How To Price Your Art So It Sells [Guide]

All of your art is worth something. This is more than just the price of the materials used to make the art. It is about the perceived value of the art. If you’re going to make a living selling your art, you’re going to need to know how to price your art. Taking a thoughtful approach to pricing your artwork will help you to get the right price whenever it goes to sale. Always remember, your prices need to be firm. Once you have set the price, you’re going to need to stick it out. Even if you notice people willing to spend more, or people are not willing to buy your art at its current price, you cannot just change the prices to suit the crowd.

This is why you need to make sure to put a lot of thought into what price you’re selling at before you ever make the piece of art available for sale.

Get the Value Your Art Is Worth

You don’t want to put your artwork at such a high price that no one who wants to buy your work can afford it. You also don’t want to develop a reputation for selling art at a lower price than other artists. By undervaluing your own art, you are actually undervaluing the art community. You don’t want to be known as the discount or cheap painter. Rather, you want to be known for your style. The reason why selling at a low rate causes ripples in the art world is because buyers will see your work and think that if these prices are so cheap, why should they pay so much more for artwork of the same quality. If you want to know how to make money with art, make sure you’re checking out your competition to find out what a normal price for a specific sized piece of art is. This will help you to determine what price you’re going to put on your own artwork, and you won’t have to worry about selling it for too little.

Get the Most Money Possible

It is always important to evaluate your position in the marketplace. By doing so, you have the ability to increase your prices above what some other artists are charging for similar pieces. It’s important to pay attention to what your prices are that you’re setting. You don’t want to create a negative trend in which the overall value of art goes, don’t because your work is so expensive. Make sure you’re constantly feeling out the industry as to how much you should charge for your work. If you increase the prices and people are still scrambling to purchase the piece, you did not increase your prices by enough. Be realistic in your price inflation. If you end up charging just too much for your work, no one will be able to afford it, no matter how well-known you are.

Keep Track of Your Time

As you’re trying to decide how to make money with art, you should keep track of how long it’s taking you to complete the artwork you’re going to sell. The longer you spend on a piece, the more you should charge for it. Make sure your time estimate alone includes making more than minimum wage on every painting you sell. Don’t think too much about the time aspect of pricing your art as you don’t want it to feel like you’re punching a clock every time you get ready to paint something. Instead, keep track of your time in general. You can keep a notebook for your different projects. You don’t need to put down the exact time you started and ended. Rather, put down an estimate for how much time you worked on something and move on.

Consider Your Materials

While your materials are not the only factor you should be considering when you’re setting your price, it should definitely be a consideration. Make sure you track all of the materials that go into any one art piece. This can also be accomplished by way of a notebook. Use whatever you need for creating a piece of art and log it when your finished working for the day. Do not try to log the materials used while you’re in the middle of making art or you may lose your inspiration. You can treat the price of the materials as your overhead. Tack this on to how much you feel you should be paid an hour and you have a good basis upon which you can formulate a price. While the other elements that go into your pricing will change, the price of the materials will remain fairly static, so make sure this is a consideration even in the planning stages of a project.