First and foremost I would like this article to be read as an invitation rather than a criticism.

It is an invitation to reconsider the value of your art, art in general, and gain more confidence in your ability to demand fair compensation.

The truth is that a huge population of artists are severely undercharging for their work

Even as the discussion surrounding wealth inequality and fair pay reaches a cultural tipping point, a huge number of independent artists are allowing their services to be hired out at starvation wages.

At some point in your journey, every independent artist should write out the following simple equation:

What goes into the equation is your net income over a year, divided by the number of hours spent on producing and marketing your art.

What should come out of the other side of this equation is a per hour rate greater than minimum wage.

If you’ve never written out this equation for yourself, or you have and your per hour rate is below minimum wage, then please keep reading on.

I’m speaking to a very specific population of artists here. Exactly what you are making will vary and for some of you, art is a side project you grind in your off time, for others it is a full-time pursuit.

You occupy various niches in the art world, each niche represented by various gigs or combinations of hustles like private commission work or developing personal projects and IP - maybe the occasional freelance work.

Likely, the majority of your work is the result of engaging on social media platforms. There could be a wide range of skill levels in this population but generally speaking you are somewhere at or above the latter part of the second column you see in this tweet by Suzanne Helmigh

That is a very rough sketch of who exactly might fall into the category of artist that I’m speaking to - but the defining characteristic and essential commonality of this group is that, as an artist, you aren’t getting a regular paycheck from a company, and there isn’t anyone around giving you accurate information about what the market value of your art should be.

I've spent YEARS watching this group of artists charge too little for their effort.

I have seen the repetition of an insanely depressing argument in and around various art communities regarding the value of art and how much artists should or shouldn’t be charging.

This argument persists even though most of the people involved in this argument have no idea what they are talking about.

I know that most of them don’t know what they are talking about, because very few artists are discussing the actual fair market value of their creative capacity. More often than not, the ones who do share their pricing structure are charging a rate that would equate to a very low wage in most western, industrial economies.

These factors have had 2 major effects on the art world.

Independent artists who are charging fair prices, or who have identified and serve niche markets willing to pay high rates for exclusive content don’t often share these rates because they are understandably unwilling to open themselves to the ridicule and shame that will inevitably be shoveled at them when they do.
The less experienced artist gets the impression that the market value of their creative capacity is comparatively low because that’s all they see, the myth perpetuates itself and the cycle continues.

In spite of the fact that in one way or another, just about every single piece of modern media that we consume has artists to thank for help in their creation, there is still a strong influence from the stigma that art is frivolous and fanciful and not a respectable trade, and the great majority of artists still suffer from the effects of internalizing this stigma.

Even the ones who have overcome these effects on an intellectual level still feel it’s effects in various insecurities that they fight to manage from day to day.

With this as a starting point, it is easy for an artist to feel like they are actually making a wise choice in joining the race to the bottom, often lowering prices as they gain more experience, instead of raising them.

It's like upside down world.

This reality is reinforced daily, by people they encounter on social media platforms that are relied on by these artists to find work. If the vast majority of would-be clients are constantly telling you that your prices are too high then you may begin to believe them. If you see other artists lending their voice to this argument as well then of course you will think it is objective truth.

But keep this in mind: You are NOT competing with other artists who are ignorant of their own market value and you are NOT competing for the approval of clients who have every incentive to make sure you charge as little as you can, because they want cheap work from you.

You ARE competing with the artists who work in industries of visual development for entertainment production in a global market.

To put it another way, even if you are not directly employed by an industry that requires artists to be part of their development process, those ARE your peers!

This all begs the question:

How much should you be charging for your art?

Unfortunately, the best answer anyone can give you is "it depends"

It depends on years of experience, skill level, the type of art you make and the market you are trying to attract. That being said, there is no reason in the world you should be charging less than minimum wage.

Now, the most common objections I hear are:

"I live in a developing country or one with a much lower standard of living than the western nations. I don’t have to charge that much."
"Im REALLY fast so I can charge less because I can put out more work”
"If I raise my prices no one will buy my work."

To the first objection: Ok, but…why not charge more if you can??? When did intentionally making less money become the ideal? If you have in mind the global market you work in, why wouldn’t you try and compete at the highest level your skill and experience will allow?

To the second objection, there is no better response than that of your health. That sort of mentality is headed toward physical and mental burn out and fast. You will never keep up with the pace required to do MORE work for less and also earn a decent living.

To the last objection I can only say that those just aren't the words of someone who has been given accurate information. If this is your worry, then it is imperative that you find your way into groups with peers who actually know what they are talking about.

This means talking to other industry experts, finding artists who ARE charging fair, living wages for their art and asking them as many questions as they have the patience to answer.

Where can you find artists who will give you accurate and reliable information on pricing?

There are many resources for pricing if you dig around on YouTube and probably even the platform you are reading this on, but honestly one of the greatest resources I have found is Twitch.tv

That’s right, the place where they play all the video games.

No joke - there is a very large and fast growing creative community on Twitch, filled with a wide variety of highly advanced industry pros, and the majority of those pros are very kind and generous with their time and knowledge.

I seriously cannot recommend a better place to find and engage artists who truly represent your peer group. Go and start asking whatever questions you have of all the pros you can find.

Here is a short list of top notch professional artists that I think would be an excellent place to start:

Dave Greco (Blizzard, MtG)

Paul Scott Canavan (Riot, MtG, DnD, Games Workshop)

Steven Nickle (full time independent artist)

David Peterson (creator of Mouse Guard)

Some other resources worth seeking out would be the Graphic artists guild handbook. This book offers the latest pricing guidelines, current salary information, formulas for determining hourly freelance rates, legal resources, contract templates, copyright advice and more.

A quicker read but equally valuable would be the free copy of the ArtStation Guide to Freelancing The information is a wealth of resources ranging from setting up your portfolio to setting rates to dealing with clients to time management and on and on and on.

And, lastly, if you just want a quick and dirty TL;DR I suggest this series of tweets from the highly respected viz dev artist Karla Ortiz

Armed with these resources, you should never again be insecure about asking a fair price.

I can't tell you exactly what to charge, but I can tell you there is no longer a reason to be underselling yourself.

Thanks For Reading!

If you ever want to ask questions or discuss anything you read here please feel free to reach out through the contact page or visit my Twitch channel and ask me anything in real-time! I stream Wednesday-Friday 10 am-3 pm PST.

I also co-host a podcast for artists called Art Condition where we discuss the business and mindset for artists. Click here to see past episodes and subscribe on your favorite platform.