Need Pricing Advice
 

I've had several new orders recently and am finding myself with a long backlog of commissions. It's a great situation to be in, but I think I may be pricing my work too low, considering the time it's taking and the improvement in my work.

I'd love some input on what people think my prices should be, based on the quality of my recent work. (My last two paintings were the teens on the stairs and the kids reading, which you can see here: www.michelerushworth.com My current price structure can be found on my site too.

I'm not a good judge of the quality of my work so I don't know what to compare my pricing to.

Any suggestions?

Dear Michele:

I think your work shows a very high degree of quality and finish--an increase may be in order. If it were me, I

Michele,

I just wanted to say congratulations, that is good news!

Thanks for your kind comments!

I should perhaps also clarify something about my current pricing structure that may not be apparent on my website. I charge 30% extra for backgrounds that are pretty much anything other than a flat wall (which I call "a studio background"). I tend to do a lot of complex backgrounds because I also enjoy depicting things other than just the people in the portraits, and it makes the painting more personal to the client. I find these backgrounds take almost as much time as the figures. (The staircase that the teens are standing on drove me insane!)

So a composition like the one of the two kids on the chair reading works out to be just over $8,000 for a 30x40 painting. (I don't charge by size but that's what paintings with two kids in a three quarter pose often works out to be.)

The one of the boy in the goofy shirt sitting on the brick steps would end up being $6,500 based on that same formula.

Prices
 

I have lately noticed that you can just charge whatever you want. That is whatever the market will bear. I've been selling my work in galleries for nearly 30 years and my prices have slowly increased to what they are now. Along the way, I've done my share of national shows and painted lots of paintings of CEO's etc.

Yet, I have recently seen painters brand new to the market put their prices about 80% of mine and actually begin selling. It surprised me that they can do this but it works. There is something to be said for not being too cheap.

Go figure?
 

I would like to think that the cream always rises to the surface, but on the other hand, H.L. Menkin said: "Nobody ever got poor underestimating the taste of the great American public." Based on the prices that certain portrait artists get, I'm afraid that he may be right.

Hi guys--

I think one possible subtext in all of this is that the more we communicate and coach each other regarding pricing and other professional issues, the better for all. And once again, the internet has proven invaluable in this discussion.

In commercial illustration, it used to make me and fellow illustrators in our area furious when some new guy would drastically undercut the going rate for a job, not out of a sound professional strategy but out of pure ignorance. They'd give the work away for virtually nothing and never get a clue over time, and it eroded the market precipitously for everyone in the community.

Clients should expect to pay a decent professional rate for the work they've asked for. I'm always astounded at someone that drives a $40,000 car and balks at paying $500 for a family heirloom created to last several hundred years. You do the math.

Of course we can't all charge the same thing, but an artist shouldn't work for nothing just because they don't know what to ask for. We need to share information with each other about all professional issues, including pricing. In the end it will make us all stronger. In this case, a rising tide DOES lift all boats.

Love to all--TE