Do face-ups change the way you feel about your doll?

oh im going through faceup issues right now!! one of my boys is coming up on his one year anniversary. i got him second hand and his head was about a year old at the time, and his faceup was pretty old too. i had all these grand plans to redo his face when i got him, but when i had him in my hands the faceup was perfect with the wig id chosen and he looked like his character (i draw, so when i say he looked like his character, i actually had reference pics to look at XD). this particular doll is a hybrid, and he's on his second body (im rambling, but i swear there is a point! stick with me)...because his head is older its noticeably yellowed and does not match the body. ive also discovered that a lot of this yellowing is just dirt. lots of dirt. he needs a serious cleaning. and by that i mean he needs to be totally wiped and given a new face. which scares me. a lot. im so afraid he wont be the same when im finished giving him his new face...ive only known him like this! but god that nasty yellowy dirt is so gross!! XP

im doing my own faceups from now on which is part of why im so nervous about re-doing him...im way harder on myself than i am on anyone else...so im terrified i'll just hate it...the only thing i have that makes it a little better is my original Kara Klum who has already gone through a drastic makeover and not only survived but i like him so much better the way he is! im hoping that will happen with my other boy.

ok, im done now. i just wanted to vent and this seemed like the place to do it! thanks 33

 

I thought it might change the way I feel, and I was reluctant to re-do Kale's faceup, but I did and like it so much better! I also need to wipe him and re-do it AGAIN, since it actually photographs for me much better than it actually looks in person. He had a faceup I'd done, though. I would be EXTREMELY nervous about re-doing any of mine who had defaults or artists faceups. I'm even a bit reluctant to re-do Kestrel's faceup that I did, even though it obviously needs work. I barely hesitated long enough to take photos of the faceup Baron came with though - I don't know who did it, it was nice but was rubbing off along one side so off it came.

So I'm on both sides of the issue. It's hard to change a doll from the way you're used to seeing him, but sometimes it's a huge improvement! I'm sure your boy will turn out amazing.

 

Ooooh, yeeeaahhh! It can be quite frustrating/distressing to have a doll "not look right"... sometimes it's so hard to put your finger on, and can be rather expensive to try and "get"

Face-ups, are, I think, exceedingly important! As jacobean said, I think often they are more important than the mold... I see the mold as a blank canvas, and the personality of the doll would shine through the face-up. You could have 100 of the same mold in the same room, and they could all be vastly different due to their face-ups! Sometimes shockingly so... I've often browsed through the gallery/databases and been honestly surprised by the versatility of some molds.

I'm not a massive fan of the default face-up on my V.Williams... it's not right for him in a basic sense as he has dark hair, and his default eyebrows are ginger It makes him look like he's dyed his hair! I've got a practise head to do face-ups on right now, I'm not quite at a level in which I feel comfortable in re-doing my boy's face-up... one day, for sure! And then he'll have matching eyebrows, haha~ And all will be good in the world

One thing I am worried about is the possibility of my DG Noella's faceup chipping or wearing... Her face-up is so lovely and irreplaceable, since Sairin doesn't work for LeeKe any longer (I think?)... so far her face is still pristine, but still... one day it might have to get re-done

 

Yes, quite I think! A faceup is, as is the name, part of their face! Of course, it doesnt affect the mold in shape, but it affects the way we see the mold. And that makes all the difference when we see a doll we like online, or one of our own that we see to have a specific personality.

 

Oh my goodness, I do find that the right face-up makes all the difference. I have seen lots of dolls that I didn't like at first but then saw them with a different face-up and just fell in love ^^ It's usually what draws me to that doll most of the time.

 

Iv recently decided to send my doll Rail, a nanuri07 mod, off to get a decent face-up. Im hoping it will make him look like the handsome vampire that he is, but wont change or ruin the character.. Im hoping it will also make me more fond of him, since he is special to me, he was the first floating head I ever got, and the first doll I did mods on, as well as a face-up.. So hopefully it will make him all the more special, since it will be the first time Iv sent a head off to get a face-up done.

 

ABSOLUTELY!! When Aiko first arrived she looked much girlier than I wanted, and although the default faceup was beautiful, it just wasn't her. So I repainted her and now she looks perfect!! My cute little tomboy!

 

-What did you do when you felt this way about your doll/the face-up?
I got him a new face up. Couldn't be happier with him! I call him loser but really I love how he looks now ^^

-How much face-ups effect your view on dolls
They have a huge impact on how think of a doll tbh. If I see a doll with a face up I consider bad it might even put me off the mold until I see one I like. I was bonding with my floating head fine but it still didn't feel like the right character so I changed the face up.

 

I've found that face-ups make a huge difference to how I view my dolls. When I got Ezekiel, his company face-up was lovely, and my friends agreed, but it wasn't "him". He looked too sad for the character. Now that he's had a new one, he looks so much more like himself and I think I love him more for it.

 

Yes, very much so! When one of my dolls' company faceup faded so much that it had to be replaced, the artist I commissioned did a technically amazing, really beautiful job . . . but the expression and intense coloring was all wrong for my sweet, gentle boy. In the end, I had to grit my teeth and have that faceup repainted by someone else, so that I could have "my" doll back again.

I really live in fear of the day when some of my favorite custom dolls need repainting!!

 

I has affected me for sure with some of my dolls, two of them to be exact. I just recently got a B&G Sky2 from someone, the face up in the picture looked really awesome, but what I was worried about is that it wasnt going to fit the character that he was going to portray when he got here. After a while, it got to me really bad, then just yesterday, he got a new face up~! I fell back in love with him, fully. It is as I pictured him. But I also have another doll that I am waiting for her face up to be done, is a Shoyo3. The original face up is really nice but I wanted her to have freckles, so it was really off putting. She is going to get her face up redone today, so everything should turn out awesome.

What I did when I didnt like their face ups is that I didnt hold or cuddle them as much, but now I just cant seem to put him down xD

All in all, I think that face up really matters, it brings out the true character of the doll.

 

Has anyone ever regretted wiping the default faceup?

All my dolls are default and I sometimes want them to be more unique or want to change certain things about their faceups but I am too afraid to get them re-done.
I'm afraid I will miss them how they are or will not feel the same about the doll after and there will be no going back on it.

 

I regretted wiping my Gentle Soori's faceup which was a default but I had to try as I really wasn't bonding with him. I ended up selling him anyway. My Husky I was never never sure about with the faceup that his previous owner had given him. I commissioned a new one for him that was better suited to his character and colouring and he's one of my top five favourites now. So for me yes, faceups really change how I feel about them. I hope Icchayeo is still available when he needs a new one. She does all my faceups now.

 

Of course the faceup matters a lot, it MAKES the character imo. I've actually start liking some of my own dolls because I gave them a new faceup and they became one of my favourites to photograph where as before I didn't like them at all.

Sabriell

 

Face-ups definitely change the doll. After all, a lot of their personality shows in their face, and the face-up is what brings the face to life.

 

Absolutely. There is one of my dolls that I've seen other people do faceups on, and, not to be mean, I like the faceup my doll has the best. Then, there is one of my dolls, I let someone do the faceup on and it didn't turn out so great. I'm thinking of sending his head away for a new faceup, or even just getting a new head cause his sculpt doesn't appeal to me as much as it used to. We'll see what happens I guess.

 

-Do face-ups change the way you feel about your doll?

Definitely! Not only does it change whether or not I feel they are lovely or not (and thus how much I like them), but it also changes how I perceive them. A cute face-up makes a doll with a seemingly "cute" personality, who then wears "cute" clothes. So, even a really beautiful dark and gothic face-up would make me averse to the doll, because I prefer to dress my dolls in feminine and airy styles.

-What did you do when you felt this way about your doll/the face-up?

My doll taste has changed a lot over time, mostly because when I started the hobby I had some very anime-looking dolls. I sold most of them, but I couldn't part with my SD13 Megu because she was my first doll. So, I sent her to Korisanzu who gave her a very natural face-up, and thus made the sculpt appear less anime-ish and more feminine. Now I love her to bits all over again!

-How much face-ups effect your view on dolls

I'm not sure exactly what the question is, but I guess my "view on dolls" is that a doll with an ugly face-up is not a doll worth keeping -- either I get a face-up that I like, or I sell the doll.

-If you do your own face-ups, do negative feelings (if they ever happen) result from frustration or just the way they look in general?

I tried my hand at a few (pretty amateur) face-ups. I didn't feel frustrated with them even though I didn't feel satisfied with them. Instead, I just said "c'est la vie" and sent them to somebody with real skills XD My talent is/was body esthetic work, so I took paid commissions for what I was good at, and used that money to buy services I wasn't good at

 

The face up is very important to me; I get the idea that a doll should look a certain way, and it kind of sticks with me. I ordered my first doll with the default face up, and disliked it so much that I'm practicing doing face ups for myself, using some of the tutorials on DOA. She's had three different faces in the last month, and they really change her personality.

 

Once I was so unhappy with my doll's custom face-up that I wanted to sell him right away and buy another head with default face-up ^^;

 

Oh, do I ever regret wiping one default faceup--it was really sloppy, nowhere near that company and artist's best work, but even after multiple attempts, I can't seem to get another one painted that suits the doll.