Face-up on your First doll; Brave Enough?

I do things, think, and even walk very unevenly, lol, so no thanks.

 

I would be too nervous but also tempted. I would want to buy a cheap head and practice first before doing a faceup on my first doll.

 

I have yet to actually get my first doll, but I think I'm going to skip out on doing my own face-up. ><
While I consider myself to me a little bit artistic, I would be terrified to do it myself. I'm also a perfectionist, so I think I'd end up killing my self trying to get every detail exactly right. XD However, maybe eventually I'd become brave enough to attempt it...

 

Both of my first dolls came with a face-up. One custom from the company as it was perfect in my eyes and the other from a private owner. I was fairly new and didn't know much about how to do all of this stuff but had I known how easy it was I would have done it myself ^^

 

I'm getting a faceup on my first doll. I think it's mostly because I want her to already have it done from the moment I see her. I'll be getting a free summer event head from Luts at the same time though so I'm planning to use him to practice faceups on before I get him a body. XD
That way if it goes wrong I wont mind so much and then I can just try again.

 

I did a faceup on my first doll. :3 The default was not an option because it's very manly and mine is a girl. It was really fun and I think it came out well. (Sort of simple and not too impressive by itself, but it makes her look cute.)

I read a bunch in the customization forum and looked at a lot of pictures, and I drew it on paper a few times first, so I didn't run into any problems.

It was just a natural one though, so it wasn't as tough as I'd imagine a fancier one would be. D:

 

I've never seen BJD in person before I ordered my 1st doll but I new that I would paint him myself. I did a pretty deep research before the process though... The faceup was far from perfect but it achieved the main goal - to show off a desired personality. When I gained more skill I redid faceup very close to that 1st one))

So if you want to paint your doll - do your research about materials (always seal it thoroughly with MSC!!!) and go ahead! It's a lot of fun! If you would fail or just wouldn't be satisfied enough you can send it to faceup artist later.

 

I actually did all face-ups myself except for the one of my second doll. He came with the default one from the previous owner.

I did not get my first doll with face up mainly because I did not like the DZ Mo default one and it did not match my ideas for the character at all. Well the first attempt was ok for a first one but still quite ugly and i redid it lately with much better results (and some face mods ^^°).
As for the other heads... partly I was too cheap for Soom default, party I did not like them enough. There are some really amazing face-up artits I might commission for future dolls though.


In general it's fine if you like the default or if you have someone who will be able to make the perfekt face up for your character, but if you go through a few tutorials and practise a bit it will be really fun to do it yourself. Plus you have something to be proud of and it makes your doll way more personal!

 

Yes, and the deed is done. Joren's faceup took a few tries, but now I'm really happy with the results. I think if you're nervous you should wait. Anxiety makes people mess up, and I speak from experience. However, the tutorials here are great, and take a lot of the edge off of that.

 

I bought my first doll blank and I've never NOT done my own doll's face-ups. The fact that I could clean it off and start over if I needed to was really the deciding factor. Originally I was going to save up and then send her head to a good face-up artist to get HER done and not a default face-up. But when I got her here I realized that I just couldn't let her go. It broke my heart to think of sending her head away for weeks. So I bought face-up supplies and did it myself. The testors and some brown pastel stained her ears, but you can't see it behind the wig and I've gotten most of it out after a year of scrubbing at it. I love the results of doing my own face-up. Also I'm not afraid of touching her face or anything because I know I can just do it again. For a while I redid her face-up almost every two months or so until now when I'm kind of happy with where it's at. Later I'll get sick of it and do it again, but that's okay. That's how I know I'm improving. But she's a MNF so I can just take her head off whenever I feel like it with simple ease.

I did the face-up on my second doll, Gael, twice in a row while she was completely de-strung. (Unstringing my dollies still makes me kind of nervous - but really it's a requirement in the long run and I have lots of friends who help me during 'bath time meets'.) She's kept that same face-up for 6 months so far and I couldn't be happier. With her I'm more nervous about touching her face because redoing her face-up means getting her head off that darned 'S' hook and it's more bothersome.

And my third doll (Zip. He's a floating head right now. Puki Multihead Cupid.) was a lot smaller than my other two so I was really kind of nervous doing his. But I did freckles over his nose and they came out perfect to me so I've never even thought of re-doing his face-up.

I say to anyone on the fence - do it. Read a lot. Look at pictures of your favorite face-up artists. And remember that if you don't like it, you can wipe it! And if you're really not good at it, you can still send it to a pro later. But I have never ever regretted doing my dollie's face-ups myself. I've sometimes wished I was better... and then I read more and look at more pictures and do it again. It's a process, but a rewarding one. And I don't think any other face-up artists could have gotten her personality right, anyway.

 

I got the default on my first girl originally, but after a year, I wiped it (to which, I have no idea what Fairyland uses, but it took HOURS to get it off) and have since done my own. Mine's no where near as delicate as the original, but they're more "mine" that way, and my girl is more "herself" with all of her bright color as opposed to the super-natural look she had. I also tend to use really flamboyant halloween-time eyelashes that are bright and colorful for her, which while I get frustrated and some days HATE trying to put the things on there, I always love how they turn out (even if I leave them near-human length on a Minifee).

I think the face-up helped my initial love of my doll. As I was already making her clothes by hand, doing a face-up and eyelashes would be a bit much to start with.
However, tutorials on YouTube and in the arts forums are your friend for learning, and many many coats of sealant BEFORE you bring any pigment to them. I always recommend Mel-Mel-Chan's eyelash tut on Youtube. It's a good 20 minutes, but it's really worth knowing what to do (although, I go the opposite way for applying them than she does, as my girl's eyes are too small).

 

I'm going to, or at least I plan to at this time. I'm a bit worried, but I've already got the stuff and I can always wipe it off.

 

I did all my dolls face-ups, also my first one, and it,s like unseenstars233 says: you can allways wipe it off! so there is no harm done!

 

I did a face-up on my first doll. It didn't end up how I wanted, but it was a great experience. My second face-up was much more successful as a result. ^^

 

I'm actually excited about doing face-ups when I get my boy in ^.^
Just need to get a few more paint colors and I'll be all set

 

I've considered it (don't have a bdj yet) but I am nervous. I think I could do it, but the blush is what looks hard to do to me.

I see someone said something about pencils, is the face-up not paint? What materials do you use then?

I really would like to try, and if it makes shipping faster then that would be awesome! But, I don't want to mess up my very first doll either. lol! I'm fairly decent at crafts, and I see small details very well. So maybe if I learn more before I have my money saved up I can get up the nerve to try. (Save money on the factory face-up price too!)

 

I did my first boy's face-up about 3 days after I got him. The only reason I waited was because I needed the right size brushes. XD And that one was temporary. About a 3 weeks later the MSC I ordered came in and I gave him a real face-up.

I also did a temp. face-up on Tarrant since I don't have any MSC right now, but as soon as I get some I will re-do his face. ^_^ I don't think I'm ever going to pay for someone to do them for me since I can do them myself.

 

You can use lots of things, but some people use pencils because they're easier to control than paint. (There are a lot of threads in the customization section about that kind of thing.)

I found the blushing to be not very difficult. You should wash the head and not touch it before blushing it. If you do this it should go on smooth. Mine got a little messed up in one part while I was working but I used a kneaded eraser to pick it up where it got thick and was able to make it look smooth again. I think you just have to be careful to not get anything on it or touch it the entire time you're blushing. Then you can seal it and do the rest of the faceup without messing the blushing up. (Or just seal it and be done if it's body blushing, I guess.)

 

I did the face up on my first girl. Since then I've done a few of my other dolls and purchased some from companies. The companies are certainly more smooth, and refined than mine, but I'm not unhappy with the faces I've done either. So far so good and if I really wanted to do more face ups, I would. I love that any mistakes can be wiped off and you can always try again

 

I'm really nervous about it, but I'll probably end up doing it anyways. More fun and nobody has to know if you mess up, lol.