Traditionally, artists have approached pricing through one of three lenses: cost-based (calculating materials, time, and production costs), value-based (pricing according to the artist's own perception of the work's importance), or competition-based (referencing comparable practitioners). In practice, most artists draw on all three, though rarely in equal measure, and rarely cleanly.

A common starting point is the logic of production costs. As Lee Down writes in Mastering Art Pricing: A Concise Guide for Artists, artists often begin by calculating tangible inputs such as materials, labour, and overheads — pricing that at minimum reflects "the tangible cost of materials and time spent in the creation process." Down emphasises that pricing must also account for broader professional expenses including studio rent, marketing, and equipment. Artist Mingzhang Sun describes his own formula in similarly concrete terms: "the measurements of the artwork + the time and emotional energy + my art experiences + educational backgrounds." For artist Eva Dixon, a formula arrived at through conversations with trusted artists and curators has remained unchanged since graduation. "I use a formula and have stuck to it for years," she says. "I haven't raised my prices since graduation as I believe keeping them as they are makes my art more accessible, and those sales are often the most rewarding."

Yet cost alone rarely determines what an artwork ultimately sells for. Will Jarvis, founder of art-selling platform Gertrude, identifies a useful distinction between selling and placing work. "Early in a career, artists should be open to all comers — the priority is an accessible price point, building momentum, and getting work into the hands of genuine collectors who'll champion it," he says. "As reputation grows, the aspiration is for demand to outpace supply — at which point the dynamic inverts. Collectors start making the case for why they should own the work, rather than the other way around." Jarvis is candid about how rarely this shift is sustained: "it's actually quite rare for an artist to sustain that position. Even when they reach it, demand often falls away, and what you're left with is galleries working hard to maintain the appearance of scarcity — managing supply, managing expectations — rather than the real thing." As for the practical calculation, Jarvis lists the factors that typically come into play: "the time and effort that went into making the work, production and material costs, the artist's sales record and market buoyancy, scale, what the artist has coming up in terms of exhibitions, and — frankly — how much the artist needs to sell."