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First doll w/ or w/o a face-up?

Feb 11, 2011

    1. I agree! Face-ups are great for a first doll, but I think it's not too hard to do them on your own. Yes, you have to pay for supplies, but in the long run, you're saving hundreds of dollars that you'd be spending on Faceups when you could just do them on your own! Plus, in this way, you could do them exactly as you'd like them to be instead of commissioning someone and not getting exactly what you were looking for.
       
    2. It was nice to have a reference in person I could look at before I attempted to do my first face up, and it still came out looking pretty bad. Dont be afraid to wipe and redo them either. All the dolls I was asked to do face ups on I re-did quite a few times before sealing them, and I still consider myself an armature.

      Bottom line though, it really just depends on your plans for the doll and what types of things you want to try in this hobby.

      Also the hardest part for me about face ups was finding quality materials. I have a decent handful of craft stores near me and I still ended up going online and ordering certain brands, which I don't regret, based off of other peoples trial and error reviews.

      On a side note though, some default face up's I honestly do not care for and can totally turn me off to the sculpt until I see other peoples custom face ups. Its honestly just personal preference. I do think I tend to lean more toward blank faces when buying a doll though, because weather I try to do it myself or commission one it will be unique and makes the doll ultimately one of a kind. Which is very nice to have if its a popular sculpt so everyone isnt running around with 100 other twins out there.
       
    3. I planed on getting mine blank for customization.
       
    4. I am getting my first doll with a company face-up. I think I would be too impatient after waiting so long to finally get a BJD that I would want to assemble her as soon as possible. For my future dolls I will consider getting no face up so that I can commission a face-up artist, or try it myself. It will be much easier with an already completed doll at home!
       
    5. I totally agree :3 I actually love my doll, Aya's, face up right now. She was a company one and I think company face ups are generally really well done and professional. Maybe one day I'll wipe it and give her freckles, but that's a loooooong ways off.
       
    6. I bought my first doll with a faceup, mostly because I loved the company's default faceup for his sculpt, but also because I don't have the time nor the energy to get materials to do a faceup myself. I live in an apartment and arranging for good enough ventilation as well as a suitable area to do it without getting chemicals everywhere would be a nightmare.
       
    7. i got my first doll(bjd) when i was really young and got her faced up from the company. but now, i would buy a new doll without face up. it doesn't mean that i'm going to do face up for her/him. i don't like default face up since it seems like others would have dolls just like mine. i would suggest default face up for person who is young-who cannot afford sending a doll for face up shop- but not for a person who is older enough.
       
    8. My first doll came with a face up. I just wanted to have her complete when she arrived and change her as time goes on.
       
    9. My first and second doll I ordered blank because I'm an art student I wanted to try and do the face up myself. And I love doing face-up's there is a huge sense of accomplishment when you really capture the dolls character. The only doll which isn't coming blank is my incoming Dollzone Nyu but the face up will be coming straight off because it doesn't suit the character I'm going for. The only doll I would get with a default face up is Loongsoul Emily I would even go as far as getting two heads so I could have the cute and misunderstood face ups because they are adorable.
       
    10. I ordered my first doll without faceup to learn how to paint dolls, and soon I realised how hard it is to make faceup on a tiny doll (lati yellow size) ;). I think it's a good option to try (and it's fun to do it myself), but I'll consider getting my next doll with faceup or sending it to faceup artist
       
    11. My first doll I bought blank. I am a painter so it didn't even occur to me to buy one with a faceup. About half of my dolls since that I have bought blank. I only buy a company done one if I think it is utter perfection.
       
    12. I've been satisfied with all my dolls factory faceups so far, but, have been toying with the idea of buying my next doll blank. I really liked some of the artist face ups Ive seen and am not too confident about attempting that myself yet.
       
    13. All of my dolls have arrived with faceups- I'd love to give it a shot myself, but I don't want to deal with all the risks that come from using MSC. I do have plans for a couple dolls that I'm considering buying blank (my Mini Dollfie Dream, for sure), though I'll be sending them off to artists for their faceups.
       
    14. All of my dolls came with a company face-up. Even though I liked the face-up they did on my first doll I'll probably have my second doll wiped in the near future. I plan to commission someone to paint her again if I can't make the current face-up work for her. Sometimes it works out for the character I have in mind and sometimes it's a complete mess.

      Unfortunately I will never be able to do my own face-ups because of the health risks it holds. Even with proper safety gear using aerosols/MSC/sealants and pastels will be hazardous to my health according to my doctor. I don't want to risk it seeing my health is already in the poorest possible condition. I'll leave the face-ups to the beautiful artists out there and pay them for their hard work. I feel bad about not being to do my own dirty work but that's just what it is. I have no choice but to accept it.

      For people new to the hobby I recommend getting a company face-up, if you end up disliking it you can always wipe it when you're ready to do so. Some companies even offer custom face-ups from the bat so take advantage of those!
       
    15. I bought my first 3 dolls with a company FU. I kinda liked it but it wasn't for me in the end. Those dolls got sold off rather quickly again. After that I got the first doll w/o a face-up and it stayed that way. When I buy new from a company I go without and when I buy secondhand I still prefer w/o, though if a secondhand doll comes with a FU I'll usually consider keeping it for a while but eventually I'll wipe it off anyway. In that way I kinda need a fresh start, like a blank canvas.
       
    16. I had originally thought that the best choice would be buying one with it's default faceup. I began to think more about that and view other faceup artists' work.
      In the end I settled on this idea: If the faceup is completed to the quality I like and suits the character I have in mind, I'll buy it with.
      If the faceup is plain or doesn't suit the character I have in mind, I'll get them blank and perhaps commission someone or leave them blank until I have the equipment to paint them myself.
       
    17. I'm still on the fence. I'm not exactly a great painter (yet) and I'd like for my first resin doll to have a face when I do get her. If my painting skills improve by the time I get around to ordering her, then I'll get her blank and do it myself, but if I feel my skills aren't up to par yet I'll order her with a face up and wait a while longer. Assuming I even like her company face up from the photos, anyways.
       
    18. For a first doll in particular, I will say 100% to get the doll with face up, for a couple of reasons.

      1) You'll be impatient!! You've probably been sweating, agonizing, romanticizing (new word time!), and quivering with anticipation for the arrival of your very first doll. You don't want to wait ANY LONGER once that mailman knocks. Without a face up, you could be waiting weeks to actually photograph and enjoy your doll, because...

      2) Face ups are not as easy as you think! Especially when you've been drooling for weeks/months/insert-time-it-took-to-work-up-the-nerve-and-money-to-order-here over the most exquisite, airbrushed, gorgeous perfect dolls ever!! I'm a decent artist and have reasonable skills (even though I'm only really starting to focus on face ups now), but I'm also a perfectionist and it is SUPER EASY to tell an amateur face up from a professional one. I have a couple of heads to practice on now, but they are ones I am not invested in. When I've bought blank dolls, I also wanted to play with them right away and ended up settling for what I felt was a sub par face up by me... I only saw imperfection when I photographed them.

      Once again, ymmv. I think a lot of it has to do with your real desires for how you will interact with the hobby. For me, I've loved the photography aspect the most, clothing aspect the second, so those were the priorities I had coming into the hobby; to produce results like the ones that made me drool enough to shell out mucho dinero for a doll. If you are a painter or otherwise more interested in your vision and executing it with your own skills, rather than prioritizing a mainstream idea of "Perfect" (using that word cautiously and subjectively) photos, then blank saves money and makes sense and would enhance your enjoyment of the hobby the most.

      Ultimately there is a different answer for everyone and sometimes it takes a few tries to really understand your preference and tastes. I just know if my first doll had been blank, I would have gotten frustrated and soured on the hobby long before becoming an expert face up artist! :)
       
    19. My first BJD was second hand and had a custom face up with my favourite colours... My second BJD had an absolutely gorgeous face up from Fairyland. And my next BJD will also come with a factory face up. I guess I am still too new to BJDs to see the full potential of a blank face and sending a doll away to a face up artist would be very stressful for me.
       
    20. I think for my first I will go with a factory face-up. I live in an apartment so I don't think I could manage a safe location to work with sealant. Also, I really identify with what some others have said in that I want to be able to see and play with her when I get her!