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How much would YOU pay for a well-painted portrait?

seamaid

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Hypothetically speaking, if you were to want to buy a portrait, what price range would be reasonable for you?

Er, since size is important I suppose, let's say the pictures are 11 by 14 inches.

Thanks for your replies!
 
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Randomnity

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I'll be honest and say I wouldn't pay much, maybe 20$ or perhaps up to 50$ for exceptional work and a subject I really wanted. But I am cheap, and a student, and I could paint a pretty good portrait myself for free, so I'm probably not a good sample.

I think you should charge a lot more than that though, lol. Not sure what the going rate is, though.

Good luck with this. It can be quite lucrative if you're talented and manage to find the right buyers (I know from experience that rich people, especially moms will pay good money for good portraits of their kids). I hear pet portraits are also good to do.

edit: aww, why did you take out all the details?
 

seamaid

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Thank you, Randomnity!

I really appreciate the honesty. I want to have a set price on the ad (that I'll post in coffee shops and on places like craigslist) that doesn't scare people away and yet is lucrative enough that I can really amass a good profit in 3 years or so to pay for grad school etc.

The going price on craigslist is about US$150 for something similar (but poorly painted, imho). If I had a reputation / connections / website / history of doing this, I could charge more (as you say, with wealthy people), but I don't, hm. So I would be aiming my paper/postcard/online ads at "comfortably-off" professional people, who wouldn't mind decorating their home with something artsy and unique.
 

Ivy

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If I had it to play with, I might pay $100. $150 would be a bit of a stretch, but depending on the quality, I could be persuaded.
 
P

Phantonym

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Nothing, actually. Portraits creep me out, so I wouldn't really turn to an artist. I've always wondered why would people want to hang up pics, let alone paintings, of themselves or really anybody else (yes, even classical masterpiece portraits which I thoroughly enjoy in the museums), no matter how good they were. Giving somebody a portrait of yourself as a gift = :eek: But that's just my own little quirk, pics of people I know aren't really my thing I suppose.

Hypothetically speaking, I guess it would depend on the talent of the artist making the portrait and the quality of the work. It would also depend on my mood quite a lot. If I would love the picture, I wouldn't mind dishing out a bundle. Haha, I'm not really helpful, numbers are but mere insignificant details.
 

Ivy

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I have a little (4x6) pencil sketch of my daughter when she was 3, that I just love. It was a gift so I didn't buy it and I don't know how much it cost. But it won me over to Team Portrait. I wasn't a fan of them either, before I actually had one of someone I care about.
 

seamaid

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Nothing, actually. Portraits creep me out, so I wouldn't really turn to an artist. I've always wondered why people would want to hang up pics, let alone paintings, of themselves or really anybody else (yes, even classical masterpiece portraits which I thoroughly enjoy in the museums), no matter how good they were. Giving somebody a portrait of yourself as a gift = :eek: But that's just my own little quirk.

Hypothetically speaking, I guess it would depend on the talent of the artist making the portrait and the quality of the work. It would also depend on my mood quite a lot. If I would love the picture, I wouldn't mind dishing out a bundle. Haha, I'm not really helpful, numbers are but mere insignificant details.

Very interesting... I understand that for some the impetus to actually take action and contact the artist may come from a whim, and for others maybe it might result from a more cost-benefit analysis. And I can see how portraits can be creepy! Especially the children ones, haha!

I wonder how I should craft my ad to create a desire for a portrait (for those who are susceptible to clever ads)? :devil: A friend of mine suggested that I should change up (update) my ads every time I have a new portrait, and feature that new addition. That way, coffee shop regulars can see that they can be part of something cooler and bigger than mere individuated one-offs.

Sorry, this is totally a marketing question. :blush:
 

seamaid

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I have a little (4x6) pencil sketch of my daughter when she was 3, that I just love. It was a gift so I didn't buy it and I don't know how much it cost. But it won me over to Team Portrait. I wasn't a fan of them either, before I actually had one of someone I care about.

Thank you for that touching anecdote. I had to paint a sample portrait to put on that ad and the one I did of my boyfriend was really enjoyable to do, precisely because it was someone I love. A random celebrity likeness would not be half as fun, because (1) not much emotional connection, (2) no feedback or reward.
 

Synarch

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Hypothetically speaking, if you were to want to buy a portrait, what price range would be reasonable for you?

Er, since size is important I suppose, let's say the pictures are 11 by 14 inches.

Thanks for your replies!

I want a giant Mao-style poster for my cult of personality. I would pay $1000 and a creepy back rub.
 

seamaid

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Sure. You can PM me a "throwaway" email address (to be safe) and I'll email you a link to the painting I did recently. Feedback encouraged!
 

Oaky

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In honesty, I wouldn't buy one. Portraits, in a way, are creepy.
 

miss fortune

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I'm terrified of having pictures of people (me included) hanging on my walls... I always feel like I'm being watched :unsure:
 

Oaky

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That's what makes them beautiful. Also, sometimes you can capture someone's essence better with a portrait than with a photograph.
Finding beauty in these certain types of creepiness is not one of my traits unfortunately. Yes, a better essence. However the essence may lie to you and alter the more truthful perception.
 

stalemate

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I would pay as much as $150 for that size painted probably.

Last year I had a 16x20 drawn in pencil of my wife and baby for Christmas. It was $75 and I think she gave me some kind of discount.
 

Synarch

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Finding beauty in these certain types of creepiness is not one of my traits unfortunately. Yes, a better essence. However the essence may lie to you and alter the more truthful perception.

The world is a chamber of horrors, my friend. We may as well find the beauty in that. There is a beauty in the liquid groans of the ever-emerging, ever-dying life that infests this planet like a vast seething pestilence. There is a beauty in the drumbeat of violence of birth and death that we dance to.
 

Oaky

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The world is a chamber of horrors, my friend. We may as well find the beauty in that. There is a beauty in the liquid groans of the ever-emerging, ever-dying life that infests this planet like a vast seething pestilence. There is a beauty in the drumbeat of violence of birth and death that we dance to.
You may say that, however, beauty can only be but a perception. And thus, beauty cannot be indicated except within the perception of the individual. What you have given me as beauty is, in the end, a personal view.
 
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