I think I scared him...

[eastman]

One time when painting at a game store, I had someone come up and ask about commissions. They were looking to get a GW army painted.

 

Since I have no interest in army painting (unless Werner sculpts his Naughty Elf Maidens In (and out of) Lingerie army - then yes), I passed, but pointed out another painter who did commission work.

 

The army was goblins (for either WarHamster or Lord of the Ring$). The price offered was $10 each for nice tabletop (nothing fancy) or $5 for 3-color GW legal. The person with the army was ready to agree to this, because he didn't originally catch the "per figure" part of the price. Since his army was around 200 figures, this meant $1-2k for the painting and he was shocked. He really thought he could pay $100-200 to have a 200 figure army assembled and painted.

[Spike]

Hmmph.... y'all consider yourselves lucky to have talent even if nobody wants to readily pay you for what it's worth.

 

somehow I bet if I offered the minis I painted for sale, the buyer would offer their worth in weight for pewter MINUS the cost of the SimpelGreen needed to get my paint off 'em.

[fieldarchy]

Yeahhhh . . . see those are the people who need to stop eating paint chips!

 

What do they think? That it takes us 10 minutes each mini? Hrumph!

[Beowulfthehunter]

Painting has been my sole sourse of income for the past year and frankly I am burned out. Painting has become a chore. I feel like I am just churning out things so I can paint more.

 

I tend to charge 10-20 bucks a figure. That includes assembly and what not, but I am a fast painter most of my work is basecoat, wash, drybrush, but looks damn good. I worked it out to 20 bucks an hour, which is not bad I guess.

[cutebutpsycho]

Ya know, I don't think it's worth being burned out. If this is a hobby for you, you should enjoy it. Go ahead and set your comission rates at what you are willing to paint for-if someone doesn't want to pay your price, fine. Let them paint it themselves (and realize that this isn't as easy as it might look) or let them find someone who'll do it cheaper either to feed themself or because they're not as good as you.

[vutpakdi]

I agree that you should charge what you think that your time is worth. Just realize that if the price is too high, then you might not get many customers unless you develop a following online. But, better that than painting for pennies (literally), becoming resentful, and just not enjoying painting.

 

I think that Anne has posted some suggestions on developing an ebay following in the Auctions thread before.

 

One of the local Warlord players once commented that he really liked the look of my orcs and was going to pay me to paint his orcs when he got around to getting some. I chuckled and suggested that he find someone else because I have such little time to paint that I value my painting time enough to make it unlikely to be worthwhile for him.

 

I've taken a similar approach to Traveller deckplans. I've co-authored a few Traveller supplements with another fellow that are published as PDFs. Under the original deal, it was worth my time to do, especially since I could do them during lunch at work. After they changed the renumeration scheme, collaborating on a supplement isn't worth my time anymore given the pay rate would be less that $5 an hour. I have done a couple of commission deckplans, but only because the requester was willing to pay around $10 an hour.

 

Unless you really need the money, charge what your time is worth (factoring an adjustment for your enjoyment). Even if you really need the money, it may be more worthwhile to get a part time job instead.

 

Ron

[Jubilee]

I had to set aside commissions earlier this year and get a full time job instead. I have been burned out since August and only very slowly recovering my ability to enjoy painting. ;) Most of the time, I don't think commissions are worth it. ;(

 

/ali

[IG88]

Hey all,

 

Commisiion Vs. Online auction.

 

Commission = Having a boss, having to be on a schedule, having a set pay rate and you are forced to paint what the customer wants, no freedom(unlesss you have a real nice guy or gal that just says make um look good).

Bottom line, Im more of a free spirited person, especially in my artwork, i do better when free to do what I want, commissions tie me down and as a result my commission work is not as good, actually wait a minute..i don't do commissions hehe.

 

Online Auction = No Boss, must establish regulars and have quite good painting/converting skills to catch bids, no schedule, your free to do whatever you want paint/mini wise, no set payrate but my auctions go way over what I would feel comfortable asking for a commission piece. Freedom... Freedom.... freeedom. This is the only way for me.

 

There is nothing worse than getting a commission job for some annal retentive basterd with little to know knowledge of minis. You know the critique that doesn't even know what flack or a base coat is let alone that cleaning up a model, pinning, basing and a good prime job can take nearly as long as painting the model and are just as important, especially on big ones.

 

In my opinion if you can do online auctions, save commissions for those who like schedules, rigid work loads and having a set plan given by someone else, its really who you are as a person I guess. I don't think either way is better, its just a personal preferance for me, then again i'm a Gemini so not only am i all over the place with my work, i'm usually doing 2 projects at once, lol again who i am as a person.

[Cerridwyn1st]

For me, my aspiration would be to defray the cost of my hobby somewhat. That coupled with the fact that -for a lot of figs- once I've painted them, I don't necessarily have a lot of interest in them any more. There are plenty I keep to game with, but there are just as many I've painted and never used.

 

Don't sell yourself short - you can do more than defray the cost of your hobby. If there are figs you really want to paint and NOT keep, then commissions can be helpful. You might want to take good pictures and retain the rights to the image, though.