Question about selling sketches 0

[NigelWeatherbottom]

Hi! Im new to this page. Im a artist. I been drawing on sketch covers for a couple years now. I have sold a few thur my webpage and instagram. But only a handful. I have a lot to sell. I priced them on the fact that some take forever to finish, size of the sketch and color or not. I know im not a name like famous comic book artists, but I seem to have people ask to buy one, I give them what I think is a good price, and they pass. Most of mine I have been starting at $40.00 more if its a bigger piece. Never gone pass $65.00. But for some reason Im not selling. I dont want to price them too high but I do spend up to 3 hours sometimes and very detailed. So im not sure. So my question is...i guess.... for a unknown artist what $$$ should I try to sell my stuff for?

[reddwarf666222]

2 hours ago, NigelWeatherbottom said:

Hi! Im new to this page. Im a artist. I been drawing on sketch covers for a couple years now. I have sold a few thur my webpage and instagram. But only a handful. I have a lot to sell. I priced them on the fact that some take forever to finish, size of the sketch and color or not. I know im not a name like famous comic book artists, but I seem to have people ask to buy one, I give them what I think is a good price, and they pass. Most of mine I have been starting at $40.00 more if its a bigger piece. Never gone pass $65.00. But for some reason Im not selling. I dont want to price them too high but I do spend up to 3 hours sometimes and very detailed. So im not sure. So my question is...i guess.... for a unknown artist what $$$ should I try to sell my stuff for?

The number of people wanting to get sketches on sketch covers is going down. More people would rather have original art on paper that can be framed of a decent size vs sketch cover now. You are just limited on size with sketch covers. I think that is evident based on the number of sketch ops that used to be on this board that have almost disappeared except for the major artists.

 

I have seen your artwork similar to Chadwick Haverland and a Mickey Chaney. You do photo realism sketches as far as pricing $45 is fair, but if you are just starting out then you may need to go down to 30 to get some followers that come to you for custom sketches based on their needs and charge more

[DougC]

CGC has become very restrictive on sketch ops and only handful of people are even allowed to post them currently, this in addition to most artists skyrocketing pricing for blanks (to the price point of what their 11x17 commission was) and the diminishing returns on the actual art.  What has dis-waded a lot of potential buyers is the entire lack of value for an unknown artist, I think 40 is fair depending on what the art looks like but in no way do I expect to be able to sell it at a future point.  If I commission or purchase a sketch cover, I do so with the complete understanding that if I am lucky I will be able to sell it for 50% of what I bought it for.

I have sketch covers in CGC holders that I can not even give away at this point.  Personally last year I switched from sketch covers to getting sketches done in a sketch book as it was becoming to much hassle and money dealing with CGC and facilitators, this year I will be doing the same.  

[revat]

another factor is that comic-cons are soooo ubiquitous now that if I want an unknown artist to do a sketch (nothing wrong with that), its very simple to go to a con once or twice a year and get a sketch (or a few) done in person, which means I get to interact with the artist, check out the rest of their work, describe in person what I want, not worry about being scammed or ripped off, and possibly get it CGC'd (if that's my thing).  And also possibly pay less in cash and not worry about tax, shipping costs, or shipping damage.

If you love drawing and/or are working towards a career in art, its probably nice to get paid to practice/have fun, assuming you don't want to sit on a huge pile of art you did forever.  But if you're worried about being compensated for your time and it's not happening for you, then you may need to reconsider some things, like how you spend your time or how you make your money.  I think others have suggested that maybe start with lower prices and work your way up.  Also, there's a difference between selling something that was commissioned and custom drawn for a customer, and just selling some random thing you spent three hours drawing.  There's probably markets for both, but they may not be the same market.

Frankly, different people draw at different speeds, and unless you're famous or the level of detail is remarkable and distinct, most customers don't really factor how long it took the artist into how much they're willing to pay.  They're more likely to factor in how long it took THEM to earn that much money. 

[AndyBoBo]

7 hours ago, NigelWeatherbottom said:

Hi! Im new to this page. Im a artist. I been drawing on sketch covers for a couple years now. I have sold a few thur my webpage and instagram. But only a handful. I have a lot to sell. I priced them on the fact that some take forever to finish, size of the sketch and color or not. I know im not a name like famous comic book artists, but I seem to have people ask to buy one, I give them what I think is a good price, and they pass. Most of mine I have been starting at $40.00 more if its a bigger piece. Never gone pass $65.00. But for some reason Im not selling. I dont want to price them too high but I do spend up to 3 hours sometimes and very detailed. So im not sure. So my question is...i guess.... for a unknown artist what $$$ should I try to sell my stuff for?

Post some of your art.

[A-DONIS]

6 minutes ago, AndyBoBo said:

Post some of your art.

Would love to see your work.  Please share.

[NigelWeatherbottom]

here are a few of my drawings

[Dwitkin82]

The Flash and Batman/Superman covers are great.....

Edited February 28, 2017 by Dwitkin82

[NigelWeatherbottom]

8 minutes ago, Dwitkin82 said:

The Flash and Batman/Superman covers are great.....

Thanks!!!

[NigelWeatherbottom]

Here are some more samples of work.