image by Stefan Baudy
Artist Julie Martin wrote in with the following question:
I am thinking of having prints made of some of my watercolor paintings and selling them on sites like Etsy. I’m not sure how to go about having prints made, as far as making it profitable. Any suggestions?
This is a great question Julie. Pricing is really tough, but you can figure it out!
I’ll try to break it down to the basics. Here’s what you need to consider.
1. Costs. You need to make back what you spent in making the art. This can include fixed costs like your office space, lighting, heating, etc. These costs must be spread out among the number of pieces you plan to sell on a monthly basis. For example, if your studio and rent together cost $1000 per month, and you plan on selling 10 prints per month, then you have $100 in costs for each print, before you ever count anything else. If you think you can sell 20 prints each month, then it’s only $50 per print.
Then there are your costs per painting, or variable costs. This includes your canvas, brushes, the paint you used, and the time you spent (yes, your time is a cost, unless you are working for free). These will vary based on how much paint you use, how big the canvas is, etc. These will be calculated on an individual basis (by painting/piece).
How much is your time worth? How much do you want to make? If you make $20 per hour, that’s about $40,000 per year. (Hint: You’re worth more than that.)
2. Goals. What are your painting goals? Are you trying to appear like you care what the art world thinks, or are you creating art for your buyers?
Also, how much money do you want to make? If your basic cost per painting is $50 for fixed costs plus $20 for materials, you will then add the 10 hours that it took you to paint the piece (that’s another $200). How many prints do you want to sell before you make that back? 20 prints? That’s $90 per print. (Then you sell the original for gobs of money.)
3. Research. After you know your costs and goals, find out how much it costs to buy other artists’ work. Not just any artists, but look at artists who work in similar styles to you. Look at watercolors that are for sale on Etsy and see what the high, middle, and low prices are. Where do your paintings fit in? Is your work more like the high end or low end of the pricing structure?
4. Test. Pricing is as much of an art as it is a science. There’s no right or wrong way to do it, as long as you are making money. Price out a few pieces at a few different levels and see which ones sell the most or which ones end up being the most profitable.
Let me know how it goes! If anyone has had great experiences with pricing their art prints, I’d love to hear about it in the comments. Did I leave anything out?
Want more on making and selling prints?
- How to sell fewer prints and make more money
- Managing a successful print studio with Patricia Vargas (podcast episode)
- The best scanners, printers, and papers for printing your art at home.
- Color management for fine artists
- 8 creative ways to use prints
How about the cost of getting the print made? Giclee vs. other types?
Great question Lesley. Obviously you’ll want to take that into consideration as well. Remember to shop around and get the best deal you can on printing services.
Hi,
Just a little addition to a great string and your response. I have been in printing from age 3 ( family company). I just wanted to help readers understand ” you get what you pay for”, critical in a quality print. Digital Printing is the least expensive way to go. Unfortunately just by the nature of the beast, it will not be your best quality. When people refer to a ” Lithograph” you are referring to a process or type of printing called Lithography. Other types are; Offset, Flexography aka Flexo, Gravure etc., each different as well. A printing press is by far going to give you the best quality print however by far probably your most expensive option. Just wanted to elaborate on well stated advise in successful art sales. Thanks for supporting keeping the art industry alive and well. Best wishes and thanks!
Hi there,
What is your company’s name? I’m curious in case I choose to do analog prints at some point.
Thanks
My daughter is self taught and has been drawing/painting since she was nine. She is now 15 and I have been looking for advice like this to help her sell her art. I have asked advice from local artists with very little help. They like to keep their knowledge secret it seems. She wants to start selling her art to give her money for supplies and start a savings for school. Thank you for the good article. Any more advice to young artists would be great.
Same here. My 16 year old daughter has art she wants to sell also
I might humbly argue to look for the best quality printing that you can. That in turn allows you to charge an even higher price for your work as it will stand out from the dozens of other people printing at home/Rite Aid/Kinkos – as long as you educate people on what exactly they’re getting and paying for.
yes but you are really paying to own/look at intellectual property, the quality of paper is a scam.
Sorry, but this isn’t true at all. Paper quality is hugely important to ensure longevity of the print itself, as well as how well the colours transfer, sharpness and the finish. There is a world of difference between paper quality e.g. cheap craft paper and a thick high-quality 300gsm.
Agreed 110% with Zee. Paper quality varies widely. Cheaper, print-at-home laser/inkjet paper you get at Staples doesn’t compare in color/brightness, weight/thickness, durability and how well the paper accepts ink. Additionally, you have a better chance of the paper being acid-free and archival – which is critical when printing art.
Paper makes or breaks a print job. In apparel, the same exact pattern could be used to make 2 suits, one from an expensive imported wool and the other from cheap cotton. From 50 feet away they might look the same, but up close the visual, the feel, the overall perception will be vastly different. Besides, which one will last a lifetime and which will end up as a rag?
I’ve learned that, especially if you are an emerging artist, you want to just do the best you can afford and it shouldn’t take forever to break even in your business. The belief that an artist absolutely must pay a king’s ransom on prints is how the expensive print houses get away with bullying artists with exorbitant prices. Unless you’ve had considerable publicity and are being collected, you only need a sturdy – equivalent to 12 pt paper- acid free, matte or semi gloss print. You want a paper heavy enough not to warp with moisture and acid free to qualify as archival.
High quality printing is important, and so is the paper or canvas that you use. There are a lot of differences in how ink is absorbed and the way the image will appear on the paper- so work with a printer to learn some of the language and terms you need to know.
Weights- paper comes in ‘pounds’ like 60, 80or 120 lb. and there are differences in thickness and finishes. Card stock is a different weight than standard reams of paper. All of it has a bearing on the look and feel of the finished product. Figure out what you like best and what you can afford.
If you are doing large sized work, find what companies carry which sizes and how easy they are to run through a press, how they handle wrinkles, being cut, smudges or scoring and so on. Ask people who have work similar to yours or that you admire how their art looks what they use, who they use and what they found out the hard way.
Hope some of this adds to the mix of consideration for good decisions regarding art and it’s presentation!
The question was however giclee, not low-end Kinko and such.
Among Giclee pinters there are differences too, in quality and price. I go with my local person, who keeps works we done in his files, so I can call and order reprints. He color adjusts while the artist is on hos premises, to the T!
When you say there are differences in giclee printers, wow are there ever! First, the operator has to be somewhat of an artist or at least art appreciator. But then the equipment can be a 4-jet (rare; that would be your typical home inkjet printer), 8-jet, 12-jet or even 16-jet printer. Usually there’s a jet for matte black, photo black, and sometimes gray and clear, along with the base cmyk with cmy tints and sometimes orange, green and purple. (Hexagraphic offset printing adds green and orange to the standard cmyk.)
Thanks for the great tips! I find pricing my art (be it prints or originals) the hardest part of being an artist. I don’t want to rip myself off, but I also don’t want to scare off potential buyers from my works.
As an artist that is just getting into print sales, the upfront cost of the higher end prints can be staggering, especially if you don’t sell a lot of them. I currently print them out myself on the best photo paper I can get and sell them at a fairly low price. This at least gives me some cash to put into saving up for the nicer stuff down the road.
Our local giclee fine art print professionals print on demand as few or as many as one wants. Lots of good advise here from others in this post.
Thanks, that’s so useful. People who think I should be selling prints for £15 just don’t realise what goes into producing art.
Q: I own a series of Robert Peak signed and numbered artist prints(a complete seies of six) framed and never hung. I am trying to find out their value. Cn you refer me to a reputable site or gallery? Thanking you in advance for your assistance.
It will be hard to get your art in to a gallery , unless you have an in , I would design your own prints first for exposure .
Galleries also take commission from what you , and the art that put in the gallery if you want to still want to show art in a gallery , I would put together contract of with terms conditions of your own and have the gallery agree and sign and date the contract before moving forward with any business regarding your art or prints.
Look in to Legal Zoom for the answers , they are great asset when it comes down advise and worth time and investment.
Jay, In Manhattan there is an auction house called Swan Gallery in the East 30’s. (You’ll need to look them up to get the address). You can take in your Robert Peak prints and someone will look at them and give you a value. I have brought in an old map of the United States which they looked at, and told me the history and value of it.
If it’s inconvenient to travel, they might be set up to do evaluations over the internet. Swan can also refer you to other auction galleries near wherever you live. They are worth a try.
Hi, this is an excellent tips. I have something to ask about:
1: Which expensive between of watercolour and prints?
2: How much price of original painting in size A4? Per square inch?
I m confused. Please help me
what is the equation for the prints? the total was $270 for the materials, fixed cost, and hours, for 20 total prints to sale. how does it become a $90 print?
I’m wondering the same thing?
I think this is assuming each canvas print costs around $75. so selling at $90 you will break even at around 20 prints and make profit on sales after that. Not much profit though.
re-read the post with the math. $ 90 / print refers to the number of prints you sell from any one original.
studio space, electricity, hours, etc are all factors you missed
The gallery or shop owner takes 40% commission!
I am just really getting all into this whole Social Media flow and I am getting orders on prints. Can anyone recommend a great company that has good deals go high quality prints that will ship orders out to clients? Or is that possible?
I’ve been looking at Printful.com for this. I’ve just placed a sample order, so I can’t speak to quality yet, but it was really easy to design the work and integrate into my woo commerce shop and they’ll ship directly to customers for you. Hope that helps!
Hey I’ve heard of that, howd they turn out?
Miller’s Professional Imaging is great !
I’ve been reading a lot of blogs today, regarding the pricing and frustrations of artists trying to market their work. I’ll add my bit here…
First, we must realize that selling art is business. Period. If you can divorce yourself from all the “ethereal” arguments of beauty and value, a hard cold look at your production will go a long way to visualizing success (ie, paying the light bill)
Second, with the first point established, we must settle the hours/wage/salability/cost/pricing issues. IF you are producing a desirable product (pretty paintings), what is a REALISTIC price that they will actually sell for? The bottom line is, “how big or small a check will someone write for this artwork on a consistent basis”?
Third, how does my product compare with those of many artists in the marketplace? If my product was placed at any notable auction on earth, how would it fare against others who produce similar work or style? Is mine better quality? better imagery? more colorful? more stimulating? more emotionally satisfying? There MUST be something about my work that separates it from the crowd… either tangible or intangible. Something that give my work individuality that art buyers will be drawn to and remember.
Fourth, what is the price that such buyers will pay on a CONSISTENT basis? Is my history of sales encouraging or not? If not, why not? Do I need to learn more about color or drawing or composition or…?
Fifth and last, am I honest enough and committed enough to dig deep and do the work? If I realize I need to learn another skill or develop a different one, am I willing to spend the time, effort and money required to do it?
Hard questions to answer. Especially when we are struggling to make ends meet.
I am 72 years old, been through life threatening illness, been in the art business full time for 50 years, married to the same woman for 47 years… and all of it through challenges that have defeated most of my fellow artists and businessmen. My resolve has been to grow daily, improve daily and live to the fullest daily.
It works because it must work, and there is no turning back. That’s the only way to do what we artists do.
Tonight I sold my first piece. Don’t know how much it will be yet but I am feeling good about what I have read here.
The advice is priceless. I am grateful to all who posted here. Mr Tate – god bless you!
Totally agree with you Annie.
Mr Tate what a gorgeous man you must be! This is such a common sense answer. I am deleting my fashion info online and moving into my first love of art and have been looking at what seems like trillions of blogs about pricing and how to sell my art for days.
Your final line is just perfect and made me feel as though I AM on the right path.
Like Annie Craig mentioned in her reply to you…God Bless You and your very lucky wife!??
Victoria.
I thought I was reading something I wrote…wow! I too am 72, been an artist/designer for 50 years ( from old school to digital), married 50 years and I am still competing with all the 30′ somethings. Love what I do and will continue until….?
Mahalo for your comment …it made my day. Aloha from Hawaii
For printing, I have used finerworks.com , you can get everything from fine art prints to prints on canvas. Their prices are reasonable and you can store your images with them for future use. I have ordered several and had them drop shipped to clients. They were all pleased with their prints 🙂
How much did you sell your prints a piece. Did you charge them for printing them to or just individual prints.
Any suggestions on home printers?
or places to go to to get work printed?
How does the quality at a kinkos compare to a print shop?
any suggestions on pricing prints
Thanks for your wisdom in advance
Rochelle
Why aren’t you considering economics in your pricing? Isn’t it important to know a price people are willing to pay, versus a random large number because you are paying rent? Not to mention what the competition is charging.
If you price too high, people may not buy… If you price too low, you will look cheap. You need to price correctly for your market, not according to how much your rent is. People buy posters for $10. How do you prove value in a matte print and assert that it’s worth $100? Society6 and Redbubble are your competition, as well as other Etsy artists. Society6 prints are going for about $20-50. I think your recommendation is way off. Don’t get me wrong, I would love to sell my art prints for $100 a piece, but I need some proof that the economics work.
Lauren, you’re thinking backwards. If you’re a car company like Land Rover, and you’re comparing yourself to Toyota, then of course you’re going to look at it like you’re too expensive. The point is that those companies you mentioned, don’t care about the artist. They aren’t there to help you make a buck. They’re there to help themselves, so they’re taking most of the profit, leaving the artist with basically nothing. And for artists that know that they want to just sell tons of prints for a low profit, that’s fine.
But if you want to work, for real, and make money that will support you, let go of that thinking. Those people visiting those sites you mentioned are not your customers. Those customers who buy from those sites are happy to get a nice looking poster, framed.
You’re not selling mass-market posters, are you?
A nonprofit wants to purchase the digital images of 55 of my oil-on-canvas paintings from a recent solo exhibit, to be used for educational purposes and for printed materials.
What percentage of the price of the original painting should I charge?
What questions should I ask before I commit?
Should I offer varying prices (say, for unlimited use of images versus for a singular project). How would I control their use?
I am running an Etsy shop where i will be selling my watercolour art as posters. I am unsure of what the prices should be. The posters are decor posters meant for bedrooms, studios, and offices, and part of the money is going to my father so he is able to catch up on his bills and pay for things like that. What is a reasonable price?
The issue I’m running into reffers to borders. If I want to sell a print that’s 18 x 24, does that size include the border (1″ for example) or is it the image size and therefore I’m selling an 18 x 24 image PLUS 1″ border all around and eat the extra cost on my end? Sorry if this seems confusing.
When you are selling an 18”x24” piece , that is a standard size like 16×20” Etc. . It will pop right into the same size standard frame.
What about copyright in all this? Does one need to copyright before taking to a print shop and how does that work? Are there quicker options to protect ones artwork?
Ok my question is what if you’re making a limited amount of prints. I am printing archival prints, so very high quality and plan to make them signed and numbered 1/10 2/10 etc… this inevitably raises the worth of the prints as well. How would you calculate that into your formula?
How did you get the calculation for $90? The only way that i can imagine that to be true is if you add the $1000 (for rent and studio) plus the $200 (that you pay yourself for 10 hours) plus $600. Then all that is divided by 20 printsis equal to $90. If my explanation is right? where does the $600 come from? If my explanation is wrong please tell me how you came up with $90 per print?
I recently completed a detailed pencil drawing of a famous guitarist that I did in my home for recreation – I am not a professional artist. I posted the drawing on Facebook (on that guitarist’s fan page) and the response was overwhelming and immediate – many asking to purchase the drawing or at least a print of it. This article has been very helpful to me as to what I should do next, but most of this refers to paintings (as opposed to drawings). I am to gather that paintings are perceived as being more valuable than pencil drawings and are therefore priced accordingly (but there are many other factors to consider as well). For me, the biggest question is do I want to become a businessman? Do I want to take the time, money, and energy to get the prints made and sell them? (Which means that I have to package them properly for shipping once I get orders in and go to the post office to mail them).
Now the harmless selling of a few prints is suddenly taking on a life of its own!
I guess that I would have to be motivated to do it.
Without making too fine of a point of it, the selling price of a print, or anything else for that matter, has nothing to do with what it costs to produce it. The selling price of anything is determined solely by what a buyer will pay for it in the competitive market.
Yes, you should absolutely know what your expenses are, and how much it costs per item to produce a print, because you want to be profitable, but the buyer doesn’t care about that. If the buyer sees your art as a good value at the price you’re asking, then you’re likely to sell it.
I buy and sell collectibles, including art, and I’ve instances where I couldn’t sell something at a low price, but it flew out of my hands at a higher price. Why? Because someone who’s looking for a Mercedes isn’t even going to look at a car priced like a Ford.
This is wrong:
Selling Price = Cost + Profit
This is right:
Selling Price – Cost = Profit
Thank you so much! Knowledge is amazing, thank you for sharing yours!
Monica Mitchell
arttoloveandlivein.com
How does it work when I have made 30 prints of my acrylic painting to sell and decide to make 30 more at a later date. Is that false representation?
No, you can call it a second edition so the buyer is clear what they’re getting.
You made a good point that a little bit of research can go a long way in knowing the normal prices for art prints. I’m considering to hire an art reproduction service soon in order to have an old painting be replicated for my husband. I think that would be the best birthday gift for him because he was pretty disappointed that particular piece in his collection was damaged in a flood years ago.
You are the valuer of your art. Price it low and people will regard your art with the price. Sounds commercial, but it is. My cousin, a world class artist who chose to learn from today’s masters, prices his works high. And they sell. It saddened him that an artist that he regarded as brilliant, but who did not get the marketing and business understanding, and sold low, never achieved the prices or regard that he could have.
Hey there. Really think this is beneficial way to get people start thinking about pricing their products. However, I think the focus is a little heavy on the “cost based” pricing versus “value based” pricing.
Cost based pricing is the idea of “It cost $200 to get the picture (distributed across 10 prints at $20 each), each print costs $15 to produce and $20 to ship, then the total is $20 + $15 + $20 = $55 then you mark it up 20 or 30% to make a profit.
“Value Based” pricing is getting an understand of how much customers would be willing to pay for the product and still feel that they got a good deal. This involves selling works, then following up with clients who have already purchased works and having frank conversations about the price, what they would have paid in the moment, what they would have paid in hindsight, and what could have been done differently in the moment to get to that price.
I think you’re starting to get here with the “look at other similar artists”, but each piece of art technically has its own perceived value, and if you want to get get the RIGHT number (not too high or too low), you need to have it based on your own customers, not other artists’ customers.
Point is, do do a cost based pricing to ensure you’re never losing money or not making enough per print, but once you have a baseline of how low you can go, try to also figure out how high you can go. A lot of us who didn’t grow up with a ton of money would be incredibly surprised how much people would actually pay for some of our works.
I only say all of this to say: You’re incredibly valuable, and you deserve to sell your work at a rate that reflects that value.
When it comes down to size of the prints, does it have to be the same size as the original piece? Or are there suggested sizes. For example, I just finished a series of paintings which are each 18 x 24.
Hello, what would you say the best way to caclulate pricing so it’s continuous from one size to another?
Is there away that you can calulate this?
Sorry this is for printing. before cogs come in to plat
I am thinking of using a Print On Demand site for my prints. They usually have a structured set of price ranges per size print that someone can buy. My question is in that arena do you do each individual piece, which would take a lot of time, with 63 pieces, or would you set the general spectrum price range for all of the artwork at once, and have them all done automatically and be done with it.
Im new to this world of digital art or hand rendered mixed media art. I do commissioned and non commissioned work. I have my pricing set for commissioned work. Its a custom made piece of art for a particular client and not necessarily something the average public would buy a print of…so I treat it like an Original, because it is…though done digitally. However, where I get hung up is pricing my non commissioned (freelance) work. I recently painted a bear in its natural habitat…the piece took me 8 hours to complete. I have several people who want to buy a print of the painting. I just dont know how to price something that could sell several times over via prints etc. Do I include my cost (hr rate x #hrs) ea time in addition to the print (product) cost?
Hi Sue! We’re so glad to have you back in our courses! Can you take this question to the live sessions with Sarah or our Association Facebook group? Sounds like a great conversation topic for other members to chime in on.
Hey guys! I’ve priced mine at about 1.25$ per square inch for prints.
Something I did with my prints and originals, when I was first starting out, was to start somewhere price-wise and then bring the price up by 25 cents per square inch every time I sold about 5 or 6 paintings, until I hit the point where things were still selling relatively well, and it was a good balance income-wise for me.
My first collectors were very excited about that value increase too lol.
Hopefully this advice can help anyone else out there who is having a hard-time pricing, it’s really just a grand experiment to see what your niche can support and it changes as you develop as an artist too.
This article is great, because we tend to forget about all the little extra costs! I keep a really detailed spreadsheet and that helps me to account for all those little costs that I might otherwise miss.
If anyone wants to see what niche I’m in, for an easy Etsy price comparison just visit my website:
http://www.olivialandart.com
If you click ”Shop” it will redirect you to my Etsy Store.
Good Luck!
Olivia.