Quoted 12,000 for the Malleswaram house sketch, then sat in the auto doing sums
A gentleman from Malleswaram wants a full sheet watercolour of his family house, the one on the corner with the tiled verandah, before the builders come. He asked for a price and I said 12,000 without blinking, which surprised even me.
Then I came home and did the arithmetic properly, which I should have done before opening my mouth. Two site visits minimum, because the light on that verandah is only right between 7 and 8:30 in the morning and the house faces east. Photographs won't do it, I've tried, the tiles go flat. So that's two early mornings plus the auto fares. Add paper, that Arches full sheet is 900 by itself now, add the ink, add the mounting and the courier because he wants it framed and delivered.
Roughly 14 hours of actual work if nothing goes wrong. It always goes wrong. So call it 17.
Which works out to something like 600 an hour, before I've paid for anything. My old architecture firm billed me out at 3,500 an hour. I know it's not the same work and I'm not comparing the two directly, but the gap is embarrassing to look at.
I haven't told him any of this. I'm not going to, either, I quoted it and I'll do it. But I'm sitting here wondering what number I should have said, and whether I have the nerve to say it next time. The worst part is I suspect 12,000 already felt expensive to him. Nobody in his family has ever paid for a painting before.
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Ha, the opening the mouth before the sums is a rite of passage. I'd say 12k is grand if the paper's Arches and you're giving up two east-facing mornings, because that's the bit nobody ever wants to pay for, the getting up and the waiting for the light. They see the sheet at the end and think that's the whole job.
The tiled verandah going flat in photos though, that's the honest reason the two visits are the price, not a luxury. You can't fake that in the studio and you'd only wreck it trying.
Only thing I'd say, and I've learned it the sore way, put the site visits in writing as part of the quote before you start. The minute a client hears "two visits" they start wondering can it be done in one, and then you're arguing about a fare at the end of the job instead of carving. Get the number settled and then enjoy the early mornings.
The mornings and the waiting for light, genau, that is the part clients never see as labour. But I would push a little on the 12k being grand. Two visits, fares, Arches, and the hours at the sheet itself, and she has probably priced herself at nothing an hour. Cheap is not the same as fair. The written visits are the right instinct, I would go further and write down what happens if the light does not come, because it will not always come.
The light not coming is the part that frightens me, honestly. Two trips and both mornings grey and I've spent the money and got nothing to show him. Writing that in is going to feel like telling a client the sky might not cooperate, but you're right, better said now than argued about later. What do you put in that clause, a reschedule or a flat fee for the visit itself?
The site visits in writing, yes, that's the part I keep forgetting. I quoted 12,000 on the phone like a woman with no overheads at all, and then sat in the auto listing out paper and fares and two 6 a.m. alarms and felt slightly sick. So it's going into the message as a line item now, not a favour I'm quietly doing.
And you've put your finger on it exactly, the getting up and the waiting. Nobody minds paying for the sheet. They just don't see that the sheet is the last two hours of about eleven.