Thoughts on removing artist faceups?

For other people, yeah wipe that doll. It's yours now.

For me personally, I'd say 90% of the time, I'd be totally fine with wiping a doll and having a new faceup done. I've already done it with the company faceup on one of my dolls. Very pretty, very much not my style.

In some circumstances, I think I'd hesitate to buy a doll altogether because of the faceup. I passed up on a doll I would have loved to own because of this issue. The faceup was so beautiful, but it just wasn't my style. I think I would eventually have been able to wipe it after a few months, but the seller description made it very clear how much they loved the doll and were only selling it because they needed the money. I decided to just wait for a blank doll or a doll that was being sold for another reason. It'd break my heart knowing that seller would probably see their beloved doll they never wanted to sell wiped like that.

 

I don't see myself buying a doll with a famous artists faceup, unless it was a hard to find sculpt that I really wanted. I don't see paying extra for a doll that comes with a faceup. For me it would be paying extra money for something I am going to end up wiping off. If the artist was really super famous (e.g. Valerie Zeitler), I probebly wouldn't buy the doll, because I wouldn't want to devalue the art.

I have no problems wiping off faceups if I don't like them, no matter who did them. If I have a vision for a doll, I want to paint how I want the doll to look and not how someone else sees the doll. My faceup skills are mid level, and I would still wipe off an amazing faceup and replace it with my mediocre faceup, if that amazing faceup was not how I want my doll to look.

I try to purchase blank dolls most of the time, but if a doll does come with a company faceup, I tend to wipe or modify the company faceups. Out of all my BJD's the only two company faceups I have left alone are my Dollzone Gray, and my Ringdoll Lucifer. I like my Dollzone Gray's faceup so much, that I am thinking of getting him a second head to modify. I don't want to mess with the original face, and he came full set, but lately I have been wanting to make a few changes including mods to the face, so I am thinking a blank face, rather then wiping the current one, because I do love the original faceup.

 

On the other hand if they need the money and can't sell the doll because of a face up it really makes their situation harder. Everywhere people are complaining that it's becoming increasingly difficult to sell second hand dolls because of the economic situation, now add the face up reason too.

 

I'm sure it's been tough enough having to list the doll. Wiping the faceup because it might make the sale go faster is probably very difficult for them to do, especially if you're holding onto any hope of some miracle happening that lets you keep your doll after all. I think the dolls with the most love put into them (custom faceups, custom mods, bundled with a bunch of accessories that add to the price but not necessary the appeal to buyers) sit on the secondhand market the longest.

 

Unless it's someone's first faceup, worn out, or very generic/simple company work, I'd have issues wiping. It's still someone's work and I respect that aspect in dolls enough that I'd want to keep it as-is. When I look at second hand dolls I consider the faceup as well and I'm definitely set on keeping what I buy.
I do not shell characters, though, and I am more into an adoption mindset, so maybe if I had a different approach I'd see this matter differently.

 

I’ve been back and forth on this one. I have kept artist faceups mostly because I can’t be bothered to wipe them and I don’t think my own faceup skills are the best so I’d rather keep a good faceup. I am not a characters person at all so I don’t need a character specific faceup. However I do have a very specific aesthetic I like so sometimes some faceups just wouldn’t work for it.

I have recieved a few dolls with faceups by a few more well known artists including one that I was very dissapointed by as it came scratched but it was so heavily painted I wasn’t sure how easy it was to wipe I ended up selling that one on. One other doll I do regret wiping as the artist stopped painting dolls a long time ago but I wasn’t sure if I liked the faceup or not at the time. I’ve had tattoos like this too where I’ve not been divided whether to cover them up or not (I did have some of my first ones covered LOL)

But mostly it depends for me I have a few dolls with beautiful company faceups including a nearly 20 year old LUTs faceup in remarkable condition. I also have been out of the hobby for awhile and I am not sure who I would comission anymore