Anyone else keep redoing faceups?

As a perfectionist myself, yes definitely! What I usually do (to avoid burnout and damage to the doll from scrubbing and redoing the faceup too many times) is put it aside and take a few days. I avoid looking at it and then when I come back to it, I can see more clearly what exactly it is that I like and dislike, and what I want to change, or sometimes I end up appreciating the faceup I did.
Sometimes it doesn't end up being exactly what we imagined, but it can also be just as beautiful and even better.
I hope it works for you!

 

Hehe good luck!

 

Yeah, I’ve had this too. I’ve been doing Faceups for over 10 years now, and I still struggle to pin down some of my dolls’ looks. My Dollzone Daomiao I had to paint 5 times before I was happy with her (eyebrows will get you!), and my Dollzone April I’ve painted 3 times and I am still unhappy with her. She, my Impldoll Azalea, and my MYOU DouDou are all on the list to be redone, again.

What usually happens to me is that I redo faceups when I feel I’ve improved and figure I can capture the doll’s personality better. I actually redo my first bjd’s (Resinsoul Ai) head every 99, as she got my first Faceup and I always redo her in the same theme 100 faceups after the last time to chart my progress.

Then I also have the situations where I feel a Faceup turned out perfect and it takes me years to dare to redo it. My Dragondoll Cheng sported his 2nd Faceup for about 6 years before I tried to redo it. And of course, I was unhappy with it. When I upgraded his body last year, I decided to redo his Faceup again as he needed a color match, and this time he looks good!

 

I don't do that anymore thankfully, but when I first got my first blank BJD (my fourth doll of this kind back in 2007), I wanted to redo his face every few weeks. And I actually went and redid his face up whenever I actually felt like it. Which was way too often. As a traditionally trained artist, it always felt like a ton of bricks fell on me when I discovered I sucked at painting dolls. It was a heavy learning curve for me and discovering then that I have shaky hands was a heavy blow as well. Looking back now, I feel like I just wanted to see the improvement and I just never felt like I was. I wasn't hoping for something like a magnum opus, but I always felt like it wasn't good enough no matter how much I tried.

Then I got into modifying my dolls, and I once again wanted to redo the mods every few weeks... Lol! As I've gotten older (than dust!) I kind of have gotten past that. I see the flaws, I know I suck, but I just shrug my shoulders now and move on. As an artis, it will always be a thorn at my side, to suck at a particular art genre that I'll never feel accomplished in and I love so much. On the other hand, I really can't do anything about my shaky hands, and I know it'll only get worse from here on. I rather jsut enjoy the doll for what it is, even if I can see my horrible lashes and brow hairs, from a mile away. DX

I rather see my terrible scribbly linework on my own dolls that I have painted myself, than to look for someone else to do it for me. It brings me joy to pain on a doll, even if I suck at it (I'm a huge weirdo!). (:

 

I'm the total opposite
Once a doll has finally a faceup I just hope it will last a couple years.

Even if I'm a faceup artist, and have painted so many heads over the years, I still feel a total blockage whenever I have to paint a head. Blushing goes fine and then it takes weeks sometimes to finally start the painted details. So yeah, when a faceup is finally done I'm just relieved

And that's even though I'm very perfectionist and critical myself. But I guess delaying painting heads for so long and painting very slowly makes sure that I always produce the best I can do at that time.

 

Yup, I’ve been there. I had a head I would paint and repaint over and over because it never really felt like ‘her.’ I finally got it right and now I’m afraid of when I’ll have to redo it because it’s so perfect for her. I don’t know if I’ll be able to copy it well enough. But that’s just it. Maybe it won’t be the same, but that doesn’t mean it’ll be worse. All I can hope for is that whenever I redo it, it’ll be better than I imagined.

Hang in there! There’s nothing wrong with your faceup process and all the practice makes you wiser!

 

Yup. There are certain dolls I just can't sit still on their faceups.

 

I redo them bi-yearly. Either because I want to give them a new look, or decided I no longer like the ones they were wearing anymore. I'm currently half way through redoing 2 heads . But since I'm about to do the base sealant, I'm looking through my dolls and wondering if I shouldn't add a third to the lot and just redo the three at the same time XD

 

Same. My ducan got about six faces til I was happy with him. I only painted girls before and the first attempts were so bad that I almost considered selling all my dolls and never touch a bjd again

 

yeah, i like to freshen the faces up every once in a while for certain dolls. either because i just want to update their look, i left in an imperfection that i've decided was time to touch up or fix, or just...wanting a reason to do a faceup some dolls I haven't redone yet. I don't do commissions or anything so I like to give dolls on a rotating basis updates so that I can actually improve on the skills.

since i live in a cold weather place though, usually i have to wait until july-september to do anything though, so it tends to be a yearly redo (unless during the july-september round i decide to wipe and start over, which has happened plenty of times )

 

I can relate! It doesn't happen with every head I paint though, some sculpts are just difficult to paint! Some heads I paint once and I like it, some others I have to paint a number of times until I'm satisfied

 

This is me. I just keep finding things I can fix, or I see something that inspires me and I want to change the face-up.

 

Most of my dolls tend to keep a faceup for at least a year, some have had the same one for years. Others...I can't seem to get it right and keep redoing. My first doll, Amir, has been redone countless times and it might be near time for another. Currently, I have two girls that need to be redone, and maybe one of my boys. It's a good thing faceups can be done over and over without harming the doll!

 

With my own faceups, I feel that I want to correct or change something every time I look at it. It is very annoying. Maybe one day I can be satisfied with my work! I don't do this with other artists' faceups.

 

yeah! I think its totally normal, I have some dolls that I just can't get right. Then I'll even redo ones I used to be happy with if I feel I can do better later! I think it's all part of the learning process.