Charged $85 for a 9-hour watercolor and almost deleted my whole career
So I finally did the math on a commission I shipped last week and I'm genuinely nauseous. Small piece, 11x15, one of those moody rainy window scenes I'm always painting. I quoted $180 and I was proud of myself for finally saying a real number out loud instead of apologizing my way to $120.
I tracked the time this time. 9 hours and change. That's $20 an hour before materials, and materials for watercolor aren't cheap when you factor in the good paper ($6 a sheet if I'm honest, I used two), the pigment, the brushes I'm constantly replacing because I'm hard on them. So really like $17 an hour. A barista makes more. I made more at the café job I quit.
The thing is the client was thrilled. Thrilled! Framed it, sent me photos on her wall. And I sat there looking at her photos thinking "I am never going to survive doing this."
I don't even know what the answer is. I know $180 for 9 hours is a steal for the buyer and a joke for me. But raising it feels like testing how far people's patience goes. What did you all do the first time you actually charged what the hours justified? Did people stop buying? I need someone to tell me the roof doesn't cave in.
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I've been there. Not with paint, but the math hits the same. You spend a career getting good at something and then you price it like you're still learning.
Here's what helped me, and it's not flattering, it's just true. Nobody's going to value your hours if you don't. You quoted 180 and that was a real number. The problem isn't the number, it's that you're still treating time like the only cost. The years of practice that got you to where those 9 hours produce something worth shipping, that's part of the price too. You can't put it on the invoice but you can damn well factor it in.
Also, cut yourself some slack on materials. Two sheets of good paper on an 11x15 is normal. Watercolor eats paper, everyone knows it.
The fix isn't deleting anything. It's charging 350 next time and not apologizing about it. You'll lose a few potential buyers and you'll feel sick the first time you say it. Then the math works and you stop hating the work you do.
ugh "you price it like you're still learning", that's the thing exactly. I think part of me still feels like a student who should be grateful anyone wants to pay at all. Like I'm waiting for someone to tap me on the shoulder and go "okay fun's over, back to the cafe."
And yeah, you're right about the time being only part of it. I spent like four years doing bad versions of this same window before anyone paid me a cent for it, that's not free and I keep acting like it is. It's weird because I'd never tell another artist their skill isn't part of the price, but I'll happily undercharge myself all day long.
Did it actually get easier for you once you started factoring that in, or is it more of a constant negotiation with yourself? Genuinely asking because I need to know if my brain ever shuts up about this lol