How do you price a painting?

how would you know if it's too cheap too expensive overpriced or what ? do you consider the kind of materials and paint used? do you adjust it for the audience? the length of time you gave? and sive of the painting? How do you price?How do you price a painting?
You should at least cover your costs - materials and time (time at least at the normal wage level). Anything above that depends on how you rate your artistic input into the painting - how developed you are as an artist and how much artistic effort went into it. Size is not necessarily a factor, but it will be covered by cost of materials and time. Adjust the price for how likely it is that it will sell considering the tastes of the market (basic law of supply and demand). Also price it competitively with the prices of other people's work of a similar type and standard.





I know a lady who spent hundreds of dollars on each painting for the materials, but her ability was poor so the paintings themselves were not appealling enough to even make back those costs. So this is a case in which the paintings didn't rate even the cost of materials. It isn't necessary to use the best materials anyway. All that really matters is that they are durable and look okay. Don't use very cheap materials. Student grade paints and a decent canvas are good enough.How do you price a painting?
An artist once told me when I asked a similar question ';If you're charging less than what you would make, minimum wage, for the time you spent- you're undercharging.'; So I'd would say that how long you spent on the painting is a big factor.





I'd also consider: Is the subject of your painting popular? For example, is the subject popular in culture today or a pop-icon? For example, when the new Harry Potter movie comes out, there will be increased sales of HP products and fan-art.





If your materials are expensive, factor that in. Maybe the painting didn't take long at all to paint, but if you charge minimum wage/hour and the price is less than the materials' cost- of course raise the price.





I personally think the 'minimum wage' idea is great to get a basic idea of what the MINIMUM price should be. Of course, test the waters. Are people buying your paintings as soon as they're up for sale? Raise the prices to see up to what price people are feeling comfortable paying [don't ask directly, because they're say less money to get a better deal ;) ].





GOOD LUCK!