If you are planning on having a mural painted, it can be a little bit daunting. There are lots of things to consider when hiring a muralist. And one of the main factors to consider is the price of your mural. Mural pricing can range quite a bit, but below I am going to share with you 4 main factors that go into calculating the price of a mural.
1. Scale
The first factor that will determine the cost of a mural is scale. How big do you want your mural to be? Most artists charge by the square foot, which can be anywhere from $10-$100+ per square foot. I know that's a huge variation, but these next 3 factors are what determines that dollar per square foot price.
2. Complexity of the Design
What this basically means is how many subjects do you want included in your mural? Think about the picture as if it were a puzzle. If the puzzle has only 4 pieces, then that will be a pretty easy puzzle to put together, thus the artist will charge less.
But if you want a mural with lots of moving parts and there are a thousand puzzle pieces, that is going to take the artist a longer time to put together, thus driving the price up. The more subjects you want in your design, the longer it will take for the artist to be able to put all those ideas together in a beautiful way.
3. Detail
Detail may sound like the complexity of the design, but here is why it is different: Let's say you want a mural of a person's portrait, that is only one subject. But you want this portrait painted in photo-realism, that will involve much more detail than if you wanted the portrait done in a cartoon-style. A photo-realistic mural may cost more than an abstract or stylistic mural due to the amount of detail needed.
4. Quality
This is the number one factor that will affect the cost of your mural. Artwork quality is determined by many things, including composition, color palette, contrast, etc,. A bigger mural with many focal points does not necessarily mean it's of higher quality. There might be a small mural with only one focal point that is of significantly higher quality than the complicated larger mural. It all comes down to how well the artist knows his/her craft, and if they can successfully bring your ideas to reality in a beautiful way.
Watch Elijah's video below on mural pricing: