This article is a revision of an article I submitted in August, 2007, with the same title.


What is the value of art? It's something most artists think about at least once in their lives, and for many of us it is a nearly daily consideration.

In this article, I present my views on the value of art, and the how and why of those views. Value can be a very difficult thing to assess, because it is so tied up with our emotions, and everyone seems to have a different view of the subject. I hope to be able to answer some of those questions, and help provide other artists with a possible guideline for the monetary value of their own art. I know not everyone will agree with me, and that's fine. The most important thing is to understand that art has value, no matter what value each person gives each piece of art.

Every piece of art is different, and the value is unique to that piece of art and the person who encounters it.

Money is an obvious value, but that raises the question of how much? Social value? Certainly, but to whom and why? Personal value? Of course, or we wouldn't be creating the art, would we? How can you measure that?

I believe that every artist creates art for personal reasons and personal value. Often that personal value is externalized as family or social enrichment, charity work, political statement, monetary gain, or any of a million other things, but if those external things were not personally important, we would not put our time, energy, creativity, heart, and soul into creating the things that we do.

How much personal value art has is something that each of us can only determine for ourselves.

I met an amazing artist years ago who would leave his works wherever he happened to be when he finished them. I picked one of them up once, and tried to hand it to him, telling him that he had forgotten it on the table. He just brushed it off and said he didn't care. He'd just draw something else tomorrow. For him, it was the creation that mattered, not the finished product. On the other side of the coin, I have met countless artists over the years who would find it very difficult to part with even a single piece of art, or who had heartfelt regret for ever letting one go. Most of us, I think, fall somewhere in between the two extremes, keeping those pieces most special to us, and allowing others to move to other homes as sales or gifts.

It can be an incredible confidence boost when another person likes your art enough, considers it valuable enough, to spend good money on it. It can be equally disheartening to put it out there for sale and not have anyone pay a dime. So how do you know if you are asking too much? How do you know if price is the problem?

The most important monetary value that can be assigned to a piece of art is the one the artist him or herself gives it.

You must think a piece of art is worth the money being asked, and never settle for less than you think the minimum value of the art is. Selling art for too little can result in feeling used and unappreciated, because the customer got a "bargain" on something that was worth far more to the artist, something that carries with it a part of the artist's life, passion, and love.

Don't cheat yourself by parting with art for too little money - especially originals.

It is a very difficult thing to put a monetary value to your own art, but I can share with you how I figured out my prices. I started last year with a focus on pet portraits, so I went out into the web and looked up as many web sites of professional pet portrait artists as I could. I then focused only on those artists who had a comparable style and skill level to my own, or were more skilled. I ignored all the stylized, modern art pet portrait artists because they are actually not my competition. They appeal to a completely different customer base, take a completely different skill, and a completely different time scale to complete each piece. I wrote down all the commission prices from the web pages, and noted whether I thought they were more, less, or just as skilled as myself. That gave me a good idea of what the market value of pet portraits in my skill level was.

I cannot recommend doing that sort of research here on dA. Successful, professional artists are the standard by which art should be priced, and such artists will almost always have a domain of their own where they keep this information. DA is an amazing melting pot of artists of all styles, skills, and ages, so it can be difficult to sort out the hobbyists, weekend commission artists, and serious professionals. Many of your favorite professional artists here probably have their own domains, so go there and see what they are asking for their works.

After I had a good idea of the market values, I sat down with a bunch of photos a friend provided me and kept track of how much time it took me to draw them. I took the average number of hours, multiplied it by $10 (the minimum wage I would need to be able to survive if I was doing portraits full time), and checked to see if it matched up to the market value. It was pretty darned close, meaning that I should be capable of competing, at market prices, and still potentially make enough money to be able to get by. Those prices are what I base my realistic, original art prices on. I have gotten faster over the last year, but I am not going to reduce my prices because I consider them well within the range of a reasonable wage. Plus, I have a bit of a cushion in case a piece takes longer than expected.

Most of my own art is pencil work, and thus costs very little in materials per piece, so I normally do not include materials in my own price calculations. Digital art is another medium that costs very little per piece unless the artist specifically wants to include some dollar amount to offset the cost of the computer, tablet, printer, etc. This is not true for most art forms. Paint, clay, glass, stone, and wood are just a few of the materials artists use which can cost a significant amount for an individual piece of art. Paint materials for a single mural can easily cost hundreds or thousands of dollars. If this materials cost is not included in the sale price of a piece of art, any profit the artist should be making can quickly disappear.

There are a number of different ways to keep track of materials cost, but all of them require keeping receipts. I keep a small accordion folder under my desk, and every time I spend money on art supplies, advertisements, sample products, domain hosting, or anything else related to my art, it goes in that folder. Ideally, I would enter them into a spreadsheet or personal accounting software, but I am not yet that organized. If you do that, you can very easily survey and evaluate where you are spending money and how much.

If you can, keep track of how much money you spend on materials for each individual piece, because the cost is likely to be different for each piece. That way, you can add that amount directly to the price of the particular piece. Alternately, add up all the money you have spent on materials, and divide that by the number of pieces you have made, or expect to make, with those materials. That will give you a ballpark figure to add to the price of each piece. I'm sure there are other ways to figure out a reasonable materials expense per piece, so take some time to figure out what will work best for you.

Other important expenses that need to be included in the price of an art piece are the invisible expenses. Advertising, web hosting, promotional printing costs (business cards, fliers, etc.), studio space rental, computer, furniture to work on or store art in, education, and portfolios are just a handful of the other expenses a professional artist has, and in order to make a living those costs must be offset. Keep all your receipts, keep track of how much you are spending, and include some of that cost in the price of each piece you sell.

Advertising is one expense that can very quickly get out of hand. Most of us need to advertise in order to find customers, but advertising can be very expensive, and often the customers generated do not fully offset the cost. When you do an advertisement, keep track of how much it costs. Ask your customers how they found your art, and take note of the answer.

Let's say you spend $75 on an ad in a local newspaper, and only get one customer. That customer buys a piece of art for $140, $40 of which is your materials cost. If you then subtract the $75 you spent to find that customer, you only made $25 on that piece of art. It is probably not worth continuing to advertise in that newspaper. If that same advertisement generates 10 customers who spend about the same amount, you're probably sitting on advertising gold and would be silly to stop. Even at five customers, it would be very easy to offset the cost of the advertisement by increasing your prices by just $10-$15.

It isn't always possible to recover the cost of advertising, especially as a starting artist. That is why it is so important to keep track of where your customers are coming from. Cut your losses by stopping failed advertisements, and keep those that are generating enough customers to recover their cost.

It frightens me how many artists on dA monetarily undervalue their art. If you look around, you will see no shortage of artists who are willing to work for $5-$30 for an original commission. A lot of people seem to think that no one will pay more than that, but the truth is that people can and do pay more than that every day. There are very few art styles fast enough to provide a living wage at that price, even if the volume of commissions is high enough to keep the artist busy all week. As a result, price-competitive artists are capable of undercutting their competition, selling their art based almost solely on an undervalued price as opposed to the quality and relevance of their work. I don't think this helps anyone.

Determining the value of a non-commission piece is much easier if the artist kept track of the time it took to finish and the precise cost of the materials used to create it. The minimum value should be a skilled labor wage plus materials cost and other expenses. In most of the US skilled labor starts at at least $10/hour, but ideally closer to $15/hour. All art is skilled craftsmanship, and its value should reflect that. That means if I finish an original in 8 hours, spending $10 on materials and $10 in other expenses, and I want to sell it, I need to ask at least $100 for it. The value of “other expenses” is most likely an approximation reflecting some dollar amount to help offset those expenses a professional artist has in addition to the creation of each art piece. Depending upon the artist, it might be nothing, or it might be a significant amount.

Formula:
#hours x $wage + $materials + $other_expenses = $min_value

Example:
8 x $10 + $10 + $10 = $100

If I am selling that piece of art through a service or business that takes a commission, I need to add that amount to my sale price. For example, if an auction site charges a 10% commission, then I receive 90% of the sale price. That 90% must equal my $100 value.

Formula:
$min_value x 100 / %received = $min_sale_price

Example:
$100 x 100 / 90 = $111.11

Most galleries in my area take a 40% cut. That means, if I sold the same piece in a local gallery, 60% of the sale price would go to me.

Example:
$100 x 100 / 60 = $166.66

“High” prices are almost never the cause of slow sales. 99% of art sales is marketing. I'm still learning marketing myself, and it's very tough. There are so many amazing artists that if you can't successfully market your art, you won't have many sales. That is also why less skilled artists sometimes make a very good living. They know how and where to market their art.

If you still aren't sure about the value of your art, look at the calculated minimum value for your work and pretend you have enough disposable income that you could buy any piece of art you wanted. Would you think that piece of art was worth that much, or would you keep looking even though the money wouldn't be a hardship? If you'd keep moving, don't sell it, just keep doing your art and having fun.

I am very particular about the value of my own art, both personally and monetarily. I will never sell a piece for less than I believe it to be worth, but I will sometimes give it away. I once had a friend tell me that every friend of hers should have at least one print of hers in their home, and gave me one that I had been eying. I would have paid her the asking price, but to her it was of more value as a gesture of friendship. I would never dream of refusing such a gift.

Art can be an amazing gift, and when the person you are giving it to knows how much it means to you, that makes it even more special. I don't mean bragging on your prices, or telling the person receiving the piece what dollar value you would have asked of a stranger. I mean just a general knowledge that your art means something to you, has value, and conveys so much more than something bought at a store.

Our art is a part of us.
It contains our hours, months, years, or decades of accumulated skills and experiences.
It is the manifestation of our creativity.
It is the embodiment of our desires, hopes, and dreams.
It is the culmination of moments, hours, days, of time in our lives.

Yes, even if you are bored with your art, even if you feel uninspired, frustrated, or unimpressed, it is still all of these things and so much more.

That is the value of art.






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