Hi Molly
I'm an artist, and have been selling artwork on and off for the last 15 years (I'm nearly 30 now). Something I have done in my spare time, on demand, on top of my full time job.
There are tax implications, if you intend to do this very seriously I would go down the self-employed route. I only registered last year, up until that point I didn't pursue it as much as I would have liked and I earnt peanuts, so for that reason I did not register. Now I wish I had done it sooner as it's a great way to motivate yourself and makes you look more professional to potential clients.
I used to sell art on Ebay a few years back when the market was good. I deliberately did "abstract" pieces which I found easy to do and quickly, and of course were very popular. So I scoped the market and adapted my style to fit. I sold extremely well for a period of time, until the market started to get over-saturated, sales fell and selling prices dropped.
I don't sell on ebay anymore, just the effort of listing, dealing with random queries, packing, damaged or lost goods in the post, having to trail massive pieces of art to the post office, and risking low selling prices to attract a bidding war - hard work.
I have always specialised in pencil portraits, so I decided to put on a marketing drive with these. I had some leaflets printed, with my details, examples of work and mentioning starting prices (to deter people who want something for nothing). I developed my website so it had a price list, examples of work and other info. I listed on yell.com for free, kept refreshing ads on gumtree (also free), put a stack of leaflets in my local play centre and nursery. From this alone I generated enough business in August to keep me busy until Christmas. And it's also allowed me to build up a network and I get recommendations now from my original clients. I've not advertised for a while as I was just too busy but I still