Almost every artist listing their first piece asks some version of the same question: what do I actually charge? Too low and you're working for less than materials cost once you count your time; too high and a genuinely good piece sits unsold for months while you second-guess it. There's no single formula that's right for every medium, but there is a starting framework that gets you to a defensible number instead of a guess.
Start from cost, not from feeling
Add up materials — canvas or panel, paint or medium, framing if you're including it, packaging. Then estimate hours honestly, including the parts that don't feel like "painting": sketching, drying time you had to work around, photographing the finished piece. Multiply hours by a rate you'd actually accept for your time. That's your floor, not your price — but it's the number below which you're paying to sell, not selling.
Then adjust for the market you're actually in
- Look at comparable work — similar size, medium, and finish — already selling on Obramaestra. Browse by medium and size to find it.
- Size matters more than most new artists price for. A per-square-inch or per-linear-inch baseline (adjusted up or down for complexity) keeps a 16×20 and a 36×48 in sensible proportion to each other instead of both being "₱8,000 because that sounded right."
- Factor in the 15% commission. You keep 85% of the sale price plus the full shipping fee the buyer pays — shipping isn't split — so price the artwork itself, not the shipped-and-fee-adjusted number you'll actually receive.
- A body of work, not one piece. If this is your first listing, price it as part of a body of work you intend to keep making, not as a one-off — pricing too high on piece one and too low on piece two teaches collectors nothing consistent about what to expect from you.
Resist the urge to round down to "be safe"
The instinct on a first sale is almost always to underprice — it feels like a way to guarantee it sells. In practice it does the opposite of what you want long-term: once a price is public, raising it on your next piece reads as inconsistent, and a price too far below comparable work on the platform can make collectors wonder what's wrong with it rather than think they've found a bargain. A price grounded in real cost and real comparables is a stronger opening move than a low one chosen out of nerves.
It's fine to be wrong and adjust
Pricing isn't a one-time decision. If a piece sits for a while with genuine interest (favorites, comments) but no offers, that's useful signal — worth revisiting the number. If several pieces sell quickly, that's signal too, in the other direction. Treat your early listings as the fastest, most direct feedback you'll get on where your work actually sits in the market, and let the price move with what you learn.