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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.

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?

Sold a big charcoal piece for $400 three weeks ago. Was so excited someone wanted it I didn't think twice. Then the custom frame arrived yesterday, $280 with glass and shipping, and I just sat there staring at the invoice like an idiot. So net on that one is $120 for what took me about nine days of work, and that's before any studio rent or charcoal. I keep doing this. I price from "will they say yes" instead of from what the work actually costs me. And the worst part is I'd already told everyone how happy I was to sell it, so now I'm just quietly wearing it. Trying to actually write out my real numbers tonight. Hours, materials, the whole ugly math. If it comes out to $3 an hour again I might scream. Anyone else price from fear and regret it every single time?

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

Early in my career a gallery in a small city took my work, I was relieved, I said yes to everything. Then they asked me to paint smaller and charge less. Smaller I could understand, but charging less felt like the wrong message. I said no, we parted ways, and I still think it was the right call. But I've wondered since. Sometimes a lower price gets people in the door and you build from there. Sometimes it just trains people to wait for a discount. Have you had a gallery ask you to change your prices, up or down, and did you do it? Regret it either way?

I painted a portrait of my sister-in-law's mother two years ago. Almost free, obviously, family price, I think I said €150 and we both knew it was a lie. Oil, 60×80, took me close to a week of evenings. Last month she put it in a small exhibition of her own work. Not mine, hers, but the portrait was the thing people stood in front of. A gallerist asked me what I'd charge for something like that. I said a number out loud, doubled it on the spot out of embarrassment, and I could see him filing it away as cheap. The piece that got me the most genuine interest of my career is the one I practically gave away. I'm not sure I know what to do with that. It's not regret, exactly. It's the feeling that nobody will ever believe my real prices now because the best proof of what I can do is marked at a tenth of it.

I used to do this thing where I'd tell people "pay what you can afford" because I genuinely believed in making art accessible and also I hate conflict LOL. But here's what kept happening: Someone who clearly had money would pay me $20 for a charcoal portrait that took me 6 hours. And I'd smile and say thank you because I SAID they could name the price and I didn't want to be a hypocrite. Meanwhile I had a single mom pay me $150 for a small drawing because she said "I know what labor costs and I want you to keep making work." The sliding scale only works if people are honest. And I realized I was letting the people who COULD pay more off the hook because I was scared to just... state my price like a real businessperson. Now I just say what it costs. If someone genuinely can't afford it I'll trade or work something out one on one. But I stopped making my pricing a charity auction where the rich get the discount. Anyone else do the "honor system" thing and regret it?

Went to a gallery years back, they loved the steel pieces, wanted to take three on consignment. Then wouldn't commit to a dollar amount. Said they'd "see what the market said." I told them my market said fifteen hundred and walked. Never regretted it. I know galleries need room to negotiate but if they won't even put a number down, that's not a partnership, that's them hedging with your work as the collateral. What's the strangest ask you've gotten from a gallery? The one that made you thank them and leave?

Three years ago I built a walk-through room for a small Kunsthalle in Germany. Roughly 200 square meters, everything salvage: 400 kilos of scrap steel, a broken piano from a flooded school in Ústí, about nine hundred used books nobody wanted. Six weeks of work, two helpers paid properly. I asked for 11,000 euros. All in. Materials, wages, my time. They said yes so fast I heard it before the last syllable left my mouth. That sound is the worst sound in this business. Not the money, the speed. It means I was wrong by a lot. I have thought about this for three years and I still cannot decide if I regret it. The piece was good. It existed. People walked through it. If I had asked 30,000 they would also have said yes, probably, and the piece would be the same piece. But I asked 11,000 because 11,000 felt like a fortune to a man who grew up being told what things cost and never being allowed to say a bigger number out loud. The part that annoys me is not the loss. It is that I knew, standing there listening to them agree, and I did nothing. Just nodded like an idiot with a forklift. I have a quote going out on Thursday for something similar in Brno. I have written 34,000 on it twice and deleted it twice. Thursday I will find out which version of me is sending the email.

Nine hours on a charcoal head, 300 euros. She sat down, saw the first version, and just started crying, and I sat there not knowing what to do with my hands and then said the price out loud and it came out as 300. I watched my mouth do it. Couldn't stop it. Here's the thing nobody warns you about: the discount doesn't stay with that one person. Word travels. Her sister messaged me last week, lovely message, "my sister says you're amazing, she says it was 300." Now I'm either the artist who charges 300 or the artist who has to explain why she was 300 and this one is 900. And I already know I'll do a bad job explaining it because I'll feel mean. The worst part is I don't even regret it. That painting is good. She cried. But I did the math after, 300 divided over nine hours plus the paper plus the fixative plus the two days I couldn't work because I'd used my whole arm doing it. And I'm 31 and I still live in a flat with a bathroom I won't describe. How do you actually say no to the second person without making the first person feel like a charity case.

Okay so I'm still pretty new to pricing my own work without a professor or a gallery telling me what to do and I think I massively undershot this one. A friend-of-a-friend reached out wanting a custom piece, her cat, sitting in a sunny windowsill, very specific reference photo she sent, gorgeous light honestly I was excited about it. I quoted $150 for a 16x20 watercolor which is like... insane when I actually stop and think about it. That's easily 15-20 hours of work when you factor in the back-and-forth and the sketching and the masking and the layering and fixing the thing I inevitably mess up. I did the math after I sent the message and it came out to like $8 an hour and I just sat there staring at my phone. I'm not mad at her she was thrilled with the price obviously lol. I'm mad at me. I keep doing this thing where I price based on what I think someone will pay instead of what the work is actually worth. And I KNOW better. I had a whole class on this. But when it's real and there's a real person on the other end asking nicely I just fold and throw out a number that feels "fair" to them and not to me. Anyway she's picking it up tomorrow and I'm gonna smile and take the cash and then I'm gonna spend the whole evening updating my rate sheet so I don't do this again. For the fifth time. 🫠 Anyone else have a number they immediately regretted the second it left their mouth?

So here's one I'm still chewing on. I do a run of hares, hand pulled, edition of 40, €180 a sheet at the markets and it sells grand. Steady, not mad, but grand. A small gallery in town got in touch about stocking a few and the girl was lovely on the phone, then she says the price is the issue, that for their online shop they'd want it at €120 "for the digital crowd." And I said yes. Which surprised me, because I'm usually the stubborn article who'd rather sit on a box of prints for a year than be told what they're worth. Here's the thing though. They sold 11 in three weeks at €120. My own stall did 4 in the same stretch at €180. So the gallery made more off my work than I did, the buyer got a bargain, and the poor hare went out into the world at a price I don't really believe in. Money's money and I'm not above it, there's a fella carving in a shed in Carna and two small ones wrecking the gaff, but I don't think I'll do it again. Feels like I taught a whole new audience that my work is a €120 object. Anyway. I don't think there's a clean lesson in it, I just wanted to say it out loud to people who'd get it. Curious if anyone's done the same and regretted it, or done it and not.