Charged 400 zł for a pastel portrait, then her sister asked for "the same but bigger"
So a woman from my building asked me to draw her mother from an old photo. Small thing, A4, toned grey paper. I said 400 zł. That took me, no exaggeration, about eleven hours over three evenings, and I redid the mouth four times because the reference was a scanned printout and half the shadow was gone.
She loved it, which was lovely, and then said her sister wants one too, "the same but bigger, A3." Same price? I stood there in the stairwell and said yes. I don't know why I said yes. I knew what I was doing while I was doing it.
A3 is not "the same but bigger" for pastel, it's a different drawing, more paper, more sticks, double the hours at least. I have done the math since and at 400 zł for the A4 I was working for something like 36 zł an hour, and I did not count the Sennelier sticks I went through on the skin tones.
What I cannot work out is how to go back and say the bigger one is 700. She will think I am being difficult, or that I am suddenly expensive. I think maybe the real problem is that I priced the first one low because I was flattered she asked me at all.
If anyone has untangled a thing like this without making it awkward with a neighbour, I would honestly like to know how you worded it.
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The stairwell is where these decisions always get made. No time to think, neighbour standing there, and saying a number out loud feels rude somehow.
But you already know the answer here. A3 pastel is not A4 scaled up. The same amount of pigment now covers twice the area, which means either it goes faster and looks thin, or it goes the same speed and eats your month. And eleven hours at 400 zł was already working for very little. That is the part people never see, the four mouths.
I would go back to her. Not dramatic, just plain: I priced the first one wrong, and bigger does not work the same way in this medium. If she balks, that is information, not a loss. Easier said from my side of the screen, I know.
"Saying a number out loud feels rude" - that is exactly it, thank you for putting words to it. In my head it is fine. In the stairwell with a neighbour smiling at me it becomes something I am asking for as a favour.
And yes. The four mouths. I scraped the third one off with my thumb and she will never know it existed, and that is somehow the bit I am proudest of and the bit that costs me the most.
I will go back to her. Not with a speech either, just the number and why. If she says no then she says no, but I would rather have that conversation than spend January on an A3 for 400 zł. I will let you know how it goes, probably badly, but at least out loud.