After reading about others' positive experiences selling artwork online, I've decided to give it a try. My first effort is to list an oil painting on eBay. I chose eBay because even though items of all kinds are sold there, it has a huge audience. It doesn't charge up-front fees, but rather a modest percentage of each sale. I'm listing this painting as an auction -- keep your fingers crossed. 

UPDATE: This painting and two drawings sold within 10 days. The painting is now in North Carolina, and the drawings are in New York City. What a thrill!  (March 18, 2014)

I decided last month to learn to paint using the Indirect Method. This method comes from 15th-, 16th-, and 17th-century Flanders, so it's also called the Flemish method. After ordering an instructional video (read my review of the video) and watching it several times, I've completed a still-life painting. I tried my best to follow the steps outlined in the video, as shown in the slideshow. I'll continue to learn this method with more complicated paintings, but it's a good first effort, I think. 

UPDATE: I sold this painting to an art collector in Shoreline, Washington, who owns two of my earlier paintings. (May 16, 2014)

Today I enter my new self-portrait in a school competition. 

I entered last year (the photo on the left) but I didn't win a prize.  This year's portrait is, I believe, better. I drew with a lighter hand, greater sensitivity, and more accuracy. I sought and received criticism from many sources.  This was especially helpful in working out anatomy and perspective problems. I'm very grateful for the help I've received over the past few days and the past year. My principal instructor for this project was my anatomy instructor, Melissa Weinman at Gage Academy of Art. (Both portraits are pastel on toned paper.)

Judging takes place next week. Keep your fingers crossed.

I just have to say something about master copies, because my husband and I disagree about their value in this world. 
Mr. Teicher: "Mastercopies just don't ring my bell." 
Mrs. Teicher: "Not only do I like them, but I've been urged by various instructors to make them -- make them early and often."
I've reviewed those instructors' words in my mind, and I'll quote them here. 

"You can't do enough master copies," said John Rizzotto, a classically trained artist who is teaching my painting class. "If you do five slammin' master copies of a master's work, you can say you studied with that master." (He was holding a photo of a Rembrandt.)

"Master copies are like intravenous art education," said Gary Faigin, artistic director of Gage Academy of Art, where I attend classes. 

"The practice of copying masterworks has helped train some of the greatest artists who ever lived," wrote Juliette Aristides in her book "Lessons in Classical Drawing."

I have made two finished drawings (and many sketches) from masterworks, one by Pierre-Paul Prud'hon and another by Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin. I realize that my nude looks like a linebacker, but I drew her when I was 42, just a baby. How could I be expected to perfectly execute that perpetual tormenter of artists: proportion. This won't be my last attempt. My desire to copy masterworks has only grown more intense since I started studying art a few years ago. 

Mr. Teicher will just have to put up with it. 

Veronica was an admired figure model at Gage Academy of Art. She has now moved to Florence, Italy, to develop her modeling career. I hope someday she'll be back. The slideshow shows the evolution of my drawing of the lovely Veronica. 

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Update (2018): Veronica has been back in Seattle for a few years. I no longer prowl the halls of Gage Academy of Art, but I hope she does. She's a wonderful model—a paragon of femininity.