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A friend of mine and I have been debating getting into commission painting, we both could use the spare cash. We would start mainly with our FLGS to see how it goes.

The main question is how to determine a fair price? Do we charge by the color? Have a base fee? Per model?

Have a look at some commission painting websites. Generally it's per model with a couple of different standards offered.

I started by doing commissions for $3 a mini. It's good to start cheap to get your name out there, but don't go to Chinese slave labor prices for it like I did. Then again, don't charge $7 for an Imperial Guardsman unless you're really, really damn good.

There is no 'industry standard' for this sort of work. Nobody else can really tell you how much people will pay you to paint for them, although if you can find another painting service that offers a similar quality to what you think you can do, their rates can be a good guide for starting out, because quality of painting is so subjective... and there are all sorts of other factors (how long you take, how 'famous' you are, where you are located, etc) that affect how much people will be willing to pay you compared to what they would pay the next guy.

Charge what you think you are worth. It's simply not worthwhile (and potentially soul-destroying) to do anything less.

Be prepared to not get a lot of work until you make a name for yourself. If you get more work coming in than you can easily keep up with, keep raising your prices until the work settles to a manageable level. And if you get too little work coming in to make it worthwhile, you'll need to decide for yourself whether it's worth dropping your prices or trying to find some other way to drum up business.

Also, as someone who has thought about doing commission work, but has never actually done it, you've got to be prepared to start out charging MUCH less for your time than you'd get doing anything else.

I mean, let's say that it takes you an hour to paint a guardsman. Now look at whatever minimum wage is wherever you live. Would you be willing to pay someone else that much per miniature? Probably not. I mean, who is going to spend $25 for a box of 10 dudes only to turn around and spend $80 to get it painted? And that's at bare minimum prices.

At least when you start out, you've got to basically be willing to paint for no profit, as the price of shipping and materials is likely to put you at the higher end of what most people are willing to pay.

I think the best thing you can do is win a major painting comp like a Golden Daemon.

The ones who can command the most cash in this line of work, are those who can post a pic of multiple Daemons sitting on the shelf above their painting desk.

If you are good enough to be painting to a decent standard quickly, otherwise its probably not worth doing anyways.
You should be able to challenge for a statue. Hell even Honourable mentions can get you higher up the pecking order.

Regardless of that fact, get the best stuff you can do on display, give examples of the quality you would expect to be giving folks for their money.

Keep in contact with folks when you are painting models, worst thing you can do is forget the basics, like keeping up emails.
Bad word of mouth spreads faster than good.

I'd also suggest your own site (of sorts, there are some good hosting ones out there if you look) is really needed asap, folks will take you more seriously.

Don't quit your dayjob.

Ailaros wrote:Also, as someone who has thought about doing commission work, but has never actually done it, you've got to be prepared to start out charging MUCH less for your time than you'd get doing anything else.

That really just depends on how quickly you can paint.

I mean, let's say that it takes you an hour to paint a guardsman.

If that's the case, you're definitely not going to make a living out of it.

Haven't got a clue as to how you would get into the business of painting minis professionally, I would imagine your FLGS would be the best place to start. However, I noticed this thread in the painting and modeling section: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/338424.page. I guess that's a place to start.

Hope it helps.

Cheers,

Gorlack

No one seems to mention it but.

Get used to painting stuff you hate and get used to the hate of painting.

Have a plan and a time table and try to stick with it.