Charged a restaurant €600 for a big commission and only realised after I delivered that I'd spent about 40 hours on it
So there's a new place opened down near the docks, lovely spot, they wanted a big linocut for the main wall, something of Galway Bay, rough sea, the whole bit. I was delighted with myself. Gave them the friends-and-family rate because they're sound and I wanted the work up somewhere people'd see it.
€600, I said. Frame included. Generous, I thought. What I didn't do was keep a proper tally of the hours. Carving that thing, it's a big block, 60x40cm, all that water and sky and the little light breaking through, took me the guts of three weeks on and off. Proofing it, pulling the final edition, stretching the paper, framing it myself.
Did the maths this morning. Roughly 40 hours all in. That's €15 an hour, and that's before materials, before the frame cost me sixty quid, before the petrol driving it down there.
I'm not even angry about it, I'm just looking at the number and thinking, I'd have been better paid stacking shelves. But I'd also have been bored out of my skull, so there you go.
Anyway the print looks savage up on the wall. I'll put the price up next time and see do I survive it.
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oh man. that's the worst feeling, when you do the math after the fact and realise you basically paid them for the privilege of hanging your work.
the thing is, nobody teaches you to price by time in art school because they're too busy teaching you to suffer for the craft lol. 40 hours at €600 is €15/hr before materials and framing. that's less than minimum wage here.
i've done that dance with commissions where i was so keen to get the work out there i undersold the labour. it's a hard lesson. but at least it's a good spot and people'll see it. next time you know the real number and you can quote that instead without flinching.
also 60x40cm linocut at that level of detail for €600 is genuinely insane lol. they got a steal and they don't even know it.
honestly I think the pricing by time thing is trickier than people make out because like... you're not just paying yourself for the labour, you're also paying yourself for the eye that knows where to put the marks and the years of practice that made it look effortless. and that's the bit that's impossible to put a number on. €15/hr for the carving is bad math but the piece still has value that's higher than that, yknow? doesn't make the sting of realising go away though.
what kind of linocut was it, do you know? I work in watercolour so I'm always in awe of people who can commit to a carve and just live with whatever happens. no second chances on that medium.
Ah sure you're spot on with that. The eye, the years of it, the knowing where to put the knife and where to leave it alone, that's the bit you can't charge by the hour for because it's not an hour, it's twenty years of bad prints and good ones and the ones you threw in the bin. You can't itemise that on a receipt.
But still. Forty hours. I keep doing the sums in me head like it'll change the answer.
And the piece, it's a reduction linocut, four layers, all blues and blacks coming down to a dark sea with the light just breaking through the cloud. Took ages to get the registration right on a block that size. Looks well up there, I'll say that for it. They're happy anyway. Which is something.
Watercolour now, I haven't the patience for it, fair play to you. One wrong mark and you're fighting it for the rest of the day. At least with linocut you can cut the mistake out and call it a happy accident.
ah you've the head screwed on you. that's exactly it, I paid them for the privilege and called it a favour.
and you're dead right about art school. I never went near the place so I can't blame them, I've only myself to blame. came up learning from older lads at the market who'd say "charge what it hurts to ask" and I thought I was doing that. not even close.
the worst bit is I'd do it again too. that's the sickening part. you're so close to the work you can't see it straight. sure look, the print is sound, the wall is sound, and I'll know for next time. but I'd say the next restaurant that comes looking will get a number that makes them sit down.