Old school company faceup vs newer artist faceup?

I feel my strongest preference is middle ground. There is a lot of contemporary style I really don't like, but at the same time I didn't like barebones company faceup style. I can appreciate a degree of natural or minimalism but I still prefer it done with subtle layers of blushing and nuance that I feel old company faceups (and I mean old old) really lacked.
To generalize I like artist style faceups that were popular in the late 00s-2015 ish. Many artists still make the appearance I enjoy, Angel Toast is one I always love to see. I think that gives an example of what I mean. Definitely not minimal but flattering, beautiful and not excessively heavy or stylized hyperrealism either.

 

I have both! I think I "generally" like a more "old-school" faceup, but it heavily depends on the doll and how I am first introduced to them. I am a big fan of the Elfdoll faceups from around 2007.

I probably have a 60/40 mix of oldschool vs new artist. Some of that is due to when I purchased the doll too.

 

I'm afraid I'm not familiar with any of the examples you listed for old school faceups... I do really like the Alchemic Labo and Limhwa/Eos Doll company faceups, and also the older Supia company faceups. I definitely see what you mean in terms of "less is more", what tends to be my preference also.

 

I'm going to have to pick 2 mostly because I just like doing my own faceups and appreciate the degree of freedom in detail and in the customisability in the dolls. I love seeing how the old-old faces used to be painted by early companies, but I also find some of them very sign of their times from which visual progress or change of style is only natural (like the pencil brows really old volks had, for instance).

I would slightly disagree with the notion of western makeup in contemporary (company) faceups, though. Maybe it's just a very recent development, but following the looks of very trendy asian makeup aesthetics is very prominent and popular in bjds right now... although even before, the more dramatic looks were also very visual kei inspired, for example. I think we just perceive those styles more global/western today thanks to social media. And, to repeat my sentiment from above, they'll also look older and like a sign of their times in 20 years time most probably, it's a hobby influenced by trend cycles after all. All old school was new school once

 

Yes definitely! There is a very soft-focus, dreamy feeling to those older faceups.

Interesting, it's good to hear the perspective of someone who actually lives in Korea!

To me, as a Westerner, it does seem like there is some mixing of Western influence with Eastern styles happening. A lot of modern bjd makeup looks very different from what I see real people in Europe or America wearing. For example, the "gradient" or "k-pop" lips, the blush in the middle of the face, the very pale skin with vibrant pink blush and eye shadow—I never see those things in person here.

On the other hand, the "shading" or contouring that you mentioned, as well as the defined creases, and the use of darker colors, are very common. The newer Supia "smokey" or "diva red" makeup looks exactly like what people wear for special occasions in the West. So it really depends!

 

Hmm in some ways for me it depends on the doll itself. The simpler faceups look really sweet on simpler sculpts, or I'd expect it on say, a Volks doll. But I like seeing how varying a sculpt can be by how people approach the faceup and choose to accentuate different things with blushing or make up styles, even on those simpler sculpts or a brand I might expect to have simpler faceups.
I don't generally like faceups that make it hard to tell the sculpt's details, but not all current faceup trends and styles do that, and many are still letting the sculpt shine. I guess in general for my own collection purposes, I lean towards a more "natural" style of more current faceups, like artists from the mid 2010's because that's when i was really able to have time to look at images and videos online of dolls with more of an idea of possibly getting one someday.
For me, it also depends on what suits the character though. If I had a character that would go for the really dramatic stylized makeup, then that's what I'd try to look for or emulate for them.

 

I’ve found myself ordering company faceups more and more often when buying a brand new doll these days because I enjoy the look (as long as it suits my character, if not I order blank and do it myself.) In my fairly large collection, I’d say I’ve done about 90% of the faceups myself over my many years of collecting, being the artistic type. But I’ve noticed that I’m enjoying company faceups, obviously done by talented artisans, more often these days, so their presence is certainly growing in my collection. I recently ordered a Ringdoll sculpt with a faceup that looked exactly like myself as a teenager (way back in the 60s.) Certainly nostalgia there, but I couldn’t resist! She had a slightly retro look to me that did the trick obviously. And I’ve always loved the Luts company faceups since the 2010s. But overall, for my personal tastes, I’d have to say I’m enjoying the newer look in faceups even though I adore the old school vibe in the sculpts themselves. I guess I just enjoy the added drama!

 

The pressure of having all my dolls look in depth and realistic because of these trends does get to me a little bit. It’s hard for me to go against the grain.

I really do like both styles, though! I just feel like the simpler/older styles are frowned upon by some people and it makes me sad

 

It's a mix of both, for me. There's something about the old school delf faceups I find charming, and I love my Souldoll Rye's factory faceup (which is admittedly not quite factory, I asked them to replace the brown in the faceup with charcoal grey and they did), although I appreciate the detail that goes into modern faceups. What I really don't like, though, is this trend towards giving dolls severely reddened eyelids. I feel it makes them look ill. Also giving dolls heavy "stage makeup", because makeup that's designed to look good on people when under heavy stage lights looks way too heavy on a doll.

 

That is my nr. 1 pet peeve also!! It's been such a trend, not just in bjd's but also in fashion generally, and it's just not for me!!

 

I adore old-school company faceups! Delfs, early Volks, gimme gimme gimme!

 

@maiyufi you have a lot of good examples to remember the old company faceups style, that is awesome. But also old artists from before... It makes me sad but I struggle to remember them, it's because I have extreme difficulty with names I guess.
Anyway, I am still firmly for artists faceups by your parameters. I mean, I always painted all my dolls anyway because of preference. I definitely kept some of my dolls a little while with those types of Faceups. Let's see I had one from Dream of Doll, Loongsoul, EOS doll, and now I have an original Lydia still painted... But for me personally, even though the faceups might photograph ok, I just feel I can't enjoy them as much in person. I find them severely lacking in depth. I don't think that adding the depth of colors and layers and subtle blushing (and shimmer) inherently detracts from the beauty of the sculpt nor do I think it has to disguise or manipulate the appearance a lot... I think it's just required for my dolls to feel personlike. A toy-like quality is not what I want myself, I think maybe it's like, oh, retro digital art like anime posters and stuff, JRPG characters, that level of personlike and real but obviously super stylized that I like these dolls for.
Personally I'm tripped up by the idea of "contemporary" because this hobby has changed so much since 2010, I think that popular bjd faceups are entirely different from artists now, so I hesitate to group all artist faceups together. I in fact strongly dislike much of the very trendy makeup now that's trickled down to influencing new company faceups too. The artists who created these faceups are all very talented I just really don't like some things that's why for me it feels like a bit of "yes and no" -- my opinion.

 

I'm not a fan of the old-style makeup most doll companies used to do. My oldest doll is a Honey Delf Pudding that I got secondhand and she has the old makeup they used to do, and I'm considering wiping her and having an artist redo her face because it doesn't look as nice as the rest of my dolls and I'm never happy with her. A lot of dolls back then looked a bit uncanny to me, and there was a lot less personality behind them, so a lot of them looked similar to one another. I like how much variation there is these days. I can get dolls with heavy or light makeup, and I can get dolls that look unique even if I'm getting the company face-up. But my favourite thing is to work with a face-up artist to get a unique doll.

I can see why people like old face-ups, but they're just not for me.

 

I didn't vote because I want more options I would say that I like old school-ish artist faceups... and that is kinda what I go for with my own faceups even now. Docshul, Poppy, Illness Illusion, Morbidollz...

While a lot of current artists are moving in a hyper-detailed/realistic style, that doesn't fully capture the range of faceups that we are seeing these days. There are still artists who paint simple, understated faceups, but I wouldn't necessarily call the style "old school". Just like there were artists back then doing dramatic, detailed faceups but they don't really resemble the current faceup styles you describe. I think your two poll options would be better summed up as "Simple" vs "Complex" rather than old vs new.

 

As I like the dolls to have feel of the victorian/antique porcelain doll I prefer minimal face ups but it always depend of the scuplt of doll and character connected to it or purpose/story

 

I'm with @overlordu . I have some dolls with their OG faceups that I love which are relatively simple. But then I have some that I commissioned that are slightly more complex that I love.

Old Volks vs New Volks faceups are way different. My SDC Miko is pretty simple and then my one off Hewitt has more makeup than I would ever wear myself. (His promo photos are worse than he is in real life.) However, I enjoy both!

 

I'm somewhere in the middle... I absolutely can't stand some trends in the "modern" faceup standard. (Textured skin, for instance. Over-done lips. Exaggerated blushing. The red eyes that others have already mentioned. Just... no. Total NOPE.) At the same time, the bare simplicity of the oldest Volks faceups are too far in the other direction. They just don't always do the sculpt justice.

I'm drawn to the middle ground... The faceups that Luts used on the classic CP/Delfs in the 2005-2009 era are a good example of that look. They have some detail to them, but they aren't overly realistic. They're still stylized enough to look like *dolls* rather than a dermatology demonstration.