FAIR Art Pricing Guide

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Deja-Lu's avatar
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Have you ever wanted to open commissions or create adoptables but had idea how to fairly price them? Well, are you in luck because this guide will help you with just that and more.

The first thing to note is types of currency on DeviantArt.
There are two main methods of payment used here:

-Points :points:
-PayPal 
There are other methods too such as sending cash, paying with art/designs, or some other unrelated demand like in-game currency from an MMORPG but I'm not going to go into detail with these.

Something to keep in mind when dealing with currency is the exchange rate.
-1 DeviantArt point is equal to 1.25¢ USD (although most people find it easier to charge 1 DeviantArt point to every 1¢ USD)
-$1 USD is equal to $1.33 CAD, £0.80 GBP and so on (international currency exchange changes over time so be aware of that too).

So, what's the method to figuring out the price?
Well, it's a fairly simple equation--

Time + Materials + Profit = Price


Time means how long it takes you to create something but it also factors in your effort and experience. This isn't to say you can't take commissions if you're just starting out. But, if you're not experienced with a solid style, the customer may not get exactly what they asked for.

Materials means the cost of the tools and consumable items (markers, pens, fabric ect.) that it took to complete your commission. What that, you might ask? "This doesn't apply to me because my art is digital!" Well, if you use a free art program, and a mouse/trackpad then you are correct! bear clap emoji It doesn't cost you anything up front have no material cost. However, if you use a paid art program, graphic tablet, Copic markers, etcetera, then it's probably a good idea to factor in a little increase to eventually break even.

Profit is how much currency you actually want to make. Profit is up to you but don't go too crazy with the percentage. Average clothing markup is around 200% and average general retail is around 50% so it's just whatever you feel is right for you

The most important of these is TIME. We only get so much time so you shouldn't sell yourself short. Minimum wage in the US averages $10 an hour and you can make it by working at a fast food place that requires no artistic talent.

How to figure out time? Make a piece of art like one that you would want to sell and time yourself (but don't rush) to get a rough idea of how long each might take.

Just add together all the factors and there you have your fair price.

Some extra tips-

-Pretend like it's on sale by putting the price you want as the sale price and a higher price for the "original price". Okay, maybe that's lying but people but things when they're on sale.
-Make a package deal. Perhaps a discount if they buy a certain amount of something.
-ADD IT TO A MILLION GROUPS. There are plenty of commission,  adopt and advertising groups on DeviantArt. If your not sure where to look for them you could search commission in the group section or look at groups that someone else has their commission deviation in.

If this helped you, please fav it and spread it around. It really saddens me to see so many artists selling themselves short on DeviantArt just to make a few points.

© 2017 - 2024 Deja-Lu
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7ropes's avatar
This helped a lot, I was missing the group adding part mostly, thank uwu!