How to Read Your Results

After you enter your piece's dimensions, time, and materials, Art Price Lab shows you three numbers. Here's how to use them.

The range is your working window

You'll see a price from square inch, linear span, and time plus materials. Those three numbers define a range. That range is what you're working with.

When all three land close together, say $380, $395, and $420, the middle of that range is your number. It has backing from every method. Pick a clean round number inside it: $400 is right.

When they diverge, say $380, $420, and $680, that gap is information. In this case, the time plus materials number is significantly higher than the size-based numbers. That usually means one of a few things:

• The piece took longer than your standard work, and the size-based methods don't account for that
• Your materials cost was unusually high for this size
• Your size-based rate may be due for a review upward

You don't have to price at the high end of a diverged range. But you should understand why the gap is there before you dismiss it.

Choosing your price

The range gives you a window. Where inside that window you land depends on your market, your career stage, and the specific piece.

Price toward the lower end of the range when you're establishing yourself at a new price level, when the piece is part of a consistent body of work where you want to hold a familiar number, or when you're looking to move a piece that's been available for a while.

Price toward the upper end of the range when the piece is exceptional... more complex, more personal, a stronger example of your best work. When you're raising prices across the board. When your track record supports it and your collectors are buying at that level.

Round the number

Whatever number you land on, round it. $425, not $422. $1,200, not $1,183.

Round numbers signal confidence. A price ending in .99 signals a discount, which is exactly the wrong signal for original art. See Why Prices Shouldn't End in .99 for the reasoning.

Save your results

Art Price Lab saves your pricing history. You can refer back to see how your ranges have shifted over time and whether your formula rate is keeping pace with your career.