The rant post. ART RELATED.
This is a rant post about art prices.
Sorry if this offends you in any way.
I've been drawing ever since I was a little kid. When I first started making money from my art was when I was 15. And I remember exactly how it all went. The client asked for prices, so I replied with them. (Which btw, they where LOW as hell. Probably like 2-3 dollars for a fullbody.)
And the reply from that client, up to this day, I still remember it.
"Why is your art so pricey? Can you draw this --- for 1 usd?"
This is my art back then...
I was calm. Cause I didn't know what my art was worth, so I took it.
My mind was happy those days, I was able to buy my own Movie ticket for myself! And little by little, I made progress.
And I kept selling my art for little. Until someone, a cool dude offered me like 5 usd for a fullbody.
Oh yeah.
I raised my prices to 5usd each fullbody.
My point is...
Up to this day, people ask me for my prices, I say "40usd the fullbody"
Here's a sample of a fullbody drawing that I do now
And people STILL try to haggle my prices for as low as 10usd.
What the hell is wrong with you?
If I am selling my art for 40usd a pop and you cannot buy it, then simply don't. Do not haggle prices with an artist, you know why? Cause that makes them INSECURE.
Why insecure?
Artists right now, living in the current modern world, are STARVING. Perhaps you haven't noticed, or perhaps you're not that interested... but, let me tell you that i've seen, heard and witnessed so many artists failing, and giving up in their careers, just because they cannot make a dime out of their art.
Haggling prices with them, just makes them feel that their art is not worth the amount asked, and what do they do? They prefer quitting, and going after a job that leaves them LESS than what they could earn.
I am tired of being an Starving artist. I am tired of being pushed out of monetary gain because of jealousy of people. (True story, I was pushed out of Facebook due to a jealous super artist that flagged me and threw me away.) I am so so tired of people telling me my art is not even worth 10usd. I try to do my best! I am a cheerful person that even though I have tons of problems above me, I TRY to be civilized and cool.
But reality is, that as an artist, I need money.
I don't even have a damn tablet to work on anymore. Im currently working mouse 100%.
I am sorry if this offends you. I am sorry to be an artist that is screaming for people to respect them.
But if someone doesn't say what they feel, they might as well, just leave and work on an office with dreams fading away.
tl;dr : I will not quit my life as an artist. I just want people to understand that we sometimes make a living out of our art, and that by haggling, you're not helping us. You're destroying our security about our own art.
Thankyou.
I remember being 18 years old and taking a sample portfolio to a local tattoo shop in an attempt to sell some art as flash for the shop. Dude offered me 1$ a pic and wanted 10 drawings to a page... I just left, my pieces took me around 6 to 8 hours each... for a dollar... I never followed through but I also never kept drawing either. I don't understand why people do this to artists, it's not like a manual labourer, you can't just pick the next guy off the street. Not everyone is an artist, and you can not make an artist overnight.
Thank you for your testimonial, I really share your pain, I am used to the same kind of behavior in mostly everything I am doing, up to the point I decided to give everything. I believe hopefully, more and more people will start to respect each other effort as it will become more and more the reality of everyone of discovering their creativity.
I feel you. 😢
The artist and the art business are separate but closely linked, and sometimes by doing the art you turn it into a business, and other times you end up doing art by walking away from the business. To be able to treat the two differently allows you to create art for personal reasons and create artworks to sell for business reasons. I find that if you mix the two together then it becomes hard to be an artist or a business person.
I make miniature origami cranes from flower petals, and I have never seen anyone do this before. What is the value of this? Well, you can pick up a flower petal from the ground for nothing, but to spend two weeks to press it, and then 2-3 hours to turn it into a piece of origami model smaller than the size of your fingernail. I don't think people can pay me to do that, but I would like to think that some people might think there is value in it.
So there are things that I do for my own reasons, and there are things that I can sell (let go of) because people see some value in it. I hope that you can also find the right balance with the type of art that you do. I really like your artwork and I know that there are a few people who are also doing similar things to try and make a living from it (@fluffywiggle and @shoumi come to mind). Together I hope we can all encourage and support each other :)
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