Rates also depend on what the art is for too. If its for someone's personal use (a portrait for his character in a game), that rate is usually not as high as what a publisher should be paying you for art that they'll put in a book.
I've seen different rates for illustrations for books differ greatly. Really depends on the company. Small publishers or big publishers who like to go cheap may only pay like $20.00 for a quarter page illustration. A bigger publisher may pay $75.00 for a quarter page. Although, if they're going to be paying more, they expect the quality of art to match.
Of course there are a lot of professionals who charge the same rate regardless on whether its for personal use or for publishing. To them, you're paying for the time it takes to do the art piece. If the artist is going to be the same amount of time/effort into your portrait as he does for published books/mags.....then he'll most likely charge the same.
Then there's the artists who are charitable and strong fans too. They know the average gamer can't pay those prices and so may bring down the price for the fans. Artists like that don't mind doing that sometimes because they enjoy doing stuff for fans and the reward of that relationship is worth taking a hit on the pay. But book and magazine publishers should pay the full rate.
apalmer, you art pieces have full tonal values. That's a lot of work in itself. I think for you, black and white line art only should be around $20.00 for a small scene. And like Cheiromancer said, like maybe around $40.00 or $50.00 for a illustration with full shading/tonal values. Numbers based on the size of work usually seen at your gallery. Of course the price would go up if you'd be illustrating either a cover or a bigger spread. Full page or Double page or whatever.
Anyways, maybe spend some time to plop in some more nomal humans in your gallery. Ones that aren't doing a battle cry or something. That way, people that check out your gallery know your range for sure. The portrait you put up doesn't really tell me much. Except that I still like your rendering style. I'd like to see some faces of normal humans/demi-humans (elves, half-elves, humans) that are drawn from no reference or source material.
BTW, I think you're well on your way to doing really good pro quality stuff. You're ahead of the game already. You're not afraid to do backgrounds. I mean, look at Boris Vallejo, he is still terrible at backgrounds. Keep up the good work, don't get cocky, always strive to get better....even though your good already....and I know I'll be picking up a Dragon Mag cover with your illustration on it someday.
