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sale of all your art. For example, studio hire, advertising fees, letterhead, business cards, printing costs etc. Total these up over a month and divide that figure across the hours you intend to be working.

Note that if you're factoring in living and working expenses, to some extent the hourly rate of these are absorbed into the cost of your time. Essentially you're trading time for dollars to pay the bills. Like you do with any form of employment.

Size and complexity of the artwork

One approach is to calculate prices by the size of your artworks. A popular method is to charge by the square inch. Set a dollar figure for one square inch and simply multiply that by however many square inches each artwork is in size.

In order to do this you will need to know approximately the cost of your materials per square inch and your hourly rate per square inch. To calculate your square inch rate you'll need to create an artwork of average size and complexity.

Decide upon an hourly rate for your time and determine the cost of the materials used. Calculate the total cost of that artwork once you've completed it i.e. Total cost of time + Cost of materials. Take this figure and divide it by the total number of square inches in the artworks surface. The final number is your cost per square inch that you will apply to all future artworks.

Pricing by size tends to fall apart if you work in several different mediums, styles and complexities. In this case you'll need multiple size scales for different types and complexities of artwork.

Intended market

After cost of materials this is the single most important consideration when it comes to pricing your art. Your intended market covers things like:

* What type of person buys your art?
* What kind of income does that person earn?
* How much does this person spend on art per month/year?
* Where will your art be exhibited after purchase?
* Where does that person go to buy art?

Where a person goes to buy art is a big factor. People who buy from galleries expect much higher prices than people who buy from art fairs. Research is key here.

If you've never sold an artwork then you need to research the venue in which you intend to sell your art (whether that is ebay or a real world gallery). Look around for similar work that you know is selling and perhaps set your prices in line with that.

Knowing this kind of information will help shape the kind of art you produce and increase its chances of being sold.

Commission Fees

If you sell your work in a gallery

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