How to Price a Lithograph
You're a budding print artist, and you put your heart and soul into making your lithographs. That's often the easy part--the hard part can be pricing and selling your work. Here are some tips for coming up with a fair price--one that pays you for your effort and materials but isn't so far off the charts that buyers will balk.
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Instructions
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Take stock of your costs. Analyze how much you pay for materials and how long you work on a lithograph. Create an hourly fee for your work--say, $10 per hour. Add the labor amount to the cost of your materials. The total is your base figure, which you can increase depending on other factors.
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If you're an unknown artist, think about using your base amount plus a small amount more as your asking cost. As your reputation grows, so can your prices. If you already have sold some lithographs, you can factor in those prices and increase the amount accordingly.
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Do your homework by visiting local galleries and looking at the prices for lithographs. Ask the gallery staff what percentage goes to the gallery and what percentage to the artist. Although you don't want to price your lithographs according to what other print artists charge, this will give you a ballpark figure for what the market will bear.
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Be consistent with your pricing. If a gallery agrees to sell your lithographs for a certain price, don't undercut that price by selling them for less online or at art fairs. As you become better known and command higher prices, raise them everywhere accordingly.
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Tips & Warnings
Factor in the size of the lithograph when you determine the price. You can ask more for a larger piece.
