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Almost two weeks after sales on her Shopee listing exploded, ugly portrait seller Laura Jiang said demand is still as high as ever and she is looking to increase prices.

The 20-year-old undergraduate said this comes after repeated comments from her customers that she is undervaluing her work and should charge more.

Still receiving “overwhelming” demand

In response to Mothership’s queries, Jiang said sales is still doing “really well”.

She sheepishly added: “There’s still an overwhelming surge in demand. I think I’ve sold more than 200 drawings so far.”

Jiang suspended new orders after getting flooded with them a day after her listing was widely circulated online.

She stopped taking new orders to “focus all [her] energy on the current batch of orders”.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CVCNt7BFOb9/

Even though she has suspended orders, she has received some “surprising” requests from people asking if she can draw their partners for their weddings or proposals.

Will increase prices to S$4

Jiang will reopen orders on Friday, Oct. 29, but not without some price adjustments.

Prices for her portraits will now start at S$4, up from her previous price of S$2.50.

When asked why she will be increasing prices, Jiang said she was prompted by her customers to do so:

“My customers have told me that I'm actually undervaluing my work and that I should charge more for my drawings, for all the effort I put in.”

Her economics classes have also taught her an important lesson.

“I took Econs and I learnt that if demand increases, your price will increase,” she explained.

She also expressed concern that her cheap prices may undercut other artists in the portrait market:

“I also don’t want to undervalue my drawings too much as it might not be very good for actual artists in this industry if I price my work too low."

"It might be quite disrespectful to real artists.”

But when asked whether her previous prices made her feel like the drawings weren’t worth her time, Jiang disagreed.

“Personally I enjoy doing it lah, so I think it’s worth my time anyways,” she said.

Previously, Jiang said she did not feel the drawings were that difficult to pull off and each took about 20 minutes to do as she was not a real artist.

Other sellers have jumped onboard

The popularity of Jiang's Shopee listing has also prompted others to put up their own listings selling ugly portraits.

Most of which were listed within the last two weeks.

Seller @avriyll on Shopee told Mothership that they have done ugly portraits in the past, but decided to bring it back after seeing Mothership's article.

Seller @avriyll comes from an arts background and said that selling these ugly portraits is a "fun hobby" and a good outlet for their "creative talent".

"Sales has been good and I really enjoy making a bit of side cash here and there in my free time! The buyers are lighthearted and easy going and it makes me happy when my drawings seem to make their day," they added.

Another seller, @bearbrodoodles, also had the same idea after coming across the article.

They decided to add colour to the ugly portraits to "value add".

Unlike @avirill, however, @bearbrodoodles has no prior background in drawing and does this on the side to earn money while going for interviews for a full-time job.

Competition does not bother her

When asked if she is at all concerned by the new competition that has sprung up, Jiang had this to say:

"No, I'm not bothered at all. I think it's great that people can find inspiration from my store and are motivated to sell their own drawings, even though they may not look really good also."

Jiang also shared that she may start going for some drawing lessons to improve her skills.

"I want to make sure the quality is still satisfactory, like people would still feel that it’s worth paying that much," she said.

She assured Mothership that her drawings will still be ugly, despite the lessons.

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Top photos via @nyanpoo/Shopee.