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FunktionOne

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I've been selling artwork for awhile now, not really to make a living but more like a drawing here, a canvas there. It was never really about the money but, From my experience I've had to hustle a little or get burned when payment time came around. And it's like I'm asking a lot. I'd like to know how some of you work your business into your artwork.

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know who your selling to if their rich ask a lil more... if your making a living off of art then u should be charging enough to eat i guess.... i say it depends on how much time was put in and all that i sell my shit for about $200-300 a canvas thats like 20'' x 20'' most ppl dont mind that...

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Time spent on canvas shouldn't matter. You're not selling your time, you're selling your art. How long did it take for you to come up with what you're painting? Years? You see what I'm getting at? (I should really take my own advice on this one)

 

If you're selling art on your own, and not through a gallery then you're going to run into complications. No way around it. Sorry. Unless you hold onto the artwork till all the cash is in your hand. Otherwise you're bound to get screwed. If you are through a gallery... then they have at least a month to get a check to you. Unless they are waiting for payment from the buyer of a piece. Which could take some time and is common. If you're having struggles with friends who bought pieces... then I'd either evaluate that friendship or ask for the artwork back till they've paid up. Technically... the piece is still yours if they haven't paid. Shit could get ugly if you go that route, and if it does... then like I said, evaluate that relationship.

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Guest imported_Tesseract

Many factors concerning that and a subject of great importance if you're into that stuff seriously. The problem is that your prices automatically create a personal stantard that you must be consistent about.

First off, the highest prices of your work are applied when you sell through a gallery. They often take a cut from your stuff (the percentage is a personal arrangement, or each galleries policy). What that means is that when you sell your stuff on your own you're suposed to sell them cheaper than your gallery price. Lots of people think that the bigger the buyer the higher the price. Thats wrong, if i sell stuff to a big collector, i'd sell it cheaper than some individual who's just willing to buy the work.

The reason is that belonging in a collection is for your best ineterest and works in the direction of building a better rep for you.

 

Time spend on the work doesnt matter like joker said but your personal cost of producing it does. For example, lets say your prices are more or less 1000 $ Then you must find a way for keeping your cost atleast on half the price you're selling..noone is gonna buy your shit for 2000$ when your prices 1000$ because you felt that an expensive plexiglass frame does the piece more justice.

 

On instalations and murals and 'ordered' art in general cost of making shouldnt affect your price. I was just asked for a proposal and a budget for a huge wall (the one side of a 6 story building). The cost of materials , renting scafolds and workers that will be filling the huge monochromatic areas comes to 5.000 euros..according to some i should get another 5 atleast for the idea and the execution but my price is 3.000 euros just for me.

 

Its a complex issue but nomatter howmany suckers out there would buy something for an outrageous price that comes out of nowhere you must always keep in mind that its a market with certain vices and if you wanna survive and maybe even make a living out of it you must reasonable and consistent about it.

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Originally posted by Joker@Nov 14 2004, 11:01 AM

then like I said, evaluate that relationship.

 

 

I mean, I'm sure you've dealt with that crap enough for this statement to be valid, but for some budding artists it may not be.

 

For example, if I have a real close friend that loves a painting I did, and they ask what I'm trying to sell it for, and I respond with $50. And they say they can get that to me soon, so I give them the painting. A few months go by, and no money. They are very apologetic, but haven't had a heavy source of income yet.

 

Am I to re-evaluate that friendship?

 

You're definitely on point with everything regarding tricky business, and being aware of who your buyer is, I'm just not sure if that statement applies to everyone...although it certainly applies to many I'm sure.

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well..$50 isn't really much...i'm sure they've spent $50 bucks on alcohol or weed or whatever in the last couple months...

 

the thing with friendship/business that gets so difficult is that sometimes your friends don't respect what you do, unless they do it themselves too...

 

like..i know with design...i have a bunch of friends that own businesses...yet some will be like "yo hook me up with a website for cheap"...while i'm all for giving the homeboy discount sometimes i don't think friends has anything to do with business...

 

like if my boy owns a store...and i'm constantly asking him "yo hook me up with this shit for cheap..." dood would get annoyed but since art and design is kind of ambigious till the finished product, sometimes people don't understand why something costs what it does...

 

if they're good friends, they'll hook you up with the dough...

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Originally posted by CIPHER_one+Nov 14 2004, 09:46 AM--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (CIPHER_one - Nov 14 2004, 09:46 AM)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteBegin-Joker@Nov 14 2004, 11:01 AM

then like I said, evaluate that relationship.

 

For example, if I have a real close friend that loves a painting I did, and they ask what I'm trying to sell it for, and I respond with $50.

[/b]

 

$50 is not much for a painting and if you are charging a friend that much... you might as well give it to them for free. That's just my opinion. My statement was more in regards to larger costs. Like $500 or so. And War Pigs is on point. Business and friendship are two different things. It's extremely rare that the two can mix and in the end the friends are still friends. I don't know that I have ever heard of it happening, but I'm sure it has.

 

What I was trying to point out is that just because someone is a friend doesn't mean that they should take advantage of that friendship. Especially when money is thrown into the mix. Is too difficult to deal with and gets ugly so quickly. If someone is a true friend, and wants a painting then they'll just buy it outright. They won't look for the ten year payment plan at $5 a month. Again, this is just my opinion. I've seen many paintings that I want from friends but I just don't have the cash to hook it up. Until I do... I admire from afar.

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I'm a photography student and actually did my first job over the weekend.

I asked one of my professors about pricing and here was his advice:

1)How much is it going to cost you for film

2)How much will it cost you in paper

3)How long will it take you to make these prints

4)how long will the shoot take

5)how much do you think your client is willing to pay?

 

I shot some promo shots for a local band(mildly friends with so apparently I was "hooking them up", I totally didn't.) It cost me about $10 for film. $15 in paper, a collective 4 hours over the weekend to print, and only like 20 minutes to shoot. I charged them $250 and they seemed very happy to pay that for 10 8x10s. In this case they were pretty much paying me for my time.

 

Oh, now because I've done a job I'm a "professional"

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...i base my prices off of galleries...they have people there that will tell you how much they think it should be sold for, it's in their best interest to sell if for the highest price as well as yours...then if i'm selling similar work on my own to collectors i use the price established by my most recent sales as a guide...cut a little to reflect not having to pay the gallery (...standard gallery cut is 30%...big name gallerys will take 50 or more)...if people are intersted in buying multiple pieces it's usually in your interest to cut a deal for them...and definately cut deals for people with established collections, just being able to put that on your resume later will get you more and bigger sales in the future...

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I've sold a handful of things. Its the best to sell to people who mean something to you or at least meant something to you. I once sold a painting to someone I didn't even know or seen for that matter. It was a fucking awesome painting. Its probably in some douchebags closet somewhere. I got $100, but still.

 

As far as pricing goes, I usually just see what they throw at me and I raise it if I feel it is necessary. I don't lower it. NOPE.

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