Scared of buying from unexperienced faceup artists

I don't think how the faceup looks necessarily determines quality of materials. For example, you might use all of the best materials, but have no practice with painting, so while it's done correctly, it looks messy and unprofessional.

If I want a head and I'm not sure what products have been used on it, I'll ask. If it looks very shiny, like maybe it was sealed with an improper product, or doesn't appear sealed at all, or has paints that look clumpy or are bleeding out, that does concern me. I always try to list what I used on a doll when I sell one.

Though to be fair, you can't always tell by looking at a faceup if it was sealed well first. The worst staining I've ever dealt with on a doll was on a ResinSoul Long's default faceup. Coming from a professional company, it SHOULDN'T be so poorly sealed that it staining...but it was. I think it's a risk you always take unless you're buying a blank doll.

 

If I want a head badly enough, even if the faceup is poor I would buy it. I would expect the price to be in line with the poor faceup, however. For example, I'm not paying $200 for a minifee head with a lousy faceup UNLESS it was a very very rare event head or something. Know your prices.

That said, the seller might think their faceup work was absolutely gorgeous. I would never be rude to somebody, I would NEVER say to anyone, well, that is really crappy faceup so I will only give you XXY dollars for it. I would just move on.

I would NOT worry too much about staining in general. It's been my observation that although resin can be very fragile, at the same time it can be oddly resilient! Resin can be sanded, or put in a glass with some efferdent (denture cleaner). For example, if the lips were bright red, and I really didn't want bright red lips, I wouldn't worry TOO much about staining, even if ALL the red didn't come off. Most of it, most likely, would come off, and then it would be painted over, so... I wouldn't worry a lot.

HOWEVER, however, if the head were tan, I would worry (tan resin can't always stand up to a lot of sanding). If the head were painted like the Joker with bright red smeared way PAST the lips, I might worry. If the person admits they used a Sharpie, I wouldn't get the head.

So... it depends. Worried that the blue eyeshadow might stain? Eh. I LIKE blue eyeshadow, and a good artist could give my doll well-done, pretty blue eyeshadow, and I'd be happy. So for me, this issue is a case-by-case basis, for sure.

 

I wouldn't not buy it, but I also wouldn't pay extra for it. Most inexperienced faceup artists seem to discover that they need to seal the blank head before putting down any paint when the pastels won't stick to the unpainted reson anyway.

However, if someone was, say, selling a head that has others selling it for price A blank, and says they're selling it for price A + B where B is some random markup because it has a faceup, and the faceup looks horrible... I am going to offer them the price the other people are charging, or buy from someone else.

 

Layn - Sometimes you don't have that choice. I thought whilst offers are good isn't there a rule against haggling someone? Yeah I thought in some cases, like a Kid Delf I saw years ago it was ridiculous to charge company price when a smear of paint was all he had for a face up but it wasn't MY doll and I figured to each their own. If you don't like the head with the faceup, get the blank head! It doesn't have to be a big deal. >_>;;

Also most people will offer to wipe the head for you if you ask. Me I wouldn't do that, I look for faceup and looks in the face because personally I suck at faceups, but if there's a doll I like with a faceup I don't care for... I just don't get it and wait.

 

I recently brought a 'third' hand boy doll off ebay, he had a dreadful faceup but the price was very reasonable so I took the chance. When I got him I sent his head to a faceup artist and just said, do your best. She had a bit of a problem getting the black off but managed and I now have a really amazing doll that didn't cost me a lot of money. I think it depends on the price of the doll, if you can find a faceup artist who is prepared to help you rescue a doll (if you don't do it yourself) and just a feeling when you look at the doll.
I would do it again because I don't think there is much that can't be rescued, but price would be an important factor, as you have to spend more money to fix the problems.

 

Doesn't bother me in the slightest. If I'm buying second hand I never expect perfect resin anyway, I expect to have to strip it, disinfect it, deal with whatever I find under the inevitable dirt and paint already on it and then restring it and paint it myself. As others have said, I certainly wouldn't pay MORE for a doll with a faceup like that, but if the seller has a negotiable price, I'll try for what I think the thing is worth and if they say no or have a firm price listed, I just move on.

So to answer the questions: No, no and yes, a lot. It was fine. 99% of the things clueless idiots do to resin are entirely fixable and the 1% that aren't just mean you have to get a bit more creative!

 

I'm not scared, short of a sharpie face up, to buy a doll with a bad face-up, but you better bet I'm not paying anymore than I would for a blank used doll, maybe less if I am going to have to do a ton of work to get that doll cleaned up. In my experience a lot of people will wipe the face-up for you so it's just not that big of a deal to me either way.

That being said, I have run into the occasional doll that has a higher price on it because the person gave it a very amateur face-up rather than charging what they would if it were blank and even ones that advertize "new face-up" on dolls with amateur face-ups. I just don't give those a second glance.

 

I'm not scared, I know I can fix most staining and if worst comes to worst, I can always lightly sand the doll to remove the stains.

That said, I have had an experience with a doll that was stained because of a young and inexperienced previous owner. I don't blame her, she was only 16 and seemed to love the doll a lot, but she had removed its limited edition face-up and drawn on her own with what must have been wax-based pencils (as I am assuming she didn't use crayons and the stuff on the doll's face was decidedly waxy) without sealing the face first. I scrubbed the doll down with acetone free nail polish remover, a Magic Sponge and a lot of elbow grease and managed to remove most of it, leaving only very light staining where she'd drawn on big bushy dark eyebrows. I'm okay with that as it's hardly visible after a few layers of MSC and a face-up of my own (done with watercolour pencils!), but if it ever starts to bother me, I know I will be able to fix it. I'm just glad that I managed to mostly save the doll

 

I had experience of buying stained doll heads under bad make-up 2 times. One of them was very chip and I bought it for modification experiments anyway. Second was expensive enough, it was not fair deal from the beginning, seller also hasn't send me promissed carrying case.

Distance trade is always risk, I prefer to buy dolls in Moscow, but sometimes risk is needed.

 

I opt to trust known face up artists so I know the threshold of the quality. Of course, I don't want to spend money without receiving good quality. I think it's more worth it to spend (even if a little pricey) more if you're getting a very nice work / output.

 

I agree with all of this.

 

I think with a lot of sellers, if you explained the face-up wasn't right for your character, they might remove it for you. That way you could see the quality of the resin underneath. Certainly if I was selling a doll, I wouldn't be offended by this, because I personally know the face-up is part of the bonding experience for me!

 

I agree with hobbywhelmed. Speaking from experience, it's a lot harder to fix bad modifications than a bad faceup.

 

Not gonna lie, i'm much more willing to buy a blank head than one with a messy face up. Even if the blank head has some staining between the lips or something, as long as I know it's something I can cover/fix, I don't mind. A messy face up that looks like they didn't know what they're doing, though... I don't know if they sealed it at all, or if I can salvage the head. If your doll's face up is kinda icky, I think it's best to just wipe the head so the customer sees a clean slate instead of a messy doodle.

 

I do face-up commissions from many years so I know how importatant is well prepaired head, and how rarely it is well done when someone is starting with this type of customizing.
(I am professional artist with knowledge about painting/sculpting technology, thanks to many years of artistic education )

I do not like to buy second hand heads with face up which is done unprofessionally, because I have seen many times stained resin when I removed old face-ups. Especially those painted with thick acrylic layers, on shiny, "naked "resin BUT.. in 90% of all those face-ups are easy to clean, and most of the staining (if occured) you can fix just with magic block (without sanding^^).
Those remaining 10% are permanently stained and sometimes even sandpaper is not enough, but still you can do a new face-up that covers it^_^

More annoying are moddifications done unprofessionally_-_ And sometimes previous owner have no idea that something was done, if the head he/she bought, had some face-up before. So I never buy a head (or doll body) which was sanded>_<. I bought one few years ago. Seller didn't know that it was sanded before T_T And one eye had so thin sanded edge of the eyelid, that there was no place to glue lashes in_-_

So..my answer for your questions is:
1. Sometimes.
2. Not so much^_^
3. Yes- mostly on default face up_^_ (pink stains from blushing are allmost on all default painted volks heads_^_).

 

My answer is similar to Eff17. Usually, a badly sealed face off will come off without too much trouble, and even when it won't all come off, you can probably cover the damage. It's annoying, but not that big of a deal. When a doll is dyed, or has heavy additive or subtractive mods, then I'd think twice because it's a big project to restore those things.

 

Answer to the 3 questions are not really, no and no. That being said, I don't usually consider dolls with bad faceups if there are blank ones available etc. I am a bit cautious about sealants other than MSC and Zouk spray, because I'm not sure if my isopropyl alcohol can remove them, but usually a new faceup covers whatever staining there may be. Unless it's a huge fantasy faceup that has colours on places where my intended faceup won't cover, I'm not too concerned. But faceup aside, I'm quite wary of sanded dolls...mostly because I have no idea how a new faceup will end up on that sanded surface.

 

There are lots of things that can go wrong when buying a doll. The owner--or even the maker/company-- could have messed up the faceup. They could have mixed a bad batch of resin and it crumbles, cracks or changes color. They could string too tight so the joints crack. They could design the joints badly so they don't work well. Owners could have let the doll sit in sunlight. They could have chipped or sanded or scraped or modded...

Basically, that's why you always need to be cautious when buying ANYTHING! Particularly if there is a fair amount of money involved. If you buy something bad for a couple of bucks that isn't as much of a problem as when you have problems with something that costs money you'd rather have spent on something you really wanted and needed that wasn't damaged!

So you need to research! You need to check out the seller! That's why there is feedback on DoA. You can also check to see their other work by searching things here (and on the rest of the internet). It's not just faceups you need to worry about. And it's not something you should FEAR. You just need to be informed and make good decisions--for EVERYTHING! If you'd rather take the risk, that's your choice... but it's just smart to try and make the best decision possible for you and that means actually doing a little work and checking things out first.

Yes, people who are new will know less than those who are experienced. That's just a given. But they may know how to do a good faceup, too... you just need to be aware and check into them. Ask what methods they use, etc., if they don't have any track record.

Companies, too, need to be checked out if they are new.

If someone makes crappy faceups, then why would you buy from them? Oh... OK, so you can wipe the faceup... BUT... staining problems is what a lot of buyers worry about... So what they do is ask if the seller will remove the faceup! And they will say that, hey, if there's staining, I might not buy it! Just be up-front and ask questions... and if the seller still looks dodgy, then you can risk buying or go look somewhere else. There's never a 100% guarantee of everything coming out exactly as you wish... not with anything in life.

I've only had a few problems like that since I don't tend to wipe faceups and usually buy new. But it definitely happens! It happens on faceups I've done. And it happens even when heads are sealed.