ID:2046212
 
I'm curious, what is the standard price for a 32 by 32, 72 by 72 , 96 by 96 standard pricing per frame? Just dont want to underpay or overpay for artwork
It really depends on the quality of art your getting and the individual artist. There aren't really universal prices that can apply to everyone.
Well, I was looking for moreso a rubric. I do want something pretty advanced that is going to be 72 by 72. I was hoping a dollar per frame.
As Pixelcomet said, prices are always negotiable, but I'll humor this idea of a rubric.

As the canvas size increases, so does the work required by an exponential amount. Depending on the art style, a 72x72 frame can take upwards to a couple or more hours to finish, less if there is a quality reference supplied. If you're seeking a professional pixel-artist, a couple of hours of work for $1 is objectively not a livable wage. So that pretty much leaves you with the hobbyist pixel-artist, whom may very well agree to that pricing figure in accordance to their standards. However, by using a hobbyist you (most of the time) sacrifice reliability, efficiency, and quality. Even if a hobbyist does agree to the $1 a frame amount, they are under no obligation to see their work through--they very well may quit a short ways into the project. It's important to note the community you're advertising to, which, in this case is BYOND, a community compromised of mostly children who are about as fickle as they come. What's more, while you do "own" the artwork they produced for you, that particular style may be hard to reproduce, or you may hire a new pixel-artist only to abandon the old work entirely in favor of the newer artwork, which is money wasted.

If you find you can't offer much in the payment department, incentivize people with skills you are learned in--this is a game development community, afterall! If you're a coding guru, offer advice on programming problems for these people. If you're good with game design, offer detailed constructive criticism on games that they might be developing in tandem with yours. Work together and thrive!
It depends on the quality of art and the spriter's experience. You'd ideally want to pay by the hour with estimates in advance, and as time passes and you figure out how long certain things take, there's your metric. An artist can't really predict how much time they have to invest into a sprite until they're experienced in drawing things for that particular project.

A 'good' pixel artist will typically charge anywhere from $15 to $50 an hour. The $20-30 range is more common, and it also depends on how many jobs they're juggling. If they have time to burn, I imagine they'd be more open to working out a cheaper deal.

The person I'm working with is quick and comfortable with our project's style since he's drawn every single asset. Here are some examples to give you an idea of how long things can take for an experienced artist, though it of course varies.

http://puu.sh/nrXCi/023b4730d8.gif - 1.5h
http://puu.sh/nrXJy/474f3ade5e.gif - 2h (along with three other animations, three directions)
http://puu.sh/nrXLM/48ee44d7d0.gif - 7h (along with six other animations, one direction)
http://puu.sh/nrXNw/3e67b185cf.png - 1h
http://puu.sh/nrXOF/5fdcac1733.png - 1h
http://puu.sh/nrXQx/c5d7c92422.png - 3h (split into chest and legs)
just make sure you get half up front
Just stopping by to thank Rod5 to bring up such an important topic. Thanks to Pixelcomet, Azurift and Pixel Realms for sharing the knowledge with everyone.

@Pixel Realms: I am really impressed by the speed of your artist! I thought I was really fast but he produces pretty good quality at fast pace; the dragon specially.

I always prefer hourly pay because that always accurately determines the amount of work particular piece takes. And inbetween I keep giving screenshots as I progress so that I am sure client likes the style and quality.