BellaOnline Forums Hobbies and Crafts Painting Question for Artists Who Sell...

How do you price your works? How do you decide what you are going to charge for a particular piece?

I keep a journal of time I work on paintings, and calculate the price by a per-hour rate, plus material costs. It seems to work fairly well; I rarely have people complaining over my prices.

How do you decide?

When I was starting out I observed what other local artists were charging for their similar sized works. With watercolors the size of the painting matters more than how long it took you to paint it, or even how good you think it is.

I show and sell my paintings in 3 different parts of the country; Indiana, Cape Cod and southern Florida. I can get higher prices for them in Cape Cod and FL than I can in IN, so the region matters too.

Finally, it seems that if the paintings fly off the racks faster than you can replace them, maybe they are priced too low. However, if they are priced TOO low, people think they aren't worth much.
In other words, pricing your work is real pain!

i paint and sell acrylic. as i did as well i went and observed. i observed for many years i love art. i price off of what i saw in the beginning. now i find a price of how long it took to paint what the paint means to me and of course the outcome. you charge what you want to charge hun its your work. we all price differently. a friend of mine paints like a god and she charges very little lol. she does it for the love it and doesnt care for much money. example. i love her art my fav was one of a gorgeous wolf and took about a week to complete. and she sold it for 30!!!! i would of priced that 150 to 250.... but then again painting is my living so its all about the person :D