Charged 6,000 for a 12x16 ink and wash. My best friend's sister. That was two years ago.
I need to say this somewhere.
Two years back, a friend's sister asked me to do a sketch of their old house in Basavanagudi, the one with the red oxide floor and the wooden pillars, before the builder came in. I said 6,000. Family-adjacent rate, I told myself. She was thrilled, paid half upfront without a word.
It took nine days. Ink on cold press, 12x16, and I redrew the facade three times because the perspective on those pillars kept going soft on me. Fine. That's my problem, not hers.
But then came the framing. I wanted it to look good for them, so I got it mounted and framed properly. 2,800. And the drive to and fro, two trips with samples, another 600 in autos.
So 6,000 minus 2,800 minus 600. Plus paint, paper, my own time. I did the arithmetic that night and just sat there.
The thing is, I have not raised my rate since. Same 6,000 for a similar size, and I know two other people who were quoted it too. It has become THE number. I'm scared to touch it because they all know each other.
The house is gone now, by the way. Demolished last March. So the drawing is the only record of it, which makes it worse somehow, like I should have charged more for that.
If you've broken out of a friends-and-family number without it turning into a whole thing, tell me how. I genuinely want to know. 🙏
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the framing is the bit that would have done me in too. you ate the cost of making it look right and that's the invisible part nobody ever budgets for. i've done the same with prints, mounted and wrapped a few for a neighbour's anniversary thinking sure it's only a bit of board, and the board and the glass quietly cost more than the print did.
but two years is the real story here. i'd say you learned more in those two years than you did in the nine days of redrawing those pillars. family-adjacent is a trap because you can't chase it and you can't forget it. i do a flat rate now and i say it out loud before anything starts, even to me own mother, and it's awkward for about ten seconds and then it's grand.
9k sounds right for nine days plus framing by the way. the person who tells you it's too much was never going to pay it anyway.
The framing is the part I would push back on slightly, and I say that as someone who has made the same mistake. Mounting and framing is a presentation cost, and if the client did not ask for it, you have made a decision on their behalf and then quietly paid for it yourself. I do not frame anything on my own initiative now. I quote the artwork, then offer framing as a separate line the client can accept or decline. Half of them decline, and that is perfectly fine.
Where I agree completely is the flat rate said out loud at the start. Approximating a number in your head because the person is a friend of a friend is how you end up resenting a drawing you were once pleased with.
The separate line idea is the thing I'm taking away from this thread, honestly. Quote the art, quote the frame, let them say no. Because when I didn't ask, I also took away their chance to say "actually just the sketch, we'll frame it ourselves" and they might well have. Instead I decided for them and then ate the difference, and somehow that felt noble at the time.
The Jayanagar frame guy did quite well out of my nobility, I'll say that much.
The flat rate thing is what I keep circling back to. Saying it out loud at the start, before anyone can be thrilled about a number, that's the part I never had the nerve for. Family-adjacent sounds generous but it just means you're the only one in the room who knows it's a job.
And you're right about the two years. The nine days taught me about pillars. The two years taught me that I'd rather be seen as expensive than be quietly resentful. Still working on the second one.
Also, the board and glass costing more than the print, that one stung to read. Same club, na.