Commission Fail

[Jameslong]

Why is it people are always eager to commission you to draw until they realize you plan to charge them fairly for your work?

Last week I had a co-worker approach me with a commission opportunity. Basically, she wanted to get a *very* large drawing done for her 14 yr old son as a christmas present. By *very* large, I mean larger than poster size (4' x 3'). I don't usually work outside of the digital world, so when she first mentioned it, I was kinda skeptical. The more I thought about it, though, the more excited I became. She was hoping for something along the lines of Iron Maiden's Eddie in standard black/white pencil... something with a heavy-metal vibe. For a few days I had grim reapers and undead horsemen running around in my brain. I even dropped 15 bucks on iTunes to build a classic Metallica playlist.

The 4'x3' was not realistic to me, so I talked her down to 22"x28". The estimate I gave her was $150-200. This, as far as i'm concerned, would have been a steal on her part as the drawing would have taken me 20 hours at least. Well, as soon as she realized I was going to ask for more than $50, she changed her mind entirely. Seriously... How little does someone expect to pay for a pencil drawing that's large enough to fill an entire wall? I would feel too guilty to enjoy it if I paid so little for a piece that large...

"Well, we're planning to take the kids to Disney World..." is what she told me. Okay... fair enough. Velvet Elvises go for $15 down at the local flea market. I hate to sound conceited. I know I'm no Jim Lee by any stretch, but my time is worth more than $1.50/hr.

Whew... sorry, had to get that out. anybody else have experiences like that?

[Komiyan]

People who aren't artists will on occasion assume art is produced in some magical photocopier that they don't have access to. Surely all artists do is go to it and press a button, right? Who needs money for that?

Sometimes they'll even try to scam if for free, saying 'it would look really good in your portfolio!'

[Laemkral]

I did the occasional custom miniature for friends, and I always charged base price of the mini plus a little on top to cover time/materials. When people balked at "What? $15 for that?" I would point out that a custom miniature with a very good quality paint job would probably go for $60-70 on eBay if not far more. That usually got it into their head of "Wow, okay, this is a bargain."

That's what I'd recommend doing, bringing up "Well hell, if you were to go to most other artists, you'd expect to pay 400-500 for something of that size." I mean, I consider $150 for a custom giant hand drawn poster to be pretty friggin reasonable considering a small piece of artwork that's 8" x 11" may go for 25-50.

[VinnieD]

I have plenty of people approach me. As soon as I mention the existence of a price list they back off. I don't even GET to the prices (cheap as all hell), before they panic and pull out. I mean, you come up to me, impose upon me, and request my time and effort to draw something you can appreciate for the rest of your life, and somehow you expected it for free? Jeez, even the guy playing piano in a lounge you tip when you make a request.

[Phact0rri]

Sometimes they'll even try to scam if for free, saying 'it would look really good in your portfolio!'

I get this a lot. like I even have a portfolio. haha

[Ti-Phil]

I admit, I never did a comission, nor had anyone asked me for it. Then again most people I know already draws.

[Mvmarcz]

I did a charcoal on 18 x 24 last year for $200

So no your prices are fine people just think art is easy and when you know an artist it should be near free if not free.

Case in point a friend's mother wanted me to do a 30 x 44 drawing of her family. I told her I was too busy because if I would have told her that it would have cost about $400+ it could have caused friend problems.

[Rkolter]

Everyone gets this, regardless of your chosen path. I think it is human nature to assume that if you have access to a friend with a skill, that skill should be accessable to you for free, or almost free.

Doctors get it all the time. Hell, I've asked Legostar for unsolicited advice.

Computer people get it in spades. "You do this all the time, it should be no big deal for you, why are you charging me, aren't we friends?" grr.

And artists, with their skills, get it too.

They may get it MORE though in one sense - while everyone has to see Doctors, and most everyone is familiar with being charged for computer problems, not everyone buys art, and so the prices offered may be more what they assume they'd pay for it, and not what the effort is really worth.

[SergeXIII]

The only experience in selling my stuff is through minicomics, though that isn't nearly the same thing. I charge the cost of printing, which I pull some tricks to get as low as possible, and a tiny bit more to cover the comic book store's share and something for profit. So, for Stupid Awesome Introspection I charge $1 for a fourteen page book, 40 cents for printing, 30 cents for the store, 30 cents for me. The store has been negligent about putting the comics on display because they're in the process of reorganizing the store, but when they do its been selling, and thats probably because the surrounding minicomics charge $3-7 for the same amount of material, which I don't see as reasonable: its a minicomic. Minicomics should not generate revenue.

But yeah, people are going to go in with a magical number in their head, usually a very low one, and you just gotta lay out reality and explain why and hope they're still willing to play ball once they see a realistic picture.

[MixedMyth]

Mostly I've actually had good experiences with commissions. I think it's because I put out there right away that I do this for money at weeds out the people who think I do this for free. But occasionally I do still get people saying "Ooo. You're an artist? Can you draw me blahblahblah?!" and I know they mean for free. I've also occasionally have people back out of the commission... made a pair of steam punk goggles for a guy who ordered them, but then when I contacted tell them they were done he told me "sorry, don't have the money."

[Bustertheclown]

That's what price quotes are all about. It's laying down expectations between both parties, and allowing either party to back out before the transaction takes place. I don't think that backing out of a commission that you think is too expensive is a bad thing at all; after all, that's business. Your time is definitely worth something, but the client will have a budget. People are looking for the best deal they can, both the buyer and the seller. It might be shocking to be rejected after your price quote, but that's the name of the game. You shouldn't take it personally. If they can't afford your prices, then they can't afford them. It's as simple as that.

[Kris X]

Unfortunately I have yet to do commissions. I have had times where I draw things that people want--but I make an excuse why I don't give it to them. Partly this is because they want it for free, the other part being I don't want to give it away.

[Jameslong]

interesting stories all 'round.

I guess I should just be glad I hadn't already started the project before the other party backed down. I've only done one other commissioned piece, and that went through without a hitch. $50 for an 8x10 full color piece. Probably only ended up getting about $5/hr, but as it was my first ever, I was pretty lenient with the price. On the bright side, at least the Forsaken won't suffer though all the hours I'd be putting into a side project.

[Charlos777]

I've never been commissioned for artwork. The closest I got was in Junior High when a girl offered me a dollar for a picture I drew in class. Needless to say Junior high me jumped at the fact that a girl was talking to me and said yes. The prices you are talking about seem totally reasonable to me. I mean do people expect to just pay you for the freakin paper?
I may not have been commissioned for my work, but I have been paid to draw comics for a University Paper. They were small three panel strips that took no time at all to work on, I submitted them when I wanted, and could look as bad as I wanted cause they cleaned them up for me. All this and they still paid me a decent price for them. They understood that I was being paid for my time most of all. It would seem as though unless you are used to commissioning artists you probably don't understand the pricing breakdown of art work.

[Phalanx]

If I had a dollar for every time I had to fix someone's router/computer.

I even have had a request to recover someone's crashed hard drive data. Which is kind of ludicrous when you think about it.

Artwise most of my art pieces are for family and friends, and were gifts on my part. I never have had a serious request from someone who wanted to commision anything... have no idea what price that would fetch.

[KWill]

No commissions on art yet as I don't really feel I've got much to offer at the moment. I do corrections, though. Thankfully, most people either accept my price (10 € an hour) or I end up doing it for my Language Center wage and add the time spent to my working hours. Friends might get it done for free, or for a free lunch, depending on the size of the thing. I generally go down in price if the volume of work is incredibly high, such as when I did a proofreading stint of scientific papers for a congress on architecture.

[Ohemgee]

My "commissions" are also just gifts to friends... although since I don't get paid I can take up to six months to finish it and no one has had a problem with it... even though they were never coloured, sometimes not even shaded in
(Hint: do a commission for your English teacher...)