I’ve been an NSFW freelance artist for little over 5 years now. After getting my first commission, it wasn’t long before I grew the confidence to raise my prices.

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I slowly built up, going from $5 to $200 for a fully rendered illustration.

It was exciting getting that first $200 order and pouring everything into the illustration. Until I calculated my hourly income.

Turns out, I wasn’t earning as much as I thought. Each $200 illustration took me 12 hours to finish, meaning my hourly income was only $17.

How much is your 1 hour’s work worth? Time your next illustration, and calculate with the formula hourly income = price/time taken in hours

Hitting the Price Ceiling

When I realized how low my income was, I scrambled to raise my prices, thinking that would solve the issue. I jumped from $200 to $400 almost overnight.

Crickets. No one was commissioning me. I had hit my head against the price ceiling, where the price was exceeding customer willingness to pay. It makes sense- As NSFW artists, we work with everyday people, not companies.

We all have different price ceilings, depending on the perceived value of our art. Everything from brand, popularity, style, and reputation come together to influence what people believe your art is worth. For example, a famous & more skilled artist like Sakimichan can price commissions much higher than a new artist.

Each time I did get a commission, I would overwork the hell out of it, paranoid that my client wouldn’t be happy with anything ‘less’. Inefficiency crept into my art process: I juggled dozens of references. I spent hours adjusting proportions and facial expressions. I rendered the crap out of everything.

Now, I had two problems: 1) No one was buying my expensive commissions, and 2) I was burning out overworking. Things needed to change.

Fixing My Price and Process

At around that time, I started doing Your-Character-Here (YCH) commissions. They were almost the complete opposite of my highly rendered works.

My mindset with YCHs was simplicity and affordability.

First, I priced lower, allowing clients to pick alternate versions rather than force fully rendered works.

Second, I limited my references. Keeping it simple drastically cut down my work time and allowing me to focus on stylizing rather than perfecting the illustration.

One of my favorite mantras is that we as the artist set the expectation of our customers. Since I wasn’t fully coloring my YCHs, none of my clients expected me to!

Finally, I was able to lean on my strength as a line artist, making the work enjoyable again. See yah, burnout!

All this came together so that I was charging $160 and finishing an illustration in 2-3 hours. Making my hourly income at least $50.

Not a bad jump from $17, right?

Applications to Your Freelance Process

Does this mean you should start doing YCHs? Maybe, maybe not. YCHs work for me because it sped up my process and energized me. Would the same apply to you?

Take a moment to think about your art. What can you do to make things more efficient? More importantly, what’s stopping you? For me, it was the belief that only fully rendered art was worth the money. I was afraid that no one would care about my lineart (especially because it was my favorite part of the process). Of course, that wasn’t true. Over 60 people have bought my book filled with nothing but sketch art.

In the art community, there’s a certain stigma with taking ‘shortcuts’. Back when I took an introduction to painting class, my professor shocked us by telling us to trace our reference photos. The point was that we were focusing on painting, not drawing. He told us, “I know you can draw, you don’t have to prove it anymore.”

The same applies to our freelancing. It’s all about delivering on your client’s expectations, regardless of how you do it. I know that even if I’m ‘only’ spending 3 hours on an artwork, I’m putting in my best and making sure the art satisfies.

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So, I hope this little article has got things brewing in your head. I’m at a point where I’m happy with both my art and how much I’m earning, and I want you to get there too.

If you have questions or want to share your own experience with hourly rates, feel free to comment below or shoot an email at hbeats.art@gmail.com.

Cheers!
Beats