Charged $300 for a 6x8 gouache and my partner had to talk me out of apologizing at the handoff
So a woman I'd met at a market last month messaged me asking if I'd do a small painting of her sister's kitchen, like the actual kitchen, not a nice generic one, the specific one with the ugly green tiles they grew up eating breakfast in. And I said $300 for a 6x8 gouache without thinking, because in my head that felt like a LOT to ask a stranger for something that fits in a shoebox.
Then I did it. Took me nine and a half hours across two weeks because gouache and I were in a fight over the tile grout the whole time, and I bought a new tube of viridian halfway through, and I redid the window reflection three times.
Nine and a half hours. Plus paper, plus the tube, plus the two hours of back and forth about whether the fridge should be in it. That's under thirty an hour before materials, and I live somewhere that is not cheap.
My partner watched me sit with the finished piece for a full evening going "should I just charge her 200, it's small, she was so nice" and they finally went, you're not discounting it, you're just scared of being a person who charges. Which. yeah. Rude and correct.
I did send the $300 invoice, she paid it in about four minutes and said "that's so reasonable!" which somehow made me feel worse haha. Now I have three more people asking and I have no idea whether to keep 300 or go to 450, and if I go to 450 do I tell the next three why, or just quietly change the number and hope nobody notices.
If you raised your prices this year, how did you actually say it out loud to people. I need the sentence. I keep drafting it and it comes out as an apology.
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Nine and a half hours and a new tube of viridian, and you nearly apologized. That number is the one to keep in your pocket next time. A small format is not a small job, and every painter I know who does commissioned work has undercharged at least once on exactly this logic, that the thing fits in a shoebox so it must be cheap. The specific kitchen is the hard part, by the way. Generic is easy. Somebody's actual green tiles, with the grout fighting you, is a portrait and it should cost like one.
"a portrait and it should cost like one" ok that reframe is going straight into my notes, I've been thinking about it as a room this whole time and that's exactly why I priced it like a favor. and the shoebox logic is SO real, like my brain genuinely goes "it's small, small = quick" while I'm on hour six mixing a green that matches grout from 1998. the viridian is nearly gone already which is its own little invoice. also I'm glad you said everybody's done this at least once because I've been sitting here feeling like a chump