i haven't done a face-up yet as i am just getting my first doll. but im wondering, how did your first face-ups go?
Terrible. XD Though I went to college for art and took painting and drawing classes, working in different mediums on a 3-D surface was really hard at first. I also didn't have anyone to teach me, and this was long before youtube tutorials were popular.....back in the days of dialup when just loading the video would have taken hours! I was pretty much on my own. I used cheap, low quality materials, and didn't even seal it. I had no concept of how to do blushing or eyebrows. I was satisfied at the time, but horrified now. haha Good news is that there's a lot more information out there now. Also that practice does help with improvement a lot.
My first face-up looked pretty awful. I mainly used cheap pastels and I didn't touch watercolor pencils or acrylic paint. The eyebrows were off and uneven, it was just a hot mess. Fortunately I just redid a face-up for my other doll and it turned out okay! Practice makes perfect.
Well, I didn't expect much from myself. I learned that it takes a lot of patience. It was.... not so great.... but you can't expect to be awesome while just getting a feel for what it's like. I did get some MSC, but just used some patels and wc pencils I already had. Once I decided to get serious and try, I bought some nicer quality pastels and wc pencils. The quality of the materials makes a big difference, for sure. I get a little bit better each time I do another. I just say I 'practice faceups' because I'm always getting better and learning something new each time. My advice, keep extra sealant, magic erasers and cleaner around. The kneaded eraser is your friend. Good luck!
This was my second attempt on this guy's faceup. I can't find the first version but it was even worse that this. Beware really dark red lips. I'm still a newbie at faceups so this is what he looks like currently. Unfortunately, I haven't bought gloss for his lips or put in his eyelashes. I've been too lazy. I actually like him how he is right now but I plan on wiping his faceup soon to redo it again.
My first faceup was very bad. And my second was bad, but less bad. My third was when I really started getting into the swing of things, and I have been slowly improving each time since. It can be discouraging at first, but I think the process is really fun. Since I've joined the hobby I've seen other people improve by leaps and bounds, which has honestly been really inspiring.
I'm not one to ever own up of being proud: But I would be lying if I said I wasn't happy with the way my first faceup turned out. Now though, I am in the process of redoing said dolls faceup. Second attempt: My minifee still has her faceup and I tend to get a lot of compliments. However there are a few trouble areas I would like to fix. I have had practice on non-bjd dolls and MLP toys for awhile. So it was a simple change for me, as I had most of the supplies. I only had to invest in some MSC and maybe some smaller or softer brushes and pastels. Nevertheless there are a lot of things I am still learning in creating a very realistic aesthetic; especially in the lip area. Since for some reason that tends to be where I have the most frustration; as I am very picky about my lip lines.
It's odd... but I still think the very first one I did (Teacup's) was the best one I've managed. 'Not that that's saying much, mind. I have pretty much ZERO talent for doing face-ups. I usually prefer to let a professional handle that.
My first face up was so bad I wouldn't even call it a face up. I would call it more like smearing-pastels-watercolour-around-up. I "thought" I wanted to do my own (I paint, know colour theory, blah blah); bought a practice head, fancy pastels, msc, the works…but it was disaster. Maybe I'll pick it up again one day but to be honest, I'm much happier dealing with the few face up artists I do and knowing they'll do good work rather than me having a bunch of dolls that look like they just had a chalk fight and not in a good way.
Bad! So bad! xD But to be perfectly honest, I had a lot of fun with it. These days, I have two dolls whose faceups I do, but the rest I've gotten default faceups or sent them to an artist. I'm at a point where I'm mediocre at best and not particularly interested in learning how to improve (I'd rather learn other hobby things), but it's fun enough that I'll subject one or two of my dolls to my horrors every now and then haha
It was decent. I kinda surprised myself. Her eyebrows though...they drove me nuts. They had this point to them. like...ah, found a picture. Like this...which was kinda funny but it wasn't what I was aiming for so I eventually erased the face up. I went and got another head to practice on so I wouldn't risk messing up the one I wanted done right. Took me a while to get rid of the colors so I was a bit worried I used too vibrant colors.
My first faceup was horrible enough by my own standards. I didn't even remember what it looked like (did it in 2005), but I just found a pic last week: It was also my first mod, added elf ears, but those turned out better than the faceup.
My first faceup wasn't even worth a photo xD It wasn't really bad bad, but it wasn't pretty or symmetrical. My second faceup was better, but boring. I just finished a new faceup today and I'm pretty proud of it, though, especially since facing up dark resin is not a common thing at all for people to post tutorials of.
Mine was horri-bad. My poor RS Yao... I was doing the faceup under fluorescent/yellow lighting conditions so what I thought looks decent indoors looked horrendous outdoors. Her blushing made her look like she'd swam through a bag of Cheetos. Super orange and smeared everywhere. Oh it was so, so bad. I'm sad I don't have a picture of it!
