Welcome to Gaia! ::

I'm quoting you all to make you aware of this thread and the kind of advice i'm offering. Some of you just do graphics, I know, but I'm quoting you for the hell of it, maybe you know someone else that's looking for advice.

If you're not interested, that's totally fine too! This thread is purely to let you know you have an opportunity to ask questions and get answers from someone who does art and design for a living.

Thank you very much for offering to help!
I can't help but think that the reason for this
thread is because I linked you to my 50 cent
piece (I'm the only one who mentioned prices
first, I believe). If this isn't the case feel free to
carry on what you're doing.

If your anger is directed at me, then I'd appreciate
if you could ignore me and my art pricing. There's
a very good reason they're 50 cents, even if they
look like they should be more expensive.

No worries! I'm glad to be able to help.

Okay, to answer your question, yes - in a manner of speaking. For example, I have two hourly rates: $50 p/h for graphic design and UI/UX stuff, and $35 p/h for digital art and illustration. The biggest reason for that is that most digital art takes me about 8+ hours, and if I was charging $50 p/h for that, no one would buy (even if they wanted to, they just wouldn't be able to afford it)!

I guess my main question is did you time yourself based on actual hours worked or a kind of general start to finish kind of thing? I used to think I took a lot longer than I actually did, once I started timing it, I realised it only really took me about 8-10 hours of work. That being said, the quality you're putting out seems worth the time being spent on it.

For an hourly rate, it depends mostly on what you feel comfortable charging. In terms of skill and results? I'd say you look like a professional and you can charge what you please (within reason), but if you feel like you need more experience and want to work on streamlining your method, you can always charge a student rate at first until you've got the feel for it.

In general, a student rate is $20 p/h, a junior (< 3 years industry experience) is around $25, a mid weight (3 - 6 years) is about $35 p/h and a senior artist (6+ years) would be around $40 p/h

Funnily enough, the best way to avoid bad clients is as easy as charging the price you want people to pay! You'll get a lot of people coming to you and giving you rhetoric like 'this is too expensive! I know 'x' artist that does the exact same thing for way cheaper' - that is a bad client waiting to happen. Right off the bat you know they don't respect you and your need to keep yourself afloat financially, and they also don't respect your art style (or that of the other person's for that matter). This is the point where you promptly (but politely) tell these people to ******** off. If they really want your art, they will find the money. Most of the time it's just someone looking to save a few dollars by bullying you into submission, and that just sets the precedent for a lot of bad/sad times for you.

Another tip to avoid bad clients is much the same, but slightly different. Never work for free. Ever. I cannot stress that enough. Your reputation in art is as important as your art skills themselves - particularly if the industry in your area is small; word travels fast, and if you work for free (even if you're doing it for a friend!), you're going to get a bunch of people coming to you with the whole 'oh but you worked for free for this guy, why don't I get the same treatment?!', and you'll get a bunch of offers to work for 'experience' and 'exposure'; again, promptly (but politely) tell them - and the horse they rose in on - to ******** off.

(as a side note, something like the AURB is a little different because in a sense it's more like creating something original, you're doing it for personal reasons more than for other people at the end of the day - in a very loose sense).

Another HUGE thing to have in place is an invoice contract. You give them an invoice before you start the work outlining what work is being commissioned, the total price, and a contract at the bottom detailing the things they are and aren't allowed to do with your work (i.e. claim it as their own, alter it without asking you to do it first, using it ways that defame you, giving you credit lines in their productions, the consequences of general copyright breaches, etc.) And then you get them to sign it. Bad clients will shy away from a legally binding document like vampires to garlic. It's a litmus test if you will, of their character - if they object, run and run far. This also has the added benefit of making sure they can't flake out on you and say they're not going to pay because it's not what they agreed to, because they signed a contract that said they would. It ALSO stops them from asking you to 'oh can you change this and this and this and this and this and this...' until they have ten times the work commissioned, for practically nothing, because it clearly outlines what was commissioned and any major modifications must be commissioned separately.

Honestly, a lot of working freelance in art is figuring out the most politically correct way of saying '******** you, pay me.' (it generally involves saying something like 'i don't think i'm the right artist for you', etc. and sending them on their way with a polite smile.)

That being said! If you're looking in the right circles, this stuff almost never happens. If you're working in circles that have a healthy respect for artists (it's rare, but it does happen), and even if you're just working with people that respect you as a human being, you'll almost never run into this sort of thing.

One of the things I always like to suggest if you're looking for communities that support artists, is actually the Furry community. Furries are an excellent client base as they are repeat clients (usually wanting lots of art of themselves and their friends/partners for major holidays, birthdays, etc.) and they're willing to pay your price for it! There are of course, occasional douches, but ultimately you're going to get bad clients /everywhere/, that's just the way it is in a society that doesn't respect artists - and if you do all of the aforementioned things, you'll weed out a lot of the bad clients right away. It's a good place to start out that will give you a lot of variety in requests - all the better for practice.

Even if you're not going to do it as a career choice, conducting yourself professionally and having a good reputation will only bring in more clients, which is more money and more work on your portfolio, and more work on your portfolio brings in more clients too. It's very much an exponential curve.

Apologies for the essay! I hope it helps!

Thank you for much valuable input ^_^

Maybe you could help me out? I have no plans to do this professionally; I gave up on that a while back because it just didn't feel right. Regardless, doing commissioned pieces for RLC every once in a while is a huge ego boost that makes me feel better. I'm pretty sure I'm undervaluing myself and haven't officially timed any of my pieces but I usually take anywhere from 4-8 hours on one thing. On the flip side, though, I feel like I'm a bit too rough on the edges to move to anything higher just yet. My most updated stuff is over here. Even if I only plan on doing this as a hobby thing, should I consider making things more organized? ex: separating quick little scribbles from actual pieces I worked extra hard on?