Price to draw a HQ card?

[lestodante]

I miss Gerwin Broers style... he had some great stuff.
Almost 17 years ago, but maybe he'd be up for it

Great stuff but different from what I am searching. I will consider him more for illustrations to put inside the booklet than on a card (except the one with the jumping mummy).

[Anderas]

Wow that man can draw! Could I just half of it, the HQ25 project would be finished by now.

[cornixt]

It happened the same with a blacksmith, he looked at my blocked door and sayd "I will take 100 euros to open the door, is it ok?" I had no choice and agreed and he opened the door with a steel stick in less than 10 minutes. I really felt fooled when I saw it!!

Why didn't you open the door yourself?

You paid someone with the skill, knowledge, and tools to do a job. Time comes into it, but when it comes to skilled labour you are paying for the skill more than the time. The skill took time to learn, to perfect, it was an investment - if you won't pay people so that they can earn back that sunken cost then you'll only get amateurs.

[lestodante]

Each job has its required skills. I have mine and people (and colleagues too) requires my assistance to solve their problem very often. It took about 17 years to reach my knowledges in my job. I still can't get 100 euros in 10 minutes, neither in 1 hour of work. I probably chosed the wrong job!
It is the same when you have to buy a Gucci or Louis Vuitton bag. It is made a bit better than a normal bag, but it cost a lot more. Some people take advantage of the situation because they can do things in better way than others.
This is my way of thinking... but now we are going off-topic.

[Goblin-King]

cornixt is right. For the customer it seems ludicrous to pay so much for so little effort, but you can't directly compare all occupations.
The carpenter or painter has a high hourly rate, but how much work do they get during the winter? An office worker does the same amount of work spread evenly out throughout the year. He might not make as much as a successful carpenter, but in turn he is guaranteed a stable pay.
And of course some skills are just in higher demand than others...

People buying expensive brands are a whole other story

I don't even think this is way off-topic. Discussing why things cost what they do is a good discussion.

But back on the specific topic. Every single aspiring artist struggle with the same question: How much should I demand for my work?
It's a combination of your actual talent, your speed, how established you are, your ambition, local competition and the customers. There's no easy calculation to determine the cost of a piece.

[lestodante]

Every single aspiring artist struggle with the same question: How much should I demand for my work?
It's a combination of your actual talent, your speed, how established you are, your ambition, local competition and the customers. There's no easy calculation to determine the cost of a piece.

I agree on this. So that is probably why they often ask the infamous question: "how much is your budget?"

[Anderas]

Ha, the electro-store question. This scene you see in every single store every day.

"Hello, I'd like a surround sound system for a 40 m² room. Hint, 40m² means it doesn't need more than 60 or 80 watts output power. Could you help me?"
"How much is your budget?"
"Max 300, no way that I spend even more."
"I have this system for 399 euro that has 600 watts output"
"It's ok. Just forget it."
"but..."
"Leave me alone please. I take a look by myself. THANK you."



The internet is a real stinker for artists.
Before, you had to deal with local concurrence. Today you have the entire world a mouse click away; and with a bit of bad luck your customer finds someone who does it for free as hobby.
That's, erm, "adapting" the prices quite a bit. Not always in favor of the artist.

When I try to draw an art sketch, it becomes, um... "art". And I need hours over hours. I think I would starve to death if I tried to live as artist.
So I am in the hobby trap: I don't make a living with my stuff, so I can't really afford to ask an artist to do it for me. Not without making my wife very angry.
On the other hand I appreciate the work that has been put into, so I don't want to steal.

In the end it's only me and the net of legal free stuff, which is smaller than one might think.

[Goblin-King]

I agree on this. So that is probably why they often ask the infamous question: "how much is your budget?"

Absolutely! I would much rather tell a customer what they can get for their budget, than telling them what their perfect vision costs

Ha, the electro-store question. This scene you see in every single store every day.

"Hello, I'd like a surround sound system for a 40 m² room. Hint, 40m² means it doesn't need more than 60 or 80 watts output power. Could you help me?"
"How much is your budget?"
"Max 300, no way that I spend even more."
"I have this system for 399 euro that has 600 watts output"
"It's ok. Just forget it."
"but..."
"Leave me alone please. I take a look by myself. THANK you."

I don't trust a salesman who instantly goes 25% above my budget. To me that's a red flag he is not trying to help me get what I asked for, but just trying to push as much extra features as possible.

The internet is a real stinker for artists.
Before, you had to deal with local concurrence. Today you have the entire world a mouse click away; and with a bit of bad luck your customer finds someone who does it for free as hobby.
That's, erm, "adapting" the prices quite a bit. Not always in favor of the artist.

When I try to draw an art sketch, it becomes, um... "art". And I need hours over hours. I think I would starve to death if I tried to live as artist.
So I am in the hobby trap: I don't make a living with my stuff, so I can't really afford to ask an artist to do it for me. Not without making my wife very angry.
On the other hand I appreciate the work that has been put into, so I don't want to steal.

In the end it's only me and the net of legal free stuff, which is smaller than one might think.

Yeah, I'd say the hobby artists doing stuff for free is worse than the online competition.
Sure there are lots of artists online, but the counter is that each artist in return reaches a much broader audience.
But artists doing jobs for free or selling their stuff for next to nothing is a bit annoying as it changes people's perception of what art should cost.
This is only a problem to low tier artists and beginners though. Once you reach a certain point none of your competition is offering freebies. Can't really compare some kid selling drawings for £10 to experienced artist selling full paintings at £800

[cornixt]

People are always trying to get free or cheap art. You aren't really an artist until you've had someone request your art for free/cheap for "the exposure". It's especially common in the gaming community because so much art is needed for a game. It's not fair on the artist but a lot of people don't even realise it.

Here's a good place to start:
https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/100073 ... our-projec
The forum it is on has a lot of artists with their prices.

[Nicodemus]

Place I've had very good luck with for finding artists is comic expos and other comic conventions. Artists of all levels and styles are jammed in and looking for work. Often you don't even have to go, just search for a city and comic expos and then search through their website for the vendors that were there and look them up on-line.... they've all got websites or Etsy shops these days

... Seriously, if you want to match the look of the original HQ art, just search those artists that attend comic conventions and you'll eventually find one that already works in that style.
~N