About Pricing per Square Inch

Pricing per square inch is a common system used for pricing art work in a proffessional manner. I first learned about it in Chris Tyrell's book "Artist Survival Skills", and worked on a system of adapting it to commission work, and my own desired pricing. While it initially seems complicated, its rather simple once you break it down.

There are 2 prices. the base PPSI price, for full pieces and a 50% white space price, for pieces that have 50% or more of the page as white space. The reason for the 2 prices, is to accomodate the possibility of people not having full colour from edge to edge art work from me. An example might be, they want just a drawing of an original character, but since the character will be used as a graphic, more than 50% of the page would be unused on an 8.5x11 page. In this case the 50% price would be in effect if the character only took up around 50% of the paper. If there is less than 50% of the paper thats white, the base price would be used. (I can adjust depending on complexity of the piece)

When you get a quote you will see examples of what each pricing would be. This pricing is ideal not only for value from the buyer, but for covering cost for me. Please note, "white space" is when there is no artistic material on the surface. If an area is painted, or coloured white, that area has used up supplies, and will therfore not be included as "white space".