The $250 commission that cost me $310 in paint and I'm still not over it
So a guy hit me up wanting a big acrylic piece for his office, wanted it loud and graphic, sent me a photo of a Basquiat and a photo of a kid's drawing and said "somewhere in between." Classic.
He said $250 was his budget. I said yes before doing any math because rent was due and I'm a coward. Problem is it was a 40x60 and I paint flat color, which means layering, which means I went through basically a whole tube of cadmium red ($28), a tube of phthalo green ($22), and a bunch of titanium white (can't even count those). Plus two coats of gesso, plus the panel itself was $45 because I was too lazy to build one.
So I'm in it for like $310 before I've even touched the clock. And I spent maybe 14 hours on it because he kept texting me photos of his couch and saying "what if it leaned more orange."
I know the answer is charge more. I know it. But there's a version of me that's still 25 and broke and thinks asking for more is rude. Working on killing that guy.
Anyway the painting is done, it's hanging in his office, and it actually looks good, which is somehow the worst part because now I want to be paid for it.
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The part that gets me is that you'd have been fine if he'd asked for something that let the ground breathe. Flat graphic on 40x60 means every square centimeter is a solid coat, twice, and cadmium is not cheap to be generous with. I work in mosaic, different material entirely, but the same trap: I once quoted on the tesserae count of a panel instead of the actual square area and ate the difference in smalti. Now I price the material per square meter before anything else, and the number goes to the client as a number. A guy with a Basquiat photo and a kid's drawing should hear what that costs, it's not cruel to tell him.
"let the ground breathe" is such a polite way of saying i should've charged triple. and yeah the smalti thing, that's the exact same math crime, quoting the pretty version of the number instead of the real one. per square meter first, everything else after. stealing that. it's honestly less about the money and more that i did the math after saying yes, which means i negotiated against myself and lost
the smalti thing hurts to even read. and honestly the "price the material per square meter and hand them a number" thing is the part i've been resisting because it feels rude?? like i'm making it transactional. but i've had two months now where i did the "it'll be fine!" quote and then spent the whole painting quietly doing math and getting resentful, which is worse. resentment ends up in the work. so yeah, changing the order of operations, materials first, feelings later.