Changing face-ups: for better or for worse?

Soenatte I'm so glad to hear that you think it helps to rekindle the love!

I am having this problem, my first doll is from 2005/2006, so I he's is beginning to show some noticeable yellowing and I'd love to give him just a bit more life and pinkness. But I adore his face up! I really don't want to change it, but I hope that maybe spending that time with him developing my own face up skills might bring me closer to him. I love him but I tend to be drawn to playing with my other dolls before him. I just worry that my own face up skills may be a bit rubbish haha

 

I bought my first doll blank and had a friend teach me how to do his face up. I've since done 3 others to him, and each time as I get better he looks more like how he should be. I'm not completely satisfied, but I know one day I will be. I think trying different things helps flesh out a character. I learn a little bit more about him each time I redo his face. Doesn't hurt that they aren't permanent!

 

I agree with someone else who said that if you are having these thoughts, you probably aren't completely happy with the face-up anyway.

I have only been collecting since last November, and yet one of my dolls is on face-up #6 or #7. Four others are on face-up #2, and the remaining two are still on their first face-up. One of the latter is a company face-up, and I'm getting to the point where I am starting to find her boring. (Poor little thing!) So I am planning to give her a coat of sealant, and then add to her face-up and see if that helps for now.

 

I am in this boat right now! I loved the faces on my 5stardoll Emma and Oasisdoll Natalie but they were old,chipping and not at all the characters I wanted them to be.... I've sent them off to be redone and its killing my nerves (the 5stardoll was my first doll with default company face and Natalie her faceup was just SO beautiful but too innocent for who I wanted her to be...) I'll update pics when they're done.

I gave them to a relatively new faceup artist so she could practice because worse case scenario I send them elsewhere and at least she learned ya know?

 

Wiping or altering a face-up is not something that I ever would do lightly, even when the face-up isn't one that I like very much. After all, there's no guarantee that the new face-up will work better. :-/

That said, only two of the face-ups on my currently eight(!) heads has not been redone or modded, and so far, I can say that I regret nothing. I have started to think of some face-ups as long term WIPs. You change this and that, and little by little, some kind of ideal emerges.

 

I only have one doll at this point, and I really want to do face-ups, but I'm afraid, I'll make her look absolutely terrible, so she has her original face up. Which i do really like, but it'd just be fun to change it up.

I might just get a cheap head to practice on. >.>'

 

Every time it's a difficult decision, but... no risk no fun I love new faceups

 

I tried changing my Rodya gradually. I haven't done anything at all to his original company lips, but I had an eyelash malfunction while cleaning his face, and that led me to redoing his bottom lashes. I went through several forms, but I love the one I've got now! Only recently did I retry the eybrows, and on the first try I accidentally made them too high and angled them ever so slightly upward so he looked somehat surprised, and a lot younger. I remember looking at him and thinking, "Aah--who are you!?!!" Thankfully, I hadn't sealed it, so the first thing I did the next day was redo them very similarly to the original shape, but much darker. He hardly looks anything like he did when I first got him, but I don't feel he has changed at all because it was so gradual.

 

I've been getting some of my face-upless dolls done up this year, and the ones I've had done came out so incredibly beautiful that I decided to get my Uetena's face up redone. She's the first doll I ever bought for myself (my very first one was a gift ) and I got her completely blank, which was a mistake T_T I was so new to the doll scene I didn't really understand how big a difference a face up makes. I contacted someone who did really inexpensive face ups, and she did a great job for what I wanted back then. Now, my tastes have changed. I've bought and sold so many dolls I've learned a lot more about my taste and who I am as a doll collector. I love her face up though, so I took a bunch of pictures and I plan on getting an upgraded version of her current face up ^.^ I feel good about my decision. To me, dolls are expressions of ourselves, and we as people change. If what spoke to you then no longer speaks to you you shouldn't feel guilty updating your vision for her