Commission prices?

[lemonokashi]

How much would you pay for one of the sprites? Up until now I have been charging as little as $10 per sprite (extra for poses and outfits), but I can no longer keep up with commissions. I'm hesitant to raise prices because some of my customers have expressed that young artists don't deserve to be payed normal rates. That in consideration, how much would you pay for a similar sprite commission 5 free emotions?

This sprite will not be used in any visual novels. It is a place holder sprite for Copper Crown.

[SundownKid]

When it's on the internet, I don't see what being young has to do with it. It's all about artistic skill really. You should just double your prices and see what happens - if you get enough commissions there's no reason to go down again. I mean, unless you are literally working alongside someone in an office, age shouldn't make a difference as long as you are reliable.

Your art is a little unusual shading wise, it's really pale. Unless he's supposed to be drained of all blood you might think about upping the contrast. I think it might have some minor proportion issues, though I couldn't say for sure. But in general it's pretty good and I'm sure people would pay more than that for it.

[lemonokashi]

When it's on the internet, I don't see what being young has to do with it. It's all about artistic skill really. You should just double your prices and see what happens - if you get enough commissions there's no reason to go down again. I mean, unless you are literally working alongside someone in an office, age shouldn't make a difference as long as you are reliable.

Your art is a little unusual shading wise, it's really pale. Unless he's supposed to be drained of all blood you might think about upping the contrast. I think it might have some minor proportion issues, though I couldn't say for sure. But in general it's pretty good and I'm sure people would pay more than that for it.

Thank you for the feedback! I'll be sure to make these adjustments in my future sprites. ó‿ó

[blankd]

You are being paid for a valuable skill, you are not too young to be earning a fair wage for your work.

[Greeny]

I'm hesitant to raise prices because some of my customers have expressed that young artists don't deserve to be payed normal rates.

These customers are jerks. The customer doesn't tell you how much you should be charging them; they pay your rates or they find someone else. Anyone who acts otherwise is basically trying to manipulate and abuse rather than making an actual point.

Exceptions to everything of course, but not likely the case, especially not here.

[Green Glasses Girl]

Don't sell yourself short! Age has nothing to do with the final product. If anyone tries to lowball the prices you set firm, you don't have to take commissions from those people.

IMO, your work is definitely worth a higher price than $10 a sprite. Have confidence in your abilities! What I would do is pop into some of the forum recruitment threads and see what other artists are charging for their work for comparison.

[Katta]

I like your coloring style, I think you can easily charge 25$, even more if you fix hands a bit.

[Tempus]

I agree with what's been said so far. As Greeny said, be really wary of people who try to get you to keep your rates low — they're either trying to manipulate you or they don't appreciate the work you're doing. That doesn't necessarily mean they have bad intentions, but it's just not worth your time working with people like that. Don't be afraid of turning people down. While it's always hard to do at the time, it's a great relief once you've done it and avoided a bad client / commission.

And yeah, don't be afraid of raising your prices. The worst thing that can happen is that no one bites. It's happened to me before. Wait a week or so though and really make sure no one is going to take to those rates. If no one does, revert back to the original price and consider working more on your presentation and portfolio for the next time you try raising your rates. Alternatively, you can do a more modest raise. Notice I say "revert" and not "lower" — it's very important to have that difference in my mind. My current prices are lines in the sand that have been fought and won. There's no going back. New prices are provisional territory which I haven't conquered until someone takes me up on my offer.

When I started out and looked at what other BG artists were charging I decided it just wasn't enough for me. (Some were as low as $20 per BG! I'd need to complete a BG in a little over an hour for that to be near minimum wage in my country.) I took the price of my most likely competition and doubled it, starting at $40 per BG. It still wasn't enough because it was taking me around 8 hours or more per BG at the time, but I promised myself I'd only ever raise my prices after that.

When I told friends and family I was starting commissions they said I should do the exact opposite — charge less than my competition. They were well-meaning but totally wrong. Don't ever do this. Firstly, if your art is roughly on par with competition (and even if it's not, really) your competition can't work on everyone's project. Secondly, it's undercutting your competition and lowering the average rates of artists and that hurts everyone, including you and even clients IMO. Know when to ignore advice. Also, while I say "competition", other artists are also your friends. When I have more offers than I can handle I'll sometimes recommend other artists I know.

While BG art is generally in higher demand than character art, I think the above is applicable to your situation. Sorry for the long ramble-y post >.>

[Tyrantauranox]

As others have said, your art's worth whatever the market will bear. I don't care if you're 40 or 4, if the goods are up to snuff. To answer the actual question, I'd charge $25, and let someone wiggle it down to $20 if they're nice about it. If someone said something like "young artists don't deserve to be payed normal rates", I'd give them a special rate of $100