How much should I charge?

[rubble]

Hi,

I'm starting out as a freelance artist. I do some work in 2d, and some in 3d.
I was wondering how much I should charge for my work.
Right now, I'm going to be doing some concept art for a game, mostly visualizations for a level. How much should I charge for each drawing (color and b/w)?
As for 3d, I'm not doing anything at the moment, but every now and then, I get an offer. How much should I charge for a low-poly game character model? What about textures, how much should I charge for those?

[Granander]

I think I would make up an hourly rate, you don't have to tell others what your rate is but you could use it to calculate a fixed price on the finished products.

When it is work that you are going to do you will soon get at feel for how long the specific art would take to finish and if so you could use the same hourly rate to calculate an estimate.

Example:

$50 x 3h = $150

Now that was just an example so don't mind the numbers. Make up your own, perhaps start lower and go up based on the more experience you get.

This is how I did last (and only) time I was contracted for a webdesign job and it worked well for me.

[rubble]

Thanks for the advice, Granander
I was wondering more about prices for the finished product. I would rather charge for the finished product than the time I spent working on it.

What are good prices for (and how long should I take to finish them?):


Concept art (Charcacter Drawings, Environment Drawings - In color and black and white)

3D Model (with and without texture, high and low poly)

Texture for 3D model (texture alone)

[rubble]

Does a yone have any suggestions???

[sorry_im_new]

whatever you do do not make it too low a price
people only buy art when it is high/expensive my parents own an art gallery and they've had expierince with cheap art. Even though some of it was very good not many people bought it cause they didn't feel like it was an investment

[JasonChan]

Just try to get the highest price you can get. If you can, try to get them to name a price first, and see if you can raise it. If you absolutely have to name your own price, make sure you try to estimate the time it will take, including brainstorming, drafts, etc. I'd say go with the $50 per estimated hour. If they demand too many changes, charge them for that too. AND GET A CONTRACT!!! Very important. Can't tell you how many times I've been ripped off when there wasn't a contract involved.

Just don't do jobs for too cheep. That not only hurts you, but hurts the whole industry since employers will then try to lower their pay.