How much would you pay for a caricature?

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Permalink Reply by Patricia LaCroix on September 2, 2011 at 5:54pm

By the way - LOVE the GOTTOONED name!

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Permalink Reply by Devin Smith on September 2, 2011 at 7:43pm

Thanks! Came up with it one morning at my old job, saw the domain was available and thought, "that could be a business!"

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Permalink Reply by Ed Lain on September 2, 2011 at 6:40pm

Hi Devin, very nice work.
To be honest, I'm a little disappointed in some of the responses I've seen here on 48days. As an artist and designer myself, I think $5, $10, $20 is waaaay too low for a high quality finished product like yours.

If you're building a site where you are doing CUSTOM caricatures of people from pictures they send in, I would think $30-$50 would be more in line as reasonable. I'm always amazed at the lack of respect some people have for talent and how little value they place on it. The member who said they wouldn't be willing to pay ANYTHING for a custom caricature is wrong, plain and simple. There may be other sites that do it, but running a photo thru a series of Photoshop filters is not the same as what you are doing - creating a custom drawing.

I am reminded of this story:
Picasso was in a park when a woman approached him and asked him to draw a portrait of her. Picasso agreed and quickly sketches her. After handing the sketch to her, she is pleased with the likeness and asks how much she owed to him.
Picasso replies: “$5,000.”
The woman screamed, “but it took you only five minutes.”

“No, madam, it took me all my life,” replied Picasso.

You're very talented. All the best with your venture. Just make sure you charge enough for your work and don't worry about those who are not willing to pay for it.

Why not offer customers the option of having just the digital version for one price or the digital AND printed version sent to them for another price?

Ed Lain
www.LazerGrafixDesign.com

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Permalink Reply by Devin Smith on September 2, 2011 at 7:56pm

Thanks so so much, Ed. $30 to $50 is almost exactly what I was thinking. I was discouraged reading some of the responses, but also very grateful to everyone because I wanted people to be totally honest. I am a graphic designer by trade and have always struggled with charging people what my standard rates are. So your response really gives me a shot of confidence.

Thanks so much,
Devin
www.artofdevin.com

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Permalink Reply by Alana Mokma on September 2, 2011 at 8:45pm

Devin, I agree with Dan and Mary - that you may experience a larger return by marketing yourself to draw caricatures at events. My father is a caricature artist and I believe he charges $100+/hr doing events. If you would like to connect with him to learn more about how he does business, you can find him on  http://society6.com/PRESTOONS (society6) or may e-mail him directly at artbydenpreston@aol.com. Just in case you are interested in contacting him, I let him know ahead of time and he is cool with it. :) - Alana 

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Permalink Reply by Devin Smith on September 5, 2011 at 2:41pm

Thank you so much, Alana! I will definitely email him! I really appreciate this!

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Permalink Reply by Craig Curtis on September 3, 2011 at 2:58am

I hadn't thrown in any actual price ranges before when I entered the discussion before.  I still don't have any hard and fast prices I would recommend.  But I do agree you could get upwards to the $30-$40 range as long as the quality is there.  It all comes down to the perceived value associated with what you produce.  You can buy a $10 radio at WalMart and you can spend hundreds on a radio from Bose.  They will both play the same radio stations and take up the same amount of counter space.  But you will hear the difference when they are turned on.  Others might be willing to give away their talent for $5 and that might be all their talent is worth.  Give the people a top quality product and they will pay your price.  Seeing that you have a graphics background I thought of another item to add to your product offerings, of course I'll be dating myself when it comes to my graphics experience, have an option to order your work as a camera ready product (of course all the color separation, layout lines, etc might be a thing of the past with all the computerization).

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Permalink Reply by Devin Smith on September 5, 2011 at 3:13pm

I definitely think that's the route I will have to take, Craig. As Dan says, you can make a lot of money selling people what they want. I will have to go the route of offering a higher quality product at a higher price point.

Haha, no worries about dating yourself, I get what you mean. That is definitely part of the plan, but will be in the form of a High-Res PDF that someone can get printed wherever they like. I planned on also offering the option of having me get it printed for the customer at a certain pricepoint, all the way up to having it framed.

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Permalink Reply by Arthur on September 3, 2011 at 10:12am

Id probably go $20 bucks if I wanted one bad enough. hope this helps. this is a cool talent/skill to have. $5 bucks seems a little low. at 30 or 40 bucks, i'm not sure id spend the money to get one.

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Permalink Reply by Devin Smith on September 5, 2011 at 3:13pm

Thanks, Arthur!

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Permalink Reply by Jim Guy on September 4, 2011 at 9:28am

Take a look at the caricature king website.

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Permalink Reply by Devin Smith on September 5, 2011 at 3:14pm

Thanks, Jim. I checked them out a few weeks ago and examined their pricing along with a couple of other sites. They were definitely a benchmark for where I think the prices should go!

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