Why art pricing formula's don't work | How to price your paintings?

Art is a fickle world. I have had a gallery owner who wanted to hang my paintings. He asked how much I wanted, he then added his commission. Another gallery owner I approached he looked at my art and prices and said they were too cheap and he could not make a living out of them. The best gallery is the Mall Galleries in London, their minimum price for paintings accepted is £600 regardless of the size.

Set your price remembering your time and materials, be firm, and if they don’t like your price. Tell them to go out and get art supplies, and paint it yourself.

Thank you! I needed to hear this! I had people try to shame me about my price!

Dries, I am not a beginner by any means, but I watch some of your videos because I like your approach to art and some of your viewpoints.

Inspiring pieces of advice.

Wow, best video. Automatic subscribe! 🔥

Great advise here

The worst formula is for an expert who doesn't care about the valued work to give an estimate for how much it's worth.

I exhibited my artwork for the first time last week, I had no idea how much to charge and saw as an opportunity to see what the craic is, so I went high, well, what I thought was high. The organisers suggested artists charge between £40-£100, I went £75-£150, it was a gut feeling. Because my price range was greater than the majority for some weird reason my exhibits drew in more interest. Of the five exhibits I sold three, all of which were priced over £100, one client said she would have paid double!!! I didn't mind because it took me no more than an hour to paint and the frame was a knock-off from a charity shop which I tarted up, it was also my least favourite. Looking around the gallery my artwork wasn't half as good as most on display, many of which were grossly undervalued IMO. The point I am trying to make is this, set yourself above the run of the mill prices, oh and have a mindset of the paintings are coming home with you - if they sell they sell, if they don't they don't.

This is interesting. Basically I am making the decision what to price my paintings right now. It's like asking what my time is worth. And apparently I'm doing something in a way no one does. The comment I hear most often is WOW. I am not getting any sleep for a few days. And who decided you have to name them? I just want to paint. Will someone come gesso for me? lol Wednesday I take a group of my paintings to Gulfport. Wish me luck!

Good video dude 👍🏻

Edit: I liked and subbed but then checked out your other videos and it's all clickbait. Are you really gonna make a video called "How I became famous" that has 600 views? Are you not embarassed by that? Anyway, I liked the honesty in this video, but your channel in general is a dumpster fire.

Great advices thank u 😊

So spot on thank you for the information still trying to find what I should sell for

Thank you very much for this information, you are the best

Thank you so much!! Your advice is amazing and I really appreciate it!!!

That is why you count the quantitative that inherently comes with the material condition of original work. Paint has a price. Paper has a price. Brushes, pens, papers and canvases have a price. Perhaps, it is too rash to say time is money.

👏👏👏

this video is amazing !! It feels like it's a lot about confidence. you have provided a lot of guidance thank you :)

So interesting, thanks for this

I agree!!! Sometimes I ask myself “what is the price that I will be happy to let it go?”

The Mona Lisa doesn't have an arbitrary value though. It is extremely possible to put a price tag on it, which these days is largely defined by its insurance. Taking inflation into account, the Mona Lisa is worth around $860 million in today's money. The indirect value to the French economy is even higher, at around 3 billion euros annually (tourism and what else these people spend their money on when paying a visit to see the Mona Lisa during their stay).

You can't sell art for 50 euros? Actually, you very much can and you are more likely to sell to a certain mainstream audience of cheapskates (no disrespect intended, but those buyers would simply never spend 500 or 5000 euros on art), however it would be like putting a shotgun to your feet and pull the trigger expecting nothing to happen lol. The big problem with any debate about pricing formulas is how those formulas are meant for 'beginner grade' art works and people trying to sell their first artworks. It is not about properly valuing art itself, as really anything can be worth a ridiculous amount of money provided there's one lost soul willing to spend the money. If an artwork is priced at 10.000 euros, yet it never sells, it simply is not worth 10.000 euros in all likelihood . No one claims the 50 euros priced artwork could never be worth more than the asking price. But everyone will understand how a beginner grade painting could never compete in a market where a higher price also needs to go along with much much higher quality art. The biggest problem with people trying to sell their art is in how a lot of (beginner) art is perhaps not good enough to sell. And even high end artists will have their fair share of unsold art pieces. The latter actually is a reason to go with a higher base line price for your art, instead of trying to match the material cost + labour and then that's your price. Last but not least, pricing formulas can be based on the size of the painting you are selling and it would apply in the exact same way as the more 'commercial' approach of selling derivative works, whether in concept or subject matter and style. Oh and just for the sake of argument, you can put a bidding race into a mathematical formula. You'd get something like for n number of bids, provided a threshold value to beat the previous bid, taking into account how deep the pockets of the collectors go, you'd get a baseline price + chance of a bidding war race. The fun thing about math is it can literally describe anything. Heck, there are people in real estate who's literal job is to figure out the optimal bidding strategy to 'always win' buying houses, without going bankrupt. Sometimes it involves an early 'bully offer', preemptively offering quite a lot more than the auction starting price. Sometimes it just involves being the final one to make an offer in the race or having the deepest pockets. It is the good old 'hot market + low inventory = multiple offers' type stuff. And when people try to sell old cars at an auction for example or artworks from someone who has an established name in the industry, it can be fairly possible to accurately predict how high bidding races will go within certain margins. Some artists out there, the current rockstars in terms of selling art, never even sell art without a bidding war at the auction. In terms of math, I'd suggest to look into auction theory, the applied branch of economics which deals with this very topic. Including a lot of very solid math.

Love it. The price of art is arbitrary. I know in my heart what my art is worth to me. I believe that if an artist can share a little bit of what it meant to create a piece then the customer will become more interested. The more interested a customer is, the more willing they become to believe higher prices are appropriate. In theory anyways.

wow didn't realize how much Imposter syndrome I have.

If you're not selling your artwork, you should RAISE your prices, not lower them. You are correct in saying people feel value with their credit card.

Totally. I’m so glad I came across your channel. You make complete sense. 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

Thanks for this video. Your pricing should be based on your investment of creativity and ability. Galleries take a 50% profit. It's not a good business model. You have to decide if you want to establish a relationship with buyers/collectors. If not, let the galleries make your pricing decisions.

This video is too underrated :( This is the best advice on art pricing that I got so far, thank you so much!!

I feel I’m at a disadvantage because although I come from a very artistic family I never had formal training. I won an award for most promising artist at my school but other than that I never studied art at art school. Now I’ve taken it up again I’ve been told I have a real talent but I hear that people only want to invest money in well known artists (which is understandable) so you cannot justify raising your prices unless you put yourself about which I’m not good at!
I’ve joined an art society recently to give me the opportunity to exhibit my work but as for pricing I’ve no idea where to start.

As a working artist and a tattoo artist, I love this video. I NEVER justify my pricing. Because the buyer is buying YEARS of experience. It is never too expensive, just out with some people’s budgets.

"Whenever you state your price, shut up." THIS IS SO IMPORTANT. You should not have to justify your prices, because the right audience (buyers) wouldn't expect you to.

oh I am really feeling what this guy has to say!

If you have to ask the price of the art piece you cant afford it! Artist don’t settle for less

I tried the formula method of pricing and it terribly failed.. I ended up pricing my art by estimation.. I agree what you said... thank you for the video..!

TYFS! Very informative 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽💯😁

Resentment pricing - legend quote!

Thank you for this. Some of us needed to hear that our prices are justified. I will state my price and shut up. Lol I always feel the need in the past to defend my price. I have never used pricing formulas so I agree with you there.

Lol! Charge for resentment!!! Wow I want to believe everything you are saying is true. I got burnt out bc I was competing with diy jewelry makers on Instagram. I have been feeling compelled to make my prices make me feel good which would be too high for my current followers but I have been nervous to make this statement. This is exactly what I needed to hear. ❤️❤️❤️❤️

state your price and shut up.. my favourite rule ^-^

I am a first time art consumer and was looking for a formula to understand how art is priced and came across your video. I commissioned a local artist here in Vienna, Jerson Jimenez, to paint a portrait of Gabriel Garcia Marquez for me and I went to him and didn't bother to question his worth. Thank you

Amazing video, gave me a new perspective!

awesome! totally agree with you Dries... i just use my instinct and like you say if it feels wrong then I raise the price. thanks*

Love this - thank you. I’ve subscribed for more of your advice

I decided to raise my prices after an incident where I didn’t want to let a piece go and had a bad feeling all day.

Exactly what i need.

I guess,if you do one of a kind..

Then how do u know your covering your costs properly and having a proffit

This is perfect. Thank you so much!