Personally, I've never actually SOLD a piece of my artwork before
(Edit: scratch that, it's 11/2/10 and I've sold 5 commissions). But it astounds me what kind of art people will buy. I've seen artwork of somebody who has barely been drawing 2 years and people have bought artwork from them, but people who have been drawing 5+ years can't sell anything at all, regardless of how much work they put into it, how good it really does look or how cheap it is!
And some people will buy a $500 commission from an artist just because they are really popular. What the hell?
Then there's the problem of "charge what you think you're worth". Honestly, this would only happen in a perfect world and the world we live in is FAR less than perfect. It's in shitsville, okay? You cannot charge what
you think
you are worth because
you are
not the one buying. You will never sell anything if you charge what you think you're worth because people will not buy that. People will buy what they think you're worth. And that may just so well be shit all but hey, look at musicians, the poor bastards.
Do you think the composition, lyrics, voice, instruments, recording studio fees and equipment and hours upon hours of recording is worth a measly
$0.99 a song? No. But they do it because they like doing it and it's a source of income regardless. They probably think they're worth more than that but the price is set with every artist regardless of how much work they put into it or how many hours it took to record. It can take a popular band
months upon
months of recording a 10 track album but only sell it for
$15. Most popular
artists charge $15 for a
sketch, and that isn't even completed. A 10 track album is 10 completed works that took
months to make and so much hard work and frustration for
several people. One sketch from a popular artist doesn't take several people, hard work
or frustration and months of working - it takes roughly
15 minutes to an
hour. Do you realize that a 15 minute sketch for $15 is a dollar a
minute? Do you realize how ridiculous this is?
15 minutes spent on a $15 drawing is roughly 60% more than minimum wage per hour. $10 an hour for say, a cashier job where you stand there on your feet for an hour ringing up items for usually rude, arrogant and ignorant people with attitudes that treat you like shit is normal - but apparently, so is $15 for sitting there with a pencil and a piece of paper for 15 minutes drawing a character with nobody there to scream at you, no boss to pick on you, no standing on your feet, and no having to ring up tampons for an obese woman with an "I am a princess" shirt and wet, sweaty money coming from the wallet hidden in her blubberous cleavage. Yes, this has happened before - I read it on FML.
Ew.Of course I'm not one to make artists out to look like complete cheapskates that are ripping people off because there's nothing in their way to stop them from doing so. I'm only talking about the giant moving assholes that treat other artists like they were born with art skills beyond comprehension and never had to work for it - unlike
those artists...
And the "charge what you think you're worth" just makes it ten tons worse with these people.
Most of the artists however follow the "charge what you think you're worth" and charge around $8 for a badge, maybe $15 for a full colored picture digital, and more, depending on how advanced they are and if they need money for paint or colored pencils. These people are reasonable. They charge what they think they're worth, within reasonable amounts, without having to charge a ridiculously not worth it amount.
I'm not saying $15 for a sketch is a horribly over priced amount, either. Some of these artists take hours to do a simple sketch and that itself is worth paying $15 for, at least to me.
