How Do I Price My Originals?

This site sells prints.
Some customers looking for originals may find you here.
There is no formula to determine how much someone would pay for your art. You just started out, you have no sales record.
There are, however, formulas for pricing your work...materials time 3 or estimating an hourly wage on how long it took you to draw it....
Put a price on it and see if you can bring customers here to move it.

based on the presentation, not much. but as a whole its up to you, first you have to get a name for yourself, then figure out how long it takes for each one. i would make your name much smaller in this, because i'll be honest, signing it this large, looks very much like a school art project. no need to have your name that huge. you'll have to look around at pricing. find work similar to yours and try pricing it. in any case you have to advertise so people can even see it. and you still need better presentation even if its just the original.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

put it up on ebay starting from $10 if no one bid on it after a week reduce to half.

Do a lot of people sell there art on eBay? Do you?

look on ebay and find out.
you'd be surprised at how many do and at what prices they let the work go for....people go to ebay looking for deals.

Ya I'll check it out. Sorry I'm trying to find the right profile pic

Ebay is a terrible place to sell original art unless you already have a following.

Here's a current thread on eBay and Etsy

http://fineartamerica.com/showmessages.php?messageid=2375455

Since this is a PRINT site, you'll need to clean up the two images you have on sale here. They will never print with the current cropping issues. Remember that folks come here to buy prints for the home and office walls.

Ya got a lot of advise on reprints on my last discussion I'm gonna work on that. I'm new at this what does thread mean?

It means another discussion

Roger that! I feel like an idiot. I think I figured it out I'm going to work on my personal web site,portfolio of pics, and advertising before I do anymore on this site or anywhere else.

The one thing I don't agree on is putting time spent on art as to how much it's worth that makes no sense to me!

And as far as my name being to big on my piece! Isn't that what we are all trying to do is get are name out there?

you'll have to find a system then. time is a factor, some people spend months making something, and then price it for like $30 - so they are working for like a penny a day to make it. if your an unknown, your work won't sell for thousands, even though i've seen that as well. people run through a museum and cry out - i can do that! and then try and fail quickly.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

get your name out there yes - but not scrawled over the work. it's a matter of presentation when i see a name taking up a 1/4 of the page i think a child made it, no matter what the image is. keep it small and sedate, you won't get your name out that way. advertising your work and being recognized will do that. many artists actually sign the back so it doesn't sully the front.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Blaine, if your goal is to some day make a living from your art how can time spent not be a factor in your pricing? You won't make a living selling original paintings for $100 a pop when it takes a week to make one. Though when starting out you do need to start low with your prices but you need to aim for making a profit, and if the ultimate goal is to make a living, that profit eventually needs to grow to the point where it can pay your bills.

Blaine,
Can you post a picture of your work, framed? I'd like to see if you're doing a professional job of framing it. Also show another picture, of the back side, I would like to see what you are doing to make your art hang on the wall.

Let's talk about the work you're planning to sell places other than Fine Art America.

My work sells locally, but I have not sold a single thing on FAA (long story, but the art I have posted has cropping & other issues which are probably preventing it from selling as prints-- see the black lines on the edges of my work, also some of the photographs of my work are slightly out of focus because the were tilted when the photographer took the picture). I have to fix these problems, but I need to learn more about photography and using photoeditors before I can fix it... I'm working on that. I see postings from other people who say they've been here on FAA for a year and are just now selling their first print. I still find my FAA profile useful, because when people want to look at my work, all I have to do is have them look at my FAA profile, and there it is!

If you're planning to sell your work, you need to find additional places to sell. Whether you frame your work affects the price - framed art is more expensive, but my experience is it sells better. At most galleries, you are required to frame your work, and use D-Ring and picture-wire hangings. I learned the hard way not to use screw-eyes (which are cheaper than D-Rings -- one of the screw eyes came out of the frame at a gallery and my picture nearly fell on a very, very expensive wood sculpture that was displayed below it... as you can imagine, I was not the gallery owner's favorite artist that day). Unframed work, some places call it "bin work" must be matted (you can order pre-cut mat through Dick Blick and other places, I hate cutting mat so that works for me), and put in plastic bags - that protects the work from getting smudged/coffee spilled on by customers looking at it. You need to use the plastic bags that are specifically made for displaying unframed art.

To find out what your work might sell for locally, go to local galleries and look for work that kinda looks like yours. See how much they're asking for it. It helps to remember that a lot of work that hangs in galleries does not actually sell... talk to the gallery owner or sales staff and find out how much of your kind of art in fact does sell at that price. Most gallery owners have a pretty good idea what will sell locally and what won't. Also most gallery owners like to talk to artists, a big part of the job of gallery owner is talking to artists.

You should go to the library and educate yourself about the kind of art you are making. I'm not an art expert, but in my only kinda-sorta-educated opinion, you are making abstract expressionist art. If I get interested in making a particular kind of art, I do read about it. It helps me make better art, and it helps me understand what the more sophisticated buyers of my kind of art may be thinking when they look at my art.

If I were your art teacher, I would give you this assignment: Find the names of 5 famous abstract expressionist artists, either online or in library books at the local library, or if there is a college or university near you, you can go into their library and look at their art history books, even if you're not a student there. Look at pictures of the five artists' work. For each of these artists, find two of their paintings, one an early work, and one a later work, and compare the early work with the later work. What is the same? What is different? Which do you like better, their early work or their later work? Why?

Cheryl I like your profile picture and thanks for the advise!

The phrase "starving artist" has a long and justified tradition in our culture's vocabulary. A few people make it as rockstars, some people get by ok with their art, many do not.

BTW, your current profile piece reminds of the Blue Meanies from Yellow Submarine. Quite a lot, actually.

Good luck.

Everyone has provided great info.
After all the marketing, when the sales come in, you need to be prepared to close the sale.
Payment:
Prior to posting any of my originals for sale, I researched what forms of payments I would accept. There is a lot of good information in these FAA discussions. If you elect to accept PayPal, then you need to first open a PayPal account. Be ready for the your first sale!
Shipping:
Now, shipping. Get ready ahead of time. Have shipping materials ready to package your work. How do you want to ship? I use Priority Mail for most of mine because of tracking, free shipping supplies, pick up at my house, fast delivery etc. Do you want to ship internationally? You need to look into that.

Very time consuming to do the research, but having a well developed plan will help your first sale go smoothly.

and of course be weary of scam artists that ask about how much the originals are, despite having prices listed, already set up with a story and shipping company.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Blaine: Thank you!

I don't think I'm going to sell any of my originals until I get done with my clothing line😄

You might want to visit a local gallery and talk to the people there, sell how they sell, maybe show them some work. Keep in mind it can take months to year to start selling. Some people have been on this site for four years and haven't sold anything.

This is Great! FAA and all the positive feed back from you all is what I'm looking. I've never sold anything but a pillow to myself but this is fun!!!

Only you know how much you want for it. You could ask $10 and it might sell. You can ask $10,000 and it might sell. Unless you have sold others and have an idea of pricing, wing it.