Home Is Where The Art Is

If you are an artist, a lover of art then I hope that I can inspire you to do what you love.

Saturday 2 August 2014

How I Price My Work.(The Agony and Not The Ecstasy)

Sharon James (A5) £150 Framed

What I neglected to tell you about last time was that I was going to be having a mini break from the gallery. Sorry about that, not single word was typed last week. Now I am back and it is I believe my turn to spill the beans about my pricing system. That's Sharon the artist not the gallery owner.

I suppose in order for you to fully understand the method then I should explain how I make my work.

I am predominantly a printmaker, and print mainly collagraphs. I have been doing lots of drawing of late, more about that later.

I have quite a holistic approach to my practice as I like to make everything myself wherever possible. I make all the paper that I print on as I can control the thickness, exact colour etc. I have been known to make my own frames too.

That being said I have to factor all of this into the pricing of my work. I have a tendency to work quite small. I love the challenge of producing almost miniature works. This ramps up the time spent generally.

Sharon James £225

I also work using multiple images quite often, as I like the narrative of using more than one image.

My drawings range so hugely in time spent in the production of them. Some take under 10 minutes others literally take me months.

Here's how I price my work.

  • A guesstimation of time spent 
  • Cost of frame
  • Reflection of prices that I have sold at historically
  • A chunk for experience/reputation (I am a realist but I do have some regular buyers)
  • Cost of materials used (this can vary wildly for me as some of my installation pieces have £100's of items in them)
  • I also outsource pieces to bookbinders etc so I have to factor their costs in too.
  • I ask myself what is the least amount of money I would be willing to part with a piece for. (always a tough one). It keeps your head out of the clouds though.
  • If the work itself is historical I am more inclined to lower my prices a little.
  • Scale is a weird one for me as I work between 5cmx5cm to A1. So I rarely use this as a way to price my work. I have sold tiny things for the same as much larger pieces. 
  • I pay myself about £25 per hour.
Sharon James (A5) £150 Framed



So there you have it, that's how I do it. If I have to factor in any kind of commission I will take that away from the prices you see. I will not add more as they are worth what I charge for them. I will take a hit but I would always hope that wherever  they were the person selling them would be doing their best to sell as many as possible on my behalf so the ouch of losing out in the short term is soothed by multiple sales.





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