cost Of Your Materials
Acrylics on canvas are worth more than graphite on paper, and both are worth less than a large, stainless steel sculpture. Even if you bought your materials in bulk, you can still roughly estimate what the prices were. Your artwork should never sell for less than the cost of your materials.
Also Check: How To Professionally Paint Kitchen Cabinets
Dont Confuse Price With Value
A work that sells today for $200 can be worth millions when youve reached international fame. If you are selling works at a low price, do not think that it means you are any less of an artist, or that your artwork is bad. Cheap doesnt need to mean cheap, and artists who confuse these two become self-conscious, discouraged, and uninspired.
Looking to enhance your career and build a presence in New York? Submit your portfolio to us and get the opportunity to present your work to a broad range of national and international art collectors and buyers. Visit our Gallery Representation And Artist Promotion page for more information.
Let us know if you have any questions, and feel free to offer your own personal tips for pricing artwork in the comments!
The Sales Landscape For Acrylic Pour Paintings In Person
Understanding the sales landscape for in person acrylic pour markets, whether it be galleries, museums, or farmers markets is a bit more nuanced because it relies SO heavily on finding the right place that suits the needs of your art.
Online platforms like Etsy serve a very wide audience. Its easier to get in front of a lot of customer eyeballs without a lot of research. Selling in person is a completely different game.
A gallery will not be interested in your acrylic pour painting if they only display photography. Also, selling your large canvases may not work at a farmers market where everyone has their hands full of produce and arent necessarily looking for their next show stopping piece of living room art.
Its really important to pinpoint the audience that would most likely buy your art and to figure out where those people hang out. Is there a progressive new gallery downtown that has a lot of abstract work? Is there an art festival every year thats automatically full of customers looking for art?
Before you pursue any in person opportunity to sell your acrylic pour paintings, ask yourself if thats where your customer lives and will most likely find your work.
Diversifying your selling strategy can be a really good idea. You dont want there to be an algorithm change with Etsy and suddenly find that your paintings are nowhere to be found in search. You also dont want to max out your in person opportunities and wonder where to turn from there.
You May Like: Paint For Walls Home Depot
How To Price Your Original Artworks
Circle of Life Original Painting by Drew Brophy
Even though Ive been managing the art career of my husband Drew for over a decade, it wasnt until recently that we established a solid pricing structure for Drews original artworks.
A couple of years ago when a collector would ask how is Drews artwork priced? I didnt have a good answer there was no real structure to our pricing. Now, there is, thanks to Lori Woodwards wisdom. Now when someone asks, I can confidently say we charge $1.50 per square inch plus frame costs. Commissions start at $2.50 per square inch. When you have a structure that makes sense in a collectors mind, they are more confident in buying your art.
One of the hardest decisions that artists have to make is how to price their works pricing depends on so many factors: the popularity of the art, the medium used, the complexity and what the buyer is willing to pay. But there are some guidelines that you can follow.
How to Price your Artwork:
1 Research galleries: Go out and see whats being charged by artists that are at your level of work. Use that information as a guideline.
2 Structure your prices: Once you have a structure that makes sense to anyone, pricing your work comes easy.
There are many ways to structure pricing. Some artists do it by size and/or by medium .
REPRINTED COURTESY OF FineArtViews
Learning From My Professional Friends
More Than One Way That Works
How To Value Your Artwork
Okay, this is really what you wanted to know, isnt it? As promised at the start, Im not about to direct you to some random website with a secret formula that youll have to pay for. Nor will I insist that you have to sign up to my exciting newsletter to learn my secrets – although Id love it if you did sign up below and become a subscriber!
I have two charging rates that I use one for artwork that I produce myself and another for commissioned work where I am working to someone elses specification.
Don’t Miss: Spray Touch Up Car Paint