Pricing. This was the most difficult thing about hanging my work–deciding on prices and believing that someone would give up hard earned money for something I made. How on earth do other artist figure this out? The cost of materials I understand, but the value of my time and effort and imagination? Crazy.
Marta Pelrine-Bacon 
I would say price the market is willing to pay. Shows how biz oriented I am. BTW, I love, love, love this picture!!!
I love this piece! Wonderful! Try to think about how much you’d be willing to pay for a piece of artwork. Make it affordable yet worth your while.
Love the tree pix in general. This one in particular, ’cause of all the rain coming down meeting the tree of words growing upward.)
(Everybody probably already knows this, but just in case: click on the “More Photos’ thumbnail picture in the right-hand menu, to see Marta’s other work in a convenient form.)
In the price, don’t forget to factor in original-vs.-print, and if you’re doing prints there’s always the option (depending on how complex you feel like making it) of, like, “printed on matte paper” vs. “mounted on foamboard” vs. “mounted, matted, and framed.”
[BTW, my Friday blog meditation is in part directed to you. You probably know that, though.]
It is very complicated. If you figure it out, will you tell me? As far as I can tell, you take into account the cost of the materials, the time it took to make, the size of the work… and how much you like it. And what you think the market will support. And how much would make it worth it to sell. And how much others around you are charging. And whether you consider yourself an amateur or real artist. And whether or not you have an MFA and access to professionals setting prices. And… oh whatever. There seem to be so many factors.
This seems clear. Oils on canvas are more expensive than acrylic on canvas and acrylic on paper are more expensive than pen and ink on paper. Collage and multimedia seem to go from the acrylics range to below the ink on paper. Maybe it depends on materials. Prints are the least expensive, but this also depends on the ink, paper and printer.
Also, be wary of low balling your prices. Apparently people think that better things cost more. Strange, but they are more willing to buy something if it is more expensive. And many beginning artist price way too low. This might be a reflection of the value they put on their own work and themselves. We can’t charge A LOT for what we do, right? It’s not worth that much, RIGHT? Or is it?
I have been doing research in the forums on etsy.com to figure out how to price things. I do not have things figured out yet.
I always under price, I know this, but I still am worried that people won’t think it’s good enough.
I just had a client email me a second ago…how much do you charge. And since i kind of know her, I almost said, “for you, free!” but I am holding back!
Really I know a lot of this about pricing. The problem comes in feeling that my work is valued enough for someone to put money on. What do you mean I can ask for money?