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So I did this commission last month, a little wedding gift thing, couple's pet portrait in watercolor, their dog who passed away. They had a reference photo and I got so attached to the story I underpriced it on purpose, like €120 for what I told myself was "a quick 6 hours." It was not quick. I did a full sketch, hated it, redrew the dog's face three times because watercolor doesn't let you fix a bad eye, you just start over. Real time ended up around 14 hours, plus paper, plus I ruined two sheets. When I did the math afterward I made like €6 an hour. My old café job paid better and I didn't have to cry over a dog's nose shape at 1am. The worst part is they were so happy and the painting came out genuinely good, one of my favorites I've ever done. So now I'm sitting here like, do I charge the next person with a sad story €400 and feel like a monster, or do I keep doing this and slowly fund my own studio out of my own pocket?? I know the answer obviously but I keep needing strangers on the internet to tell me I'm allowed to charge for the hours that actually happened, not the hours I hoped would happen.

I did the math on a commission last week. Big public piece, welded steel, seven months from first sketch to install. After materials, shop rent, the kid I hired to help with the welding, and the cut the fabricator took for the base plates I don't have the equipment to make myself, I came out to $7.50 an hour. I remember when I started out I'd have been thrilled with that. Thrilled. Now I look at it and think what the hell am I doing. The worst part is the client was happy. Paid on time, no complaints. So the price felt fair to them. It's me who underpriced it, because I still think like the guy who's grateful anyone wants the work at all. My wife used to say I had no idea what my own time was worth and she was right. Three years since she passed and I still hear her saying it. Anyone else do the math on a finished job and feel like a damn fool?

i had a small gallery take a piece of mine for a group show a few years back. the director was genuinely into it, talked about it in a way that made me think she actually saw what i was doing. then the sale happened and it was chaos. she underpriced it, forgot to tell me the buyer's timeline, and i found out the piece sold when the buyer emailed ME asking when they could pick it up. i got paid eventually, and i was honestly just glad someone wanted the thing. but it made me wonder how common that is. like does a good gallery relationship ever come without some kind of fumble on their end? what's your worst (or best) story of a gallery loving your work but dropping the ball on the actual selling part?

That one stung. Not because I'm entitled to their profit, but because it made me realize how badly I'm underpricing my own work. I did the math on my hours after I found out and I made about $14 an hour on that piece. Fourteen dollars. For thirty years of knowing how to make something that holds its weight and doesn't fall apart. I don't blame them. They saw the value. The problem is I didn't. Still haven't raised my prices to where they should be. Working on it. But that gap between what I charge and what something's worth keeps me up some nights.