When do you know that you are ready to place one of your creations on ebay? I am sooooo new and not sure if I should start selling this at the skill level. And as a artist I am so very insecure.
Michelle

Well opening yourself up to the general public can be both exciting and scary at the same time.

It can be a great experience and a lot of fun giving you many other opportunities to learn all sorts of things, and it will also bring you into contact with real jerks that will bash you and your work as likely as you are likely to get a compliment from someone that isn't a jerk.

It's sort of hard to say if you are ready from another's point of view, really you are the only one that can determine that.

If you are REALLY insecure or feeling fragile and think you will take a negative comment to heart or maybe even allow that to decide whether or not you keep trying - I'd say hold off a little bit.

Allow yourself some time to develop a thicker skin maybe if you think a harsh or insulting comment would hurt your self esteem as a new artist beginning to bloom, as well as more knowledge of how far you've come so far. If you already feel that you have improved a heck of a lot (which you have!) and think you can weather an a$$hole - go for it.

Just don't give someone else the power over whether or not you continue to explore sculpting, make sure that is something only YOU have power over.

JMO.

I can relate to this----back in June when I first started selling on Ebay, I was terrified; I didn't know if anyone would like my work, didn't feel I was very good at watercolors, felt bad about selling it at all (art is like children, it feels sometimes), didn't know where to start it in the auction prices.....
Basically I ended up being forced to just jump right in, since I was desperately looking for a job and needed money badly. I stuck them on Ebay, doing art cards since I thought they would be a little easier to part with at lower prices. I started my auctions at 5.99, which I still do--I felt I could let them go at that price and not feel too bad. To my surprise, people started buying them! It made me feel good just to have a bid or be on a watch list, even if a lot of them didn't sell at first. I just kept pouring out art cards, listing them, and counting the ones I sold as blessings. The need for money made me do them all of the time, and so I also improved rapidly. Here is one of my first art cards that I put on Ebay:

Lots of them didn't sell. Now, 10 months later my work has improved drastically and they *always* sell. Here's one of my more recent art cards:

So I reckon what I'm saying is, just jump right in!! Keep putting your art up more and more, Ebay is an *excellent* marketing tool for getting your name out there. And keeping auctions up at all times forces you to paint all of the time, which always brings rapid improvement. A cool thing about selling your art on Ebay is that you start getting a fan base there. A lot of the stuff I sell is to the same people who keep coming back. And then they start commissioning you.......
Go for it!!! :D

Also wanted to add, from the looks of your icon you are most definitely *better* than I was when I started selling on Ebay---more than good enough to have people see your work. :)

Thank you for the complement........:) I am getting a itch to put one up just to see how it goes. My Icon was our hairless Sphynx Mr. Pinkerton .....:)

Did you paint that icon? If so, that's really good!

Yes Faerydae I did and it sold!...:) I us eto paint allot in acrylics and do murals. If you get time stop off at my blog an dscroll down for some of my work. artbylee.blogspot.com/

I loved painting HUGE .
Michelle

Hee hee, Mr. Pinkerton!!! Now I wonder if he really did have a pair of pink sunglasses :D

Oh WOW! I just visited your blog, and you do GREAT paintings!! I love how colorful they are!

O Wow I just ssaw your mermaid she is wonderful! I knew you would finish one and it would be great.
Thank you for the complement. My problem has always been color. I Think I go over board but it is just my "style" I guess. Funny I always dress in whites and beige and lighter colors LOL. My house is always decorated in muted colors. But when I created its lots of color. Maybe too much.
Michelle

Nah, no such thing as too much color :) I'm a big fan of bright colors, myself!

Yeah no such thing as too much color! I kinda suck about color myself, I'm not very brave or bold with colors. So far anyway. lol