How much should I have charged?
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Hi guys, I need help figuring out how much my work is worth. Recently I did my first ever commission. The client was from UK. I am attaching the work I turned in and hoping to get an idea of how much I should have charged them. Please feel free to be harshly honest because I know I am not the most skilled person that I can be yet, and let me know how much you would have charged if this was the skill you had.
In short: each image took me about 20 - 24 hours of work. I did one revision. They are going to use it on their website and social media . I retain all the rights to my images. Couldn't think of any other reliable place for fellow illustrators than this.
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@Nazuba well obviously this is always a difficult subject but my personal rule of thumb is: how much is your time worth?
If you are an absolute beginner maybe you are fine with a minimum wage ($7.25 in the US according to google). So in that sense: at least $145 per image. That doesn't factor in the revisions of course but many times artists allow for a minor revision.
Maybe you are willing to go lower than that to build up your experience/portfolio or maybe you live at home and don't have many expenses, etc. There are a lot of factors that go into it.
Side note: I really, really like the lighting you've achieved on the sitting man. I think if you continue to push your skills along those lines (and address some of the proportion, pose and facial rendering issues) you'll do extremely well in the freelance art world.
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@mattramsey Thank you so much for your comment. The client wanted to "pay me to do something I enjoy" apparently, and they wanted to pay $110 in total, but then said they were pleased so they ended up paying $137. Now I treated this job very much as an experiment as I decided to put away my shyness in bargaining (honestly they would not even be around if they knew what actual skills would look like).
Also, I am a firm believer of equal payments for same level of skills. Art is a skill that transcends the barriers of countries and in my experience, people willing to work for less end up hurting the industry. So I don't want to work for less as I build up my portfolio, as personal projects can do that.
I am really trying hard with my colour and lighting skills but finding it extremely difficult to grasp. But that is definitely one of the things that gets me excited about art.Apologies for the long reply, I really do appreciate your comment. So thanks again.
