I'd like to explain how I've recently come up with my pricing for my commissions since the issue has come up and hope to encourage other artists to really consider how they are pricing themselves and how they are affecting the market prices of other artists. I've also notice a few forum threads and other journals mentioning or touching on this subject lately.

"$10.00 an hour to work in Starbucks.
$15.00 an hour to dig a ditch.
$20.00+ an hour for an entry level Graphic Artist or Freelance Illustrator.
$25.00 an hour for a carpenter.
$50.00 an hour for a plumber or electrician or mechanic or Art Director.
$100.00 an hour for a Doctor."
.........(Author unknown-- from this thread on the DA forums)

I'm not the fastest sketcher in the world-- hardly. Ctrl+Z is like an extension of my body. For something as simple as a portrait, it could take 30 minutes to 2 hours, coloring that can take another 1 to 2 hours-- all depending on the angle/pose, composition, detail/complexities, and mood (some days you got it, some days you don't). In total, a color portrait CG can take anywhere from 2 to 4 hours. There is also time used to correspond with the client, make any additional changes, etc. That could be anywhere to 15 minutes to an hour just for correspondence. Therefore, I price my work as to get a fairer price for my trade. This is skilled labor career that takes many, many years to learn, grow, and gain knowledge and experience at. Like any other human being in the real world with those "real" jobs, its fair for individuals to fight for getting a fair wage for time spent on a project. Being paid the same or less as someone who started at (name your low end retail/fast food chain of choice) yesterday should not happen.

Repeat: Less. Than. Or. Equal. To. Minimum. Wage.

Artists don't spend several years practicing and/or spending and paying out to attend 3-6 years in a school/art college to get paid the same as someone who has chosen to receive a GED (means no money spent on schooling basically) and has a unskilled job. Why did they go to all the effort, money, and time then? It would have been better off not to waste those resources. A client wouldn't tell a nurse, trained chef, orchestral musician, or professional graphic artist to take minimum wage or lower. Those individuals would turn down the job for that wage-- just like I've chosen to do and hope to encourage others to do, as well.

Why do people believe it to be all right to bully artists into lowering their prices into something that you can't even live off of? And why do artists bow down and take it? I do understand many artists are scrapped for cash-- but this is a vicious cycle. Artists who need money sell cheaply to receive commissions quickly to pay off say... the rent at the end of the month. It would be better off to just price themselves fairly at all times, along with other artists, to equalize the market and bump up that "hourly wage" to something that's enough to live off of. The scrapped artists would receive fairer wages that would, in effect, keep them from having to scramble for extra money in some sort of Wal-mart-esque super sale that drowns them in work every 4 weeks.

As long as artist do not price themselves correctly according to their time/materials spent and/or other multiple artists begin to price themselves too low that they affect the entire balance of the market.




TL;DR:
Long rant is long. I'm choosing to get paid fairly for the time I'm spending on projects. It will always be my choice to accept or deny work for any reason. I'm not being unfair to anyone at all by this; just choosing to not be unfair to myself.

Other artists need to really, really, really consider their prices and if its really worth the effort to suffer long hours for low wages. Quit being suckers-- you don't win in life by being stepped on financially.