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I've seen some similar topics, but they haven't really helped me personally. As evidenced in my gallery, I've been doing commissions for at least a little while, and I don't claim to do great or even impressive paint jobs, just doing what no one else wants to because I enjoy it and need the practice (or because they don't like painting or think I paint at a higher level than them), and because I would eventually like to have a somewhat steady side income from commission painting. I'm slow at painting, so that, combined with my limited available painting time, makes my turnaround quite lengthy, but I also will not accept a commission if the person is not okay with this and doesn't need it by a certain time (in order to avoid situations where a mini/group of minis isn't ready for a tournament, etc.) That said, one of my main clients is a FLGS owner near me and has me paint things for the display cabinets, and he himself says I am not charging enough. I've seen different people consider different levels of painting to be "tabletop standard" or "above tabletop", and depending on your view, I paint at one of those. Personally, I rank myself at "tabletop standard" because I'm a perfectionist and don't think highly of my work until I can comfortably compare it to another person's work that I believe is above me. Long story short, I charge roughly 5$ per infantry sized miniature for a standard paint job (although I'm doing the entire Blood Bowl box set for 50$), and bigger things I usually charge half the retail price or some such (I'm doing Magnus for 60$)...

Is he right, or just trying to pay me a compliment? I hate being that way, but being self critical makes it difficult to judge pricing accurately, as I'd like to be able to charge more, even if only to help with bills...

Disclaimer: I'm not trying to get more people to look at my gallery or anything, but I don't have anyone locally I can ask and get truly honest opinions, so please don't think I'm just vying for attention

Pics in the thread will help. Not going gallery trawling on my phone...

Fair enough. Apologies. These are a few of the best pics I have, since I'm limited to a not so great iPhone 5 camera...hopefully the photos work. Edited: picture problem solved.

Post pictures.

For what it's worth, if you're doing Magnus for $60 then you're definitely undercharging. I'm assuming that this includes assembly, mold line cleaning, etc as well as painting - and for a massive miniature like that, that process alone would take me an afternoon or more. If a local FLGS is commissioning you to paint for his display cabinet, then your painting sounds like it's at a decent level, and you need to raise your prices unless you're happy making $3 an hour(random number, but I think you get what I mean).

The picture issue in my previous post should be fixed now. Magnus is one the guy actually built before giving it to me, except he had neglected to clean off any flash or sprue remnants, which I would argue is more difficult when the thing is fully built, but I didn't charge more as we had already agreed to a price before he informed me it was already built...but still. I've got plenty of jobs backed up to keep me going for awhile, but what he said got me thinking about how much I charge...

Much better.

For a model to the standard of that blightking, I'd be looking at charging around £40 (~$50) at a minimum if I were you.

Looks like around 4-6 hours work.

There are a few things you could improve which wouldn't add to the working time more than a few minutes:

1) Eyes. Wow, staring. A line of mid-to-dark fleshtone to add an eyelid will really help. Also, avoid pure white and black - use an almost white flesh or ivory tone, and a dark grey/brown for the pupil. If you've steady hands and a damn point brush dot with pure white before doing the eyelid for a nice reflection.

2) Edge highlights. Remember you can sharpen up by applying glazes of the base colour.

3) Directional highlights. Most models are 'lit' from above. Do the upward facing highlight a bit brighter than the 'down' facing ones. Helps with 'reading' the model.

4) Colour choice, modulation. For example, guts tend not to be such a bright scarlet red - you can tint within the 'red' area by applying glazes of blue, green, yellow. Helps shift colours around while allowing you to work with a standard 'red' palette up to a point. This also applies VERY strongly to getting 'next level' on the faces. Glaze red on the noze and cheeks. Grey on the chin and jaw for stubble. Blue under the eyes to tone them. Takes a few seconds and really brings the face to life.

But yes, I agree with your FLGS friend/client. You ain't charging nearly enough for what you're producing.

Edit2: Awkward cleanup is why I don't generally accept pre-assembled miniatures. It's hard to get an acceptable finish when the model is fighting you.

I think you're definitely underselling yourself. That's some very solid work, definitely above what many would call tabletop, so I'd say you want to be charging at least $10-15 a model, probably more if people will pay it.

Ultimately, there are 2 things to consider. One is what people are happy to pay for your work (if you're not getting any, your prices are too high, if you're getting too much then you should probably be charging more), and the other is what you feel your time and effort is worth. This doesn't necessarily translate to just working out an hourly rate, as it is affected by stuff like how much free time you actually have, what else you could be doing, how much you're enjoying the work ect. So if you're happy with your current prices then you don't necessarily need to raise them, but going on quality alone I'd say you could easily be making twice as much.

The only trouble you might run into with raising your prices is if you're doing local work and/or have a lot of repeat customers. If someone sees you're charging $10 a model and gives you a job, then finds out a week ago you were charging $5, they're going to feel like they've overpaid even if they're still getting a fair price for the work itself. There's not really an easy way round this, but hopefully if you do raise your fees then people will still appreciate that your work is worth it, and not give you too much grief about it. Even at $10 a model, you're cheaper than a lot of painters would charge for similar or even lower quality.

And by the way, that Loken is great! Love that shade of green on the armour.

Thank you for the input! I can see where you're looking with each of those points, and I see what you mean. I agree with the point about the eyes, and I'm definitely trying to work towards a style more reminiscent of realism rather than the GW style, but currently they like the GW style and I'm trying to improve that as well. Advice from established commission painters is exactly what I was looking for!