I’ve actually decided to turn this into a book, and it will feature expanded Chapters than what I’ve written here. I’ve slid away from teaching as Freelance work has overwhelmed me and honestly teaching is extremely important but you cannot compare the compensation between the two, teaching pays poorly.
SELLING/PRICING/PARTING WITH YOUR WORK
This is a hard one for a lot of freelancers. I have a lot of artwork piled up in portfolios and in various containers in my weather controlled basement environment. I don’t feel anything personal to my artwork for the most part and I’d rather have the cash than the pieces of paper.
That said, there are one or two pieces I personally do like, none of my own work hangs anywhere in my house other than a few pieces Veronica has up in her studio. I don’t like looking at my old work.
I once stayed at a Bed and Breakfast owned by a retired artist. EVERY room of her house was decorated with pieces of her own work, it was impossible not to notice. The artwork was fine, it showed some seasoned skill but it was in the Grandma Moses vein and not me cuppa but I made the incredible double mistake of 1. Engaging in Friendly Conversation with my host and 2. Complimenting one of the pieces I actually did like.
This lead to an endless torrent of her artistic journey, which judging by her husband’s reaction, had been repeated before and often. That followed with tea (I don’t like tea) biscuits and scrapbooks full of yet even more artwork. The next morning was worse because her daughter looked me up and recognized that I was not only published but I’d served as a juror in many many art shows and had counciled literally thousands of students, I was now being asked to critique the work I was looking at over breakfast.
Side note: This is one of the few times I’ve stayed at a bed and breakfast and one of the last times, because I like my privacy and while it’s certainly nice to meet interesting people — I LOVED The couple that ran the onsen I stayed in while on a trip to Kyoto Japan and was fascinated by their stories, well, not everyone entrances me.
My point of this is simple, this woman told me (without my asking) that she would never sell her work, it was too personal. She was in her late 70s or early 80s, all this meant was that her daughter would be inheriting a HUGE PILE of artwork that she would either have to store, sell or donate somewhere. That’s not an enviable position to be in.
Most artists face the dilemma of how to price their work, they don’t want to give it away and they don’t want to overprice it. There’s also the issue of flipping. I used to do commissions really cheap at shows, but they were quick commissions, then I found them being re-sold on eBay for a lot more than I was charging so I raised my prices.
So how do you price?
1- First, consider whether it was a published piece or not. Published = higher value, but it also means you already got paid once for creating the artwork, now how to price it for sale? You can go about it a few different ways but the easiest is to just come up with a number you’d be happy with. Comic book art has started going for insane prices lately, and there are several auction houses where you can get a look at what sales are going for. Heritage Auctions, Comic Link and Metropolis Comics all run original art auctions on a regular basis.
I’ll give you an example; Veronica and I drew a full issue of SABRINA THE TEENAGE WITCH for Archie Comics by hand. Rare in this day and age as digital speeds up so much of the process. We’ve been asked over and over again if we’d sell the whole thing which is 20 pages plus the cover. It’s hard to find an entire issue still together— we’ve sold other pages individually for $100 - $800 each— and other covers for $1200 so how to price an entire issue?
Looking at previous sales, a complete issue of John Romita Jr’s SUPERMAN recently sold for $17k. JRJR is a much bigger name than we are, and Superman outranks Sabrina (even though I don’t think so) so we thought maybe a third of that price which would take us to $5,600 for the entire package. I have no doubt that in twenty years this same set will be a $20k package and for that matter the JRJR Superman set will be $80k but that’s twenty years from now. We are in no hurry to sell it because of its rarity so that’s the price.
I have a page from one of my graphic novels which is completely drawn and lettered by hand and its one of the rare things I’ve done that I really liked, I’ve brought it to shows for $18k and that’s what it’d take to sell it, I don’t expect to sell it anytime soon.
But other work? As I said I’d rather have the dough than the art, so I tend to price my work cheap.
2- If you price your work and get some eyes on it and it doesn’t sell lower your price until you hit a price point where the work DOES sell. You can do the same thing by putting your work on eBay and starting the opening bid at some ridiculously low opening price (and no reserve) then see where it ends, but make sure you promote the auction to the mailing list I told you to make way back in Chapter 3 or 4.
If your work feels too precious to you remember you can always make more, and its an amazing talent to be able to take a blank piece of paper and turn it into money.
Andy Fish is a freelance artist and writer who has been living the lifestyle longer than there has been an iPhone on this planet. The advice given has worked for him, it might work for you, he hopes it does. But like all advice, take it with your own situation in mind. If you want to contact him shoot him an email andy@andytfish.com