I am SO tired of seeing artists underprice themselves on here, including myself tbh. let’s talk about our cost of doing business (codb) as artists!!! (thread)

first, decide how much you want to make hourly. that’s your base. it should *never* be minimum wage. you’re an artist, it’s a trained and/or learned skill. value yourself properly. I like to make at least $15/hour.

so if I have a painting that takes two hours, my base price is $30. but then I need to include the cost of the canvas, paint, packaging materials, shipping (bc I offer free shipping), freebies if I include them, thank you cards and Etsy fees.

not to mention marketing materials. my website domain, Adobe CC (though this is free for me from photo work I did for Adobe), my camera + phone for product photos, lay flat materials. it adds up so fast.

technically, my 4x4” #acnh paintings should be priced at $40+ *each*. but this community LOVES cheap work, so they’re priced at $15. I’m literally making $1-$2 per painting because of how cheap they’re priced.

it’s expected in this community for art to be cheap but y’all, art is a LUXURY. treat it as such. im so tired of underpricing myself and seeing others underprice themselves in hopes of getting sales.

that being said, I plan to deactivate my #acnh painting listings on Etsy and relist my 4x4” NPC paintings as a set at a much higher price. my art should be priced just as profitably as my photo work. :)

and y’all, this goes for digital work too. $10 for a pfp that takes you two hours to do isn’t profitable for you. especially since you need to take into account your equipment costs and repairs. (ex for my photo work, I build one upgrade a year + $300 in repairs into my pricing)

we NEED to start valuing ourselves more as artists otherwise our clients will never value us. price yourself profitably and those who value your work will buy from you. and you won’t need to make 100s of sales to make a profit. you might just need a dozen.

this is such a long rant but I’m just so tired of artists undervaluing themselves and people purchasing underpriced artwork. we deserve better.

tldr; price yourself profitably, account for all fees and costs associated w your art and value yourself. the community won’t value us and our work until we value ourselves :)