We can make 64 dollars?! lol

I guess it brings up the question of what would you like from this guild? It's got to be one of the best places, if not The Best to hang out if you are into sharing your love for mapping. Could it be more helpful than it already is? I guess that depends on each person.

For me, I hope to keep honing my skills and developing my own style to a point where it is marketable. The critiques are invaluable, any time I put something up the next time I log in I look forward to seeing if there is any food for thought on what I've done. When it comes to the business end of things, I'm not quite ready there yet and it's unfortunately not something I really want to burn a lot of my time on, I want to draw, not run a business (I would guess that's a problem for many of us? I already run a business but it's not artistic at all.) There have been a few posts on how to get published and find commissions etc. What to charge? Well, we've had a few discussions on that but it seems to be almost more of a feeling than anything else. At least that's how I'm getting it.

Part of me feels like it's up to the one wanting the art work to offer a price they are willing to pay for it. If it's not worth the time and energy then I should say no. If I'm asked how much would I charge for 'yadda yadda', well, heck, I got a mortgage payment coming up how about that? ya know? I guess this is why there are Art dealers who can put a market value on a piece...is that something we are qualified to offer? I wish there was a machine I could put my artwork into and it would put a fair value on each item, but art is so subjective.

As an example:
Ascension does a map and it's totally awesome, I feel like barfing it looks so good. I do a map and it's not even close to as nice, how can I think of selling it? They are not equal, or are they? Of course Ascension is looking at something Torstan did and thinking, "Dangit, I wish I could do that, it's so good! My stuff sucks." So round we go. (sorry guys no offence meant, I'm just taking a couple of the better artists here and using your names freely...I could have used Ramah but for some reason I'm afraid he'd kill me ). The point is that in the end it seems likely to cause us to de-valuate our work. The opposite is equally bad, where someone thinks they can pee on a piece of paper and believe it's a gift to all mankind.

So, do you charge by the hour? It seems rather blue collar for a skill not everyone has. Charge by the job? If it's easy for you to make, you might feel like a pampas jerk to charge a high price.

So, it's a tough call. If I offered to do it for 'X' dollars and they readily agree, I feel like I undersold. If I say 'X' and they are shocked and move on, I feel like I was a jerk. I personally don't like negotiating for money it's a terrible thing to me. Maybe after a few years doing it I will feel a lot more confident about it but I was listening to a group of artists on a POD cast and they seem to be as wigged out about what to charge as I am and this is something they do all the time.

I'm not so worried about one off's to a private individual. Charge, 25, 50, 100 bucks whatever it's no big deal, you can live with it. However, when it comes to commercial applications, flash games, etc where people would be making money over time using your art, I'm at a loss. Is there some percentage you should get for your artwork motivating folks to play a certain game or buy a certain product? I would think you should get some kind of royalty but I don't know what that amount should be.

anyway I think I'm rambling so I'll just shut up for a while.