How to Price Your Artwork. Learn Oil Painting with Vlad Duchev

[@openstudiod]

My Friends, I hope you will enjoy this small episode about "how to price your artwork". If you have any questions, please message me or leave a comment. I'm going to my last plein air competition and will be back in two weeks. Enjoy!

[@notbroken4342]

I've been painting for years but am new to selling. I have sold a few pieces to friends. There are many videos offering advice on this topic and the square inch method is probably the most popular, followed by cost of materials plus an hourly wage. I'm astonished at $6 though. I was thinking of starting at $2.

[@openstudiod]

There are several problems with really low price… first of all your are entering in low price market and you are going to waist your ti E and materials. I always recommend to wait u til you feel like a king and enter the high end market

[@jimgilchrist198]

Thanks Vlad for this video. This gives a greater insight to what you were talking about in the other comments section on pricing. There is a lot to take in, but it is a great start. Figuring out the APP on an event without any prior experience makes it tough, but the starting point with commission factor really helps a lot. I look forward t hearing more, and good luck on this last event. Have fun!

[@arturhakobyan6850]

Thank you, Vlad for detailed explanation! Very interesting and important information!!!

[@Tat2TankT]

Great info thanks for sharing

[@hectorherrera8316]

Thanks a lot!

[@artbykcappadona5166]

Square inch helps me with medium size paintings from around 9 x 12 up to 24 x 18 maybe even a little bigger. But when the painting is really big or when the painting is minuscule, because I do some minis, the price is out of whack. In other words you’re not getting paid anything for doing a mini painting and sometimes you spend more time on it than you do on a big painting. I’m talking about little tiny miniatures. Also a very large painting becomes astronomically expensive. Of course it should be more but I don’t know if it should be that much more. So it gets a little confusing when you start figuring little paintings and big paintings. But it works very well for the medium size paintings.

[@artbykcappadona5166]

I also have a question about lowering your prices when you’re not selling in a gallery or you’re not selling at a event. Since you don’t have to pay commission you can charge less. I heard that a gallery, if it’s working with you, does not like you to sell your pieces for less on your own because you’re under cutting them. Plus what happens to the customer if he realizes he paid 30% more for your painting then someone else did for the same size painting? What do you think about that? So these are just questions that I contemplate because I’m not sure what to do about them. I would love your advice on this.

[@openstudiod]

yes, it is a very interesting question. First of all, yes - the galleries do not want you to sell your painting outside of the gallery lower than what you have in the gallery.. this is true. That is why I do not work with the galleries but directly with the collectors, and thanks to the technologies, it is possible these days. If you are not in the galleries, you have the flexibility to change the prices based on whatever your need. These are the two routes that you have to choose - gallery or direct. Gallery will take up to 60%... meaning you won't be able to sell your paintings have to sell your painting outside of the gallery with a lower price. Also, it will depend on the region/location. For example, if you are in Charleston SC, and you have a gallery with your work - you can not sell your painting by size lower than what you have in the gallery. The gallery may kick you out for doing it. But at the same time, you are not selling the same mugs with the picture of your painting. All created by you paintings are different despite the fact of the same size. You can always say that the painting you sold for $600 less is not that good compared to the painting in the gallery. But I would not recommend taking this route - it is not just right. I would recommend deciding on two routes: Working with galleries or directly with the collectors. And if you decide to work with the galleries - you have to live by their policies. They do all the work to connect you with collectors, and you just paint. Or, you decide to work directly with collectors - you have the flexibility of pricing your work and getting 100% profit, but you have to work hard on getting to the collectors. You may ask: can I do both routes? the answer is no. You will sign the agreement that you can not work with the collectors from the gallery. I have seen some really crazy agreements from the galleries, which is why I have decided to work directly with collectors. It is a very hard route due to some time investment but doable. I know a lot of artists taking this route. Please let me know if you have any other questions.

[@KatMa664]

@@openstudiod thank you Vlad. Years ago the gallery framed your work and ran adds and featured you and your work in showings. They paid for everything. Today they hand your painting on a wall and take 60% after it sells. Leaving you nothing after supplies, framing and time. But it’s very hard to get your name out there if you are reasonably new. Thanks for the response. Can you tell me more about the two students you plan to take on?

[@petersenesac8102]

I appreciate your answer but you didn't really answer the question about what you do when the collector says I paid $600 more for that last week at a different place. Everybody I talk to says you got to keep the prices the same everywhere. Decide on a price per size and stick to it. But 6.00 a s.i.? A 16 x 20 would be over 2000.00. You have to be darn good (different) or pretty famous to command those prices. I'll join your Patreon to ask more questions. Thanks for your videos. I really appreciate your efforts. I know making videos is not easy.

[@openstudiod]

Hi Peter, the point I was trying to make is this: do not get to the situation when collector can come to you with $600 overpay. If you decided to work with collectors - keep the prices same as the gallery prices. And do not try to make a sale outside of your gallery unless you are in the same location at Plein air competition. If you decided to work directly with collectors - you have flexibility changing the prices based on quality of your work. $2000 for 16x20 is the average price for professional paintings. I do not have patriot account (I do not use it), but I use ko-fi account. I would love to connect

[@lw19309]

I about fell over when you said $6.00. Does it make a difference what part of the country you are in? I am in Central Missouri, and most people here will laugh at me if I charge that much. How do I change that culture?

[@openstudiod]

Absolutely! You can change it with some investment that will move you to the other level of art marketing. It all depends on what layer of art industry you are in. If you are at the bottom you will be charging $1 per sq inch or even less. if you move yourself to a higher level/layer you will start charging more. Stay tuned... I'm working on the video expalining this exact problem.

[@jamminjordo1123]

Hi Vlad, love the videos! I just found your channel a few days ago and can’t stop watching. What underpainting medium do you use and do you have an email that your viewers use contact you directly with any questions? Thank you!

[@openstudiod]

Hi Jordan, and welcome to Open Studio D. I’m Vlad… and I’m glad… my videos are helping you and you like it. The medium I’m using is M2 and G2. M2 is 2 parts of varnish and one part of gamsol; G2 is one part of galkyd and one part of gamsol. M2 is fir more studio work, G2 is for Plein air. One of the best way to connect with me is through patron or ok-fi that I just created. Since I’m getting overwhelming amount of emails I decided to switch to these two platforms fir better management of all messages that I’m receiving. I’m not sleeping a single question from my followers… but unfortunately my email sometimes marking it as a spam. Also, KZbin told me not to give my email inside the comments due to security. Another way to connect with me is to use a contact form on my site. I hope you understand :) Please ask me anything… if I have the answer I will reply within 24 :)

[@jamminjordo1123]

@@openstudiod thank you very much for the reply! I will be sure to add those items to my shopping list! 😁

[@openstudiod]

@@jamminjordo1123 Jordan, you won’t be able to buy M2 and G2 at the stores.. you would have to mix it by yourself :)

[@jamminjordo1123]

@@openstudiod yep! I just mean’t adding the separate items to my shopping list. I came across your mediums videos earlier and got the full explanation there. Do you just use Gamvar glossy as your varnish of choice? Thanks again!

[@openstudiod]

@@jamminjordo1123 yes, I use gloss