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September 20, 2012
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Replies: 155

Under-valuing Art and Points are Ruining Commission Prices!

Forums > Community > Complaints
:iconlillyon:
*LilLyon Sep 20, 2012  Student Filmographer
So I just got back onto deviantArt recently, because I'm trying to open up new ways of selling my art, and I did some research on what fair commission prices would be (I looked up some of my favorite artists and I looked at artists with skill levels close to mine), and I determined a price that would be reasonable for my skill level and seniority.

Anyway, a girl I know in real life, who is also on DeviantArt, asked me if I was doing commissions, and I said that I was setting something up, and she said that she'd be really interested in a digital piece with a few characters in it. I told her that I did full body digital paintings with simple backgrounds starting at about $30, and that I added $15 per character, and like $5-$10 extra for a more complex background. I thought that that seemed reasonable. She was all like, "Oh, that's expensive." and I was like, "Well, if you average out my working on a piece to at least 5 hours, then that means $30 for those 5 hours of work would mean that I'm only making $6 an hour, and if I spend even longer on it, I'm getting less money per hour." She was like, "I see most people selling full colored pictures for $10, and adding maybe $5 per extra character." OH, OKAY, COOL, GREAT!
I was even so desperate for a subscription at the time that I told her I would draw her whatever she wanted all if she bought be a subscription. She ignored me.

I felt really bad, like maybe I was over-pricing myself, and then I started to notice how ridiculously cheap people sell their things! I mean, $10 = like $2/hour for someone like me, but... WITH THE WHOLE POINTS THING NOW... people are selling full body drawings for like 20 points! That's like 25 cents!

It's completely ruining the market for people who try to MAKE A LIVING off of their art, because everyone thinks that totally fair prices are unreasonable. They'd rather pay less for something of lesser quality. It's forcing really good artists to sell themselves short.. and I REFUSE TO DO IT. Even if it means that I have to have a lot of "popularity" before I start making significant money off of my commissions.

I think that dA should stop the points system because of this!
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:iconbohobella:
`bohobella Sep 21, 2012  Professional Traditional Artist
:lock: OP Request.
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:iconkheltari:
*Kheltari Sep 20, 2012  Hobbyist Digital Artist
Just stick to your prices and make a very good argument about why they're like that, if the other ones want to undersell fine with them. I personally work for very cheap prices because I'm doing this for a hobby, but if you're doing this professionally and making a living out of it I understand :p
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:icondeidara-omg-haha:
~deidara-OMG-haha Sep 20, 2012  Student General Artist
I have my point prices in my signature, just do the Job Offer or Projects forum. Or you can even just whore yourself out to outside sources.
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:iconshadowravenamz:
~ShadowRavenAMZ Sep 20, 2012  Hobbyist General Artist
First off, it kind of hurts that you're basically trash-talking me behind my back, but allow me to explain my feelings.

I'm not IGNORING you. In fact, since you sent me that message, I've been trying to decide what sort of picture I wanted and which characters I wanted to be in it, and on top of that, I've been juggling finishing my summer job and packing for college. It was wrong of me to jump to conclusions about your price-range, and I regret it because I never meant to hurt you like this. However, since you're trying to make a career of being an artist, then I think its important that you hear uncensored critiques.

Going through your gallery, I wasn't personally a fan of your hand-drawn work, but I did love your Rapunzel piece, which is what captured my interest in the first place. Because I felt the price was too high and wanted to be sure I wasn't just being picky, I showed your Rapunzel picture to a few friends of mine and asked their honest opinion of how much they would pay for a similar picture. I was shocked when they all told me that they would pay $5-10 for it, so the fact that I thought it was good enough to start at $15 actually wasn't as bad as some other opinions.

As you've recently discovered, there are some great artists selling their work for between $10-20, which does seem crazy if they put hours into it. Though, the thing about any profession is that things are competitive. For art, collectively it seems to me that you can't charge per hour, but instead have to charge based on product quality. I have to say, ever since you produced your Nala picture, my opinion of your digital talents has only increased and is making me reconsider your prices, but I still don't think I would feel comfortable paying over $25 for a single character picture.

In the end, I'm just one art critic, so don't let me rain on your parade. The thing you have to understand about dA is that it consists of other artists and art-appreciators who, for the most part, are barely scraping by on the money they have, so they can't afford to commission $40-$60 pictures, even rarely. Though, since I've clearly upset you and am still on the fence about this commission, perhaps I should just let it go. I'm obviously the wrong customer for you.
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:iconk-koji:
*K-Koji Sep 20, 2012
Thing is, I looked through your gallery ( tho I realize you put some in storage). To sell commissions one has to be very clear to people what they will be getting for their money. So if you set up prices, you have to clearly mark; $30 gets you THIS *show example* .
2 characters = example.

and you have to be pretty consistent with what you deliver. You can't really show pictures as examples that you eyeballed/copied for study reasons ( I don't think). Because if people want you to draw their original characters, they have to know your skill level to create things from scratch.
Because something takes you a long time, doesn't mean that people will pay for it. All they care about is the final product.

That being said, I've had loads of people cry at me that I'm too expensive, however, my commissions are still in demand ( thank God D8;; lol ). You will always have those people trying to get something for as little as possible. Don't let it make you feel bad :/ .
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:iconlillyon:
*LilLyon Sep 20, 2012  Student Filmographer
Yeah, I definitely realized that I need to fill up my gallery with new stuff. Even a lot of the recent stuff I posted I did a year ago for.. yeah, a project where I was trying to "study" the actual scenes. It was the first time I've ever digitally painted, so I think they're horrid, but I figured it was recent enough digital art. I've mostly been doing fines arts stuff in traditional because of school, and that's where I've heard feedback from people wanting to buy things. I guess I assumed people on deviantArt aren't really into having to THINK about their art haha.
But, yeah, before I put up commission prices, I guess I should draw some more things first.
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:iconk-koji:
*K-Koji Sep 20, 2012
Its a good idea if you want to do commissions. Draw up a bunch of examples of what you want to offer. Then you can always try the forums. There's a Job Offers one and it can help you get your feet wet if someone chooses you
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:iconlillyon:
*LilLyon Sep 20, 2012  Student Filmographer
It doesn't seem like the Jobs forum is nearly as popular as the Project forum, hahaha... I was looking at them a few days ago, and was just like, "Oh dear... this is quite sad." But, I mean, not many people here are gonna fork out money when people on the projects forum are doing stuff for free :P
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:iconk-koji:
*K-Koji Sep 20, 2012
I guess it depends on your skill level. Yeah, your original idea was probably the best; take a bit of time, produce some new artwork that represents your current skill level. Go from there :nod:

You can't begin to get discouraged if you haven't created the product yet, right? ( went through the same thing.. so I decided to just start drawing, and after awhile, people started coming to me. It's possible :meow:
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:iconlillyon:
*LilLyon Sep 20, 2012  Student Filmographer
Yeah, just sucks to start getting back into things and then start hearing people on this forum telling you to re-think your career choice.
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