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Let's start with something interesting, what companies are paying.
FF pays $100 per illustration (v low)
Paizo pays $150 per character (v low)
DnD pays $500 per character
MtG pays $1k-3k per card
Artifact paid $2k per card
Hearthstone pays $1.5k per
Riot $3k-10k
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Apr 12, 2021 · 3:48 PM UTC
Most companies are unfortunately closer to Paizo and FF, as provided by @SHelmigh 's blog suzannehelmigh.artstation.co…
These rates are very low, paying 3x-10x less than individuals who just want their character drawn.
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Practical lessons. First, take at least 50% of the payment up front, no matter what, nonrefundable. Don't send the final until after it is paid in full. Not all clients will burn you, but some will. Contact the client before you start theirs- make sure they're still around
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You don't need a long queue of commissions. You only need ~2 commissions lined up at a time. The one you are working on now, and the one you are working on next. The rest are in the future and whether you have them now or in the future, it doesn't matter.
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If you get commissioned for 20 pieces at $200 each, that's $4k, great, right? If you can only complete 10 of them this month that's $2k + 50% of the other 10- that's $3k, and $1k of that is basically a loan, you now have to do the others next month for $1k.
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That means you have to get more commissions next month that you won't be able to complete until future months... It quickly becomes a treadmill that's hard to get off of.
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Having a long queue, or instantly getting several commissions when you announce availability, are signs that your prices are too low. Since you only need ~2 on your list at a time, price higher so that you are getting the most out of your time that you can.
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Never give group discounts. They're asking you for more work, don't charge less for more work. They are buying your time, which is finite and in demand. Party commission requests are common, but most won't pay when they do the math of $500x7,+500 for a background
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Many companies like Paizo or FF will lowball rates, knowing that someone somewhere will take it. Private clients will pay 3x-10x as much as they do. Better paying companies don't care about your resume or college education, you can skip those steps, just have the skill level
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As for how much you should charge, start by timing how long it takes you to complete the things you want to offer. There will be some variation, keep track of what things make it take longer for you to complete, we'll get to that later.
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Take the baselines, minus the things that made them take longer, multiply that number of hours by $30. That should be the starting point. As your skill increases, so too should the $ number that you multiply the number of hours by, or simply increase the price in general.
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The things that make you take longer, how much longer do they take you? What %? Keep note of them, so you can adjust the price when someone asks you how much that, or something similarly complex, will cost.
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As your skill improves, so too will the quality, and/or the speed at which you complete pieces. Don't lower your rate to match increased speed. Speed is a valuable quality that means quick turnaround times, ability to meet tight deadlines, or make revisions (if applicable)
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What price number is 'too high' to be reasonable? It's a spectrum, the higher the number, the fewer number of clients will like that price. There are more clients that will pay $100 than $200, than $500, than $1000, etc. But there *are* still a lot of them at each
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There are indeed a lot of people making $100k+ per year that play DnD, or are furries, or both, and will pay an artist that they like $1000 to draw/paint their character, even if that artist doesn't do official DnD/MtG/etc art. They have expendable income.
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Just because the artist cannot afford the prices that they are charging, that doesn't mean the prices are too high. "We are not our clients". Here is the income distribution pre-pandemic in the US statista.com/statistics/2031… That's ~100m households making $100k+.
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Also calculate the day rate that you need to make to cover your expenses with this calculator docs.google.com/spreadsheets… this is the *minimum* that you should be making in order to survive.
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If you live in a low cost of living area, charge as if you don't- try putting in $2.5k/month for rent and $1.6k/month for savings. Living in a low cost of living area means that you can *work less* or work the same amount and *live better*.
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You are able to charge as if you're living in LA while living anywhere in the world. Some artists will even leave their country to live in Poland, Thailand, etc, so they can charge the same amount, work less and/or live more comfortably. nomadlist.com
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If you feel that the price you came up with earlier is too high because you spend dozens of hours per character, this is a skill issue that you can work to resolve. Aim for no more than 6 hours for a full body lines + flat colored , 15 hours for a fully painted character.
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If you feel that the quality of your work isn't high enough to warrant hundreds/thousands of dollars, it may be true, or you may be undervaluing your work. Look at the artists on teddit.net/r/fantasyartists all of them are charging at least $100 per character and $30/hr
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Your work doesn't have to be as good as the best there, but is it as good as *something* in that feed? If the answer is yes, you may just need to advertise yourself more places, or otherwise improve your marketing strategies.
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If the answer is no, then consider pushing through and practicing/learning more to bump up your skill level. There are more free resources than ever to guide you, and then it comes down to putting in the time/work. I'll make a future thread about this later.
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To get more clients at higher prices, you need to learn business and marketing. I took down notes of the top 10 marketing tips from my friend who is a director of marketing at a major studio docs.google.com/document/d/1…
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A few of the points in his top 10 list come from this video, which I highly recommend to watch about once a year. piped.video/watch?v=QHHg99hw…
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Clients will hire you to make things similar to what they see you have already made. Make art for your portfolio that displays the work you want clients to hire you for. Don't include things in your portfolio, or share on social media, you don't want to make more of
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There are two methods to get clients, 1) having the clients find you, or 2) go to where your clients are. Instagram falls into the first group, and it's a pain. If you plan to go down this path anyway, here is everything I learned about Instagram
docs.google.com/document/d/1…
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Alternatively you can try to grow your Twitter, TikTok, YouTube or other social media platform. You'll be fighting with an algorithm for the attention of your followers in order to reach new eyeballs, whichever path you choose.
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Facebook Groups, Subreddits and Discord servers have communities where many of the users are looking to buy work, and all you have to do is find them and post there. Each place will have their own rules of varying restrictions, follow them.
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You don't have to make a price sheet, you can have a conversation with those who wish to hire you. Learn negotiation tactics from other industries. Have a made up "assistant" that handles your emails/negotiations for you if it makes you feel more comfortable.
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