The Price Of Artwork!?

[Razvan-Sedekiah]

(Edited due to rambling. I tend to do that.)

Okay! If you charge people for your artwork, 3D or 2D, I'd like to know more about pricing!
If you are too shy to talk about how much you make in this thread, I would greatly appreciate it if you could private message me about the costs and how much you make. If you like I can post how much you charge for artwork here without your name so that all may benefit!



1.)What are you charging for your different art services?
Summary of answers (see thread for details):
*£8 an hour
*$75 an hour
*3d artist no less than £100 per day
*


2.)Is there anywhere to go to find the going rate of Illustrations, 3D models, and Concept work?
Summary of answers(see thread for details):
*GAG (Graphic Artist Guild) Guide for Pricing and Ethical Guidelines (Chapter 9? The entire thing is illustration)

3.) If you have an in-house job, what is your salary and hours like?

[Mogster]

the problem I find is in these guides etc... none wants to tell you how much they really make or charge so they just sort of go around the issue of actual pricing, since its always a sore issue I guess.

well I'm not 100% sure myself as I also do freelance I general charge per hour a flat rate and depending on how long It will take I give an estimate, get paid half at acceptance of final sketch, and half upon completion of final. but every job is different. though we all want to get paid asap for work rendered.

so for example full illo 20 hours work £8 an hour = £160, but that only works on certain cases.

but your method does work out quite well as people can see exactly how much a piece will cost and what it will look like.

But freelance is a very individual thing. and no freelance will ever really tell you what they really charge, unless there quite open.

then again I'm not always the best person to listen to.

Also I replied to your comment on my DWAR page.

[Ksan]

Ok. This can be....a bit touchy for people I think. It is even hard to ask a professor when you are in school. The best reference I ever got pointed to is the GAG (Graphic Artist Guild) Guide for Pricing and Ethical Guidelines. It is really cool, cause a lot of thins can really effect a price like, whats the circulation? how quickly do they need it? whats the copyright? is there digital distribution? what regions? how long? They have all sorts of charts and categories that can help give you a hint for what might be a good idea. It can be difficult to decide because only you know what kind of work you have to put into a project. Also, know you are worth your expertise and education. Don't undersell yourself, bad for everyone and you will regret it (trust me on that one....:( ). Anyway, best of luck, I'm still figuring this one out myself.

[walrus]

I was going to say exactly what Ksan did: Every professional freelancer should own a copy of the GAG guide. It may not give you a great sense of prices to charge if you're just upon DA selling kids sketches of their D&D and Vampire RPG characters, but it serves for most other actual professional endeavors.

Barring that, you can use the universally-accepted rule of thumb that how much you charge should be inversely proportional to how much punctuation you use on your subject headings. :P :)

[JacqueChoi]

General sense I've gotten from peers, other freelancers, and price I'd charged for is $75 an hour.

Keep in mind, if you're doing this legitimately, you will have to pay taxes on the earnings. You will also have to pay the allotment of taxes an employer would usually pay, you will have to factor in costs of holidays, vacation days, benefits, Employment Insurance, Severance, Pension, etc.

[shadowmonkey]

$75 an hour is umm that dollars an hour?if so i think im in the wrong country?

charging also depends on who your client is?if a big company then charge what you can,Its always best to work out and charge by the day or hour,as some jobs can be intense than others so this way alows for price.

A normal 3d artist at the moment I would say no less than £100 per day

[JacqueChoi]

$75 an hour is umm that dollars an hour?if so i think im in the wrong country?

charging also depends on who your client is?if a big company then charge what you can,Its always best to work out and charge by the day or hour,as some jobs can be intense than others so this way alows for price.

A normal 3d artist at the moment I would say no less than £100 per day

I ran the currency exchange from british pound to american dollar.
http://www.x-rates.com/calculator.html

Your suggesting roughly $159 per day is what you should be paid:

Lets break that down:

260 working days per year
-15 vacation days
-5 statuatory holidays

For 240 working days working in a year.

For an annual salary of $38,160 a year (before employee or employer paid taxes).
NO OVERTIME WILL BE PAID EITHER<<< So over 40+hours a week is on YOUR dime.


Quite low for even an entry level position.

Let run it through personal income tax (lets say Vancouver as a happy medium, as it's similar to california and washington) (Roughly 32.5% personal income tax).:

http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/ndvdls/fq/txrts-eng.html

BUT WAIT! theres Payroll tax (as you're legally considered to be a company that you are employing your services for).

Paying for things like EI, Medicare, Pension (if you're living in the states, that Medical insurance HMOs, and PPOs are doing to slaughter you)

Canada Pension is here:
http://www.hrsdc.gc.ca/eng/isp/cpp/contribrates.shtml

Because You're Self Employed its an additional 9.9% tax for Pension, and 15% for Employment Insurance.


That will bring your taxes up to 57.3%
For a take home amount of $16,675.92


(Keep in mind, I have not deducted medicare)


Factor in what costs of operations would be (your computer, your electricity, all of the programs you are legally entitled to use).


And realistically tell me that 100 lbs a day is good for an experienced professional making double that amount at a salaried position?

And you're talking about a TEMP job that will have an end, and will not pay severance?



:/

[Razvan-Sedekiah]

joxx- Ohhh you have given me some very interesting things to think about!


As for GAG (Graphic Artist Guild) Guide for Pricing and Ethical Guidelines, I own a copy (as said in my first post), but is is difficult to understand. Also, if doesn't seem to talk about illustration jobs at all or concept art. The closest I could find was editorial art, which is a completely different beast.

I really want an in house job someday. Scrimping and trying to sell myself all the time is exhausting and not very rewarding. I probably get at least 4 people a month who end up backing out and 4 more that want me to draw them a free illustration. (or for a ridiculously low price...)

I joined this war because my interest has always been in games... but I've never felt ready for the industry. I'm hoping to get a lot done here that will help me prepare to apply.

Thank you for all the input everyone.

I think I might switch to an hourly rate. Although, I think with the DA I might just keep it simple, especially since it will be a limited license.

If anyone else has any more input, I'm happy to read it over. Knowledge is power as they say.

[Ksan]

pg 181-182? that is book illustration stuff. Doesn't cover concept necessarily, but...should help with the book pricing. what ed. you got? there is a ton of illustration stuff in mine, and it's pretty applicable to concept art if you think about it. (i holding 11th ed...so i don't know if there is a difference.}
also pg 203 (think environments) is good. There is more, but ill have to flip through, i lost my markers when i moved.....

Edit: Chapter 9? The entire thing is illustration. Once again, won't directly say "concept art" but a lot of it is applicable. They call it preproduction illustration. (try pg 173-174) for basic practices.

Sorry- didn't see that you had it...my bad reading, what I get for late night posting. I feel your pain....I think we are in the same boat, and it is a BIG and overcrowded boat....really, feel for ya.

[JeremyK]

For an annual salary of $38,160 a year (before employee or employer paid taxes).
NO OVERTIME WILL BE PAID EITHER<<< So over 40+hours a week is on YOUR dime.


Quite low for even an entry level position.


Man, I just wanna say 35K annually is pretty average in Vancouver. They probably pay more if you work for bigger company like EA, Ubisoft, or Radical but smaller company you're probably looking around 35k-45k for entry level position (I heard it could be less for junior designer/producer). Maybe I should move to Montreal, no lol? j/k

Anyway, I'd be interested to know the answer too. I think charging them per hour seems to make more sense. But if you think you can finish the work pretty quickly, you could charge them per work, instead of per hour.

[JacqueChoi]

Man, I just wanna say 35K annually is pretty average in Vancouver. They probably pay more if you work for bigger company like EA, Ubisoft, or Radical but smaller company you're probably looking around 35k-45k for entry level position (I heard it could be less for junior designer/producer). Maybe I should move to Montreal, no lol? j/k

Anyway, I'd be interested to know the answer too. I think charging them per hour seems to make more sense. But if you think you can finish the work pretty quickly, you could charge them per work, instead of per hour.

Crazy. $36k is what I made when I was working for startups in Vancouver 9 years ago.

:/

With 9 years of inflation, you're telling me it still hasnt gone up????

Here's some food for thought:

(this survey is 2 years ago)
http://gamecareerguide.com/features/266/index.php?page=3

[Razvan-Sedekiah]

Here is an article about the salaries in the Game industry for people's review:
http://www.animationarena.com/video-game-salary.html

[shadowmonkey]

I would say at the moment the bottom line for an artist in the UK with 3 years exp is about £24,000 so thats about $38.191 before tax.

With inflation sure its gone up but the economy at the moment isnt sunny is it.publishers are holding back money and companies arnt splashing out so much money its all a nock on effect