Pricing Strategy

Basic pricing strategy:

  • Set an acceptable hourly rate
  • Multiply this by the hours spent creating an artwork
  • Adding costs for materials on top

Consider the Market:

While it is important to price your artworks on their own merit, it is also very important to consider what’s going on in the world of art around you:

  • Consider how other artworks that are similar to yours by artists who have experienced similar success
  • Compare your art in terms of size, style, medium
  • While it is easy to focus in on your area of the art market, don’t make that focus too narrow – be aware of how others are pricing their artworks, even if they bear no resemblance to yours. Knowledge such as this is an indicator of the direction that the broader art market may be going.
  • Think objectively about your art and where it lies in the grand scheme of things. But think objectively – perhaps invite somebody who knows your work, but isn’t family, or your harshest critic for that matter. You are looking for an objective valuation.

Limited editions:

  • Setting prices for editions is not much different to the strategy above:
  • Take the above basic pricing strategy and add value for additional considerations for the entire edition e.g. how much does it cost to produce an entire edition of 50 prints? And how many hours do you spend doing this?
  • Then divide this total by the number of editions to get a price per unit
  • Keep in mind that all editions should ideally sell out!

Other factors to consider:

  • Exhibiting success and other accomplishments in the art world
  • How long you have been selling for
  • Further costs, including commission charges and gallery guidelines, need also to be taken into account.
  • If you find yourself consistently selling the majority of your output over an extended period of time, you should consider upping your hourly rate, or applying a 10% increase to your existing prices.
  • Can you justify the price? Can you break it down and explain it to another person? If not, it might make sense to review your pricing.