← OG Academy · Price and sell with confidence · 6 min lezen
How to price your art (a formula that actually works)
Pricing by feeling leads to two mistakes: too low out of modesty, or wildly inconsistent from work to work. A simple formula fixes both.
Start with size, not with hours
Most artists end up with a size-based formula because buyers understand it and it keeps your prices consistent. The common version: (width in cm + height in cm) × a personal factor, plus your material costs.
A beginner factor is often 2 to 4, a mid-career factor 6 to 12, and established artists go far beyond that. A 60 × 80 cm canvas at factor 5 becomes (60 + 80) × 5 = €700, plus materials.
Raise the factor, not individual prices
When demand grows, increase your factor — everything moves up together and your price list stays logical. Pricing one work higher because you personally love it confuses buyers who can see two similar canvases at very different prices.
Adjust once or twice a year, never mid-exhibition, and never downwards in public.
Check against reality
Look at three or four artists at roughly your level — comparable size, comparable exhibition history, comparable audience — and see where your prices land. If you are 70 percent below them, you are not being humble, you are being invisible.
Prices that are too low actively cost you sales. Buyers read a low price as low confidence.
One price everywhere
The same work must cost the same on your website, in a gallery and at an art fair. If a gallery takes 40 percent commission, that commission comes out of your side — you do not add it on top.
Collectors compare. Being caught selling cheaper direct is the fastest way to lose a gallery, and the fastest way to make a collector feel foolish.
Never negotiate downwards in public
If you want to be generous, give something extra rather than something less: free shipping, a small drawing, a framed edition. Your price list stays intact and the buyer still feels seen.
Standing discounts of 30 percent teach everyone to wait for the discount.
In het kort
(Width + height) × your factor + materials. Same price everywhere, revise once or twice a year, and be generous with extras rather than with discounts.