BJDs and unskilled modifications

You also don't know how good you will be - even as a first-timer. Don't do anything until you have done enough research on what you want to do. You might think that there's only one way to do the mod you want, but someone else has equally good results by doing it another way that you might've not seen. Oversaturation of knowledge is better than going at it with a limit of knowledge.

When I really want to try learning something new, I dive into learning about it. Tools, techniques - everything. Sometimes, I get too into what I'm trying to learn, and I see the whole world as the thing I'm trying to learn. This past week, I made the split decision I would learn to knit. Since immersing myself in tutorial videos and the like, I am starting to see everything in terms of knitting. I was like that when I started doing Sudoku puzzles. I don't know why I'm like that, but it happens sometimes.

You might not know if it's a skill that comes to you. Like with my knitting, it was tutorials on Saturday and Sunday, needles and yarn Monday, and I've already got a pretty decent knit square of fabric created. Yeah, there were a few mistakes: for some reason, I had random holes; it also kind of got narrower as I went up. I decided to stop it, and begin again also because it was too narrow for anything really useful. So I'm starting again. Personally, at least in terms of simple things, I find knitting a little easier to do than sewing.

But coming off that tangent, you don't know if you are actually really good at sanding off those elf ears or not until you do. Expect failure, but don't look for failure.

 

I agree. Nothing like trying it out and seeing how things go... with good basis of knowledge under your belt of course. In essence we are all first-timers with everything. Our baby steps were our first but we did it anyway, even though we landed on our bums more than once. You don't learn anything in this world unless you go ahead and try... although as adults we can add research into that equation.

 

Practice of course will make things easier but if you are a first time, how you will practice? Now a days there is some cheap heads made to practice, they sell on Ebay but without searching for awhile, and trying to figure it out, I wouldn't know.

Some people simply don't know these things exist or there is resin friendly colors to be used. To them it is a doll and they think everything work as it is a color. Also, I am sure no matter how some people read or research, the skills to master something like face up varies from some people to another .. There is some great artist who can draw or paint amazingly though when it comes to face up they don't seem to be able to do it correctly, it is just not their thing. So to be clear, of course no one will try to customize a doll unless they felt they can do enough! I can't imagine a person paying a sum of money on a doll to simply ruin it or try anything on it without care. May be this can happen either if they are wealthy or don't mind wasting money, but for most of us, I am sure we are not that, or at least in my case.. I am saving from my own Salary to obtain a doll, wait months to get it, then simply ruin it ? Don't you think that is nonsense ?

I just believe each doll is loved differently, and as a owner, I will not want anyone to judge the way I do face ups or customize a doll, call it ruining if it is something I like or if that is all I can do for a faceup. You shouldn't be so judgmental against people .. instead of telling them Don't ruin your dolls people, may be tell them, few basic things regarding dolls and how to care for it. Some people need to be taught while some try to teach themselves.

After all, I believe human are more precious and more to care for than dolls ..

 

I don't agree with OP at all :/
It's NOT your doll. Once it's been bought, you can do anything you'd like to it. It's not "disrespectful to the doll." It's so dumb when people try and act like dolls are real, living things. Of course, your dolls are very special and important to you, but I mean, really.
Everyone has to start somewhere. If you ruin a doll, it's not anyone else's problem.

 

As someone who has customized her own dolls for years, I have a great deal of experience in faceups, rooting wig caps, making clothing and such. The only way to get this experience is to DO it.

I am a firm believer in doing as much research as you can before attempting your first faceup--finding out which materials will work best and which will stain and ruin the doll beyond all hope of repair.

I have done my fair share of cringing at infamous "Sharpie faceup" photographs. Back when I was starting out, I also ruined my fair share of doll heads through inexperienced trial and error. It goes with the territory. If anyone who does faceups says they were perfect from the first face they painted, they're either delusional or lying like hell. In fact, experienced artists (myself included) make plenty of mistakes even after being experienced. You just get better at cleaning them off or covering them up.

Too many people are already too intimidated by the high standards of the community and the price of the dolls to attempt their own artistry, which I personally think is a damned shame. My advice to anyone who wants to try doing faceups on their own is as follows:

1. Do the research. Find out what materials to use, from the sealant to the finishing coat, and go over the portions of the forum that discuss customization and the pros and cons of various materials (chalk pastels, watercolor pencils, acrylic paints, etc.).

2. Go to Carnegie Hall. How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice. Get some cheap dolls from the Dollar Store, wipe off the factory paint, and try your hand at repainting the faces. No, it's not the same as working on a resin head, but we're trying to learn the basics here. At least if you decide you don't have the skills to do faces, you won't have ruined a doll you saved up a year to get to find that out.

3. Accept that you're not perfect. Neither is anybody else. There's always going to be a part of the faceup that gives you more trouble than others. I can do eyebrows well, and I have no trouble with lips, but blushing is hard as hell for me to get to look right.

4. Most importantly, if you like your finished result, don't listen too hard to what others think of your work. Unless you want to go into business as a professional faceup artist, the only person you have to please at the end of the day is you.

Okay, I'm done. Good luck.

 

This sparked another idea: work on something smaller than your intended project. If you're trying to do an SD head, try painting on an MSD or Puki-sized head. I'm a firm believer of if you can get good at doing it on a very small scale, it will be easier on a slightly larger scale.

I'm coming to this conclusion with my sewing. I have an MSD and an SD. For the longest time, I'd been making clothes for the smaller doll - and it's pretty hard to machine sew for an MSD (from my experience). When I got a chance to make clothes for my SD, it seemed just so easy, and things came out pretty well. I can only imagine how good it would be to sew for people after I've sewn for such small-scale dolls.

I like the idea of wiping off faces of smaller dolls and see how it goes with them. Not only are you going to be able to master skills on a much smaller, finer scale, you're also getting practice in general.

 

How else will people learn? ^^ You have to start somewhere, and no one is a pro to start off with, are they? People get better with practice, it's not up to us to judge what they do with their dolls.

 

Throwing my 2 cents on the original question. I think once I purchase something with my money and it becomes my possession I can do anything I please with it. If I was super rich and bought a Picasso and then burned it, I could because I own it. Now I would hope no one would ever do that but ultimately when it is your possession you can do what you like with it and it's really no one's business.

I've certainly seen doll mods I don't like. Occasionally, I've wondered what the person was thinking. But ultimately these things are made from a mold, they're not one of a kind, or priceless or invaluable and once we buy them they are ours to do with as we please. If I want to smash it with a hammer (ok I just cringed typing that) then I can do that.

Others have mentioned this but it rings true to me. We all have our opinions and what I think looks like, pardon my language, ass, someone else might think is utterly beautiful. I remember seeing a modded Blythe that I actually said "UGHHHH!" out loud when I saw it. I think it's one of the most grotesque things I have ever laid eyes on and it utterly disturbed me to look at it but... The owner loved it. Other people commented on the photo (it was on Flickr) and seemed to love it. So, just because I was horrified doesn't mean it was wrong.

Yeah these dolls are expensive but really what's it to you (and by you I mean any of us) how someone else spends their money. If they want to buy an expensive doll and draw on it with a sharpie, so be it. They'll have a real hard time if they want to resell it but not everyone who buys dolls wants to sell them. I sure don't intend to sell mine. If I'm broke and living on the street I will put them in my backpack and carry them around with me!

So, I guess it boils down to, why do we care what someone else is doing? All that really matters is whether or not they're happy and enjoying their doll. And if they go off half cocked and ruin their doll because they didn't put in the proper research, that's not my problem either. We all have to own our mistakes even when they cost us a significant amount of money.

(And I also agree that proper credit should be given so if you modded something someone else did, say that.)

 

My first mod project was pretty rank, but that's because I figured I didn't need an eye beveler and could do the wells myself with an exacto knife. After a few slips with the knife the eyes lost the perfect shape they had. X_X I get to try again soon with another head to mod, so I guess in my opinion everyone has to start somewhere right? Granted I shouldn't have started on a limited head, but oh well. I'm not upset by how it turned out and it gives me options to play with and see what I can do with what I have. It's the same with art- I'm really good at drawing and painting now, but I wasn't a decade ago. Art is a process; experience helps you shape and modify that process until you start getting results you like, and even then it never stops evolving. I don't judge people based on the skill of their mods or face ups.

So nothing of further value to add besides by own experiences, and to agree with the need to research before attempting anything! And never give up. We all have to start somewhere.

 

I am really confused by people being personally offended by what someone else does to a doll. Have I seen dolls where I think, WTF were they thinking? Absolutely. And I also see dolls which blow me away by how beautifully executed they are (mods and general faceup/aesthetics both).

It's that person's doll. And frankly, once a company sells a doll or a faceup artist finishes a commission, they don't have any say in what happens to the doll they worked on. It's not theirs any more. People can and should do whatever they want with what they purchase.

Now, that being said, I do also think that people should be upfront about what mods/work they did. It strikes me as dishonest to claim someone else's faceup is your own when you have just modded the lips, to use the OP's example. But there is no point getting worked up over what someone else has chosen to do with their doll, regardless of whether or not they mod or face-up or whatever.

I hope that was coherent...I am very tired LOL

 

"I think once a doll is bought and paid for, the owner has the right to do whatever they want to it."

for me pretty much this - i feel the same way, HOWEVER i think that people need to pull their fingers out a bit, when they see a picture of said hideous mod/faceup/whatever with people saying 'what do you think?!' i think people need to be HONEST, sure be constructive about it, "i think the eyebrows could use some work" or whatever, but nothing annoys me more than really FUGLY messes getting LOADS of attention and some really beautiful things just getting ignored, i know 'beauty' is up to the individual, but praising something that looks like its been done with a 2year old a crayon and a small pets digestive tract is pushing it. (just in general, no ones doll in particular ^_^)

 

Very interesting topic!

I guess I'll start with the faceups.
Most of those people I would imagine do this for a living, and probably paint at least 100 dolls per month.
They're basically taking a skill of theirs and using it for a career, so I'm sure they don't care what happens to the faceups they paint since they are getting paid. Even if it gets altered poorly by the owner, they did their job and got their money. I doubt they get very attached to their work considering it's usually the same basic faceup over again.

Next, about dolls themselves already being art. I feel that they are a base that was created for us.
Because originally we were encouraged to make these dolls anything we wanted. It was to fuel our creativity and make our 'perfect image'. I'm not saying they aren't art themselves though, I just feel what the companies give us is incomplete. And you wouldn't want your doll to look like someone else's right? What makes these dolls special is the almost endless customizations!

Now onto the Modding debate.
I feel with anything you have to start somewhere. And since dolls are pretty expensive and people want to make some dolly cash of doing mods, most people practice a lot before they start offering services.
I would hope that some would be starting on spare resin parts before they started carving away at their doll. And I'll admit Ive seen dolls ruined by bad modding. But they aren't my dolls so I cant really say much. All you can do is be honest with someone asking for critique to help them improve.

 

I don't really care what other people do with their dolls, although I may get slightly downcast when seeing a pretty doll that was modded badly. I do, however, acknowledge that the artist probably learny sometig from the mod, and therefore may have gotten some sort of valuable practice out of it. I guess I feel better about beginners modding cheap dolls.

 

It's their doll, not mine so it's none of my business what they decide to do to it. But like everyone else i get a little sad when i see a poorly modded doll, but you have to start somewhere and learn from your mistakes. You just need to do a lot of research on whatever mod you're looking into doing before you do it.

 

One man's trash is another one's treasure. There's a lot of professionally executed items in dolls and fashion, art, etc that I find completely hideous but other people love....

It really doesn't give me the right to judge someone as "right" or "wrong"- or as "skilled" or "unskilled". What is the difference between a child's painting and a master artist who chooses to paint as a child?

I am thankful people take creative risks and choose to be themselves- sometimes it produces the most amazing results that we would never get from the stagnating status quo.


There has to be a creative genesis and from our mistakes truly wonderful things are born- how else would people ever learn!

 

I makes me feel sad when I see gore modded or badly modded dolls why would you A: want to do that to your precious doll, B: want your doll to look gross and broken and damaged. So sad in my eyes. those people are ruining their dolls in my eyes

 

I assume you're talking about factory faceups. I don't think any of these statements would be true of aftermarket faceup artists.

 

So, so true! I started with 27cm Obitsu heads and 11cm tiny resin heads for my first faceup attempts. Recently I did my first MSD-scale faceup, and while it isn't terrific and I'll probably redo it soon, it's both a lot better and was a lot easier than the first ones I did! I'm very glad I started with small, inexpensive heads to get a feel for what's involved. (The resin head I worked on was a free-with-purchase event doll which didn't really work for any of my characters, so it wasn't so nerve-wracking as working on one I paid for. I also used it for my first sanding mod attempts, as I'll be modding an MSD head soon.) And I'm seconding lots of others on the importance of research. After reading about how harmful resin dust can be, I'm definitely glad I didn't just start sanding away on a head in my living room. I have enough respiratory issues as it is

 

I'd consider doing a repaint if I was happy that I had the skill to do it justice. I certainly wouldn't judge anyone else for doing that but if you've paid extra on top of a doll for a specialised non-factory face-up and then decide to paint over it, that I don't really understand. After all, you've probably paid a reasonable amount for a specific face-up by a specific artist so why would you want to?

Personally if I was considering a a face-up created by a specialist, I'd look at what else he/she had created and ask questions to make sure that we were both understanding the effect we were looking for. I'd have to make allowances for creativity so the artist has the chance to put her own twist on the creation but if I still didn't like an element of it I'd take time out, give it time to bed in and then and only then try to learn with other dolls the specifics of exactly what I wanted before I even picked up a brush to that doll.

Still, everyone has different ideas and if that girl was happy with the modification after she painted over the lips, then fair do's to her. I totally agree that the original artist would prefer not to be associated with it, it wouldn't be fair to her to do otherwise but that doll was the owners to do with as she liked, whether I agree or not.

 

I see nothing wrong with it.

They may be pieces of art, but as many already have said, they're also made for modification. No matter if it turns out bad or good, you will have an unique doll, you've tried "making" part of it yourself, and that is something that should be cherished. However, you should always add that you have modified it, so that no one mistakes it for being totally the company's work, especially if it looks bad.

More importantly though, you say that modifying should be reserved for the skilled ones? Whoever gets ever skilled at anything without practicing, if I may ask?

What I don't think is right is unskilled or bad modifiers trying to mod an extremely rare and sought after head (let's say a Kaye Wiggs Pip head or some real rare Volks limited), knowing how rare and sought-after it is. I mean, it might be their head, but in consideration of the others who want it they should think more than twice before ruining it.