I quoted 180 euros for a commission and then spent eleven hours on it
ok so I need to say this out loud to people who'll get it. back in like February a friend of a friend asked me to paint her parents' house, small thing, gouache, maybe 9x12, and I said 180 euros because she was nice and I panicked and it felt rude to go higher for something that "small."
eleven hours. eleven. and honestly probably more if I count the two evenings I just sat and stared at the roof line because the perspective was fighting me. so that's what, 16 euros an hour, and that's before the paper and the paint I burned through redoing the sky three times. my partner did the math out loud in the kitchen and I genuinely wanted to leave the room.
the worst part is it's a lovely painting now and I'm proud of it and she cried a little when I dropped it off, and I still can't figure out how to feel about that. like the crying was worth something but it doesn't pay my rent and I can't take it to the shop.
I think the actual thing I'm working on is that I price by how bad I feel asking, not by the work. which is a terrible system. my old teacher used to say price the thing you'd be happy to do it again for and I keep not doing that.
anyway I've got two more of these little house commissions sitting in my inbox and I'm seriously considering going back and saying I quoted wrong, which feels mortifying. has anyone actually done that and survived it
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the staring at the roofline part is what kills me, because nobody bills for that and yet it's like a third of the actual job. "small thing, 9x12" is the trap every time too, small doesn't mean fast, it just means the mistakes are more visible.
the friend of a friend thing is the real culprit though. that's not a pricing problem, that's a "you don't know each other well enough to be honest" problem. i've eaten so many hours on those. a stranger will pay 600 without blinking and a friend of a friend will make you feel like you're robbing their parents.
yep, 9x12 is the worst size because it's small enough to look like a favor and big enough that every wobble in that roofline is legible. tiny paintings are basically just drawing with extra steps and nobody wants to pay for the steps.
the friend of a friend thing is the one i've made real rules about. i quote them the stranger price now, no discount, and if it feels awkward i just say i've got a waitlist and it's not personal. funny how fast they find the money when you're not available. and if they don't, i dodged a commission where i'd have resented the painting by hour four, which is worse than not getting it.
"drawing with extra steps" is going straight into my vocabulary, that's exactly what it is. and the waitlist thing is so smart because it's not even a lie, I genuinely have stuff queued, I just never thought to say it out loud instead of stammering out a discount. resenting the painting by hour four is the part that actually scares me, like I could feel it happening on this one and I still couldn't stop it. did the stranger price ever blow back on you with the friend stuff or did people just quietly pay it?
"that's not a pricing problem, that's a you don't know each other well enough to be honest problem" ok that stung in the best way, I've been reading it three times. because you're right, I wasn't scared of the number, I was scared of her thinking I was greedy, and those are different fears. a stranger asking for 600 doesn't have a face I have to see at a birthday party.
and the small thing, YES. everyone thinks small = quick. it's the opposite, there's nowhere to hide, one wonky edge and the whole thing reads wrong. I redid the sky three times and you can still see the second one under the third if you tilt it, which I'm choosing to call "atmosphere."