Calculating Gallery Pricing

Artists (or anyone who sells through a gallery or business that takes a commission)

Here's a formula you can use to price your work so that you end up with what you want for it once the gallery takes its commission.

Let's say you want to make $325 on a painting, and the gallery takes a 40% commission on the sale. If you price it at $325, once the gallery takes their 40%, ($130) you end up with $195.00 - Nowhere near $325.

If you simply add the commission percent to your price, you'll still end up with less that what you expected.
Add the 40% commission, and you get $455.00: $325.00 + 40% ($130) = $455.00
But, if you price your work at $455.00, you end up with just $273.00 after commission: $455.00 - 40% ($182.00) = $273.00

So, how would you end up with $325 after the sale?
You'd need to price the work at $541.67 to end up with $325.00 after the sale.

Here's the trick!

Divide by the _remainder_ of 100% minus the gallery's commission.

In this example, you'd need to divide your price by 60% (.6), because the gallery takes 40%. (100% - 40% = 60%)

If the commission is 50%, divide by .5

If the commission is 35%, divide by .65

If the commission is 25%, divide by .75

etc.

x ÷ r = p
where x= the price you want, r= the remainder of (100% - commission%) and p= the price you list

Here's the formula for this example: $325.00 ÷ .6 = $541.67
So: $541.67 - 40% ($216.67) = $325.00

Here's another example:

If I want to make $100 on a painting, and the gallery takes a 15% commission:

100 ÷ .85 = $117.65

Of course, I'd round the prices off to the nearest $5.

Download PDF: Calculating Gallery Pricing

Ocean Acidification Illustration - Coming to Seattle

So far, this illustration has been picked up 3 times since it was published in E Magazine back in 2012. Once by the Monterey Bay Aquarium, once by an Australian publication whose name escapes me at the moment, and most recently, by the NSF funded series QUEST, The Science of Sustainability, on KCTS TV in Seattle. I guess the illustration works. :-)

Thank you, Tamora Pierce!

Tamora Pierce, NY Times best selling author of Young Adult Fiction, animal lover, crazy lady and creator of magical universes just bought one of my framed limited edition prints: Old Pueblo, Ranchos de Taos, NM. - Print No. 1 of 200. I delivered it to her yesterday.

So now, by virtue of that sale, and my longstanding relationship with that other famous author/friend/client/universe creator Bruce Coville, I'm also kinda famous -- by proxy.

A few years back, I did the cover and packaging for Tammy's written for audio (later published in paperback) story Melting Stones (produced by Full Cast Audio). The paperback version got a different cover, done by another artist. Publishing houses like to do that. Change the covers. Guess it's a marketing thing. Tammy confesses that she likes my cover a lot better. Me too. :-)

Read about Tammy, and her books here:
www.tamorapierce.com/

Then, read her books!!
She's written a lot of books!

I have a Byline

I've been working with the Adirondack Explorer since the very beginning. I've done a lot of illustrations for them over the past 15 years. I've been doing the layout and illustrations for the Outdoor Skills page in the back for each issue, and now, I'm doing the writing for that page as well. So now, I have my own byline! Woo hoo! Check out the Explorer... it's a great publication about all things Adirondack!

Ocular Inserter 3D Model & Render

This is an illustration I did for Fingerpaint Marketing. It's an Ocular Inserter, a device used to deliver medications to the inside of the eye. Modeled and rendered in Strata Studio CX 7. Straight render, no post work.

3d SketchFab Test

Alien Head by jerryrussellart on Sketchfab

Modeled this in Strata Sculpt 3D. You should be able to rotate this model in the viewer. If this works, I'll upload more models. I use 3D software for technical illustration projects and sometimes to create my own reference for digital paintings.
Strata Sculpt 3D is an online 3D modeling program that works like sculpting with clay, sort of. This alien head started out as a sphere.

If you have the right graphics processor, you should be able to rotate and zoom the model above. Your graphics card needs to suport WebGL. (My MacBookPro does).

Studio309 West

Studio309 West is up and running. It's my new painting studio with gallery space where I can display and sell my original paintings, limited edition prints, cards and other artsy stuff.

If you visit, use the side entrance, right there next to the big banner that says "ART Studio and Gallery". I'm upstairs in the loft, as I should be. The spaces below are available for rent. I'm really hoping someone will open a coffee shop right below me. The area really needs a cozy coffee shop. Especially one I can walk to, which would be easy if it was just one flight of stairs below me.

Studío 309 is located at 1987 Rt. 31, in Lakeport (Chittenango on your GPS), on the south shore of Oneida Lake. Twenty-five minutes from Syracuse.

GPS Coords: 43.14541, -75.86543

Hours: Thursday and Friday, 10am - 4pm
or by appointment

www.studio309.com