Not liking a faceup you just paid for

Oh no! Did they not give any sort of progress photos at all : (?

As a professional faceup artist myself, I can say that I prefer someone be transparent if something doesn't sit right with them. I may charge for a redo depending on progress, but an artist can't fix anything if you don't communicate that something is wrong to begin with.

Who knows? Maybe your feedback will help them with future business transactions at the very least, even if you don't get your desired outcome ; ).

 

Yes I have. I ended up sending her to a different artist for a new face. I’m not very confrontational and I didn’t want to let the artist know I was bummed.

 

Sometimes it's better to just send the head to another face up artist.

I don't lack confrontational skills but... yeah... in my case I just couldn't say what I thought because he is a friend. The things I would have told him the moment I saw the head... Harsh and rude words crossed my brain... I mean, I don't have a nice side when I have to tell people what I think, so I just thought to move on.

We also fell away from the covid spread so...

 

Yes, and it ended up very upsetting for both of us.

The work was beautifully done but there were detils that just didn't show up in photographs that weren't to my liking when I saw the heads in person, and resulted in them both having to be repainted.

The artist was upset that I didn't like what they'd done, and I was upset both by the look of the heads when I received them, and by the upset caused to the artist.

It was not the fault of either of us (or it was equally the fault of us both).

My dolls were both to be redheads and, while I had seen other dolls painted by the artist in person, I had not seen any redheads and did not realize that the artist had a "default" way of blushing/shading the complexion of the doll according to the hair colour the customer intended to give them. It's a detail that doesn't show up well in pictures (I had trouble photographing it myself to explain what my problem was with it) but was very obvious in person.

I wasn't aware I'd need to request something different.

The artist wasn't aware of that gap in my knowledge.

We were both upset by the outcome.

The heads went back to the artist, who shortly after gave up doing faceups (for a while). The heads subequently got forwarded to a different artist to be repainted, and I'm delighted with the result.

It's why I have since taken to giving very detailed (to the point of being persnickety) instructions of what I do and don't want done. The upset on both sides isn't worth doing less.

Incidentally - I've had a similar disappontment with comissioned clothing for my dolls so am now very persnickety with those instructions too.

Teddy

 

Well I did not send the head to other artist, but did new make-up myself. Artist made wonderful make-up for my doll, but she just didn't look like my character. She looked way too kind, even tho I sent her other make-up pictures (my own make-ups) for reference. After getting her, I tried to modify the make-up myself but later I gave up and just wiped it and painted myself. Sometimes it just won't click what you get and it's not a crime to send the head to other artist .

 

It happened once, many years ago. The face up was very professional and beautiful but I felt the lipstick went too far out of the corners of the mouth, almost like clown lip paint. It really bothered me but it was the first faceup I ever commissioned and it was so perfect otherwise, I just dealt with it until I eventually lost interest in the character and sold the doll.

 

Yes and by a pretty well known artist too. I put up with it because it was pricey and I didn’t want to spend even more on the faceup, but I just didn’t like the look on that sculpt, so I considered selling the doll (even though she’d been my grail) before I finally sent her head to another artist and the outcome was much better.

 

This happened to me a lot when I used to commission faceups. An artist can’t reach into your brain and see exactly what you’re imagining, and as a commissioner, you don’t always know all the details of what to ask for (both what to include and what not to include). I’d sometimes approve a faceup from pictures because I’d been waiting for months and it was good work, then open the package and realize it just… didn’t work for me. It didn’t feel like my character, and there was no changing it without starting the whole (several month + expenses) process over again. I sold a lot of dolls because of it until I learned to paint them myself.

 

From being on the other end, just send the head to a different artist. When I was doing face-ups, I always requested lots of examples, and gave lots of in-progress shots, but there were still times when someone would get the finished head and go, "why does it look like this?" Asking the same artist to tweak what you had already approved as "finished" is likely not going to get the result you're looking for, since they're still coming from the same artistic headspace. (Pun intended.)

Going with a new artist gives you another shot at someone else interpreting your ideas, possibly, more accurately. As Amet said, we can't reach into your brain, but finding a brain on a similar wavelength to your own helps hit that magic target more easily. ^_^

 

This happened to me before. I sent 2 heads to the same artist and I did not like the faceups on both dolls. I did like the pictures of other previous work she has done, so I don’t really understand why is mine like that. But she was quite happy with the faceups so I didn’t say anything.
This only happened with this one artist tho. When I choose artist, I always check their past works before I decide to send my doll to them to avoid disappointment. It always turned out how I wanted, if not even better.

 

Yes, it's happened a few times, probably a given after being in the hobby for so long. I've noticed that I'm never disappointed in a few artists and I should stick with them, but sometimes they are either gone or not available.

In one particular case, I had given a reference for eyebrows and they ended up not matching at all, I've not done anything about it because his eyebrows remain covered, but it was jolting to see the difference. It's been a long time now so I'm mostly over it, and I didn't complain because I figure it was up to the artist to determine where the correct eyebrow placement was, and potentially I was too vague.

In another I had my doll painted exactly as I wanted, but he was blushed with black around his cheeks/face. I did complain about this because black is not natural at all like I had requested. It didn't appear in the photos I was sent, but the artist denied anything wrong because she claimed it made him look more like a man (head is originally a female sculpt) it's a shame because it's beautiful work but I wouldn't deal with it again because of that. Thankfully, like the artist, I can hide it in photos.

The only other issue I ever had was with a doll coming back with cracking MSC/Sealant. I didn't complain because it was not something particularly noticeable and I think it happened in transit. I just kept the faceup because it was pretty and then wiped when another artist reopened.

 

This happened before. The artist did great job, nice color and delicate detail, but just not what I want. I think it's hard to describe my imagine and maybe it's also hard for artist to understand what I want.
In the end, I decide to paint their face- up myself.

 

I sent a doll to an artist and she will be starting her faceup soon. I'm nervous now! I sent pictures and examples. We'll see. Stay tuned!

 

I sent my ASAI Azazel for a faceup and he came back darker than he was before. So his face doesn't match with his body. He literally looked sunburnt. I was upset but it was expected as he is Tan. So I decided to embrace him. All I have to do is photoshop his body to match the face. Spent hours doing it but it was worth it.

 

Something similar happened to me. I had a face-up done for one of my boys. I had a specific look I wanted for him. When the artist sent me the pictures, I had mixed feelings about it. I liked it, but it didn't quite match his character, but I kept him that way for a while. The face-up kind of grew on me, but once his body arrived and I was putting him together, I started developing his character more and decided that he needed a new face-up.

I sent him to another artist, she sent me the pictures and told me that if I didn't like something she can make some minor changes.
I had a problem with his eyebrows. The way they were shaped caused him to have an expression I didn't want. Luckily it was something small and was able to be fixed without having to have the whole face redone!

I think some artists will redo the face-up if needed. Sometimes something so small can make the doll look less appealing to you.

 

Something similar happened to me too. Ended up selling the doll lol.

 

It was really upsetting for me when my first doll head came back in a faceup done by one of my favourite artists... But I didn't like it because there was miscommunication, and his cheeks ended up being way too saturated for my liking, with the brow and lip colours not matching with the entire faceup.

Ended up selling him off, but because it was a sculpt that's in high demand, I haven't been able to find a replacement head on the secondhand market that I can get.