Pricing Help

[LoBunny]

I'm not sure if this really qualilifies as a critique, but I wasn't sure where else to post this. On Saturday I'm going to be doing my first show. I've been a bit stressed over pricing and I wanted some advice from other artists. With the exception of one acrylic painting, all my works are done in watercolor or prismacolor colored pencils. Sizes range from 8 1/2"x7" to 12"x9". Here are some a couple of the ones I'm selling.

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b328/ArtLo/Originals/OpheliasDream.jpg
This was done in watercolor on heavy duty watercolor paper and is 12"x9".

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b328/ArtLo/Portraits/Friends2.jpg
This was done in prismacolor colored pencils on standard typing paper and is 8 1/2"x7".

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b328/ArtLo/Portraits/Laura1.jpg
This was also done in prismacolors on standard typing paper and is 8 1/2"x11".

I'd really appreciate any input, thanks a bundle!

--Lo

[evildisco]

I'm not trying to be a bastard.
I'd be amazed if you managed to sell any of these.
The fundamentals are somewhat lacking, you certainly need a lot more work to be able to get to a sellable point.

[LoBunny]

Different people like different types of art. I never said I was a professional, I said I needed help pricing my art. Thanks for your opinion anyway.

[Steph Laberis]

Hmmm. Because you're not looking for critiques on techniques, I'm moving this to the lounge as it seems to be more OT.

Realistically, I wouldn't charge more than $10 for any of these... maybe $20 for the first piece. I'm afraid I have to agree with Disco, these aren't at a sellable point yet. I've seen works with less detail and much more chaos sell for much more, but you'd need to cater to a very select crowd.

Keep in mind, typing paper isn't terribly archival, so if you are going to get more serious about selling your work, invest in better quality materials.

Good luck with it though!

[LoBunny]

Thanks for the advice. I was invited to this show to sell my art, but I think I'll reconsider. I never thought I was a fantastic artist, but I wasn't aware how lacking my techniques were. Good thing I want to be a radiologist instead of an artist.:teeth:

[Steph Laberis]

I don't mean to discourage you Lo, by all means, if you were invited to an art show, participate! Whether or not you sell your work isn't the point, taking part in a show can teach you a lot about where you stand and what you have to work on. Obviously whomever is running the show has faith in your work, so why not take a chance?

I tried to look at these objectively, but like 99% of the other members here, I'm sort of hard-wired to look for mistakes, anatomy issues, and the like. I blame art school! Though this isn't the kind of artwork I would buy, you won't know if you have an audience unless you put yourself out there.

If your goal is to make a lot of money off of these, you're probably going to have a hard time. I do think that the feedback you get from experiencing your work in an artshow will be invaluable to you. And if you do decide to pursue your artwork further, there are many people here (who won't be bastards ;) ) who can help you with anatomy, composition and whatnot.

Again, I wish you luck!

[Jason Rainville]

No one's saying you can't be an artist. Believe me, we've seen a LOT worse here, with artists defending their 'work' to the bitter end. :$

So here's what you do:

- Don't think about 'selling' your work now
- Get a pencil
- Draw

Practice makes perfect for everything we humans do. Draw things like people, mountains, anything FROM LIFE, trying to make them as realistic as possible. The more you draw, the better you get. The more you post here and get critiques on your work, the better you get.

Happy to see you're not a 'die defending my work' type of person. That'll save you a lot of time if you want to get better, also.

[LoBunny]

Thanks again guys. There are a few pieces of mine that I do feel very strongly about, but I didn't post them because I didn't plan to sell them. Anatomy has never been a strong point of mine, but I never really was into realism. I like the flexibilty offered by the other forms of art. Most of my work has a cartoonish sort of feel to it. I wouldn't mind your opinion on some of the pieces I like a bit more, so I'll post them below.

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b328/ArtLo/Fly_From_The_Inside_by_FiveOfHearts.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b328/ArtLo/Pamela_by_FiveOfHeartsLo.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b328/ArtLo/Casi_by_FiveOfHeartsLo.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b328/ArtLo/Chris_by_FiveOfHeartsLo.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b328/ArtLo/Lady_Laura_by_FiveOfHeartsLo.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b328/ArtLo/The_Right_Point_Of_View_by_FiveOfHe.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b328/ArtLo/Selenity.jpg

[evildisco]

This
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b328/ArtLo/Chris_by_FiveOfHeartsLo.jpg
and this
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b328/ArtLo/Casi_by_FiveOfHeartsLo.jpg

are the ones that have the most appeal of the whole bunch, the rest just don't say much to me.
I think if you buckle down you can actually produce some much more superior work.
Once again, practice is key, it has nothing to do with not preferring realism or whatnot.

[Jason Rainville]

You'd get a much better response if you made a seperate thread in the critique section, and ask for crits specifically.

[Steph Laberis]

Your recent post should be reposted in the critique section then :)

I have only this to add:

Anatomy has never been a strong point of mine, but I never really was into realism. I like the flexibilty offered by the other forms of art. Most of my work has a cartoonish sort of feel to it.

Hon, you have to know the rules to be able to break them! It seems like when you say "flexibility", you mean "it's easier to draw Sailor Moon than to make this self portrait look accurate!" ^_~

99% of your favorite animators and anime artists studied life drawing. Years of it. When I applied to Cal Arts' animation program, I was baffled as to why they didn't want to see ANY cartoon characters in my portfolio but dozens of pages of life drawings instead. It's a fact, drawing from life is absolutely crucial to drawing convincing cartoons, no matter how distorted they are.

There are balance issues in almost all of your cartoon figures. There are dislocated shoulders, stiff postures, and impossibly small hips. These aren't part of the style, they're distracting.

Your portraits which were studied from life are MUCH more appealing to me and believable (I could be going out on a limb, and please correct me if I am wrong, but some of those portraits appear to be traced - but still, it's better than copying cartoons to help train your eye). I'd sooner buy one of those than the anime, because with the anime you are watering down an existing style without really understanding how the original artist came to those stylistic conclusions on their own.

Anyway! Please re-post these in the critique section and get some more feedback :)

[LoBunny]

Your recent post should be reposted in the critique section then :)

Your portraits which were studied from life are MUCH more appealing to me and believable (I could be going out on a limb, and please correct me if I am wrong, but some of those portraits appear to be traced - but still, it's better than copying cartoons to help train your eye).

I'm glad you find them more appealing, but I will correct you on the tracing bit. I don't trace. I can see on the portrait of my friend Chris how you might think that. His left arm seems nearly transparent and you can see lines. That was a mistake on my part. When I started that portrait, I wasn't planning on making it as detailed as it was, and I used scrap printing paper that had been used to see if my printer was working correctly. I tried to cover it with prismacolor, but it didn't really work.

[paberu]

Sorry slightly off topic, but is there a thread with help on "freelancing" and how much you should charge for commision work?

LoBunny: I'll have to agree with others there, the art world is a very tough place. Getting your work to sell is very diffucult. I have yet to sell one of my prints in the year or so they have been up.

Unless you can produce art that makes people go "holy crap wow", you will only find yourself depressed with how hard it is to get some interested in sticking your work on their wall.

[RocknOats]

Hey Lo, first and foremost, keep working one way or another, if it makes you happy, that's has to be step one and the basis of why you should be doing this in the first place. Second, have you ever considered giving Adobe Illustrator a try? What it does and what I see you trying with your work synch up pretty well. If you wanted to work on the computer I think you'd be very pleased with what Illustrator has to offer, once you've attained a decent level of practice using it.