Art prices nowadays

How much would you pay for art?

nothing .-.	11.2%	[ 27 ]
tens of millions	6.6%	[ 16 ]
hundreds of millions	10.4%	[ 25 ]
billions	17.0%	[ 41 ]
tens of billions	42.7%	[ 103 ]
all of the above are too expensive	12.0%	[ 29 ]
Total Votes:			[ 241 ]

[SuccuViv]

fly high - icarus

so what you're saying is you'd gladly pay more to a 'well known' artist and less to some no-name, even if their art quality is the same?

that's sad.

In an ideal world of perfect people your argument would make sense. "Art quality" is such a subjective concept anyways x ox; I've taken risks in the past with people that weren't well known and once I got amazing art, the second the person produced something very unlike their samples, so there's a certain feeling of security you get from ordering from someone that's well known and draws a lot so you can gauge their work and see if it's consistent.

Besides I really like some artist's style, someone else might have something similar in style and at a reduced price, but why should someone settle? I just really don't get you.

[bitchcoint]

Sand Dancer Shaka

fly high - icarus

Sand Dancer Shaka

Well.

I think art prices should reflect the skill level, notoriety/popularity of the artist and current inflation as a combination. Most decent art shouldn't really be going for less than about 60B. Uber popular artists like Cioccolatte and Bomb4y should be getting a lot more than that up to to the 700B+ range, Sakimi-chan types up into the 900B-trills is about right. It's really dependent on those factors.

Even at those prices it's still way cheaper to buy art on Gaia than it is to buy from the same artist for RL cash funnily enough, so no matter what is charged it's always a better deal for the buyer than the artist. $2.50 if you wait for the right deal = 50B, so you could get really good art for $10= 200B. On dA the same art might cost you $25-- BOOSH! Approx. 50% off art sweatdrop

The pricing forum is rubbish for actually pricing because it consists solely of either: people who want cheap art (therefore under-price) or people who want price backs (therefore overprice). My best advise is to look around, pick someone of a similar quality and style to you and use their pricing as a guide, then move up from there.

so what you're saying is you'd gladly pay more to a 'well known' artist and less to some no-name, even if their art quality is the same?

that's sad.

Lol, you jump to such massive conclusions over nothing, that's sad. I don't personally buy art, but have observed that this is a trend and a fact. People who are well known tend to have more followers and therefore limited art slots, which drives up the price.

i don't jump to anything. this is what you wrote:

Quote:

I think art prices should reflect the skill level, notoriety/popularity of the artist and current inflation as a combination.

then you go on to say more popular artists should be paid more, which is bullshit.

art prices should depend only on the skill level of the artist, aka how good/bad the art one is buying is.

paying higher prices because the artist is more popular than their equally skilled counterpart is retarded, but gaia and the world in general is full of retards willing to pay more than something is worth just because someone popular has made it. i'm very well aware of that.

the rest of your post is simple law of supply/demand, which holds true and i agree with it. you simply expressed yourself badly in the first post you made.

[bitchcoint]

SuccuViv

fly high - icarus

so what you're saying is you'd gladly pay more to a 'well known' artist and less to some no-name, even if their art quality is the same?

that's sad.

In an ideal world of perfect people your argument would make sense. "Art quality" is such a subjective concept anyways x ox; I've taken risks in the past with people that weren't well known and once I got amazing art, the second the person produced something very unlike their samples, so there's a certain feeling of security you get from ordering from someone that's well known and draws a lot so you can gauge their work and see if it's consistent.

Besides I really like some artist's style, someone else might have something similar in style and at a reduced price, but why should someone settle? I just really don't get you.

i'm not arguing that tastes vary, but it's very easy to compare quality of final product from artist to artist.

my argument makes sense either way. what doesn't is people who are foolish enough to pay more just because someone well known in the community will sign their art. because people are foolish they drive up the price, not the 'popular' artists themselves.

it's been a long time since i bought art personally, but i used to lurk minishops a lot. i've seen plenty of 'unknown' artists sell their amazing art for spare change while people bought very low quality art from 'artists' who were great at mingling and making 'friends' but horrible at actual drawing.

on one hand, good for me for getting cheap art by not being a retard and falling for 'brand names'. on other, i feel bad for skilled artists who had/have to underprice their art because they don't know how to become popular.

and again, i am not talking about styles. styles vary from one artist to the next, but the quality of art is easy to compartmentalize. bad scans, shitty anatomy, rigid poses, dead eyes.. is quality. stylization is something completely different and not something i am talking about right now.

[SuccuViv]

fly high - icarus

i'm not arguing that tastes vary, but it's very easy to compare quality of final product from artist to artist.

my argument makes sense either way. what doesn't is people who are foolish enough to pay more just because someone well known in the community will sign their art. because people are foolish they drive up the price, not the 'popular' artists themselves.

it's been a long time since i bought art personally, but i used to lurk minishops a lot. i've seen plenty of 'unknown' artists sell their amazing art for spare change while people bought very low quality art from 'artists' who were great at mingling and making 'friends' but horrible at actual drawing.

on one hand, good for me for getting cheap art by not being a retard and falling for 'brand names'. on other, i feel bad for skilled artists who had/have to underprice their art because they don't know how to become popular.

and again, i am not talking about styles. styles vary from one artist to the next, but the quality of art is easy to compartmentalize. bad scans, shitty anatomy, rigid poses, dead eyes.. is quality. stylization is something completely different and not something i am talking about right now.

Quality and style are not values set on stone, give 2 pieces to a group of people and while most could agree one is better others will disagree, that's the heart of my argument.
I'm not comparing stick drawings to more advanced art, I'm talking about similar levels of skill. Even in something as homogeneous as anime art you'll see differences in style that some people would interpret as "better" or "worse" based on their personal opinion.
If you think you and your opinion are above everyone else's then I really have nothing to say to you.
Besides art is really subjective, what is bad anatomy to you could be what I like and find appealing, for example the Sailor Moon characters have really long legs and stylized human proportions. If I'm not looking for realism stuff like anatomy will be judged differently by both of us.

[Catena Carswell]

I think a good metric for whether or not you're charging enough for your art is if you're not being overworked with commissions. If you're swamped with work, you're not charging enough, and buyers can tell.

[Eurydice Evyn]

I'm not an artist, but I have a lot of artist friends (Not on Gaia, mind you, but on other websites) and everyone will tell you the same thing; art is HARD.

In the current economy I can understand why most suggested prices are in the billions; 'cause that's what most decent items on here cost these days. So while I don't buy art 'cause I'd rather buy items (I'm a greedy item whore) I completely understand the choice to price art like that.

[amulet_ruby]

I dont pay for art, I make art. and I allow people to bribe me for the art, because I have no way of knowing how much I should take for it...
But I have been paid up to a trillion, that was awesome.

[vloo]

I used to buy a lot of art.
Now, not so much. I've kinda been out of the loop on here for a while now, for one.
Two- I just don't know what to offer anymore. The bribes I see are way more than I could offer so I just don't even bother.
Three- I don't stick with an avatar long enough anymore. I used to have one that I would use as a default, but now I like to mess around with stuff.
I've been debating switching to the Animal base but idk~

[Myrielle]

I wish I were the type to blow wealth on art. I used to get free art from my friend, but since he retired, I've pretty much relied on the generosity of kind artists.

[Tiny Chibis]

since been a couple months since my last post I thought I would debate on myself if I should update what I said already I still sell for 75 K and my customers still want me to up my prices you know to a couple bil; however its hard to explain why I sell for so low I know I am probably underpricing myself; however I still enjoy seeing all the different avatars and original characters that come through the shop that otherwise wouldn't come through if it wasn't so cheap.
in terms of it being more worthwhile to take IR commissions it doesn't help like if on DA or Tumblr if you're not in a popular fandom or liked by a famous artist who tries to help promote you. some people find it hard to promote themselves and try to get themselves out there without the help of some one more popular to help them. if it wasn't for a few popular artists that I know, I wouldnt have found the few commissions I did get for real cash to pay for my cats surgery.

[Voievoda]

Do you enjoy getting/giving art on Gaia? I love getting art on gaia. So much love.
Are these prices justifiable in the current economy? Not for the artists.
Do you think these prices reflect the buying ability of the general public? What?

Question for artists though, is it worth the bother of having an art request thread or prefer people come to your shop?
ps: is like a couple hundred bill a good bribe?

[Punktz]

Voievoda

Question for artists though, is it worth the bother of having an art request thread or prefer people come to your shop?
ps: is like a couple hundred bill a good bribe?

I'm surprised this thread is still alive
It depends, but I think more artists reply to art request threads (only of character designs they like) than customers visit art shop threads (because it's hard to navigate that forum). Artists with art shops also drop links to their shops in request threads, so I think an art request thread helps.

[mayakko]

fly high - icarus

with the economy as it is i find it incredibly rude when people throw a bitchfit over someone asking for a couple of billions for good art.
you do know you can buy hundreds of billions of gaia gold for 50 bucks, right?

Pretty much this. And 50 bucks is like, a couple of quick & simple RL commissions for any decent artist. If someone wanted to commission me here today, I would not hesitate to ask for the gold equivalent of my RL rates. If they don't want to pay that much, it's their loss -- I can do a RL commission and buy the items I want anyway. No skin off my back.

[Rilech]

Voievoda

Question for artists though, is it worth the bother of having an art request thread or prefer people come to your shop?
ps: is like a couple hundred bill a good bribe?

There are quite a few artists that don't have a set shop, and will only offer art through
auctions or by responding to requests. And for some of the artists that actually do have
shops, they often link to them in requests too.

So stopping by an art shop if you know an artist has one and you know you want art
from them in particular would be a good idea, but probably the best way to get your
request out would be by having your own request thread - as it would be seen by both
those with and without shops. : }

[mayakko]

SuccuViv

Quality and style are not values set on stone, give 2 pieces to a group of people and while most could agree one is better others will disagree, that's the heart of my argument.

Not to butt in but butting right in, I think you're talking past each other and there's a simple misunderstanding here. When artists talk about art quality, they're talking about very objective things like anatomy, perspective, composition and so on. These things are set in stone. There's a pretty big difference between bad anatomy and stylised anatomy.

Of course some people might still like the drawing with bad anatomy anyway, but the fact that they like it doesn't change the fact that the anatomy is bad, and thus, of poor quality. Does that make sense? The same is true for other things such as perspective, composition and so on.