Search

finally did it. bumped my base commission price from $200 to $275 after like three years of telling myself i'd get around to it. two people had inquiries sitting in my DMs. both went "ok thanks!" and vanished into the ether the second i gave the new number. not even a counter or a "let me think about it" just gone lol. i know $275 is not insane. i know i'm worth it. i know the people who actually want the work will pay it. but man that immediate ghost hit different. feels like i just priced myself out of my own market and i'm the one who set the price. anyone else raise a number and immediately regret it before you even gave it a chance to breathe? or is it just me staring at my empty inbox

Okay so I finally did it. Bumped my base commission price from €140 to €180 for an 8x10 watercolor, which honestly still feels low when I look at the hours, but for me it was a big leap. And the very next inquiry I got, this woman who'd been following me for months and was SO sweet in her message, she replied "oh that's more than I expected" and just... went quiet. Never heard from her again. And the thing is, I keep going back and forth. €180 for something that takes me like 6-8 hours including the sketch and the back-and-forth? That's still under €30 an hour. But also, I did the actual math on it and with materials (I use good paper, homemade honey watercolor, proper sable brushes that cost an arm and a leg) it's like €15-20 just in supplies. So I'm basically charging for my time at a rate that's less than I made scooping croissants at the bakery. The part nobody warns you about is how much the silence hurts. Like the polite rejection email I could handle. But the ghosting? My brain has been replaying that message for two weeks wondering if I should've said "well, I can do €150 if it helps." And my partner keeps telling me the right clients will come, and logically I know that, but also rent is due on the first. Hoping the next one who says yes makes up for it. Anyone else had the "I'll wait and see" regret thing happen after raising a price? How long did it take before it started paying off?

had a woman reach out about a piece for her new apartment. wanted something "meaningful" but she kept circling back to can you do it for less. i gave her my actual number, $400 for a 16x20 mixed media on panel, which is already on the low side for me. she did that thing where they pause too long and then say "okay" in a voice that means the opposite. i offered to do a smaller size or a simpler palette to bring it down and she said no she wanted the original idea. so i said alright well that's the price. she said she'd think about it. haven't heard back. it's been two weeks. the part that gets me is i know i could've quoted $250 and she'd have said yes and i'd be making the same thing for less and resenting it the whole time. but also $400 isn't nothing to me either so i'm sitting here like was i being stubborn or just not desperate yet. still don't know which one is true.

Cleaning out a drawer and found a sketchbook from 2019, before the divorce. Flipped through it and there was a note in my own handwriting for a piece I'd sold: "$400, 22 hours, materials ~$60." Worked out to about $15/hour and I just sat there with it for a minute. The worst part isn't the number. It's that I remember being proud of that price at the time. Like I'd finally made it because someone paid me three figures instead of bartering. I charge triple that now and still flinch every time I say it out loud. But I'd rather flinch than go back to being that proud of $15 an hour.

I finally priced a new commission the honest way, hour by hour, and it came out to €9.80 an hour before materials. I'm 44, I've been doing this for almost twenty years, and I'm still making less than the person who serves me coffee. That number sat there on the page and I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. The problem is I price the whole piece, not my time. A seated figure, half-length, oil on linen, maybe 55x46. I know exactly what it takes because I've done it a hundred times. But when I think what the client will reasonably pay for that size, my brain gives me a figure and then I divide by the weeks and suddenly I'm ashamed of myself. I raised it anyway, this time. Charged what the work actually costs. The client paused on the phone, that long silence that means I finally said a number too high, and I almost folded on the spot. Then she said fine, let's go. So now I'm terrified I've priced myself out of the next three, and quietly furious that I ever treated that fear as reasonable.

A woman from Athens emailed about a floor panel for a hotel entrance, about two square metres, asked for a quote. My old reflex was to do the arithmetic: smalti cost, days on the floor, a number per square metre, done. This time I wrote back and said the price depends on how many colours are in it and how much cutting that means, and I can't give her a number before I know that. I said I'd rather do a small paid sample first, 30cm, she sees how the stone behaves, then we talk about the whole panel. She went quiet for nine days and then said she'd found someone who gave her a clear price immediately. I've been turning it over since. The per-metre number was always a lie I told in a confident voice, because it made clients comfortable. And it made me take jobs that were nothing but cutting, hundreds of tiny pieces, for a rate that assumed big easy ones. That's how I ended up doing six weeks of work in 2019 for something like seven euros an hour. So I'm not going back to it. But I clearly haven't worked out what to say instead that doesn't sound like I'm avoiding the question. Any of you who sell made things, how do you answer "how much" without either lying or losing them?

So I took a commission last month, a gouache portrait of this woman's dog, small, maybe 5x7, and I quoted her 320 and I felt SO confident about it in the message. Sent it, she said yes immediately, and I was like ok cool I'm a professional. Then it took me eleven days. Not eleven days of work, obviously, but eleven days of the thing sitting on my desk while I redid the left ear four times because the fur kept going muddy, which is a gouache problem I created for myself by underpainting too warm. Plus two full sessions just on the background because she wanted "the same green as her sofa" and I had one blurry phone photo of the sofa. And the framing, which I did myself because I'm cheap, and I chipped the corner and had to start the frame over. My partner asked, very gently, like genuinely curious, "so what's that work out to an hour" and I literally said "oh I don't really think about it that way" and went to go water a plant that does not need water. I do think about it that way. I think about it constantly. I've just decided that the number I'd get if I actually divided it is a number I'm not ready to see yet, and there's something kind of insane about that, right? Like I'll happily tell a stranger 320 with my whole chest but I won't do one division problem in my own kitchen. Anyway she loves it, she sent me a photo of it on the wall next to the actual dog, and I'm not saying I regret the price. I'm saying I quoted the version of me who paints fast and it got done by the version of me who repaints an ear four times. Still working out which one of those people should be setting prices.

A collector asked me for a small interior piece, maybe 40 by 50. I quoted by surface area, which is how I sometimes do it when I don't want to think too hard. It came out to 900 euros. Fine, they accepted, no problem. Then I did the math on the hours. Grinding, underpainting, the glazes, the sitting around staring at the light. It worked out to something like eleven euros an hour. Less than I made waiting tables in Lyon in 1998, before inflation, before everything. The painting is good. I'll sign it and be glad of it. But there's something broken in a system where the better I get, the slower I get, and the slower I get, the less I'm worth per hour. Nobody wants to hear that the price reflects the life behind it, not the surface area. I'm thinking I need to stop quoting by the centimeter and start quoting by the years. Scared to do it, honestly. Someone tell me they've done it and survived.

A woman messaged me about a portrait of her mother. Small, A4 on toned paper, single figure, and I quoted 400 zloty. Which is roughly what I make on a piece after materials, if I am honest about the hours, which is around nine or ten spread over two weeks because I redo the jaw and the eyes until they stop looking wrong. Then I sent the price and immediately wrote "of course that is negotiable, sorry, I know it is a lot." In the same breath. Before she answered anything. She said yes without blinking. Paid the deposit that evening. And I have been sitting with that for three days now, feeling stupid, because I negotiated against myself for free and she never asked me to. I keep thinking about the ones who did not say yes. Maybe some of them would have. I will never know because I never gave them the chance to say no at the real number. Anyway. I am writing this here instead of doing the underpainting I should be doing. If you have a rule for this, some sentence you say instead of the apology, I would like to hear it. Mine keeps coming out before I can stop it.

So I quoted a piece last week, 16x20, four figures, real time on it, and the person goes "that feels steep for watercolor, no?" and I just sat there typing and deleting for like ten minutes. Because here's the thing, that's the exact sentence watercolor gets. Gouache never gets it. Oil never gets it. But watercolor is "just" the medium that comes in a little pan for kids. Which is insane because watercolor is the least forgiving thing I do. There is no covering up. No scraping back to a happy accident. You make one wrong wash at hour nine and you're starting the whole sheet over. I have a stack of failures in my closet that would make you cry. I didn't say any of that, obviously. I wrote something very polite about materials and process and how many hours it takes and how the paper alone is like $40 a sheet before I even touch it. And you know what, they said yes?? They just wanted to understand it. Which I guess is the actual lesson and I hate that the lesson is "explain yourself more." But also I'm kind of tired of explaining myself more. Does anyone else get the "feels steep" thing and how do you answer it without turning into a lecture. Because I keep doing the lecture and then apologizing for the lecture and then giving a discount, haha. The discount is the real problem. I know the discount is the real problem. 🙃

Someone asked me to paint their grandmother's house in Malleswaram, the one being sold, about to be knocked down for yet another apartment block. They wanted it as a gift for the whole family. I was so touched by the reason I just said ₹3,000 without thinking. Then I actually did it. Reference photo was terrible, old phone pic, bad lighting, half the house hidden behind a tree. I had to go there twice to sketch it properly, spent a full Sunday morning sitting on the kerb drawing, then another two days painting at home. The house had this lovely old chettah-style window detail and I ended up redoing the whole thing because the first wash went muddy. So that's roughly 20 hours of work for ₹3,000. ₹150 an hour. Less than what I pay my domestic help. The family loved it, cried actually, and that's worth something. But I sat there thinking, why do we do this to ourselves? Because the story was good? Because saying a real number felt awkward? I wouldn't ask my plumber to work for ₹150 an hour. Still haven't figured out what I should have charged. ₹8,000? ₹12,000? I honestly don't know what a fair rate is for this kind of thing in Bangalore. What do you all charge for a detailed architectural watercolour, a full house, not just a loose sketch?

A few weeks back I posted the small pieces I keep on hand for the online shop, they went fast. Then a message: "these are lovely, why don't you make them bigger?" Polite, interested. I told them the truth: the small ones are 30 cm by 30, three weeks of work. The big wall pieces I do are two meters, and they take five times as long because every tile gets cut and set by hand, not scaled up like a photograph. The bigger version isn't the same thing enlarged. It's a different animal, and it costs accordingly. Silence. Then: "can you do me one at 60 cm for the same price?" That was the whole conversation. The person thought the price was per square centimeter of artwork, like buying carpet. Not per hour of kneeling on a floor with a hammer and nippers. I get it, nobody knows what anything costs if they've never had to make it. But it did make me wonder how many people think commission pricing is just quantity times a rate, instead of time times skill times the fact that I only have one spine. Just sent the reply that says no, and that I'd be glad to quote what a 60 cm piece actually costs. Curious to see if they come back.

ok so I finally did the thing where you actually track your hours on a commission and I want to scream. Wedding gift commission, a watercolor of their venue. Charged €220. Three weeks of work but I kept telling myself "oh it's fine I'm just doing the sketch today" and then "the sketch took all day but the painting will be quicker now" and then the painting took five separate days because I repainted the sky three times, once because the bride's mom asked if I could "make it look more golden hour" and I sat there doing it for free. Did the math last night. €220 divided by 46 hours because I ACTUALLY counted. That's €4.78 an hour. My local coffee shop pays €13. The thing is I loved painting it. The venue had this insane wisteria over the arch and I got the light right on the third try and the bride cried when she picked it up, actual tears, and her mom hugged me. And I still feel insane for pricing it at €220 when I know exactly what it cost me. Like I'm running a business where I pay myself less than minimum wage to make people cry in a good way. I'm raising my next one to €380 and I'm terrified nobody will say yes. The fear of pricing myself out is worse than the math, somehow. Is everyone just... faking it until the numbers stop feeling embarrassing??

priced a commission at what i actually need to make per hour for the first time instead of whatever i thought they'd stomach. did the math in front of them too. "materials plus 28 hours at x." fully expected the haggle. they just said cool and sent the deposit. now i'm annoyed because it means i've been lowballing myself for like three years for no reason and the ceiling was never real, it was in my head. classic. idk if this is marketing advice or a confession. i think it's both. if you're freelance stop pricing like you're apologizing for existing. the worst they can do is say no and then you're no worse off than when you didn't ask.

I put off raising my prices for almost two years because I was sure the interest would just evaporate. I'm not a name, I have no gallery, I draw faces on toned paper in my kitchen. In January I finally changed my portrait price from 400 zl to 650 zl. I sat with the cursor over the save button for maybe ten minutes, which sounds dramatic but is true. Since then I've had more commissions than the whole autumn. Same photos, same posting, same me. Two people told me they'd assumed I was cheap because the work looked "student level" at that price, which stung and also explained a lot. So I don't know what the lesson is. Maybe that people read the price as information about the work, not about the work itself. Or maybe it's just luck and next month it dries up completely and I'll feel stupid for saying any of this out loud. Is there a price point where you noticed the tone of the emails change? Not the volume, the tone. People are politer now, which is a strange thing to be glad about.

so a friend of a friend wanted a big one. 36x48, their loft, "whatever you think looks good" which is the most expensive sentence in the english language. i quoted 900. felt fine at the time. that was 11 days ago. since then: 2 stretched canvases bought (ruined the first one, long story, don't ask), 3 tubes of that phthalo, a roll of tape, and i've redone the same corner twice because the edge kept going soft. did the math last night out of curiosity, which is a rookie move. comes out to like 14 an hour. for the most stressful 4 weeks of my year so far. and the part that actually stings is i know exactly what happened. i had a number in my head from 2021, from when i was broke and desperate and flattered anyone asked, and i just... said it. didn't even think. it came out like a reflex. i'm delivering monday and i'm already drafting the email for the next person who asks. 1 800. not negotiating it down to feel liked.

I sent my first gallery email with zero idea what I was doing. Didn't even have a proper artist statement, just three photos and a "hola, here's my pots" energy. They said yes anyway somehow. Now I look back and laugh, but also cringe at how unprepared I was on pricing, on commission, on all of it. What's the thing you wish someone had told you before that first conversation? Something nobody warns you about. For me it's that the gallery takes their cut off the top and suddenly your "sold!" celebration is doing math in your head. Worth it still. But I wish I'd had the numbers ready. Tell me I'm not the only one who went in blind.

Just priced a commission for a portrait bust. Cararra block, good one, ran me $1,400 before I even picked up a chisel. The work itself took four weeks. I told the client $3,800 and they said yes before I finished the sentence. That's the part that gets me. I could've said $6,000 and they'd have nodded. I billed $2,400 for a month of my time and nobody blinked. Still can't decide if I'm the fool or they are.

For years I did the dance. "DM for pricing." Which means a week of polite emails with someone who was never going to buy anything, while I pretend the number is a secret worth protecting. Nonsense. The number is the number. So in March I started putting it in the caption. This panel, 40x60, smalti and salvaged marble, 1.900 euro, four to six weeks. That simple. No "investment" language, no "collections start at." Two people unfollowed. Fine, they were never my people. What I did not expect: three inquiries in the first month, and one of them bought. A woman in Kalamaria who said she had been following me for a year and always assumed my work was "for museums or hotels." She thought the mystery meant expensive. It was the vagueness that scared her off, not the price. The other thing nobody warns you about, the asking is the exhausting part. I have spent years answering "how much for something like this" with nothing to look at, and the whole time we both knew I was guessing at a wall. I am not going to pretend it fixed everything. Some people see the number and go quiet, and that is information too, it saves us both a month. And yes there is a small guilt, like saying money out loud in a room where nobody else has. Greek thing maybe. Anyway. If you have been hiding your prices to seem more serious, I would look at that. The hiding is usually doing the opposite of what you think.

A gallery reached out last year about a piece I had in a group show. Wanted to know my price for a commission in that range. I said $400. They said great, we'll list it at $1800. That's when it hit me. I wasn't pricing my work, I was pricing my materials and time like I was still doing fabrication for other people. I'd welded it myself, designed it, sandblasted it, patinated it, figured out the base so it wouldn't tip in wind. Three weeks start to finish. $400. I told my daughter about it and she just stared at me. She said dad you're not a contractor. She was right. I raised my studio rate after that but I still catch myself lowballing. There's a voice in my head that says who's going to pay that for something you made. Thirty years in and it's still there.