How would you respond to this?

[Mortymaxwell]

You message an artist through an art site.  The artist does not have a price sheet. You link them an image in their gallery similar to the art you want and show them a picture of your character so the artist has enough information to determine what you want/and if they would be interested in accepting the commission. Instead of getting a link to a price sheet or an answer, they say, "Make me an offer" or "What's your budget?" This has happened to me several times now.

Edited March 17, 2019 by Mortymaxwell

[baja]

It's such a loaded question because from a commissioner's point of view, it's really subjective what you'd personally price for the art.

What you consider as a fair rate may not be viewed as such for the artist, especially if you're unfamiliar with how they work and how much time is spent on each respective piece.
If someone were to respond to me with that, I'd just walk away since I don't want to potentially insult them.

If they don't have any frame of reference, even if you go deep in the past with their gallery or journals (if applicable), who knows if they'd actually be professional with a commission should you give them a number and proceed :/a

[Ysera]

It's hard, as a customer, to try and judge the value of an artist's work. It could totally be that they don't know the value of their own work and haven't taken commissions before. I think Rikki hits it on the head about the question being loaded, and there also being some concerns about professionalism and completion regarding a commission from such an artist.

That being said, pricing a piece outright may be hard, but you could take a look at the quality of their work and ask yourself "What would I pay an hour for this work of this caliber?" Then, based on the piece that you're referencing, you could possibly get an idea from the artist of how long, time wise, it would take them to complete the work, and you could get a ballpark answer from there. It's not an ideal method for coming to a value, but it should be a relatively okay starting point for bartering.