@Background Pony #40D8  
As i said there is drawing and drawing. Averagely i would not pay more than 15/20 dollars.  
But for a big and very detailed and well colored drawing i would not spit in the face of the artist that ask more than that.

Just realized something about the text in the image: “i wont pay that much until u lower ur prices.” So, if I lower my price to $10, then you’ll pay me $50? Deal! ;)
 
_{Yes, I know this is a satiric image; in fact, it’s tempting to post it in the comments at Clients From Hell the next time they publish a story about a client undervaluing a freelancer’s creative work.}

@Background Pony #903C  
“It’s practice for them”? You can say that about pretty much any profession. Doing someone’s tax return? Writing a computer program? Painting a house? Practice for their next job.
 
“The chance for repeatable business”? Same thing. Do you use that to argue your auto repair bill should be lower, or your dinner check?
 
And the other two are basically the same thing, greater exposure. For a service which, you think, they should charge less than minimum wage, meaning if they were to try to make a living at it they’d need to spend about 80 hours a week at it, more if they’re living in an area with relatively high living expenses. Great incentive for them to advertise themselves, there.

All I hear is “Quack, quack”.

@Background Pony #903C  
It’s also a specialty service though.  
“Hard work” doesn’t always get paid as much as “intricate work”  
A baker who designs wedding cakes gets paid more than a baker who makes regular cakes.

@Background Pony #40D8  
There are many different factors to add into that.
 
There’s the fact that it’s practice for them. They get to upload it to their gallery which makes another piece to advertise their work. The chance for repeatable business. And the commissioner may spread their work around for others to see at no additional time or effort for the artist.
 
So, by the hour, I can see the average hobby artist making less than minimum wage.

@Background Pony #A90E  
@Background Pony #8D57  
Question: how much per hour do you think is a fair price for an artist to ask?

Well, there is drawing and drawing. But mostly a price like that is too much.

Being an Artist is as much as a job as any other. In the case of Commissions, a person (in this case an artist), is using their time and skill that they’ve honed (whether over days or over years) for YOU, not for them, for you. If they believe all of that is $50 (and in most cases is rather normal, anything below $10 is underpricing really), then you should pay it or go elsewhere.
 
That’s just my 2 bits anyway.

@Background Pony #8D57  
“If you’re so hard up for money, get a real job.”
 
Because actually working your craft somehow isn’t a “real” job. Since Conan O’Brien just makes jokes on TV, should he get a “real” job too?

@Jokie155
 
Although not exactly the same, they do work in similar ways. If a writer just wants to do their own thing, maybe for practice or fun, they don’t charge for that. If they write their own story with their own characters under the direction of no one but themselves, and they put extra effort into it and write it really well, they may decide to ask for small payments/donations distributed over a large crowd.
 
If SOMEONE ELSE wants them to write a good story, then they should get paid more, because they’re now working under someone else’s terms. If you want a story that doesn’t turn to shit because the writer didn’t bother to poke and prod you about how your character reacts or emotes, or won’t go through the trouble of telling you “your character can’t do x and y at the same time without being a stupid Dragonball Z character in a Charles Dickens story”, then you should pay someone that knows what they’re doing. All this back and forth is extra effort the writer is putting into a good product, and you should compensate them appropriately.
 
This is why in fan art, if someone makes a folio of some sort, they’ll charge $10 for like 10 images, but if you want to commission one image from the same artist, they’ll charge $50.
 
I’m not even going to get into how much more lucrative creating images are than creating writing though. That’s a WHOLE other multi-dimensional plane.

If you’re so hard up for money, get a real job.

Professional artists are good enough that their work is worth that much.  
Professional artists spend all their time working on art so it better be fucking enough to pay the bills.  
Professional artists are offering a service. Nobody WANTS to draw shit for you free of charge, and if they did, you’re fucking lucky.

@Grieffon  
At least most of them get paid somehow…

@Itsthinking  
I imagine most famous artists have people begging them for requests too.

@Jokie155  
Fandom artists and other illustrators want to complain? What about the writers who practice their craft and get fuck all but people begging them to update?

@Itsthinking
 
And gratification drives the market, or some sort of quote like that. xD
 
In the end, while a fanfic cover may cost $50, professional covers can go up to the thousands. Except the professional artists in the latter case aren’t getting 100% of the resulting money.
 
Looking at it like that now almost makes me doubt why I’m still doing fanfic.

@Grieffon  
I thought it was going to be a link to the fandom price vs industry price thing. I’m a little disappointed.

@sargesprinkles  
I was typing out a longer version of that, then saw you beat me to it.

LOL

For anyone who thinks $50 is too much, may I direct you to this post.

@Jokie155  
Again, fanfiction and fanart are two different realms. I’ve actually had to get over this hurdle myself to even try and hammer out some stories. It essentially is like this:
 
“Draw fanart? Cool, you must be a really big fan of that show!”
 
“Write fanfiction? You’re kind of a little obsessed, don’t you think?”
 
It’s all about the instant gratification.

50$ is too much unless it’s some really good quality shiz.

@Elric of Melnipony  
I could never pay $50 for line art. I won’t commission line art at all. I need shiny colors in my life.

Weirdly enough, I’d never put $40 dollars down on a picture if for two reasons. One being that I wouldn’t want to pay that much without a poster or something … and the other being I don’t think anything I could idea to commission would be worth that much
 
It’s an odd combination of frugality and self-depreciation!