The Art Price Lab Blog

Should Artists Sell Prints? Here's the Business Case

Let me answer this the way I would if you walked into my studio and asked me directly. Yes. And the reason is simpler than most business advice makes it sound. Originals... the thing you pour months into, the one-of-a-kind object that goes to one person forever... have a built-in limitation that doesn't get talked about enough. You make it once. It sells once. That's it. No residuals, no replays, no passive anything. The next sale of that work requires you to make a whole new piece. You're a

How to Run an Art Print Sale (Without It Feeling Wrong)

Somewhere along the way, someone convinced artists that running a sale means you've lowered your standards... not out loud, and not with a direct argument, but the idea got in there anyway, and now there's this whole category of artists who feel vaguely guilty every time they type "20% off" into an email subject line, like it conflicts with having a serious practice. Let me sort this out. Prints and originals are different products with different pricing rules. Running a sale on a print editio

Why I Built Art Price Lab (And What It Taught Me About Pricing With Confidence)

I built Art Price Lab because I was tired of watching artists... including myself... hand their pricing decisions to strangers in forums, online communities, cafes. And then lose conviction or flounder on the price the moment a collector asked a question. Collectors aren't always pushing back. They will ask a question though. And if you don't have a foundation, that question is enough to make the number feel shaky. That's the short version. The longer one starts years ago with spreadsheets and

True Scarcity vs Manufactured Urgency in Art Pricing

If you have ever seen a countdown timer on an artist's website — "offer ends in 14:32:07" — you probably already sensed the problem before you could fully articulate it. It feels off. Not because urgency is inherently dishonest, but because that particular tool is borrowed from a completely different context and it shows the second you try to use it on a painting. Original art has genuine scarcity built right into it. There is only one, and once it sells, it is gone. Manufactured urgency (count

Why Your Art Prices Shouldn't End in .99

The .99 ending is a retail discount signal. And you know it. I know it. Your collector absolutely knows it. Their brain has been trained since childhood that .99 means someone took something off the price... which is a perfectly reasonable thing to feel when you are standing in a grocery store aisle trying to decide between two nearly identical boxes of cereal. It is, however, a slightly less ideal feeling to be giving someone who is about to spend four hundred dollars on a painting they will lo

Is It a Pricing Problem or a Selling Problem?

When your art is not selling, two explanations are going to come for you almost immediately and with tremendous conviction: the price is too high, or the work is not good enough. And you know what these two diagnoses have in common besides being wrong most of the time? They are both things that require you to change something fundamental about yourself or your practice, instead of spending twenty minutes figuring out which of the two actual challenges you have. Not problems, by the way. Challen

When Your Art Isn't Selling in 2026: Pricing Problem or Market Problem?

You ran the formula. You did the math honestly, with your actual materials costs and your actual time and a fair hourly rate and a real look at where your work sits in the market, and the number you landed on is the number you need. And still... the piece sits. Sits and sits and you are in the corner of your studio having a conversation with yourself about whether the price is why, and then whether you should lower it, and then whether lowering it would mean you were doing it for the right reaso

How to Build a Pricing System That Grows With Your Career

A lot of artists have a price. What they do not have is a system, which means the price changes whenever they feel brave enough to raise it, holds completely still for years when they do not, and produces something different for every show and every inquiry because there is no underlying logic keeping it consistent... and the result of all of that is a catalog where a 12x16 is priced differently than a 16x12 because those pieces were set on different days in different moods, and a friend got a d

How to Actually Think About Pricing Your Art

If pricing your art has ever made your chest tighten or sent you spiraling into second-guessing for days, you're not alone. Almost every artist who sells their work describes the same moment: someone asks "how much?" and everything in your body freezes. You name a number that feels okay and immediately wonder if it was too high, too low, or completely arbitrary. There's no single right price for your art and no magic formula... pricing is a skill of judgment, not a calculator. Here's how pricin

How to Price Art for Interior Designers and Trade Clients

When an interior designer reaches out about your work, the conversation usually goes to price quickly. And if you've never sold through trade before, the question of what to charge them, versus what you charge a collector directly, can feel murky enough that you either make up a number or avoid the conversation entirely. Price art for interior designers off your standard retail first, then apply a 20–30% trade discount. Never invent a separate number for trade clients. The discount comes off wh

How to Build a Pricing System That Grows With Your Career

A lot of artists have a price. What they don't have is a system. The price changes whenever they feel brave enough to raise it, holds still for years when they don't, and produces something different for every show or inquiry because there's no underlying logic keeping it consistent. A durable art-pricing system is a repeatable formula plus career-stage tiers, so raising prices becomes a scheduled step, not an anxious guess every time. That's the whole structure. It sounds simple because it is

How to Track Time and Costs for Your Art Without Letting It Kill Creativity

The idea of tracking time while you paint is exactly as unpleasant as it sounds. Glancing at a timer between brushstrokes, logging hours, writing down every tube of paint before you start... for most artists, this version of time tracking sounds like the fastest way to drain the thing that makes the work possible. The good news is that you don't have to do it that way. You don't need to time every brushstroke. Track a representative average of hours and materials per piece, and let the formula

Why Your Art Prices Shouldn't End in .99

You see $19.99 on a grocery store shelf and your brain processes it correctly: this is a discounted price. The .99 is doing a job. It's communicating "we took something off"... or at least creating the impression that we did. Prices ending in .99 are a retail discount signal. When collectors see them on original art, they read "bargain bin," not "original work." Round numbers signal confidence. Your formula gives you the right number first. How to price your art covers the three methods. This

Real Scarcity vs Manufactured Urgency in Art Pricing

If you've ever seen a countdown timer on an artist's website ("offer ends in 14:32:07"), you probably already sensed the problem. It feels off. Not because urgency is inherently dishonest, but because it's borrowed from a context where it doesn't belong. Original art has real scarcity built in. There's only one, and once it sells, it's gone. Manufactured urgency (countdown timers, fake deadlines, artificial pressure) undermines the authenticity that makes original art valuable in the first plac

Most Artists Are Pricing Their Work Blind - Here's Why...

If pricing never feels settled, there’s a reason. This guide uncovers what artists aren’t seeing when they price their work.

Why Copying Other Artists' Prices Can Backfire

If you’ve ever found yourself scrolling another artist’s website or Instagram, seeing their prices, and thinking, “Okay… I guess I should be around that,” you’re not alone. This is one of the most common ways artists try to get their footing with pricing. It feels logical. If someone else is selling work that looks similar in size, medium, or style, it can seem reasonable to use their prices as a reference point. The problem is, pricing does not live in isolation. When you copy another artist

Why Artists Are Quietly Using This Art Pricing Tool

Tired of second-guessing your art prices? The Art Price Lab shows artists exactly how to price their work without stress, shame, or burnout. Read this before you undercharge again.

The Linear Pricing Rule Artists Are Never Told

There are two “linear pricing” formulas but only one makes sense for painters. This explains why artists stay confused and how pricing tools avoid the trap.

How Inflation and Cost of Living Should Affect Art Pricing

At some point, most artists run into this quiet tension: You set your prices. They feel fair... They reflect your experience, your market, and what you need to sustain your practice. You are selling your work, sometimes its busy and other months are much slower than you would hope but, things are moving. And time passes. Rent goes up. Groceries cost more. Supplies creep higher. Shipping increases. Platform fees change. Your baseline cost of being a person slowly shifts. But your art prices

Stop Guessing Your Art Prices: How to Set the Right Multiplier

Struggling with knowing how to price your artwork for sale? This guide shows you how to choose the right multiplier and raise prices with confidence so you can sell more, protect your energy, and build a life of creative and financial freedom.

How Market Positioning Shapes the Price of Your Art

You’re Not Just Pricing Your Art. You’re Choosing Who It’s For. If you’ve ever found yourself staring at a blank space where a price should go and feeling weirdly emotional about it, I want you to know something first: That reaction makes sense. Most artists aren’t actually confused about math. They’re confused about what the number is supposed to represent. Because the moment you price your work, you’re not just assigning a dollar amount to a canvas. You’re placing your work inside a specif

How to Figure Out Which Art Market You're Actually In (So Pricing Stops Feeling So Confusing)

Once you start thinking about pricing as a market relationship instead of a personal judgment, a new question usually comes up: “Okay… but what market am I even in?” This is where a lot of artists get stuck. Not because they’re unaware of different art worlds existing, but because we’re rarely taught how to locate ourselves honestly inside them. Most pricing advice jumps straight to formulas without helping you identify the environment those formulas are meant to operate in. So let’s slow th

Your Art Pricing Multiplier Is a Sliding Scale (Not a Fixed Number)

The Multiplier Is a Sliding Scale, Not a Label If you’ve ever used square inch pricing or linear pricing, you know the moment. The math feels straightforward. The dimensions make sense. Then you get to the multiplier and suddenly it feels personal. That’s because it is. The multiplier is the one part of pricing that isn’t really about inches or surface area. It’s the part that translates your position in the world into a number. And that position isn’t fixed. So if you’ve been trying to “fi

Square Inch vs Hourly Pricing for Original Artwork

Struggling to price your art? Compare square inch and hourly pricing and learn how to choose the method that protects your time and income. Free Art Price Calculator at The Art Price Lab

Linear Pricing vs Hourly Pricing for Artists

Pricing your art shouldn’t feel like a gamble. Learn when linear span pricing works, when hourly pricing matters, and how artists use both, plus a free art pricing calculator from The Art Price Lab, to price confidently and sustainably.

This Size-Pricing Mistake Costs Artists More Than They Realize

Using the wrong size formula quietly inflates or suppresses prices. Learn the real difference between square-inch and linear span pricing with FREE Pricing Calculator so you can get back to creating.

When Your Art Isn't Selling in 2026: Pricing Problem or Market Problem?

You ran the formula. You did the math honestly: materials, time, overhead, a fair hourly rate. The number you landed on is the number you need. And still... the piece sits. If that's where you are, the instinct is to assume you've priced yourself out of the market. So you lower the price. Then wonder if you lowered it for the right reason or just for the relief of doing something. Before you touch the price: find out whether you have a pricing problem or a market problem. They feel identical f

How Art Income Is Taxed (And Why Artists Overpay When They Don't Track) in 2026

Most artists who sell their work know they're supposed to report art income. Fewer know exactly how it's taxed, which expenses offset it, or how much to set aside. And a meaningful number are quietly overpaying because they're reporting revenue without tracking the expenses that reduce it. Artists are taxed on profit after expenses, not on gross sales. If you don't track materials, overhead, platform fees, and other costs, you'll be taxed on income you never actually kept. That one distinction

Is It a Pricing Problem or a Selling Problem?

When your art isn't selling, two explanations get blamed almost equally: the price is too high, or the work isn't good enough. Neither is usually the correct diagnosis, and both lead to changes that don't fix the actual problem. Before you adjust your prices or start second-guessing your work, find out which problem you actually have, because a pricing problem and a selling problem look almost identical on the surface and have completely different fixes. Mixing them up is expensive. Lowering y

How to Price Your Art to Sell Using Sales Psychology

Discover the secrets to setting the perfect price for your artwork and attracting eager buyers. Learn proven strategies that tap into the psychology of sales, ensuring your art not only stands out but sells out!

Coming soon

This is Art Price Lab, a brand new site by Cassidy Austin that's just getting started. Things will be up and running here shortly, but you can subscribe in the meantime if you'd like to stay up to date and receive emails when new content is published!