Creative Corner

Hello!

I'm working to put together a few guides/articles here for the artists on Flight Rising, and at least one will be about pricing your art. I'd love to know what questions people have with regards to that topic!

So, what's hard about pricing to you? Do you not know what the art economy on FR looks like? Are you insecure about your art and worried about overpricing? What makes it such a tricky topic?

I'd love to try and give advice!

Hi! @liramyne One of my issues with pricing is that I only ever get to play FR on a non regular basis, is bursts actually. And whenever I want to get into it, I seem to have forgotten the price ranges of gems, treasure, and equivalents in USD/Pounds. So perhaps having a nice little chart of what prices art usually goes for is okay? like this maybe? (I kinda went overboard LOL) [img]https://i.imgur.com/aAtDRM9.png[/img] let me know if you'd like the link to the actual spreadsheet (it's a gsheet) and I could share you the link via dm :D (the text is kinda really tiny in the pic and it might help you to actually have a document you can amend instead of retyping everything) Next point, I think pricing is hard because everybody's art is so different so you usually can't say, price things the same way your favorite artist does. So more than a guideline I'd love like, a personal opinion on my art and how much it would go for from someone who is used to buying art. Thats my two cents on the whole thing! Hope it was useful :D

@liramyne
More about maybe colors or genes maybe clothing that is harder to draw maybe that would cost more I'm not sure about that. Maybe how big the image is? I don't sell my art for that reason don't know how to price it

@Suseonhwa The conversion rates fluctuate, but generally $1=100g=100kt is used as the standard! Some shops do a discounted IRL currency rate (I've seen art priced at $7 or 850g) to nudge customers that direction. I'm not familiar with pounds, but it looks like 1 = $1.24; you could do 1 = 125g to keep the math simpler. Your chart looks AMAZING. I was thinking of something similar, but with reference to the economy as a whole and not taking skill into account (except maybe to separate professional-level artists who charge professional prices from hobbyists). FR has, in general, an economy that underpays artists; it's really saturated with artists, and at the lower skill levels, many artists choose to try and distinguish themselves from their competition by lowering their prices--which is an entire other topic I plan to write about. I agree, it's so hard to just go by what other people are charging. There's so much that goes into pricing other than the quality of art, too, and I feel like a guide on that might be useful, since those elements are often overlooked. Good examples, good communication, a reasonable TOS, a distinctive style, and artistic versatility are all important in order to get commissions at a decent price. I'd be happy to offer you a critique/some feedback if you like! I'm thinking about starting a critique thread, actually, so let me know if you'd be interested. ^-^ Thank you so much for such an in-depth response! I'm starting to get some good ideas of what the articles should cover. [emoji=familiar heart size=1]

@Gilipollas

I think a lot of people wonder about their art quality! I'm not sure I could make an objective guide to determining art quality, but I'm thinking about starting a critique thread to help people with this topic. Would you be interested in a ping if I started such a thread?

How quality relates to pricing is a huge topic, and I think that alone will take one or two guides. However, I can give you a quick explanation!

(It will not be a quick explanation. It will be quicker than it could be, but I write a LOT. You've been warned.)

Essentially, as your art's quality goes up, two major things happen. The value of your skills increase, since fewer people are at or above your level than before, and your pool of potentially interested commissioners increases.

This relates directly to the most basic element of economics: supply and demand. If there's a limited supply and a lot of demand, prices for that limited supply go up. As your skill level increases, fewer other people can 'supply' work of your quality, and more people are interested in work of your quality and provide the 'demand'. Your prices can then go up and be supported by the market.

There's a misconception that anyone will buy your art if the price is low enough, no matter the quality, and that's not true. I personally commission a lot of art, and it's not often the price that keeps me from commissioning a piece. Put bluntly, I only buy art that I really like. There's no price low enough that makes me want art I don't actually want, if that makes sense! It's no knock on someone's skill; I'm very picky and that is what it is. It hurts my heart to see people responding to my wanted art ads and offering to haggle on prices--they're usually already undercharging and they're setting themselves up to be taken advantage of.

Why would you want to work for a commissioner who says they don't really like your art enough to pay you decently for your time, but would like you to do that same art for a lower price? Art is a luxury item, and no artist needs to feel bad about someone not being able to afford their work.

Usually at least some people will commission if your art is painfully cheap. If you start a thread selling headshots for 5g, some people will buy them. But here's the thing--those people are usually buying because they saw "art" and "5g" together. They're looking for cheap art. You don't want to be in a situation where your art gets bought because it's the cheapest available. It's much better to focus on improving until you're able to charge a higher price.

I hope this is helpful, in some way at least. I hate seeing artists lowering their prices to try to get commissions, when most of them are already undervaluing their time to begin with. Practice is much more useful in the long run. Good luck with everything, and let me know if you have any questions!

@TheMorningStar01

Complexity charges are very useful to take into consideration! I can include those in a guide for sure. Thank you for the suggestion, and good luck starting a shop!

@liramyne oh it's no problem, and I'd love to be pinged the moment you open up an advice thread or finish those guidelines! :D

@liramyne

Should people base their prices off of IRL wages (like minimum wage) or off of how much treasure someone can earn in an hour? Here in the US, minimum wage is about $7.25 which would be 725 gems or 725,000 treasure at the current rate. However, if someone were to earn treasure in the coliseum they might only get 150,000 per hour. So should an artist's hourly rate be a minimum of 150k or 725k?

For traditional artists only: Make sure to take good photos or scan your art! I see so many people complain that "no one buys my trad. art" when they're drawing everything on lined paper, taking their photos with a digital camera from 2002, posting photos that are upside-down, and their photos are so dark you can barely see the sketch. I want to shake them and tell them that their presentation sucks, and that's why no one is buying their art! Good presentation is key! If you can't be bothered to even rotate the image, then why should I pay for it?

If you can't afford a scanner, there are free apps like Office Lens or PhotoScan will mimic a scanner, so you don't even need to buy anything new.

@AboveClouds

I think you want to try to charge minimum wage! Unfortunately, on FR it's nearly impossible to earn that, so most people price their work lower. It's also hard to earn that anywhere, frankly--only a few of my friends successfully charge prices offsite that put them at or past minimum wage. That said, you shouldn't just lower prices until you get commissions; it'll stunt your art growth in the long run. It's so much better to build your skills than work for digital pennies per hour.

You shouldn't work for a price you're not happy to work for. If you're uncomfortable charging less than 725g/hour, then don't take less than that; however, it may mean you don't get any commissions. That's not a bad thing! You'll just want to figure out how to bring up the value of what you do, and/or how to work faster, until your price and your art's value to commissioners intersect. That could take a long time, but the practice is extremely valuable in the long run--probably more valuable than commissions. However, some people are able to practice what they need to practice via commissions, and they may charge lower prices than the minimum wage equivalent.

In my shop, it depends on the piece, but I usually get 300-400g/hour, with busts starting at a 1500g price. I have commissions open because I value the practice, it helps me with art block, and I want to get experience working on commissioned pieces. I am also getting faster, which is a perk, and I find commissions fun. Essentially, I have other reasons for taking commissions beyond making minimum wage in gems, and I've valued those reasons as making it worth my while. What I primarily want to practice right now is my consistency in a certain style; my anatomy is already solid. That makes commissions a useful vehicle for practice.

Again, don't charge less than you're comfortable with. It's not at all arrogant to decide you don't want to sell your skill and time for less than minimum wage; you'll just need to understand that it's very hard to earn that in FR's art economy. At the end of the day, it's up to you, and there's no "should" except for me saying please. please, PLEASE don't ever go under the 150g/hour you mentioned. I'll be sad.

I hope this helps!