Pricing guide for artists

In our artist feedback from our 2025 exhibition, we had a lot of artists say they struggled to price their artwork and asked if we could provide some advice. So, we’ve put this guide together for a both Erotic Art London artists, and other artists to use as some advice for pricing artwork, and we’ve included some formulas both for calculating artwork prices in general, and also for EAL shows.

Some formulas artists may use:

Often artists will simplify their pricing method by using a set formula, here is a couple examples of ones which are commonly used.

(Height x width) x price per square inch

This method is pretty straightforward and easy to use, as it means the only variable in price is the size. Once you’ve worked out an appropriate price per square inch (things that could change this include: experience, audience, type of work, demand etc), then your good to go.

Pros:

• Consistency in pricing builds trust
• Simple method
• Most buyers don’t understand how long artwork takes, so its easy to understand.

Cons:

• Only really suitable for 2D works
• Doesn’t consider medium, this is important if you use lots of different mediums, as a pencil sketch would usually take a lot less time than an oil painting.
• Doesn’t consider materials, and you would need to consider them in your price per square inch

(Hourly wage x hours spent) + Cost of materials

This formula relies on an artist setting an hourly rate (this could be affected by: experience, audience, type of work, demand etc), and tracking the hours spent on a piece and how much the materials cost to work out a final price.

Pros: 

• Applies to all types of work instead of just 2D.
• Considers medium and materials so prices are more specific to each piece, means you don't loose money if your materials are expensive.

Cons:

• Inconsistent pricing can cause less trust. One piece may go really smoothly and take half the time as another which had a lot of mistakes needing fixing, and buyers may question why one is double the price when the quality appears the same.
• Tracking time spent can be difficult.

Deciding your rates:

To decide your rates (such as hourly rate, or price per square inch), it can get a bit complicated as the things that decide this can be quite subjective, but ultimately, its up to you. We only suggest that you ensure you keep these prices consistent, so for example, if you decide you want to start selling to a higher end market and want to increase your prices, you should increase your other prices alongside that. Alot of artists include these things when deciding their rates:

• Type of market. Do you want your art to be at an accessible price point, or do you want to sell at a higher price to collectors. The second option can be harder to get into, but you could make more money if your achieve it.
• Experience level. Some artists who have done a-lot of education in their field may make their rates higher to consider that, and they may change their rates to be lower if they are trying something new.
• Where are you selling your work. If you’re selling in a gallery, what are the prices of other artworks there, what is the average price they sell works for? At Erotic Art London in 2025 our average was £174.
• Demand for your work. Some artists may adjust their prices to be higher if their work is in high demand, or lower it if they aren’t selling as well. 
• Some artists start with their prices low, we don’t recommend this as it usually ends up with new artists underselling themselves and getting taken advantage of, it also warps peoples perceptions of how much artwork costs if artists regularly undercharge. Make sure you are making a living wage, whilst also making sure your prices are fair to your audience. Unfortunately it can be hard to sell works for your desired price before you are established, so consider selling prints as a more affordable option.
• Think about your desired hourly rate, if you are aiming to do art full time as a professional, your rates shouldn’t be minimum wage. Let’s be honest, nobody aims to end up in a full time, minimum wage job. Plus, your wage for a piece should always be higher than your minimum desired rate, since artists have to do a lot more than just creating work, and your prices should include that extra work.
• Look at other artists in a similar field and do some market research on what sells.
• Try to avoid pricing on how much you like the piece, as this can mean some pieces you are undercharging for, and some over. The value you place in the piece can vary from what the audience sees, and pricing like this can get messy and confusing when people look at your work.
• If you work in photography, consider if your prints are limited edition, as that would mean a higher price, the general rule is, the more copies available, the lower the price. First editions of prints often also tend to have more value.

There is no perfect formula for this, its entirely based on you and your preferrences.

 

Consider other tasks you do as an artist:

In this day and age, artists do a lot more than just create, there’s a lot of promotion, applications, social media, website building and networking that come within being an artist. So you need to consider this when deciding your rates, as you would want to charge £15 an hour per piece if you spend half your time doing promotion, as you will be undercharging yourself and this could lead to burnout.

Consider Gallery Commission:

If you are selling your work at exhibitions, keep in mind that most galleries take commission on works sold, so you have to keep this in mind so you aren’t underselling yourself. The percentage galleries take vary, but we at Erotic Art London take 40%, so ensue you consider that when figuring out your prices when submitting. 

Also, if you as an artist are responsible for shipping and handling your work, make sure you research how much it costs to ship the works and include that in your pricing.

If you are sending your work aboard, make sure you consider your exchange rates.

Selling at EAL exhibitions:

In terms of selling work at previous Erotic Art London shows, in 2025 we sold 15 works, and the average price for those works was £174. EAL takes a commission of 40%, so when pricing, make sure the money you’d like to make from the piece is considered, this can be done by dividing  what you would price the work as by 0.6, for example if I wanted to sell a piece for £100, I would divide that by 0.6, so the cost would be £166.67 in the show, so that when 40% is taken, I would still get £100.

Do also consider how much it will cost you to transport your artwork to the show, especially if you are an international artist. 

For EAL exhibitions, we’d recommend using a formula like this to work out your prices for the show:

(Calculated value of the piece*) divided by 0.6 + (costs to transport artwork to show) = Final price

Example 1:

So if Ive calculated my piece is worth £100, and it costs £20 to ship it to the show, this would be my calculation:

100 divided by 0.6 + 20 = £186.67

So £186.67 would be my final price, and I would put that on my application in the open call.

Example 2:

If I’ve decided the money I want to make on a piece is £350, and it costs £40 to ship , I would put that into my formula.

350 divided by 0.6 + £40 = £623.34

So my final price would be £623.34, this is because I am including the 40% commision by multiplying my original price by 0.6 to make £583.34, and then adding the £40 shipping cost so make the final cost £623.34.

*the value of the piece could be based on the formulas mentioned at the beginning of this guide.

Since shipping costs for international artists are quite high, you may consider getting prints made and framed in the UK for the next Erotic Art London show, just make sure you decide that before putting in your application open call. We usually work with Snappy snaps in Soho who print and deliver work for the show, so you can contact them for a quote so you can decide a price for your prints. Please make sure that you select that your artwork is a print on your open call application as we don't want to mislead our attendees. We do prefer displaying original artworks in the show, but we also understand that that can be difficult and expensive for our international artists, and we wouldn't want those costs being a barrier for entry, so prints are fine so long as that is made clear.

 

The Erotic Art London open call dates are as follows:

Interactive+performance art open call: 10/11/25 - 15/02/26

Video and written artwork open call: 15/11/25 - 15/02/26

Visual artwork open call: 20/11/25 - 30/01/26

We will post on our social media when each call opens, alongside sending out an email to those on our mailing list. Find our mailing list link on the home page of our website.