mad-maddie:

mad-maddie:

Regardless of how much or how little a freelance artist decides to set their commission prices at, they are in every right to do that.

If you feel an artist is charging too little for a commission, tip them!

If you feel an artist is charging too much, they’re not, but they’re out of your price range and you should not be spending money on luxury goods you cannot afford in the first place.

Every artist should be charging more for their work – but they do not for any number of personal, professional or financial reasons. That’s their individual decision – if they are comfortable bumping their price they will, in the interim, encourage tipping/them accepting tips.

There are also more and more artists that are beginning to charge more for their work, and they should – it’s a highly-valued luxury good. That is their individual decision – if you can’t afford it, that’s your problem, not the artist’s. They are charging according to a variety of wage standards, time, labor, media, tools and etc. to formulate their prices.

Art is a luxury good that requires specific specialized skill sets and prices set around hours creating unique custom digital or physical goods with expensive programs, devices, tools or mediums, tailored to client specifications. You are not entitled to cheaper prices and artists are not entitled to increase or decrease their rates at the whim of others.

If you do not want to pay for a luxury good, you are going to have to learn and invest in how to create it yourself instead.

As a side note, I can’t stress the tipping enough. A lot of artists won’t raise their prices for any number of personal, professional or financial reasons and that’s their business, so instead of telling them over and over to raise their prices, buy at the price you think is too low and then just tip them for their work.