Customizing: Do it yourself?

Speaking as a faceup artist, I definitely feel that painting and customizing my own dolls helps me to bond with them. Once I'm done, I can look at them and know they are exactly how I want them to look. And if not? Well I can clean them up and start over. If you look at it from that point of view, then yes, in the long run I do save money. I only need to pay for my own supplies. I would also be a little more hesitant to wipe another artist's hard work.

 

I haven't gotten a doll yet but I plan on doing the face up, body blushing, and any other customization for them on my own. Like Kymera said, I wouldn't want to wipe off a face up someone else spent a long time on if I wanted to change it up but if I did it I wouldn't mind as much. Also I plan on getting a 5stardoll Tong Tong and painting her whole body to look like a Cheshire cat anthro a bit, but I might end up doing something a bit simpler since I've never done anything like that before am I'm not sure how hard it would be for me.

Edit: And about the other things you listed, I'm not really sure about that, but I'll tell you after I get my dolls

 

Bond with a new doll?
Get the results you want?
Save money?
Express yourself artistically?

All of the above for me! I love the challenge, and since I've been lucky enough to only want to mod dolls that just happened to be cheap to begin with, I never worry about ruining a really expensive one.

 

I don't do face ups but things like tattoos or scars I prefer to do myself. I think it makes the character more personal.

 

I do kind of bond with my dolls when I do their face ups. It's definitely one way to get the results I want too, and make them my own. I know there are some things I can't do too, but I practice. Can't hurt to learn, or to try.

 

If we are talking about something that I think I can do without damaging the doll, like minor mods and faceups, I will do it mostly to:

Save money (although, i'm against having a crappy faceup on my dolls since I've already paid a lot of money for them. if i can't do a decent faceup or mod myself, i'll send it out)
and
Get the results you want? (no matter how good someone else is, it's possible that I won't be able to adequately communicate what I want to them. and I hate requesting changes. oh the other hand, I might not be able to do what I want, either! In that case, I'd send the head or body out to someone who had done similar work to what I'm looking for)

Bond with a new doll?
(It CAN help bond with a doll... but if I do a crappy job or get frustrated, it can interfere with bonding!)

Express yourself artistically?
(nah... I have better ways to express myself artistically and I'm not good enough at faceups to really make this important)

Other reasons for DIY customizing:

---Don't like sending dolls through the mail, worrying about breakage, loss, or about the customizer flaking...
---Worry about the customizer doing a bad job.
---Wanting not to wait any longer.

 

Since I'm hoping to get a head to do some face ups on, I know that it will - first and foremost - be to save some money. It most likely will cost me that 'saved' amount to get the brushes, pastels, acrylics, etc., but most likely my materials won't run out after doing the face of one doll. They'll probably last me a while after.

Other than that, in my situation, I tend to not take to things that I've created by hand. I wonder if I'm going to be a lot more delicate with a head that has a face up that I've done, compared to my other dolls who have face ups by the company - it makes no sense, but that's what I think will happen.

It will help me get results... but the results I want? I don't know. I've somewhat 'absorbed' most of the information I need regarding how to do a face up, so I have a certain degree of confidence; however I've yet to put those results into practice, so the results I envision in my head may not be what results on the doll.

 

I have bonded just fine with the ones I have that have faceups I didn't do... but I am MUCH more careful with them than with the ones I have painted. I really hope the ones with artist's faceups and factory faceups don't ever need to be re-done! I've done enough of mine now that it has saved a little money, but for just one or two faceups it's not a savings at all so I really don't consider that an important reason to do my own faceups, more of a bonus.

The main reasons I do my own now is to get the looks I want for the character, and because I now can do ones good enough that I actually like them. There's always something I see I could have done better, but it's worth it to be able to make them look just how I imagined them.

That's all for faceups, though. I can do dreaming eye openings for myself and minor sanding stuff, but for any modding more extensive than that I'd probably send it off to someone better at it than me.

 

I'll take a shot at this one, since I just recently did a face-up that I kept on one of my boys.

Bond with a new doll? I have own many dolls, and the first face ups I did for them many me sell them. Point fact, they looked hideous so I got rid of them or sent them off to some one else to do the face-up. BUT I kept at it and now my newest boy, my Sugarble, I did the face up perfectly and I love him so much more for it. Even after a gasped at his tiny head.

Get the results you want? Yes I sent them off to other people before and each time I find my self saying, wow the face-up is perfect expect . . .
Save money? Yes, after buying a doll it does cut on prices, only if you already have the materials that is.

Express yourself artistically? YES I make my dolls my characters so how can anyone else see what i see in my head, they can't and so when you do the face-up you are physically painting while captures your character.

 

I like doing things like face-ups myself as I can paint and am artistically minded. Why would I pay someone else to paint my doll when I can do it to my satisfaction myself? Also, if my characters have distinctive personality traits, I can paint that on. For instance, if a character has a 'knowing smirk' then I know exactly what that looks like in my head and can therefore paint exactly what I want on my doll's face.

However, with things like sewing - I know how to sew. I can sew. I'm just not very good at it, because I don't have the patience with a sewing machine that I have with a paintbrush. In this case I know the end result isn't going to be to my standards so I will happily buy an outfit or commission someone else to sew for me.

For me it's about skills that I know I have versus skills that I know I don't have. I can do faceups, so I'll do them. I can't sew, so I'll buy/commission clothes.

 

For most things - like face-ups, blushing, mods - I prefer to do it all myself. I have a weird view on it. If I screw up and end up hating the result, I have only myself to blame and be mad at. Plus, I can wipe it all after I'm done, mock my efforts, and start all over again. If I send a doll out... I worry I won't be able to adequately express myself and miss something crucial that I completely spaced, or I'll ramble on and on and on and end up annoying the customizer. And if they don't something to my satisfaction, I worry about telling them, 'cause I know how much effort they've already put into it. *sigh* I just figure that it's better to do it myself and get better at it than to force someone to suffer through my poor communication skills.


Also, I love the challenge and the fact that I can and will get better at this. I like being able to see that I'm progressing and that I am learning from hanging on DoA all the time. I love modding my doll's legs myself - it's my quite time I reward myself with after a particularly grueling week/month (I have no time).


I suppose, in the end, it makes the doll MINE. My stamp is everywhere I can put it (except for clothes, never learned to sew) and even though I know for a fact there are better cusomizers/face-up artists out there who make my efforts look pitiable, I'm still pleased as punch to put the finishing touches on my dollies. ^^

 

For me, if I didn't customize and plan to do something crafty with my dolls it'd be pointless to own them. They're horribly expensive after all. To me that's the biggest part of owning them. Even the ones with company face-ups I know I'll alter one day. even if I'm this side of terrible at it, it's fun to try.

 

If I can find a default face and look that is perfect to my taste, I am content to buy it and leave it alone; otherwise I will mod it in some way. I customize them because I can...more fun that way.

 

I can't have a doll if she is not customized by me XD !
I don't feel it "mine" and I really can't bond with it.

 

LOL! I am in the "save money" camp! I am adequit enough at face-ups to do my own. But I don't LOVE doing them. Also I do often have something specific I'm going for in a face-up in a face-up. But if I had the money I'd be paying some of the better people on DoA to do it for me. I HAD to send my Volks Heath away, I just couldn't paint him! But I was luck to get a slot with one of my favorite artists.

 

I don't have a BJD yet, but I have other dolls and there is something satisfying about doing modifications myself. I do other art things too, so expanding that to dolls and using them as a 3D medium is fun for me. When I get my resin dolls, I'm looking forward to painting them myself, just because it's another artform I get to mess around with.

 

Bond with a new doll?
Get the results you want?
Save money?
Express yourself artistically?
All this applies to me. More, it gives me a valuable experience! I feel customizing is an importaint part of bonding with a doll for me and for many people also. Some people even prefer to buy a broken dolls in order to repair, mod and reshape them and to make them "theirs" in every aspect.

 

The customization is what really got me into this hobby, so I definitely do quite a bit myself! I'm not quiiite as handy with faceups, but I can do a decent enough job to satisfy myself and it's fun trying to improve. Also, if I screw up or it turns out not the way I want, I can easily redo it and I haven't wasted money by sending them out. Also, for very specific characters that require more extensive modding, I can also do that to get a look that I can't really get from what's currently available. If it wasn't for the customization aspects of this hobby I probably wouldn't find it nearly as fascinating and enjoyable as I do!

 

I agree 100% with this. I won't be doing the face-up when my doll arrives but I plan to perfect my skills and eventually give her the face-up I want her to have. I already sew and I'm really looking forward to making outfits for her. I already paint Barbies, but I want more practice before diving into a much more expensive BJD.