When you do face-ups, does the brand of the supplies matter to you?

Not really. Because I go with what I can get. I use Citadel Paints and some watercolor pencils. I use these all the time and I can't keep buying online for one or two refill colors so I get things at the local modeling shop. Pastels I do make sure I get the best ones. Mostly because there are many brands out there sold at many art stores and I know the difference in the quality.

 

The sealant matters to me, the rest I go with my preferred brands and I'm open to experimenting with others. Sealant is vital, though, because I have a certain finish I prefer and only one sealant gives me that.

 

I am not too bothered about the brand, but I do prefer to use Liquitex Matte Varnish for my sealant (it's also got the important UV protection our BJDs need).

 

I like Winsor&Newton for acrylics, and Reeves for pastels. They work fine to me.
The sealant options are very limited where I live... People are basically forced to import MSC or other sealants of their preference.

 

I don't do my own faceups but I do body blushing sometimes and yes, the quality of supplies matters very much to me. I prefer Volks ZM sealant and use Rembrandt pastels. When looking for a faceup artist I do take into account what supplies they use. I will pay more for a faceup done with premium supplies. Cheap pastels & water color pencils can look grainy and blotchy and cheap sealants tend to yellow more over time.

 

Yes, the quality of supplies definitely matters to me. I've used a few different kinds of sealant, but only specific brands (MSC, ZM and Purity Seal) and don't generally deviate from those. I stick to Rembrandt pastels, Derwent watercolors, and Citadel paints, as all have proven themselves to me as good quality materials and I certainly don't have the budget to waste on testing new brands that may well be a waste of money.

 

It always pays to invest in and use quality materials. The 'cheapest' materials are usually inexpensive because they are made for use in casual crafting projects and therefore their pigments aren't very saturated, the pastels grains not as fine, the viscosity of paint might be inconsistent etc. It takes quite a bit of effort to get materials like that to behave the way higher quality materials do, and sometimes you literally can't achieve the proper result with them...because they aren't made to do what you're asking them to do XD

Personally, I use Liquitex paint and fluid retarder, Rembrant pastels and MSC

 

I generally try to get good quality supplies, because in a lot of cases the cheaper supplies are a false economy. Higher quality tends to have better quality and better saturation of the pigment, so you can use fewer coats, which means less chance of making a mistake. Cheap products you sometime have to go over the same area 3, 4, or more times. As with anything, this is not always the case, every now and then you stumble into a good quality at a good price. Otherwise, subscribe to art & craft store mailers, and save your money to stockpile when there are sales or coupons.

 

I think you can do a decent faceup with cheap supplies, but for a great one, the outcome will reflect the quality/price of the materials used especially when it comes to pastels. On the other hand, I bought a certain type of watercolor pencils (the "full" ones, meaning they're all pencil mine) and they were quite expensive, but they tend to flake. I kind of feel I have to keep on using them till they're gone but I should probably accept the fact that this wasn't such a good buy after all.

 

Brand is a good indicator of how the supplies are going to perform, so it does matter to me. It's not an elitist thing. If I know Liquitex, for example, is going to give me good results in a predictable way, I'll stick with it.

 

Even though I'm not really good with face-ups, I do invest in quality materials. Like there are Schminke pastels and Rembrandt pastels in the store I buy them, and while both are good, Schminke pastels are the ones I definitely prefer. There is hardly any binding agent in those pastels and they have high pigmentation, which makes the chalks very crumbly, but you don't need as much to get color. It's the same with clay: Premium brands are called this for a reason. The student quality brands are okay-ish, but they lack finesse. Working with artist quality materials is simply much more of a joy!

Keep in mind though that price is not always an indicator if you're dealing with a premium brand. Check the internet if the brand you're looking into is student quality or artist quality.