Hi Everyone!
This is the second part of the topic. On the first part we talked about the emotional aspect that we should pay attention to in order to make our art business work.
Now let's talk about numbers.
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Credit: Anritco
Let's assume that you can control your emotions at the moment of writing to the talking and when giving a value to your work. So you can avoid statements such as...
-I suck, I should probably charge less-
Or the worldwide known...
-I will ask for less so they I'll make sure that they won't say no-... which is funny, because you are assuming that they will say no before even asking.
Assuming that. How much should I charge then?
There are many answers for that.
Since almost all of us live in different places of the world, prices for commissions can change drastically. This number will depend from three factors(Let's take for this a monthly period of time to analyze):
1. The cost of living (based in our needs).
First we will need to know how much money is needed for living (or surviving) a whole month (food and renting).
- In Poland (Where I live atm): You can survive for 250-300USD and live really well for 500USD.
- In Argentina (Where I am from): you can survive for 700-800USD and live really well for 1400USD.
- In USA (Tell me if I am mistaken): You can survive for 1000-1200USD and live well for 2000USD.
So there s A LOT of difference between one and another.
2. The expectations we have for our incomings and the quality of life we aim to have (based on point 1).
Say... I don't want just to survive or live well. I want to travel, improve my workspace, go to cinema, buy fancy clothes
And that's perfectly fine! But if you want to save money for whatever you may want, you must have a bigger incoming than the cost of living. How much more depends from you and your goals.
3. How much it takes to us to finish a whole piece or part of it (in hours).
We need to know how much time will it take to finish some kind of work or another, say a character concept design, environmental or assets.
And this is probably the most important from all three because here is where we define the value of our time.
It's time for...
Credit: Anritco
Let's assume that I am living in Poland. So I know that the base and minimum I should earn monthly is $300, just to be "relaxed" and $500 for living not eating rat meat well.
But I also pay for many other things such as:
- Gym and other sporty activities ($50-$100).
- Eating better quality and quantity food due to constant and heavy training ($100-$150).
- Going out ($20-$50).
- Cloths and gifs ($50-$100)
And with this we come to the result that Poland is f%çk!ng cheap an approximate additional of $300 is added to the $500. So we got $800 for living like a king as I want and feel I deserve. But I also want to save some money for traveling. Let's say... In three months I travel and I think I'm gonna need 1200 dollars. Divided for the next months: 400. Added to the previous number, $1200 is what you are monthly is worth of.
Great, I am worth 1200 Bucks monthly, amazing... NOW WHAT?
Now we need to apply this understanding according to the amount of job we will have in the following month. Let's assume it is A LOT and we will work 17 hours a day from monday to monday (which was actually my case a year ago)... How do we charge the hour according to that?
See, our clients most of times want to be charged per hour. And all this numbers until now work for this. So how to fairly analyze it? Easy peasy: Let's count numbers as if we were working full time.
So months have mostly 22 workable days, with 8 workable hours each. These are 176 hours monthly. And if we are expecting AT LEAST 1200 bucks monthly it means that our hour will have a value of 7 Dollars. Which is pretty low actually. But for an artist that is just getting started is not that bad. (even tho' I would rise it to 10-15 bucks the hour due to maybe lack of constant work).
And there's more: At this point of my career it would take me 3 to 4 hours to finish a concept, but back when i was getting started it would take me the double or more. So 8 to 10 hours per concept means that the artwork (at ten bucks the hour) would have a charge of 80-100 dollars. And all that if we don't count the iterations that may add some extra time and value to it.
Just to make it clear
Credit: Anritco
To put things on perspective... right now I am charging something like $30-$60 the hour, even tho' I like more to charge by artwork because I am a lazy piece of s%!t too lazy for taking care of how much time it happens and I lose focus really fast. So I can't count the time properly.
Also I am trying to get some extra money for improving my workstation, since it could be WAY better.
Conclusion
Please take in consideration that I took a really REALLY cheap model of country (which doesn't make it have less quality btw... actually the opposite), so the fees should be different for other parts of the world.
Try the numbers by yourself and check if they work for you! If not... then tell me! Maybe we can make this equation better next time.
This doesn't really need to be THAT precise, but it s for making you understanding how much you are worth, how much your time is worth and specially to you to have an explanation to the client when they say "What? This is too much!": just show them the equation and ask them then if they would work for $2 the hour.
And that's pretty much all! Thank you for reading and I hope this was helpful. If you have any doubt please don't hesitate to write me down!
Remember than defending your artwork is defending yourself as a professional artist. And defending your self as an artist is defending all the rest of your colleagues and fellows from our profession.
Bye !