Charging for your time is extremely important when determining your rate because your time and energy arevaluable! Whether you create for fun, as a part-time or around-the-clock job, your labor hours should be considered.

There are two components to consider when charging for time: the amount of time that it takes you to complete the project and your hourly rate. Figuring out how much time a project will take can be tough in the beginning, but after creating a few projects, this will become a more straightforward part of the art pricing equation. Tracking your time can also help you keep your estimates accurate while simultaneously assisting lead times and customer expectations.

Determining a fair hourly rate is a personal question, but here are some considerations that might help you choose one:

1. How much would someone else pay me to do this work?
2. How much do I get paid hourly at my regular job?
3. What is the minimum wage in my area?

As with overhead costs, some people choose to not include an hourly estimate in their pricing. Just make sure these costs are covered in their margin. This might be a good strategy for you if your hourly rate is tough to determine because you mass produce your art or charge such a large markup that the hourly time becomes less important. Like overhead costs, it’s an important factor to consider so you don’t finish the year and see you worked 500 hours at an hourly rate of $1.50 without realizing it.

Once you tally up the costs you want to consider, you need to determine the amount of profit that you’d like to make on the piece. By adding all the costs mentioned above in advance, you can quickly see how much money you’ll actually make. Our art pricing calculator will show you different prices and profit margins on a sliding scale so you can easily compare rates and take–home pay. Choosing the markup is another personal decision that relies somewhat on gut feel.

Like any other piece of artwork, when pricing your resin art, you want to factor in your direct, material and overhead costs, along with an hourly wage. Because epoxy and resin materials can be expensive, don’t be afraid to charge more than you would for alternative art supplies, like watercolor, acrylics or oil. Additionally, resin art can require hours of manual labor and technical skills to properly apply, so don’t be afraid to express this to your customers and price accordingly.

Here are some additional things to consider when determining how to price your own artwork and custom projects. You want to make sure you cover all your bases before you give away your creation without realizing its genuine worth.

Once you know your final price and are comfortable with it, you may want to consider adding a discount on your product in some way. Maybe it’s free shipping or a promotional sale for a holiday. These incentives can lure customers to purchase your product over someone else’s or help you turn over inventory. Just remember to either add the shipping back in with your material costs or factor the discount into the selling price to make sure it still makes sense for you.

You should also consider any charges that are incurred from the platform you sell on—for example, Etsy, Amazon, eBay. If you sell on these platforms, the final price to the customer isn’t actually your take–home pay, as they take a commission on your items sold.

Pricing your art should get a little easier every time you finish a project because you’ll slowly get better at considering every minute, material and dollar that went into your creation. Although factoring in every aspect of your artist commission rates can be time-consuming and somewhat overwhelming, you deserve to be fairly rewarded for the hard work you’ve put in.

Whether you’re a beginner or novice, give yourself some credit for creating something new and sharing it with the outside world. If you need more assistance when determining how to price your own artwork, check out the rest of our calculators—including ones that tell you how much resin you’ll need for your project.