What is your faceup preference?

I'm a mixed bag. My girls have had company faceups so far, because makeup is makeup. The girl in my profile pic has a Souldoll faceup. My Unoa Chibi Lilin came from Mandarake with what seems to be the company faceup, and it's cute and suits the character so it can stay. My others that are staying are blank and I'm hoping to do my own because they need some very specific looks and traits. Not to mention, I figure if I do it myself I can't be disappointed in the money I spent and can just try again. (I've seen some very skilled faceup artists and I'm not always in a position to commission-- and I've always wanted to learn myself!)

I can't tell you how many mockups I've done for them waiting for the weather and my energy levels to cooperate!

 

I do my faceups myself. I usually have a real person influence, but not always. I don't do any kind of mock up, I just dive right in and hope for the best. The style just depends on the character. I have natural, girly, bearded, punk/emo, goth, and soon 80s hair metal and death metal corpse paint inspired!

 

I tend to be half taken in by the company faceups when I look at a doll. Partly because they tend to be stunning, but also because I'm too afraid to do a faceup myself. I have one doll without faceup and I feel like she's incomplete.

 

I only have one doll, and she has her company faceup. I just really love MYou's standard faceups. I don't want to try doing a faceup myself, and while I might commission one someday, for now it's both too expensive and too nerve-racking to consider sending a head away to someone else.

 

I do my own face-up. I am always buy blank doll because I have my own preference.
I prefer realistic style and sometimes based the style from mahnwa character lol. I never do mock-up either..
The only company faceup i have is my secondhand Volks sdm f-46 from Mandarake. I really like the volks boys make-up.

 

I quite like the more natural looking no/minimal makeup types as I prefer the face ups to match with lots of different outfit but then I do like stylised face ups like my Reika, who has a warpaint like detail.

Unfortunately, I'm not quite good at faceups yet, I've never been very skilled with drawing and painting (as much as I love it) so my faceups tend to look more on the heavier side. Granted I have only tried 2 faceups at this point and a slight eyeliner touch up.
As for planning a faceup,. I prefer to wipe the head completely clean. Then I take a photo of the head, with that I try to use painting apps on my phone to plan out any designs until I'm happy with the idea and then just go for it.

 

I’ve been in this amazing hobby for a long time (since 2006) and I have a amassed good sized collection by now (50-ish.) I’ve done the vast majority of faceups myself because I’ve always been artistic like that. Even in the very beginning I was pretty fearless about it, since I knew mistakes could always be wiped clean. I’ve had so much fun creating my own characters through their faceups. But eventually I began adding the occasional company faceup too if it matched my character well enough, because I wanted to add a bit of artistic diversity to my collection. The only thing I’ve never done is personally send one of my resin babies out to another artist. I just can’t make myself do it no matter how wonderful their work is because I can’t bear to let my baby go! It’s as simple as that.

As for planning, I’ll make a moodboard of ideas for inspiration and general reference. This gives me a direction, but beyond that, I just fly by the seat of my pants. I learned long ago that I have a specific artistic style that will come through regardless of what I’m inspired by, so it’s absolutely useless to try to copy anything else exactly.

 

Definitely default company face-ups all the way!
I dread the day that any of them chip since the company will redo in their updated style (which while nice is not what I want)
I like the idea of doing my own but don't trust myself to be able to replicate their original face even remotely

 

I like to do my own faceups, or redo them as I learn to do them better.

I have few dolls with company faceups, I don't order the faceups that way, but if a doll is instock or second hand with the company faceup, and I like the faceup, I'll keep it.

I have also wiped a few company faceups to redo the doll the way I like.

 

I don't want the health risks involved with some of the materials in faceups, and don't trust my own skills. So I ordered my first doll with the company faceup, and my other 3 (who came blank) will be sent out to artists. I loved the company faceup in the promo pics, but the one I got was more heavily done (especially the lips) than I was anticipating. I might end up having him sent out and redone, but for now he's staying with his current face.

 

I sometimes sketch a rough drawing in pen on notebook paper or napkins. Whatever is around lol If I'm in a sketching mood. I also look for inspiration on pinterest or instagram for makeup colors & style. And also to look at other people's eyebrows lol I like for my dolls to have different shapes of brows just for slight variety. Cuz otherwise I copy/paste my style onto every one I do I have 3 in my collection that have the company faceups. Though I almost always do them myself because I like to. I find a lot of joy in making up their blank heads

 

I mainly look for the company face up! But If I like a sculpt but not the company face up I get them blank and try to do it my self! (Which I did with my Resinsouls) I also drew over an Image on procreate to get a rough Idea what I wanted them to look like, although I didn't plan my most recent re-do of my RS mi and it was the bed one yet

 

It depends. I would love to domy own face-ups but I'm not very skilled. I enjoy company face-ups from Volks, but not so much from other companies, unless they look realistic. I like artists face-ups better, wether they're realistic or anime style because we can ask for what we really want

 

I don't really feel confident in my fine motor skills, but doing my own faceup is something that I would like to try when I get a doll. I would rather have a company or artist do it for my first.

 

Sometimes I know exactly what I want to do... other times I just start and let the doll guide me. But I guess mostly it winds up somewhere in between.

Vince's faceups have always been more unplanned-- I go in with a vibe and I see where it goes. Even when I've made sketches beforehand, it's always just kind of... what it is? But he was my first, so he's suffered my least skilled experiments. (he could definitely use a wipe and a new face this year-- even going in without a plan, I've built up my skills since his last one)

Pete and Billy I had plans for, but they both had room for me to get loose with it. Despite their age, they're still on their first faceups, they've both held up pretty well.

Marigold I had a serious and definite plan and stuck to it, for her faceup and body blush. It turned out really well and I had a lot of fun with hers, she's definitely one of my most striking jobs.

Party Martian... he has a few faceplates, which is a first for me! One of them came painted, and I absolutely love it, and then I've painted another one of his faces so far. With him, I knew what colors I wanted to use and I had an idea, but the execution was definitely tricky. I was working on that faceplate alongside my two floating heads, and with those, I had refs and a plan, but branched out from that plan a little as I worked.

Eddie I have yet to paint, but I have a feeling he's going to be like Marigold-- a definite plan that I stick to, with sketches/references beforehand. He doesn't have sculpted teeth, so it's up to my faceup job to make him look properly vampiric.

Jack and Deanna came with faceups, and Deanna in particular I chose for the company faceup, because when I saw her photos, she looked exactly like the character I had in mind (Jack's was also perfect, but his sculpt looks like him even bare). And the doll I'm waiting on now, I bought when she was in an in-stock sale, so she's coming to me with a faceup-- it didn't factor into my purchase with her the way it did with the other two, but I do think the company faceups are really sweet and have a lot of character. I'm sure some day I'll re-do her, but I'm excited to style her based on the face she comes to me with.

 

I only every got one doll with a company faceup (my first, a bobobie doll). The others I've owned I have gotten blank. I love doing faceups, so I always do them myself. I also do the blank face photo and edit in an art software

 

I like doing my own faceups! They (obviously) don't turn out as flawless as company faceups do, but I absolutely love the feeling of looking at a finished doll and thinking I did that.

It also means I'd be less averse to re-doing a faceup later. My mnf Celine has a factory faceup and so her look is finalised - I can't imagine I'd ever dare wipe her blank even if my tastes drastically change!

 

I've got a lot of second hand dolls and I generally don't wipe them. Some of them are older and though the aesthetic isn't exactly what I like any more, it would feel like wiping history. I do the faceups on my newer dolls. All of you seem to be so methodical and planning it out-I tend to wing it, which may be why it sometimes takes 2-3 times for me to get what I want. I do look at owner photos if I can find them, to see if some particular thing suits the sculpt the best.

My preferences tend to the naturalistic. While I've seen some Goth/dark makeups I've really enjoyed, I wouldn't do them on my dolls. I'm just now dipping my toe into texturing.

 

I get company faceups because I know I would not be able to do them myself. I have an older doll that may end up being a practice doll at some point though. I want to wipe a couple favorites that have damage and send them to an artist but it is not high on my priority list right now.

 

My bjds are based pretty much on my OCs/existing characters, and I have a very specific image in mind for them for the most part. I tend to get all of mine blank (with one exception) so I can do all the detailing myself. My first girl came with a company faceup, but I was underwhelmed by it and eventually lost interest in her entirely. I wouldn't feel comfortable sending any of them out for commissioned faceups—partially due to shipping costs and the possibility of getting lost in transit, but also because I feel the commissioned artist wouldn't get the vision of my character right. It feels like it would be a waste of time, effort, and another person's talent—so I like doing them all myself.

In regards to specific styles: I lean towards more realistic—but with a fantasy twist. I have a sister/brother duo (Aqqen and Razetti) who are both decked out in freckles, with the sister having green eyebrows while her brother has a brown/green mix. It's similar with my other OCs—naturalistic texturing (the specific amount of detailing dependent on each character) with eyebrows often done in unnatural colors. A couple of my guys have painted on facial hair (which I find fun adding—if it works for the character anyways). Nira's faceup is gothic-inspired, Kismet Jaide (MNF Mika) is space/galaxy themed, and Tauli has an in-story spiritual symbol tattooed on her forehead. All my OCs have elf ears that are color themed, which I went to town adding pearl-ex powder to give them extra dimension/shimmer.

Let's just say I like playing around with the glitter powder when I have an opportunity—

When it comes to Dream Valley Moon—I was inspired a bit by the promotional photos with the faceup/blushing/painting/color details. I bought them blank and did all those details myself, but Moon's promotional photos are what captivated me into getting them in the first place.