What to charge when asked to create a custom original
TL:DR
- Your base fee is the cost of your supplies. Don’t go under that amount.
- Your time is an estimated hourly rate, mitigated by interest, expectations and requirements
- Charge extra for revisions to discourage indecision and frustration
- At a minimum, get the cost of your supplies up-front before starting on the work
- Don’t be afraid to say ‘no’, and to walk away if it becomes more headache than it’s worth. Providing refunds is easier than working on art that you hate.
Recently I was commissioned to do a custom SCA Goutte de Sang. And, even though I just charged this person for supplies for this piece, as the client agreed to be okay with whatever I wanted to do and I REALLY wanted to paint this awesome pastel skeleton I found in the 1546 Farnese hours by Giulio Clovio, it got me thinking…
It seems like the #1 question I see from artists who don’t typically create art for money is “someone wants to hire me to do artwork, what should I charge?” As someone who had an online art business for almost 20 years, I’ve got an answer. Or at least I can tell you what formula I finally settled on to create my answer.
It all starts with supplies and a bit of guess work. Figure in what you use to create your artwork, from sketches through the final piece. Paper, pencils, paints, canvas, computer, art programs, beads, whatever. You will need to find a value to assign to each. For single-use items, like watercolor paper or a canvas, it’s easy: the value is the amount you paid for that item. For multi-use items, like pencils or paint, you will need to take the value you paid for the item, then divide it by the amount of uses you think you will get out of it. Just a ball-park is fine. Add up all the costs for your supplies that you will use to create the custom artwork. This is your base fee. Don’t go below this amount unless you are offering the artwork as a gift.
Now comes the harder part – what do you charge for your time? Let’s be honest – artists never get paid what they are worth. If I charged for my art what I make in my software job, no one would ever hire me. Most people who hire an artist already have a ball-park figure in their mind what they think the art should cost. Go much outside of that figure and they will find someone else. Go a lot outside of that figure and they will complain about your unfair business practices to anyone who will listen.
For my own work I start at a base hourly wage (between $10-$15/hour). I estimate how long it will take me to complete an original, including any sketches and revisions, based on the amount of time I spent on similar pieces in the past, then multiply that amount by my hourly wage. Add this amount to my base fee, and this becomes my unadjusted estimate.
Then I do a bit of psychology work and comparison research. “How much are similar pieces selling for?”, “Do I think the client will pay this amount, or balk?”, “How much do I want to do this artwork?” “If I have to lower the price to what I think the client will find reasonable, will I be angry at not getting paid what I feel I’m worth?”, “how quickly do they want it? Am I going to lose out on other things I like to do to meet their deadline?”. This part is fraught with guesswork and indecision. My suggestion to err on the higher side, and then offer options that would allow the client to get a lower price for less customization.
When I was creating role playing game character portraits for people, 10 years ago, the average price that folks were willing to pay was $40 for a pencil drawing, $60-$80 for a full color digital painting and $150-$200 for a painting on a moderately-sized canvas (either digital or acrylic). I would adjust that price based on what rights to the art I retained, and whether or not I could make prints of the art to sell at conventions. Counting supplies, these prices would only cover about half of the time it took me to work on a piece, since I do not work quickly. (But I loved doing the work, so I did it anyway).
I have found that the vast majority of people who ask for custom artwork already have a concept of what they want.
The final bit is allowing for customization. When I submit a quote to a client, I will include additional fees based on how much the client wanted to fiddle with the design. What I have found is that if you leave it completely open, i.e. “I will refine the sketch until you’re happy”, most clients will send it back over and over and over again, nitpicking every detail (if you’ve ever worked for a corporation or an agency, you know exactly what I am talking about). However, if you say “tell me exactly what you want, including any source links of examples you are thinking of. You will get one sketch revision before I start charging you an extra $10/sketch.”, you will find that people are a lot clearer up-front with what they want.
I have found that the vast majority of people who ask for custom artwork already have a concept of what they want. With any luck it’s based on something you’ve already done, or in your style. If it isn’t, you need to figure out if it’s something you are going to be able to do for them (there are a lot of non-artists who think that all artists can do all art styles). One of the most important things you can do to help with a custom piece is get a clear picture, up-front, from the client EXACTLY what is in their mind.
Here is an example of my own formula, based on the above criteria, for a custom SCA award scroll I recently completed (let’s assume this is on a 11×14 sheet of watercolor paper, painted in gouche).
- Supplies – sketch paper, pencil, eraser, pen, designer gouache paints, brushes, watercolor paper, tape, board, archival ink pens, calligraphy pen, sumi ink. Total is approx.. $26, rounded up to $30.
- Time – research .5 hours, sketch 2.5 hours, painting 15 hours. At $10/hr = $180
- Unadjusted price is $210
- Comparison research – $120-$170 for a similar piece of the same quality
- Psychology – my estimate is that the client will balk at more than $150
- Desire – The artwork sounds fun so I am willing to lower my price below the unadjusted
- Timeline – the client has given me a timeline of “whenever I finish it”, so there is no extra charge
- Revisions – the client liked the sketch as-is, so no additional fees for this either
My adjusted price would be $140 (this is heavily influenced by how much I want to do it flavored by the no strict deadline, and no revisions)
Final words of advice:
- Be as clear as you can when quoting a price. You will lose future business if you throw in surprise fees.
- Be clear about what you are, and are not, willing to do
- Get their request IN WRITING.
- Unless you are willing to do the artwork for free, or you know the person VERY well, get at least the cost for supplies up front. I typically charge half the total price up-front, and half when I finish.
- Don’t be afraid to walk away. It’s not worth the small amount of money you will get to do artwork that makes you unhappy or angry, or deal with a client that makes you miserable.
