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Hello everyone,
I'd like to start doing some commissions for people but first I would obviously like to know if there are any people who are interested in my painting style and standard. I'm not going to try and sell my work as "pro painted" or anything, but I do believe it is up to a high gaming standard. In the beginning I will charge low rates, I'll happily paint ten infantry figures for £10, plus postage. Larger models I would probably charge by the hour rounding down. Anyway, take a look at my work, and if you are interested please let me know and maybe we can begin buisness. I typically specialize in Imperial forces, but have stretched out to some xenos armies such as Tyranids and Tau. I'd like to keep this Games Workshop related for now. Thanks for looking!

look nice, but just to let you know, what you are showing is well above "Table top" quality

a table top quality model, to me so take that at what you want, is base coast, wash, bry brush, some highlights and thats it. What you are showing here is well above that.

Dont undersell your self, that tau battle suit you have there, dont know that name of it, would easily be something worth $60 USD, and another 5 for the basing.

What I and another commisioner do, is for table top we charge the box price starting, so $40 usd for a tac squad about 4 bucks a model, but that varies on the army, like nids are cheaper because they are a whole lot easier to paint at "Table top" quality

If anything yours are High end table top, or mid range Display quality, (Mind you im basing from golden demon winners. ) I myself can only do low range display or maybe highend table top.

You can chage a lot more then what you are asking, dont sell your self short man, you are good at this, remember the hardest critic is always yourself.

I would be wary about under-pricing as this can have a detrimental effect on the pricing of the community as a whole and your fellow UK commissioners could take a dim view of it as this could then affect their businesses.

Nothing to stop you from pricing cheaply, but you have to ask if it's something you'd wish to maintain as your existing client base will use this as a standard and probably not be too keen if you suddenly decided to up your prices.

Oh and although I wouldn't personally pay for commissions (I like painting too much) I know a few people who would be interested at the standard you are offering.

TLDR: Just be careful about under-cutting everyone else by such a margin

Thank you very much for the responses and compliments. I was just thinking it would be best to start small, and if people liked what I was selling, I would increase my price as/if the demand rose. Pricing wise I was going signally on the paint Job, if people wanted me to buy assemble the models I would charge more.
I guess I was just unsure if people would buy it, this is the offer as it stands at the moment, so please let your friends know.

-If anyone would like more pictures please let me know, have have some examples of freehand text, conversions and sculpting work.

What you're producing is good, solid tabletop commission standard. Not super high end, nor display. It's better with this to market yourself as lower than you might pitch - this makes your clients happier with the result. So for you I'd say 'to a good tabletop standard'.

Now, someone mentioned that general commission painters take a dim view of overly low pricing. This is partly true, but mostly not for the reason you might think.

Overly low pricing is not sustainable. You'll rapidly come to realise that working (and it is WORK) for £2 an hour is a mug's game. This makes you as a service unreliable - eventually you'll move on, and you might let clients down. It does to some extent set an unrealistic expectation in the minds of some of the less savvy client base, but that's usually easily settled, especially if they have a particular standard of work in mind. The guys that are still doing commissions that can hit the standard all work in the same sort of ballpark. With any business, the golden rule is:

CHARGE WHAT YOU CAN GET AWAY WITH.

Not what your clients are 'happy with'. A little grumbling from their wallets is fine. If the wallets don't open, you're too high for what you're offering. If you get too much work coming in, or mute agreement to whatever you say, you're probably too low.

Don't get me wrong, it's very hard to achieve even minimum wage levels on gaming commission work, so your hourly rate is going to suck a bit until you're doing commercial standard work.

I reckon 10 marines to that 'good tabletop' standard should pull you in closer to £50, going rate, so the trick there is to run 'em as fast as possible. £10 is stupid - poke your own eyes out stupid. As you improve you can crank the price.

Good luck, you'll need it. Every commission guy does.

Edit: Also - don't take on huge army projects. Seriously, it's a recipe for disaster early on. Seen it happen many, many times.

What winter said

If its just for people you know and its just going to be a hobby then you can charge whatever you want and maybe get a beer out of it.

but if you are going into it as a job then you gota figure out how much your time is actually worth.

even part time jobs make minimum wage right?

You are underselling yourself. I am not saying that your work is OMG, but it's way better than 90% of the most decent tabletop level I've seen so far.

Apologies for being off topic, could you please let me know the base color you used for those Ultra Marines?

Best,

Second major piece of advice:

Improve your photography!

A plain piece of white paper, curved up to provide a backdrop, lit from above and in front (sort of 45 degrees in) works wonders. Use a tripod and don't be afraid to edit the brightness / contrast to get it to look as it does in the hand.

Also, finish bases on show pieces. Even on lower standard models, a finished base makes a heck of a difference to the viewer's perception.

Originally my plan was to start cheap as a test to get to grips with my timings and the speed at which I worked. I wanted to take on a few (maybe about three) small projects to get my work out there, the cost would be cheap, because if people didn't like the work then they wont have wasted their money.
As I have said before I was going to raise the prices if I took into painting commissions more seriously. Consider this cheap price as a limited time offer sort of deal whilst I get into it.
Also I enjoy painting, and therefore figured my spare time would be better spent painting models for a small profit rather than wasting time on my phone or PlayStation.

So, the first three small commissions I will take on at this stated price. Once they are completed I will develop a more reasonable pricing.

The Ultramarines are base coated Macragge Blue.

Fair enough. Do make sure you let people know that your prices will rise if you're not going to maintain the level - repeat business is very common in this sort of work, as people want the same finish on later things, and you don't want to give 'em a nasty surprise later on. :-)

They should know by now! I've said that the price will start low in every post I've made on this thread.

Can I ask - and this is not me having a go at you - why you would be willing to take on commissions for £10 for 10 figures? It hardly seems worth your time from an income standpoint.

 Zach wrote:
Can I ask - and this is not me having a go at you - why you would be willing to take on commissions for £10 for 10 figures? It hardly seems worth your time from an income standpoint.

I think he was trying to see if he could actually do it or not from what he posted earlier.

like a discounted trial period.

 Desubot wrote:

 Zach wrote:
Can I ask - and this is not me having a go at you - why you would be willing to take on commissions for £10 for 10 figures? It hardly seems worth your time from an income standpoint.

I think he was trying to see if he could actually do it or not from what he posted earlier.

like a discounted trial period.

Eh I know, but its basically doing it for free and kind of inspires a lack of confidence in the product (even if the painting itself is fine). Like winterdyne said, £10 is just off the charts low.

Like I said earlier I am planning on taking on my early commissions at this price. I then said it will be the first three reasonable commissions.
I've never known so many people complain about low prices.

 timthehierodule wrote:
Like I said earlier I am planning on taking on my early commissions at this price. I then said it will be the first three reasonable commissions.
I've never known so many people complain about low prices.

No one is complaining about low prices. They are complaining about the lack of transparency. It makes it sound like an amazing deal but not a realistic one. Even if you only spent an hour a model you're paying yourself 1pound an hour... I don''t live in the UK, so don't know the minimum wage, but doubt one can survive on that lol.

Just tell everyone you're offering a great deal for the first three commissions and then list what you will be actually charging them. I know many people won't bother with such a low rate only to have it go up 5-10x as much after, as most want their commissions all done by one source.

Still, best of luck!

If I were a customer, I would beware of such prices, you get what you pay for is my motto. I have also read about people get their models stolen by all account as the commission artist just didn't get to work on them and never return them. Then they take action to the police trying to get the models back.

I would recommend you doing local commissions among gaming friends first, then out to local customers, perhaps latch onto a named company for a bit to have that on your portfolio, then freelance on your own if you are up to it.

I've been painting models for my friends for about 2 years for free and I'm certainly not trying to live off commissions, as I have said before, I'm making the most of my spare time.