Artist and faceup

Where you an artist [preferably, one who draws, paints, sculpts or uses ALMOST the same tools as faceups and one who deals with portraits or drawings of any style] before you started doing face ups?
I'd been making cloth dolls for about seven years when I finally got my first BJD. Not quite the same, but I used both fabric pens (Micron markers, too) and watercolor pencils to do faces. I always preferred the paint pens/markers, though.

Did it help you?
It actually did, a lot. So far I've only done one faceup and touched up the lips of another. When we finally get some nice weather I may take a try at redoing my first one, though. She deserves better. This is a doll about eight or nine years old whose original faceup was so degraded that it was rubbing off at the slightest touch. It forced my hand, so to speak, and I finally ordered a can of sealant, got the pencils and chalk and gave it a go.

How was your first faceup?
Not as scary as I expected. She ended up looking, if not perfect, still like herself. In some ways she looks better because her face and body match now. Her face was very heavily airbrushed, probably to the original resin shade, but she's mellowed out to a golden/peach shade now. (Which I actually like better.) I did mess up her lower lashes, though, so she looks like her eyeliner smudged. But in a way it was easier than doing the face on a cloth doll. All of her features were there except for her eyebrows - I didn't have to draw her eyes, mouth, etc. in. Plus, the first twenty times I messed up her eyebrows, I just wiped them and redrew them. Mess up with a cloth doll and you're making a new head.

 

I think at best, it helps if your artistic background has you schooled on a few things--like how to thin acrylic paint and how to make use of retardent, or how or why sealant is used. But! On the other hand, resin isn't the same as canvas paper, so getting used to how the paint and color pencils and chalk pastel work with it is a bit of a learning curve. So artistic experience may help technical-wise, but resin experience is something that is still yet to be learned.

I am kind of artsy, in that I draw and make use of Photoshop, and in school I did all the generic art class stuff, like charcoal pieces and oil painting. I did not have any experience with acrylic paint or water color pencils, though, so it took me some time to figure it out... And I still am... o___o my first face up was funky. For one, I had used WAY too many coats of MSC, so it was like a thick transparent shell encasing his head. xD And he looked kind of like a zombie, and I'd blushed his head so much that it ended up darker than his body... xD But interestingly, since he was a hybrid doll with a chalk white resin body and a creamy white resin head, it turned out my heavy coats of MSC and blush ended up protecting his head from yellowing while his body did yellow. So when it came time for me to redo his face up, when I washed it off, I realized the resin was now suddenly a perfect match! xD

My face ups since then have improved exponentially, but I still have a lot to learn and practice. Oish.

 

Were you an artist [preferably, one who draws, paints, sculpts or uses ALMOST the same tools as faceups and one who deals with portraits or drawings of any style] before you started doing face ups?
Yes, I am an artist. I have a BA in studio art, in fact, that was completed roughly four years prior to my purchase of my first doll. That said, my degree was more heavily focused in 3D media (sculpture and jewelrysmithing, specifically with an emphasis on waxworks/metalcasting), or on less-common 2D media (printmaking, with a particular focus on traditional stone lithography). I have done and still do very little painting, which is likely why I still do paintless faceups. On the other hand, at the time I purchased my first doll, I was working at a job that involved quite a bit of heavy use of chalk pastel, which may have aided me in getting rolling on my first faceup. I've also done quite a bit of drawing, naturally.


Did it help you?
To a degree, I suppose it did. However, the face of a BJD is considerably different from a blank sheet of paper or raw chunk of wax. I'd guess most of the help was in avoiding being too terribly heavy-handed (though I still need to work on how I do eyebrows), and in handling of the materials themselves, more than in actually doing the faceup.


How was your first faceup?
Passable. It certainly wasn't the best ever, but it wasn't dreadful by any means, and it was what finally ignited the spark with my first doll and got me rolling in the hobby, so that says more for it than the actual quality! Though as I've gotten better, I'm looking forward to redoing those first three dolls (the first one is on faceup 2, but still quite old).

 

Where you an artist [preferably, one who draws, paints, sculpts or uses ALMOST the same tools as faceups and one who deals with portraits or drawings of any style] before you started doing face ups? I've been doing artsy stuff since I was old enough to hold a crayon, and I technically have an associate degree in fine arts, so yes.

Did it help you?Not really. Painting resin was unlike anything I've done before, and it definitely took some getting used to. Also, as much as I hate to say it, my high school art classes and budget were pretty terrible, and the college I went to for my art degree was not a very good college, and I don't feel I ever learned the things I should have in art classes. The teacher never properly taught us to use acrylics at all, or to paint humans. She heavily favored still life, and the use of charcoal, oil and pencil...and even with that, her teaching "technique" was more of "draw that" than actually showing us how and giving us tips.


How was your first faceup? Terrible! XD I thought it was good at the time, but it was so SO bad! Thankfully, I've improved like 1000% since then!

 

Where you an artist [preferably, one who draws, paints, sculpts or uses ALMOST the same tools as faceups and one who deals with portraits or drawings of any style] before you started doing face ups?

I was a self-taught studio artist who was always constantly fascinated by faces, so that's what I specialized in.

Did it help you?

Oh certainly. I was always doing portraits in the Renaissance style, layers upon layers of super thin washes to build up the color. I also did realistic sketches in pencils, charcoal or pastels. So I was fortunately well versed in all the various medias and techniques.

How was your first faceup?

Someone I knew commissioned me to do one cold, before I ever even owned my own. This was my introduction to the hobby. It turned out to be exactly what she wanted and she is still displayed in a lovely collection to this day.

 

I'm a hit and miss artist...in high school I took a lot of art classes and I did a lot of extra curricular art classes then I went to one of the best art colleges however due to certain circumstances I didn't pass the first semester and I haven't done much art since. That being said in my prime i was drawing portraits and had a particular focas on eyes. I also really loved 3d work- sculpture and things like that.

I think it helped to a point. My faceups aren't great but they aren't the worst things I've ever come across.

I believe my very first faceup was terrible. I tried acrylics and i didnt thin them and i felt frustraited. When i slowed down and limited the amount of color i put on they now look much better...again not great but not terrible either.

 

Where you an artist [preferably, one who draws, paints, sculpts or uses ALMOST the same tools as faceups and one who deals with portraits or drawings of any style] before you started doing face ups?
Yup. BA in Fine Arts - emphasis in Graphic Design which I used to get a job in my actual field and continue to use on a daily basis (today is illustration. Yay!!). On my own I use a variety of mixed media ranging from paints to collage to ....almost everything. I am largely a 2D artist, I don't work with anything 3D other than BJDs. Mostly I do BW Illustration because I like it.

Did it help you?
Um. Maybe? I understand color very well (even though I work largely in BW haha), so I think I had an edge there. I owned most of the materials already so that was a plus. I wasn't afraid to spend more money to upgrade my materials down the road, cause I've always spent money on art supplies, and that was a huge plus. I knew how to use said materials.....but other than that? Eh.

The transition from paper to actual BJD is so different - working on a head is a huge learning curve. On paper it's rare for me to draw a face straight on, so everything is visible in the shot and both eyebrows have to there and symmetrical *ROFLsymmetricalchokes* and resin is not paper at all. It's a completely different thing. I draw very fast with lots of small strokes and messy lines and subtracting (read: erasing.) which you just can't do with a faceup. My style and the way I do everything had to adapt to allow me to work on doll heads. And my hands have never been steady (hence my need for a really fast and messy style) which does not make the tiny detail work of faceups easy.

What helped me the most was a lot of practice, and a lot of trial and error and a lot of just error aaaaaand more error. Which is pretty much my process for all art....so maybe that was another way it helped. I knew I wasn't going to be perfect, and that I'd have to work at it, so I didn't and still don't discourage easily.

How was your first faceup?
Well, I guess it wasn't embarrassingly horrible. I was smart enough to realize I wasn't good enough to use paint (other than eyeliner - which turned out really good), and the blushing wasn't clumpy or smeared and I used MSC so it wasn't weirdly textured or shiny....but compared to what I do now I would not claim that as anything I ever did....

 

I'm also a beginner but I don't think it is that fun lol I usually get back pain and a lot of frustration when I do them *sighs* but do you know what helped me a lot? the critique from other people! I made a thread on the face up critique forum (here it is) I didn't know how to improve the face up but the wonderful people there helped me a lot and that's how I learned a bit more. I recommend you to make one thread like that so that others can tell you how to improve.


Where you an artist [preferably, one who draws, paints, sculpts or uses ALMOST the same tools as faceups and one who deals with portraits or drawings of any style] before you started doing face ups?

I used to draw a long time ago but I stopped doing it like 8 years ago =__= I started doing face ups last year and it was the first time for me dealing with paint brushes, and pastels.
Did it help you?

The fact that I used to draw a long time ago? I don't think so. It helped me more the fact that I made a lot of research before starting doing my own face ups. I read a lot about what to do and how to do it, I also watched youtube videos and I saved face up pictures for inspiration (I don't copy). I look at the work of a good face up and I try to imagine what the artist did to make that eyeshadow or eye line.

How was your first faceup?

Oh my first face up was very plain, I think I was playing it safe...didn't do nothing extraordinary haha I still think that all my face ups are pretty ordinary. I hope to improve more and get to a point where my hand doesn't shake when I'm going to do the lower eyelashes or the eyebrows and like I said before, the critique of other people helped me a lot so I'm always reading and open to suggestions.

This is my first face up, second one, third one, fourth one (I did it again for him so that one is more like the fifth face up) sixth one and the most recent one I have done...I want to redo the first 3 face ups and I have two heads more that need face ups so I have a lot of work to do

 

Where you an artist [preferably, one who draws, paints, sculpts or uses ALMOST the same tools as faceups and one who deals with portraits or drawings of any style] before you started doing face ups?
I've been drawing stuff since I had memory. I generally preferred to do humans as opposed to inanimate objects. When I took proper art classes that dealt with wet medium, it wasn't terribly hard to pick up, which surprised me coz I always thought it would be hard considering I never dealt with color before. I've worked with acrylic, gouache and oil as well as chalk, charcoal and pastel. I guess the only difference is I never put paint retarder in any of my paints coz there was no need. And now suddenly, paint retarder became my world because acrylics just dry so fast and I'm not a fast worker.

Did it help you?
I guess it did coz holding a brush requires a steady hand, no?

How was your first faceup?
Not too great but I've seen worse. I never got a practice head so my Iplehouse Arvid became my practice head. Now thinking back, that was really stupid of me. But it's a good thing that I read a LOT of "What not to do when you do faceups" So even though I didn't watch a lot of faceup tutorials, I knew for sure what I wasn't supposed to do, as opposed to what I can do. In the end, the pictures of the faceups were more useful to me than actual tutorials because the style I was going for was so different. In the end, it was all just trial and error.

 

Where you an artist [preferably, one who draws, paints, sculpts or uses ALMOST the same tools as faceups and one who deals with portraits or drawings of any style] before you started doing face ups?
I was in the design school when I first got my very own bjd. Because I was still a student at that point of time, faceup commission is quite un-affordable for me so I decided to study and read up on DOA forum on the materials to use, since then I started my journey of faceupping for my own dolls.
Did it help you?
It certainly help when I have prior experience in digital illustration..etc but I wasn't good at traditional mediums so it take time to become good with them. It does give me a edge over color theories and the understanding of lines and expression.
How was your first faceup?
My first try was bad because I'm not used to traditional medium and very fine line painting though I do digital illustration and have understanding of colors...etc. I just can't undo when MSC acts up in humid weather and turn white. But I learnt from the experience and subsequently with more practice, it gotten better and I started to take faceup commission for the local community and stopped now due to worklife commitments.

 

Where you an artist [preferably, one who draws, paints, sculpts or uses ALMOST the same tools as faceups and one who deals with portraits or drawings of any style] before you started doing face ups?
I draw a lot so that definitely helped with my use of watercolour pencils for lashes/brows...and I could manage with pastels because I'm used to using brushes and powder from doing eyeshadow lol

Did it help you?
Yes, I think it did. While I still need practice, I think my lines are consistent at least, and my blending was tidy

How was your first faceup?
My first try...was okay? ^^; I mean, I laid the colours on too thick, and the MSC was so thick that I couldn't get my watercolour pencils to actually make lines. It was pretty bad. I need to redo her as soon as it's warm enough out

 

Where you an artist [preferably, one who draws, paints, sculpts or uses ALMOST the same tools as faceups and one who deals with portraits or drawings of any style] before you started doing face ups?

I've worked as an artist/illustrator for decades, using traditional (acrylics, oils, watercolor, airbrush) and digital media (2D and 3D and animation).

Did it help you?

It helped mostly because I had a lot of the supplies and knew how to use them. BUT... there are all kinds of artists and all kinds of art and not everyone is good at everything. To do faceups, you have to practice doing faceups. There's really no way around it. It's not rocket science, but you still need to have the eye-hand coordination to control the placement, length and thickness of hair-lines. You need to know how to mix the colors and whether they will dry darker and how to adjust for that. You need to know how the paint goes on coated resin. You have to study the kinds of looks you want and how to achieve them... like, if doing realistic, detailed eyebrows, you need to understand how the hairs grow in different directions and thicknesses. Or if you're more stylized, you need to know how to do that look. If realistic, you need to know some basic anatomy and how light and shadows fall on forms. Stylization can be harder because you need to know all that and then take it in your own direction. You have to know how to get the paint the right consistency. You have to know your materials: how different paints can be in quality and same with brushes, and whether a it'd be better with a thin brush or one that can hold more paint, or a stiffer bristles or softer.

MOST artists and most people don't NEED to think about all that... a lot of it is instinctive. You just work things out in sketches or in PS, or you see it in your mind and just go for it without over-analyzing everything. But a lot of experience and knowledge gradually comes with the practice, so you eventually aren't just winging it, but actually know what you're doing CONSCIOUSLY. Strangely, this means a lot less prep and thinking about it after a while!

So, basically... It helps a bit, but you still have to put in the work (as in practice, as in experience), like everyone else, to learn how to do faceups!

How was your first faceup?

It didn't suck, but it could definitely use the practice and experience I mentioned!

Personally, I don't think faceups are really something that comes easily to me no matter what. As I said, there are all kinds of artists and we're all good at different things, so my faceup skills are probably just going to be pretty average. It will improve with a LOT of work, but I'm not sure I want to devote the time and effort to it, really. I already know that there are just some people who just are miles better at painting eyebrows and eyelashes and controlling paint and making fine lines and all that.

I do the faceups on my dolls when the company doesn't do faceups or I don't like the ones they have but really like the sculpt or have a certain idea I want. Often I don't think others will do the faceup that I want to have, so I'll just do it. But they are still very amateur faceups!

I definitely think that most people don't need prior art experience in order to do amazing faceups. Artist or not, everyone still has to practice doing faceups and have the right materials and learn how to use them.

(Don't get me wrong... I was hoping it would be a breeze for me! But, nooooo!)

 

Where you an artist [preferably, one who draws, paints, sculpts or uses ALMOST the same tools as faceups and one who deals with portraits or drawings of any style] before you started doing face ups?

I've been drawing since I was very young, and started painting in my early teens (watercolour and acrylic).

Did it help you?

Ha. No. My paintings tend to lean towards semi abstract or impressionistic, with a hint of pointillism thrown in. I need to be far more aware of where I'm putting the brush and far more careful in my mark making than I do when I'm painting. Even having painted a fair few model horses before I got into BJDs didn't help as there was far less that needed to be precise - it doesn't matter so much if a sock goes a little higher than intended, or doesn't match the one on another leg, whereas eyebrows or lips out of place on a face looks weird (I'm generally not aiming for a Picasso look to my dolls… ). Plus, of course, the faces are curved and have a different texture to paper or canvas. It did mean I had most of the supplies and a good grasp of colour theory.

How was your first faceup?

Awful! Overdone eyeliner, semi-circular eyebrows, just generally awful. It's never going to be something I'm brilliant at - I don't enjoy it enough to practice more; but I am at the stage that I can live with the ones I've done. I should maybe get over my recent-ish freckle addiction though...

 

Where you an artist [preferably, one who draws, paints, sculpts or uses ALMOST the same tools as faceups and one who deals with portraits or drawings of any style] before you started doing face ups?

Actually I've been doing art related things since I was in kindergarten, I only started getting good in middle school about 14 years ago. I mainly worked with traditional things like pencil sketching and colored pencils before I got into paints and markers. In college I began to get into painting and playing miniatures such as Warhammer 40k and Warmachine. Thankfully that's helped me with the small details and what not.

Did it help you?

It helped me a bit yeah, though since the heads weren't quite the same as my miniatures I wasn't quite sure how to approach it.

How was your first faceup?

I think it went well, took a long time but went well. I was a bit disappointed that the pencils didn't work quite right but it could have been since it was a Volks soft resin head. Not to mention that the I think it didn't work right, but thankfully I was able to get another head from Volks USA for my girl. I haven't had time for try 2 yet.