Estimating value is challenging. What might take one person an hour, could take another person 6 hours. I would roughly estimate a price for something like this pic https://www.furaffinity.net/view/51395466/ at $100 to $150. Having said that, I don't know how long you took on this piece. If it took you 3 hours, then that would come out to $33 to $50 an hour, and that's pretty good. If it took 6 hours, then it's around $16 to $25 an hour, and that's... a bit low imo. I don't know what your ideal value per hour is, but that kind of consideration is still important.

Anyhow, I hope this helps.

(ps I love your art) X3

Youre absolutely right, that is why i said be as approximate as you want, and if you find it too bothersome, then its okay too.
I charge 8 per hour. That particular piece wasnt commissioned so i didnt make money off of it. I would guess it took around 8 hours.
It helps a lot, thank you very much~

(ps you and people like you is why i make it)

Honestly, I can't put a price tag of any decent accuracy on your art and the work that goes into it. I know one artist (MoldOfficial) who is willing to put more or less the same amount effort into her art as you do, for about 100USD or more, depending on the complexity and number of characters and their shapes.

I don't know the true value of your art, I can only guess the price by looking at other artists of similar quality competing for my wallet, so I'd probably say between 100 - 200USD for a commission from you.

Thank you for giving me this info~ I really appreciate you trying to be as fair and accurate as you can. Putting value on art can be really hard, so this is more than enough

I personally set my own work at 25 an hour 30 for complicated pieces. But I never go over the 100 mark out of my own personal code to keep work affordable and accessible. Also Cas sales drop off when few can afford it.

So you set yourself a rule to never go past 4 hours of work for a single piece? Do you never wish to go further than that?
And thank you for the heads up

Actually my work can take a few weeks or a couple months. But at my lazy pace and while doing multiple projects at once. I set a slow pace to keep my workload easy and to stop me from burning out. But generally in one chunk id take maybe 7 or 8 hours for a new very complex commission that uses little to no old tech to make. One that I can reuse or refit old chassis I'd say 3 or 4 hours tops. Something that can use existing models less than an hour. But my work is physical craftsmanship designing and painting miniatures not drawing so I don't know how that translates if it does. But like I said I take whatever time it takes to finish. I think of it per job. And again my purpose was and is to keep it accessible and affordable for everyone. My personal reasons are only sensical for my own backwards personal code of honor.

I know saying this will work on pricing me out of being able to afford 'em (as frequently), but back when I found you with this piece, I was totally ready to spend like... $150-$200 for something of this quality, and that was before I had a bit more expendable income.

https://www.furaffinity.net/view/35171904/

That is nice to hear, thank you~ And dont worry about me increasing my price, i just want to make sure that once i get to making prices, i set it so that people would find it fair. And i might add return customer discount, so dont worry about not being able to afford it

Artists set their own rates according to how long it takes them to earn enough money to survive in the part of the world they live in. Price according to your needs and I'll decide if I can afford/like/want your art at that price.
Pricing isn't about your commissioners, at least not directly.

If you can only afford to live on $100 artworks (picking an arbitrary value) but your personal branding is only picking up $50 artworks, then you can ride out that time until you can manage to charge $100 for an artwork; or you can get a job that pays better and practice, and take small commissions where you can.

If you can afford to live on $20 artworks, and your personal branding is picking up $50 artworks, then you're in a great position.

None of that involves your commissioners. It only involves the commissioners when they have to decide if they can afford your price. If you're charging $50 for artworks then your pool of commissioners includes all the people who can afford $50 artworks. If you're charging $100 the pool is smaller. If you're charging $25 then the pool is bigger.

At the moment, you've got a commission queue that extends out into forever. Or three weeks. I have no idea how fast you work, whether you do this full time or part time, or what.
Let's assume that your commission queue is six months. Six months suggests to me that your prices are lower than you can achieve, because people are willing to ait six months to get your art at your current price. That sounds like it's a pretty good deal for those people only just joining a six month queue.
If your queue was only a couple of items long, and you were emptying it regularly, and you had struggles in always having commissions to do, and you weren't bringing in enough money, then I'd suggest that you were charging too much. How much is too much? It depends how big your queue is.

So, the question you're asking is the wrong one. "Would you pay X for my art?" doesn't get an answer that's useful. Some people will pay X; some people will pay 2X; some people would pay 5X; some people would call you a thief and tell you they'd only ever pay 0.2X for your work.
What you need to find out is whether there are enough people who'd pay X that you can afford to bump up your prices and move up from charging X to charging Y instead.

Having said all that, hourly rates aren't any use to me at all as a new commisioner. I have no idea how fast you work. You have no idea how many revisions I'm going to ask for.
Per-character prices aren't easy, but they're easier to manage. Saying "I charge roughly $50 per character, but I want my work to be mostly group based, so I only charge $20 for extra characters" could be a costing method. But "I charge $30 per character" is also valid. As is "I charge $20 per character but that's increased for more complex characters and poses. Heck, so is "$40 per nude character but $100 per clothed character because I hate drawing clothes."

I really only want to find out what people would think is a fair price for my art, however you gave very good advice. Based on it i should be able to increase my price quite a bit. But since drawing is a hobby for me and now i have a job again, i will pick a price not based on necessity, but approximate fairness.
Thank you for the in depth comment~

As an artist, I appreciate the insight your watchers are giving.
I find myself wondering about similar things as well. It's a bit of a dilemma: pricing per hour makes sense when thinking about time being equivalent to effort. But would it still make sense if you improved your skill, making less mistakes; the same work would require less time, thus charging less?


Due to this, I think it makes more sense to price per character, but still taking into consideration the amount of hours you would need to put in. Attempting to find a balance between valuing your skill and your time.

I like being accurate, but for that purpose i need to count time and when i do i feel pressure. Which makes it so much harder.
I base my hourly rate on approximate final cost and time spent. So, if i spend 12 hours to finish a piece, and final cost is ~100, then my rate is 8 per hour.
I get paid not much for the work i put in, but that is fine. What isnt, is the pressure i put on myself. If the price was static, i wouldnt need to think about it and always feel good about giving people more than they give me. Going that extra mile will feel only good then.

That is why im considering changing my charging method. Static cost = minimal pressure but less accuracy (fairness)
Ill think about how to charge per character, their complexity, interactions and so on

Lowering the pressure you feel means taking care of your mind. I think it's a step in the right direction.

https://www.furaffinity.net/view/47156126/
I'd be happy to pay ~$150 for a two char piece like this, although your art is unique so it's a bit harder to think of pricing xp

Thank you for your response~ I think it may just be difficult to put a price on art in general. Its value is quite subjective.

Not sure if I can put much of an exact proce tag on your art but the big artists I usually deal with charge based on complexity of the art. The more shadows and micro details the more the price goes up. I've spent $200 USD on a pretty detailed Halo ODST wallpaper. Not sure how much time they tool to make it but I like.

That is sound advice. Detail level adds a lot of work, most of it isnt even visible too. It 'just looks right' when its done. Ill definitely give options to increase for those who wish it, or decrease who want their piece done sooner and cheaper

For example like if someone wants heavy shading or extra background details or Easter eggs. More details= more time spent therefore more money is needed. But if someone wants a blank background or no shading than that be quicker and cheaper. :3

$300 - https://www.furaffinity.net/view/61010408/
$250 - https://www.furaffinity.net/view/59402059/
$100 - https://www.furaffinity.net/view/60025111/
$150 - https://www.furaffinity.net/view/56616976/

Just thinking about what I would be glad to pay for art around these qualities. But it is a difficult difficult challenge. I tend to commission a lot of art from artists with wildly varying quality and pricing. Usually for me it's far more important how reliable the artist is. If they say "two weeks" and its done in that time, I will gladly spend more. Some artists prefer a more relaxed schedule, and I don't like paying a premium if I'm going to be poking them for months to try to find out where my art is :)

Side note, would absolutely love to commission you some time! I haven't ever caught you when your comms were open though :(

Oops I got those first two kind of reversed... I think the subway one with the crazy good lighting looks like more effort.

Geeze, I did not realize how old this post was, apologies for the necropost.