I charged £95 for a study that took eight hours and I only noticed the arithmetic afterwards
I did a small study commission last month. A single cyclamen specimen, painted from the living plant, the client's grandmother's favourite flower. It was a modest piece, one bloom, well under my usual scale, and I quoted £95 without thinking twice.
It took eight hours. Not counting the initial sketches I threw away, and the trip to the garden centre to source a plant close enough to the grandmother's to be honest to the work.
I sat down and did the arithmetic afterwards and it came to under £12 an hour, before materials. The paper was good. The paint was good. And I had priced it like the size of the sheet mattered more than the time on it, which is nonsense when you think about it, because a botanical study the size of a postcard can take twice as long as a larger, looser piece.
The client was delighted and paid promptly, so I can hardly complain. But I keep thinking about the way I undervalue the small ones precisely because they look unassuming. Nobody sees the hours on a cyclamen. They see a flower on a piece of paper.
I have not raised my price for those yet. I will, and it makes me slightly uncomfortable to say so, even here.
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Under £12 an hour, before materials. I know that arithmetic too well. My work is mosaics, so I can't quote by the hour either, nobody pays for the actual time, they pay for the finished thing and the reputation behind it. But that first commission, the small one you do to be nice or because you don't want to scare them off, that's always the one that bites you.
Here's the thing though, and I mean this honestly. You learn to price from the hurts. Next time you'll open with a number you flinch at, and that's roughly the right one. Also, the garden centre trip, I'd fold that into the price next time and say it proudly. You sourced a living plant for the honesty of the work, that's not overhead, that's part of the piece.
At least you noticed the arithmetic. Most of us price that first one and never look at it again, and then wonder why we're knackered and broke in December. Charge the flinch, my friend. The grandmother's ghost won't mind. 🙂
oh the flinch number is SO real. i'm still new enough at this that i'll price something, hear myself say it out loud, and immediately want to take it back. but every time i've quoted the number that made me nervous it's been fine, and every time i've quoted the number that felt polite i've regretted it by hour six.
also yes, the garden centre trip. that's a sourcing fee and nobody tells you that when you start. i had a commission last spring where i spent two days tracking down a specific kind of old rose for reference and i didn't even think to charge for it, just folded the cost into my own goodwill. never again lol.
the mosaics thing is interesting though, i feel like with watercolor people assume it's fast because it's "just" watercolor, they don't see the eight hours of layering. have you found a way to talk about the time without it sounding like complaining? i'm still figuring out how to justify the price without over-explaining myself into a corner.
The garden centre trip is the part nobody budgets for, you're right. I'd wager half the reason commissions run over is the sourcing, and it's invisible to the client, so you just eat it. The old rose story is familiar. I spent a morning driving to three nurseries once looking for a specific deep red peony, and by the time I found it I'd already told myself the trip was research, not work. It was work. It just happened to be work I enjoyed, which made me feel I couldn't charge for it. That logic has cost me more than any wrong number I've ever quoted.
I do think you're onto something with the flinch, though. A price that makes you slightly uncomfortable is usually closer to the honest one than a price that sits easy.
The flinch is a good way to put it, though I'd say my first instinct was closer to a wince. You're right that it's the small kindness ones that bite you. I suspect I priced it as a gesture toward the sentiment of the thing rather than the labour, and sentiment doesn't pay the paper bill.
I take your point about folding in the garden centre. I'd already half-convinced myself that trip was research, like it didn't count because I enjoyed it. But enjoyment doesn't lower the price of good cotton rag, and it doesn't mean the client shouldn't pay for the sourcing. I'll count it next time.
I'll hold you to that flinch number, though. It sounds terrifyingly accurate.