Pricing illustrations?

art-house

I'm not sure if this is the right forum or not but can anyone give me any ideas about pricing per hour for illustrating a book/comic?

Memnoch

Hey,
I haven't really heard of a per hour wage for this stuff. To the best of my knowledge it's per page. The going rate can be anywhere from 20-60$ per page if your working with indy creators. I think the BIG BOYS, marvel, dc, image might pay more, though I have no real idea for this.

Also depends on what skills are involved... pencils, inking, colouring.

The more established and in demand you get, the more you can ask for.

Are you looking for work? Any samples of your art anywhere?

art-house

Thanks,
I'm doing work for a comic book, at this stage it's just designing charachters and backgrounds. The author has told me to keep track of my hours and bill her as i go along.
I've never done anything like this before so just looking for any guidance at all

Memnoch

fair enough.

Ger_Hankey

I'm not sure what the going rate is at the minute (as Memnoch says, its usually done by page rate rather than hourly), I tend to either do one-page commissions or sell artwork after the fact, for whatever people are willing to pay for it.
I would say this though; whatever you end up charging, make sure you have a concrete agreement a fee/rate before you start putting in a lot of time & effort into this. I know a lot of people in this line of work (myself included) who have stories of being left felling less than satisfied about they way they got paid (or didn't get paid) for a job they put a lot of time & work into.

edit: I found this link that Zotical put up a while ago that you might be interested in reading; http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055601329

ztoical

There are two many ways illustrators charge for work. One is a set fee but you need to be careful that you make it clear in the contract what the cilent is getting for the fee and how many retakes the cilent gets otherwise you could find yourself doing loads of retakes and extras. Also helps to have set number of retakes as cilents tend to be much clearer on what they want right away.

The other is to have an hourly rate. You would have a set hourly rate worked out for yourself based on % cost of studio rent, materials, light/heat/power etc etc add % on top of that you have your hourly rate [the % you add would depend on demand, awards, qualifcations, shows, residencies etc etc]. You would adjust the rate periodically then depending on your costs going up or demand for your work, awards/qaulifications etc

if your doing character design/layout work your best working out an hourly rate for yourself based on the above guidelines and having something in writing between yourself and the cilent. Also worth investing in a copy of "Graphic artists guild handbook pricing & ethical guidelines" ...just check its the most recent edition.

art-house

Hey Ger,
Thanks a million for that, appreciate it!
WHy do artists have such bad business heads when it comes to there own work?

Ger_Hankey

art-house wrote: »

Hey Ger,
Thanks a million for that, appreciate it!
WHy do artists have such bad business heads when it comes to there own work?

I think its cause its something we do because we love it, and would probably do it anyway if even nobody was asking us to. You tend to get into art by spending years doing it for yourself, so its kind of difficult to switch to thinking of it as a job that you should be reimbursed for.

I have that problem because I tend to draw as something to do in my spare time, without thinking that its something I tend to sometimes put more time (and definitely more effort) into than my paid job.

Just try to remember what the Joker says:
"If you're good at something, never do it for free"

Memnoch

On this topic, what's the going rate for decent quality artwork at the moment? And are there any GOOD Irish artists around, looking for freelance work?

Ger_Hankey

Memnoch wrote: »

On this topic, what's the going rate for decent quality artwork at the moment? And are there any GOOD Irish artists around, looking for freelance work?

I would guess that depends on a lot of factors, like what you would be looking for, what your definition of good is (for example, are you looking for a professional with a lot of experience), how busy they are etc. Your best bet is probably find someone who's work you like & get in contact. Tell them what you are looking for & they can tell you what it would cost.

Incidentally, I hardly ever turn down paid work (though I'm sure most other people would say the same too!)

subedei

If your an illustrator you might check out the big illustration Party Time Podcast, they are illustrators/comic artists, these two episodes in particular will answer alot of your questions:


Contracts:

http://illustrationparty.blogspot.com/2009/04/episode-16-contractual-party.html

Pricing:

http://illustrationparty.blogspot.com/2009/05/episode-17-contractual-party.html

You need to download them from iTunes.



Also you could check out Escape from Illustration Island:

http://escapefromillustrationisland.com/efii-podcast/

Ninja Mountain:

http://ninjamountain.blogspot.com/

And WIP

http://www.wippodcast.com/

Good luck

art-house

thanks, that's great

Greaney

Memnoch wrote: »

On this topic, what's the going rate for decent quality artwork at the moment? And are there any GOOD Irish artists around, looking for freelance work?

I simply have to reply to this question.

There are loads of excellent illustrators all over Ireland working internationally (hello!! they use the internet) to the hightest standard. Just like out sourcing work to countries where the pay was more affordable for the Client, a lot was sourced to Ireland in the 90's and early noughties. Illustratrors were earning up to 60k pa. This has trickled off a bit with the economic slow down and they are much more available.

There's a slew of terrific award winning comics and graphic novels being produced by Irish companies and illustrators that stand up on the international stage (Even being produced in the Irish language eg. The Táin & Teachtáíre).

By the way €20-€60 per page is a pittance. An illustrator is a highly trained and specialised job.

Look at it this way. If it takes four or five hours to produce a page/picture, and you're getting paid €25 per hour then it's going to be at least €100 for a page/pic. A full days work is about €200 at least! Top of their game illustrators (in fairness, we're talking the famous one's) Charge thousands for pictures/pages from their publications (original once offs).