How I price the custom illustration work I take on

People email me asking for a number before they tell me anything about the project. I understand the urge, but pricing custom illustration is not a sticker on a shelf. The number depends on what the drawing has to do once it leaves my hands. Early on I charged by the hour and quietly resented every fast job I finished, because getting quicker meant earning less. These days I price the work, not the clock, and I sleep better for it.

I charge for usage, not just my time

The single biggest shift was learning to price by how the art gets used. a spot illustration that lives once on a blog is not the same as artwork printed on a product run of ten thousand. Magazine spots tend to sit in the low hundreds, while a package or cover can climb into the thousands. The old industry line still holds up: if a client wants the copyright outright, add a zero. Reproduction, geography, and any future spin-offs all push the number, so I ask where the art will live before I quote anything.

I still track my hours, just for myself

I do not bill by the hour anymore, but I time every job, including emails and sketches, so I understand my own pace. That record tells me whether a flat fee is fair or whether I am quietly losing money. When I quote a new project, I scale the figure to the size of the client and the complexity of the brief, then add a small buffer for negotiation room.

Revisions and rush jobs have a line item

I include two or three rounds of revisions in every quote. Beyond that, changes get billed, usually a chunk of the original fee per round. I learned this the hard way after a client rebriefed me four times on a finished piece (the fifth one broke me). Rush work carries a surcharge too, anywhere from a quarter to double, because saying yes means bumping someone else off my desk.

Things I always put in writing

• Kill fee so I am paid if a project dies mid-process
• Number of included revision rounds spelled out plainly
• Usage scope, with anything extra priced separately
• A small buffer, maybe ten percent, for negotiation room

Why my own voice sets the floor

I price hihger when a client wants the look I am known for, because that style took years to build. A lot of that came from keeping my hand consistent even when tools changed, something I wrote about in how I mix Procreate and AI without losing my style.The work is the leverage. When I quote now, I am quoting that, not an hourly guess.