How long do you generally keep faceups for?

With all the effort that goes into them, practically forever.

 

I keep a faceup until I am bored of it, it becomes damaged or I feel I can do it better if I redo it.

 

Up till now I have kept them and for most of my dolls that will remain the case. A few of them, however, are going to end up redone. When I buy a doll second hand or it comes blank I like to sit with it for awhile to see how i feel about the way they look. For a blank head it is to figure out exactly what I want done with the face, with the second hand dolls it is to see if the faceup they have works for the character. Recently a doll I bought with a beautiful faceup is starting to feel like it needs a change. I do feel bad about wiping the face as the work is beautiful and very well done. It is a little too "pretty" for the character though and the eyebrows are wrong. I am terribly picky about eyebrows.

 

Only when they get damaged and need a touch up. I'm awful at faceups so I send my heads away and I don't like them being gone.

 

I got my first doll around a year and half but I think, I won't remove/change his face up, unless there has any damage. That's because I really like how my doll looks like now.

 

Until it gets damaged or until I get a new idea for the character, or until I've developed enough in face up making that I realize that the face up they currently have suck xD

 

Do you view them as temporary or more permanent?

Permanent (mostly). I have one I painted very early on that I'd like to re-do because it's falling apart and not any good... but i still haven't done that yet.

How often do you generally get them re-done, and do you send them out or do it yourself?

I've had bjds for over 10 years and they all still have their original faceups. I mostly get company faceups. Those I'll keep, although I'm thinking of altering some. I have never sent a head off for a faceup. I will usually do them myself... I'm crappy at it, but I know what I want and I know what to expect from me.

When you redo them do you ever feel bad about erasing the previous one, or do you view it as a normal part of owning BJD?

N/A since I haven't re-done any so far... If I didn't like something about a faceup or if the faceup was damaged, I don't think i'd feel bad. I know the faceups are delicate and can wear off over time, so no big deal... BUT I try to handle my dolls carefully so I expect to be able to keep the faceups in good condition for many years.

 

I do all of my own faceups (with one exception--- my Souldoll Robb who I wanted the company faceup on). So for me, the answer is "until I know I can do better". This summer, I will have had my first doll for two years. I've done a number of faceups since, and I definitely think my skills have improved, so she'll be getting entirely redone when the weather warms up. Total overhaul. Same exact concept/colors/design/expression, but I know I can execute it so much better now.

 

For my crew, their faceups are pretty much permanent since I'm not artistic in the least and I cannot do my own. So if I want a new faceup, I have to hope my more artistic friends have time, but that hasn't been often that I've asked. There's only one right now that I think could use it, and that's more because I want to go somewhere a bit different with her character than she currently is, since she was second hand and I haven't customized her much yet.

 

I do not do my own face-ups and I see them as permanent unless they start to wear off. I have only considered changing one of my doll's face-ups and only because one of her eye lashes is falling off (it is a company face-up too).

 

I usually do them myself because it's fun and I'm artsy-fartsy like that. I got a Soom MD and got it with the face-up and body blush because I was too afraid to do it myself and I didn't have time/materials being at uni. That was in '09 and he really needs a clean and touch-up but otherwise, I don't think I'll change it until I have to. Then I'll have to suck it up and do it myself or send it out if I can't get it perfect. My first doll was a huge practice for me and I enjoy doing the face-ups, but I seem to only like to do females. So any boys I pay the company to do or send out. So let's see, 6 years and I still haven't gotten it re-done and am only now touching it up. I used to re-do my girl's often because I was learning. Now I suspect it'll go the same route as my boy, where I'll do it and then not bother for another 6 years. If you don't "play" with your dolls a lot, a face-up can last a long time.

 

If a faceup is working for me, I'll probably just leave it alone, unless it's damaged. However, most of the faceups my dolls have had needed some kind of tweaking, whether I did the faceup or they came from the company.

 

My DM Kyle Reese is six years old. He still has his original faceup.

 

I keep them as long as possible - there's the danger, when replacing a worn, damaged, or faded faceup that the character of the doll won't be the same with the new face-up.

Sometimes' however it can't be avoided and then I try to have the same person do the repaint as did the original, to better the chances of a very similar result. Sometimes, I've had to resort to a different artist. So far, I've mostly been lucky with the results - it was traumatic when I wan't so lucky, and involved them being sent back to the artist, and then on to a different face-up artist before they came back as the right characters.

A couple of my gang I've painted myself and had to repaint (one in particular seems prone to rubs on her cheeks and chin...) and have so far been lucky that the results have been similar enough that it was the same character who came back.

Teddy

 

I've been learning how to do my own face-ups over the past year and I am still learning. If I had a doll with a company face-up I wouldn't be changing it unless it was somehow damaged or if it arrived and I just didn't like it. I have added to company face-ups, but only small extra like gloss etc.

 

A while... I generally tend to keep them as long as I like them or they're fitting to the character and aren't damaged. I do my own faceups though and that makes it quite easy to revamp them whenever I need.

 

Permanent.

One of my favorite aspects of this hobby is how artistic the community is! I love sending my dolls out for faceups and try not to use the same artist twice (unless the dolls were supposed to be related). They're all wonderful little works of art and I plan to keep each faceup until/unless it becomes too damaged to serve its purpose.

 

Most of mine, I do myself. There's one that came with free company make up on an event (though I want to redo it or
something... I feel it's plain?) And one has the face up from his previous owner, which I'd like to redo, but I'm not sure
what I want for him yet, so I'm hesitant to wipe him. I generally keep them, until I've practiced enough that my skill
levels change. Then I redo them. Slowly, I'm getting better at planning a look, before I just jump in. ^_^;

 

I have every intention for the face-ups to be permanent, but unfortunately that isn't always feasible. If the face-up is not up to my current skill level, or just plain not right or damaged, I'll wipe it and fix it. I'll tweak and enhance a company face-up to get a better look, like darkening brows or picking out details that might have been overlooked, but I think I've only wiped one company face-up, and that was because the sealant had yellowed badly and the face-up itself was very nice but a little underwhelming. I have dolls that have had their company face-ups for nearly 10 years, and they are still in lovely shape.

 

I only redo them when they've been damaged. Most of my dolls still have their first commissioned face-up.