This is probably the most common question I’ve been asked every time I showed Legions of Kadmon to someone. And to be honest, I don’t think I can give a clear answer because the price varies with every piece. And some pieces, even if they look like they could be more expensive than the other, turns out not to be the case.

Truth is… art is subjective. There are many cases where you think that a particular artwork may cost you a sum, but it was not the case. And the opposite is also true: You thought it would cost little but it cost a hefty amount. Therefore the best suggestion I can give you (and give everyone else who has asked me this question) is to ask the artist.

Guidelines for Pricing

It is very difficult to quantify something artistic in nature. I spent some time on Freelance Artist reddit, and I also realised that it is also difficult for them to determine how much to charge for their services. So I came up with a few points I drew after working with 10+ different artists from all over the world, and comparing their prices. While it’s not absolute, I hope it can be a little reference to take note from.

Duration of Work

This should be the biggest factor in price. Depending on the kind of work, it can cost an artist 2 weeks to 6 weeks of their time. That’s about 80 to 240 hours worth of work (assumes conventional work hours). The longer the work, the more you have to pay. Which is why a fully-rendered full illustration will cost much more to pay, but that also depends on the extent of the illustration and how much details to include. Not to mention the need for concepting, especially if it is a key character art. This is why the Job Description / Art Brief I mentioned in my previous post is so important.

Location of Living

Another big factor to take into account is where the freelancers live. Depending on their cost of living, their work per hour cost will change. There are definitely freelancers who can deliver the same scope of work at a cheaper cost if they live in a country with a cheaper cost of living. In fact, I often suggest new artists to take account of those living costs first and foremost when deciding on a price, simply because they gotta pay their bills.

Usually formula will be: Price of work = Duration of Work (in hour) * work rate in that location per hour. Then they’ll cut off 20 – 30% depending on their current state of life to gain a market advantage.

Working Experience

Sometimes, you might hire a person you assumed to be affordable based on Point 1 and 2, but quickly found out that they might be charging you 2 – 3 times the price. That might be because of their previous work experience. Don’t confuse work experience with your personal opinion on their portfolio because it’s a separate thing. Look for their past accolades and see if they’ve worked with big companies before. And a previous title like Lead Artist or Senior Artist almost guarantees a heftier price.

For Illustrations, Wizards of the Coast is a big one to look out for. Having WOTC as a past accolade is a big confident boost for illustrators to charge higher.

Another misleading information may be their follower count on social media. A big follower count doesn’t mean that they will charge heftier. You’d be surprised when you ask them for their rates. Don’t let a big follower count discourage you from querying because you assume they will charge a hefty amount. However, high follower count may affect their demand which may affect their price.

Demand and Supply

If a freelancer is fully booked with work for that month, and you still hope they can squeeze your project in, no doubt they will charge a higher price. Something to note: quite a number of freelancers are actually doing a full-time job or are still in school. The amount of hours they can put in for your work is their supply. And demand would simply mean the number of people who would hire them in a certain period of time. Do expect prices to increase if they have a lot of work in their backlog.

My Tips to Help Reduce Cost

There are of course several things you can do to help reduce the cost of a freelancer’s services.

Do Your Own Concepting

It involves you putting in the time to come up with a clear and detailed concept on what you want for the piece. The clearer the instruction -> the less time to iterate -> the lower the cost. This is why preparing an excellent Art Brief is very important (see my previous post about querying).

There are also tools which could help you with the concept. A pair of pencil and sketchbook does wonders. Even when your drawing is pathetic, some visuals will always help with concepts. Doing a concept of your map using Wonderdraft is also an excellent step to save your cartographer a lot of time. Concepting takes the longest time because it takes a lot of back and forth and iterations. And the longer you take, the more you have to pay.

Understanding the Workflow

A very important thing you should ask to help reduce cost is to ask your freelancers for their workflow. It’s good to know what to expect throughout the different steps along the creation process. It gives  you a lot of information on how to give the best feedback at that particular stage. Thus, avoiding moments where you have to take a step back to fix things that should have been fixed on the previous step.

Example: An Artist gives you their workflow: End of Week 1 — Sketches for Composition. End of Week 2 — More detailed Line Sketch. End of Week 3 — Coloured Sketch. End of Week 4 — Final Rendered Piece. When you know these details, you can focus on week 1, commenting about the composition of the piece, things to change in terms of dimension and character placement. You don’t have to go into details about colours and how your character’s face looks because you know it will be handled on Week 2 and 3.

Knowing the workflow is so important because it may save you a lot of money and reputation. A request for changes that could have been done earlier will cost less time. You don’t want to change the composition of a piece when they’ve already given you a coloured sketch. To make such a change requires them to go back from the starting point and 2 weeks worth of work will be for naught. Working in accordance with their workflow also builds good relationships, because you’re respecting their working style and showing that you are willing to put in the extra time to indicate problems and changes required in accordance with their process. It kind of shows that you’re in it for the entire working journey, and not only interested in the final product.

To Answer the Question

I rambled on a lot and yet the big question remained unanswered. How much to hire a freelancer? There really is no answer for it but ASK those freelancers. Come up with a detailed job description and ask how much to hire them. And also don’t forget to ask about their workflow. At the end of the day, it’s never good to assume. Worse, you don’t end up working with your dream guy because you assumed they would be too expensive for you to afford.

And as an additional note, asking will also give you a clearer idea on the industry rate of the work you’re trying to get done. So it is never a bad thing.

Have you ever changed your mind of not hiring an artist because their social media following is so huge that it’s daunting? Were you ever surprised at the quoted price? Was it much more than expected? Or even more interesting, how did you react when they quoted you with much less?