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hey there. this is kind of a ramble, but it has a point.
So recently, I've been thinking that I'm undercharging for some of my work. Specifically my pixel work. I guess what I want to know is how do you decide when to increase prices? Do you screw yourself over by slowly increasing price instead of charging a lot straight out of the gate? Will people respect you more if you charge more? I guess I worry more about losing regular customers and there isn't enough demand in my work so slots might remain empty if I did.
I put my work on tumblr as well as deviantart. Sometimes behance. It seems like I've been doing this for nothing because it's always hardly noticed no matter what improvements I make. I know I'm not terrible by any means so I'm at a loss of what to do. I'm also not very social so I have hardly any friends on here or online for that matter. I really want more artsy friends. To trade art with, draw each others characters as a surprise, and all that fun jazz. I had a few acquaintances on dA with us regularly favoriting and commenting on each others stuff, but I made the mistake of disappearing for months without giving notice and they unwatched me. I was a bit sad when I logged back in and saw that, but I understand why they did it. I'm just so terrible at keeping/starting relationships with people and I know this effects my work.
Has anyone hit a few bumps like this? If you can give me any advice to some of my questions I'd appreciate it a lot..
edit: rereading this and felt like it came across that I don't appreciate those who do like my work. I do. A lot. I know people tell you that you should make art to make yourself feel good, but just knowing people like it and want to see more makes my drive shoot through the roof.
Wall of text, sorry ^^;;
Pricing and Respect
Well for starters Deviantart is a bit of cesspool when it comes to underpricing, and by 'bit' I mean it's a real problem, I've seen amazing pixel art going for the points equivalent of a few CENTS, it's shameful, and it's led to a really bad environment for artists trying to make a decent wage, not just on dA admittedly, but it definitely seems particularly bad there. People often expect art to be cheap, and anyone pricing fairly can end up being the target of people who think they're entitled to your hardwork for a pittance.
Eskiworks and Chira have both written on the subject and I strongly suggest reading what they have to say. Underpriced, Undervalued & Over It: Attitudes Towards Art & Commissions On Commissioning Artists
A slow steady increase can be beneficial, it's less of a shock to the system of your customer base and it allows you to keep attracting more customers while you do it. As far as respect... no. And even if they do it's for the wrong reasons, your work, time and quality and consistency in handling commissions are what's worth respect, if they don't respect your art for the effort that goes into it only because of it's price tag, then they're not respecting you. If they respect you and they want the art, then they'll accept the cost.
Demographic and Time Investment
Subeta is a difficult one, on one hand it's a great place to sell because of the high demand for art for profiles, forumsets etc... on the other hand it's a demographic made up of a high percentage of low earners, including students. So you are likely to need to find a balance between fair pricing and not pricing yourself out of work. The more you do your artwork the faster you'll become at it, but it's worth finding out how you can keep the time investment as low as possible.
I sell a lot of overlays for instance (they're popular and with a time investment I can manage for the price I can sell them at), I can't get much more than £20 for a small image like that sensibly, but I can do them on average in 2 hours or so, so I'm charging about £10/h that's my base line generally (in contrast my 'real' job is £6.50/h and min wage, if I get the job I'm applying for next week that'll jump to £16/h for work I still consider to involve less developed skills than my art, my goal would be to charge £18/h at least for art once I'm no longer depending on it so much and I don't have to worry if there's months between large commissions).
The Cash Clock might help you find a good price to work by, but as a rule of thumb: don't go below minimum wage ever, and try to stay above the living wage. Higher is better, art is a highly skilled past time, you deserve to be compensated for your time, but it's not always possible unless you have A Name For Yourself, particularly on a small site like this.
Networking
Getting noticed... Be right up in peoples faces about it, don't just open a board selling and sit and wait for people to come in, if your slots aren't filling up go look for people who're buying, I fairly regularly check the FA and Weasyl forums to see if I can pick anything up, journals too and tumblr posts. Good customer relations are priceless, you want people to a) like your art so much they want more b) be confident they're always going to get the same or better quality and c) are comfortable approaching you as an artist knowing you want to work with them to produce something they're happy with. (But on that note: be firm with your convictions, there is a temptation to let people claim slots that don't exist, or pressure you into discounts or two for ones etc... don't give into it).
The social side is hard, and something I really struggle with myself, I find I get tired and stressed very quickly with socializing with strangers and that can make starting new friendships hard, most of my close friends I have met through my commissions. and I have worked together a few times, but it's only been recently we started conversing regularly outside of commission work, I think was the same, customers I saw regularly, got along with and usually discussed the work with, if you think you're getting along with someone, you have similar tastes, you click, just introduce some more casual conversation with them -- you're in a unique position, you're drawing for someone, you can tell a lot about a person by what they want drawn, and I met on Flight Rising, they commissioned me once in August 2013 and we've not stopped talking since, just because I found their character interesting and we got to chatting (best decision of my life =P ).
As for vanishing for periods of time, learn from your mistakes. There's nothing wrong with taking time off, but give people warning, and try to avoid doing it in the middle of commissions, that's a good way to loose customers, finish your commissions, don't take on more, leave a message to the important peeps, take some time off to yourself. Being a dependable artist is worth its weight in gold, so if you're unsure about how much you can handle before you need a break, only take on a small number so you're not left struggling to complete art you're too burnt out to do.
In short: take pride in your work, be confident in your worth as an artist, , be up in everyone's business if you think they're buying art =P, keep your quality consistent or growing (your studies are important too, and the more solid your art is the more you can charge and the more attractive your work is I recently re-visited an image LINK, the first was done in my first year on here, the second this year, same character, huge jump in price because I've put the time and effort in to learn my business, my technical knowledge has grown, my knowledge on anatomy and pose etc... what I turn out now is simply of higher quality, even if the time taken might not have been that different).
Ah, I hope there's something useful in all that ^^; If you ever want to drop me a line about art or whatevers then you're welcome to =3
Firstly, thank you so much for taking the time to reply with all of this advice and information. I have read through the links and they resonated with me. I feel exactly as the first person described. "I know artists are terrified of raising prices because they fear they will lose clients, but are the literal scrooges of people the kind of client base you want to build?" Specifically that part. I don't want that at all, but I work slowly so charging minimum wage for my work isn't an option for me. I've only been doing digital work for 2 years so I think I need to accept that for now, I'll be making less than minimum. It takes 3-4 hours to make a 100x100 pixel art piece and I doubt someone would pay over $20 for something of that size unless the demand for them is a lot higher.
However, I still plan to raise prices in some way. The market here is very small as you have mentioned. And I don't think I'm going to bother trying to move over to a bigger market like gaia since I haven't had the best interactions there. As much as I sometimes loathe dA, I'd really like to be successful on there because I don't know any other large platform to sell work like this. But with dA I'm really not comfortable with the idea of filling up my portfolio with a bunch of anime and fanart just to get noticed. Nothing wrong with those types of work since I do a little bit of both, but I do it rarely since I don't want it to be the focus. I think your suggestion of going to people on here rather than waiting for them is probably the best advice. I've gotta get over that fear of rejection.
Also, you hit the nail on the head. I do sometimes take on too much because I hate to say no. And It's true that people are not only paying for your art, but they are paying you for those years you spent educating yourself and learning how to be better/faster.
Have you always been able to work that fast? The improvement in that example is stunning, but both are really well done in my eyes. Did the older example still only take 2 hours? I wonder how long it will take for me to get faster at this. I think I'm expecting results too quickly because doing this for 2 years really isn't all that long compared to others. I guess I see where all of these great artists are at and I kind of ignore how much work they probably put in to getting there :/..
Also, best of luck to you. I hope you do get that job!
(It took me much longer to type this out than I thought it would. My cat is a monkey and I am her tree..Maybe that's why I work slowly! haha)
You're welcome =3
Maybe it would be worth coming up with a few loose bases that you can churn out for cheaper? I personally don't like bases, but I would pay £20+ for decent pixel art ($20 is only around £13), and yours is high quality, but there'll always be cheapskates who won't, but might be willing to pay less for a pose they can't choose, and they only stipulate the details. If you're willing to pay you get the effort basically, if you're not willing to pay you don't, simples.
Fanart can be useful for bringing people in, but I think it's good to keep it limited, I really enjoy my fanart but it's a bit disheartening when your fanart scribble can get 300 notes and your original work with effort gets maybe 5 because I've brought in the 'wrong' people (lovely people but people who want the fanarts).
I wish I knew how people get a good business going on Tumblr, I swear 1/10 of my messages actually go through to people on there ¬_¬; damn broken site. Furaffinity has a lot of money in it, if you can stomach the site... Weasyl is only getting started now. dA might not be a bad option, so long as you're firm with your prices =P The thing about posting on the forums and on other people's threads, is even if the OP doesn't commission you, anyone else going to that thread stands a chance of seeing your work, so you might get someone in from it P=
It's tough but it's better for everyone in the long run, and it gets easier over time, and it keeps stress down.
Oooh yeah, I didn't think I was, but I used to get comments all the time at GCSEs/A-levels at secondary school, I think it's just because I have such a short attention span tbh ^^; I'm not sure, it's so long ago I can't remember, going by how... weird... the anatomy is I'm going to say I probably struggled with it a bit more than the newer one, but then I might not have been referencing, so it may have been less time for lower quality? Hard to say P= I probably charged around £10 for it though. I've been doing art on here for 5 years, but I've been drawing all my life, and practically every day, so I'm sure a lot of my speed comes from that, things I'm less comfortable with, like my bigger paintings, take a lot longer, and I'm usually spending a lot of time just figuring out HOW to paint something, rather than doing it. I know I've done that a lot OTL or those damn young artists who are already better than you ¬_¬ whippersnappers... it's hard to get out of the habit, but you need to stop comparing yourself to others, and spend more time learning from them, it's more productive, and spend time actively developing your work, trying new techniques etc...
Thank you =D it'd give me a lot more time to work on my own things as well XD
(I know your pain, I take so much more time if I have to stop to save a small bird from trouble or removing her from my wacom...)
I actually do have a general sketchy base for some animals :D. Ones that I can comfortably move the limbs around and adjust details with. I also use a basic body base for my chibis instead of doing everything from scratch. It helps to keep their proportions relatively similar! And thank you. I've really been trying to fine-tune my work recently. Sometimes I regret not having developed a "looser" style like some others. I feel like I nitpick and then eventually the piece becomes overworked (in my eyes at least. Isn't that the best part about being an artist?! Seeing all of your own mistakes that are pretty much invisible to others. )
I KNOW!! I swear tumblr is broken and I wish they would stop messing with things that aren't broken! You can't even change your primary account. Like how lame is that. I want my art account to be my main, but to do that I'd have to delete my blog and start again. Losing all followers and posts in the process. Ugh!! And I would join furaffinity and Weasyl, but I'd feel kind of like a phony. I have a few anthro characters, but none that represent me. Although, that might not be the point of the site?? I only know one person on there so my knowledge of that community is limited. I know it can be graphic since I've peeked over his shoulder while we hung out, but ehh, that doesn't disturb me one bit. I wouldn't draw any of it myself though. I'd totally be down to share my characters on there, but I worry it's more of a risque site than a "here's my character drinking tea" site.
That is amazing that you've always been quick. A skill to cherish for sure! I know exactly what you mean with the planning part.. Lots of trial and error especially with backgrounds and painting. Pshhh yes those dang kids -shakes cane- WHEN I WAS THEIR AGE I... invested my time into video games. hehe
ANYWAY, no more negative nancy stuff from me. I'm going to raise prices this week and I'll put a note in my shop about it because I'll feel sketchy if I don't address it. Thank you again for taking the time to respond to me all these times. Your replies have been thoughtful through and through and I can't express how much it means to me. None of my friends IRL are digital artists in this way so I didn't know what else to do other than make a board and hope someone responded!
(aww that sounds adorable! just picturing that is enough to get a squee out of me. I can't resist cuddling my kitty even if she's being the most annoying fuzzturd. however, consistently sitting on my keyboard and opening/closing ALL THE FILES is when I put her out of the room.)