Would you rather commission a faceup, or do it yourself?

If I had the time, I'd definitely try to practice face-ups and get to a point where I can be satisfied with my own work. Most of the dolls I'm planning to get have pretty standard looks so it doesn't matter how they get their face-up. But commissioning someone else is great too because you can support other artists!

 

I personally would prefer to just have my dolls painted by someone else. I do not have an artist's touch at all, and a lot of my characters are pretty involved when it comes to patterns and whatnot on the face, because they're fantasy creatures. Plus I kind of have high expectations for them, and I definitely couldn't meet my own standards. But there are plenty of fantastic artists out there that would be able to do them justice, so I'll stick with those.

 

I would rather commission a faceup, hands down... But going forward I'm probably going to be doing my own faceups for the most part. There are a few reasons, but the biggest one is price. I've been accumulating faceup materials for a while, but just made a big purchase to improve my supplies (around $75 to a new brush, satin gloss, mungyo pastels, and several colors of golden fluid acrylic paint) and even though it's a lot of money, it's still cheaper than the $100-$125 I'd have to pay from my favorite faceup artists. Plus, the supplies I've purchased will allow me to give several dolls faceups without paying anything further and I don't have to stress out about shipping them anywhere.

Aesthetically, I really prefer other people's faceups, but my goal is to make my style like the styles I prefer so that hopefully some day I won't have any reservations left about doing my own.

 

I view commissions as a "treat yourself" thing. If I'm feel particularly fancy I'll opt for commissioning someone, otherwise I just do the faceups myself

 

My first major in college was illustration and I focused on traditional art, so I have quite a bit of experience with drawing and painting. It's been a long time since I did either of those things but I want to use this hobby as a creative outlet. For that reason, I intend to do my own faceups. I admire the work of many faceup artists and while I would love to own pieces of their work, I want the satisfaction of my dolls being customized by my own hand. However, I will commission someone if it doesn't end up being as fun as I'm expecting

 

I've tried painting doll faces before, or repainting features on my vinyl dolls. Yikes! I'm a good painter, but something about those tiny 3D surfaces is just beyond impossible for me, even on a doll with a fairly massive head like an American Girl doll. I'd definitely rather someone else paint faceups for me, anything I come up with would look pretty ham-fisted and my dolls don't deserve that. I'll just sew them clothing, I can do that and have the result look pretty decent.

 

As of now, I would commission it. I haven't tried doing any faceup before, and would definitly need to practice a bit. And, with sealants being toxic and a pet at home, I'm slightly hesitant to try it there (´▽｀、)

 

I'd really love to be able to do my own faceup! I bought a lot of makeup stuff and all and I tried hard on doing what was in my mind ... but I've failed miserably. Now, I'm afraid to even think about redoing one, so my girl's face is still blank and I've got so much pride I'm unable to hire someone to make it right.

 

I'd love to start doing my own face ups but I don't want to start investing in new art supplies just for that (when I'd likely not be doing many anyway). So I'm happy to just order my dolls with company face ups.

 

Despite repeated practice, on top of just knowing my own history in art classes as far as painting abilities, I have not even come close to a satisfactory result. It would be much more convenient to do the faceups I envision, but it's not going to happen.

So I hire out faceups now, and I have not been disappointed yet! Some people are so gifted in painting, and I am now okay with the fact that I am not one of them! Hopefully before long I will find my "thing" that I can contribute to the community.

This hobby has taught me one lesson over and over: I'm now happy to put a few extra dollars directly into the pocket of an independent artist in exchange for real high-quality work.

 

Do it myself or buy a doll with a faceup already done. I doubt I'll ever commission a faceup although there are a few artists I really love and I might consider them.
I can't really stand the thought of receiving a doll and then having to send the head away... worrying about the head being in transit and having a headless body laying around... idk it just feels inconvenient to me.

 

When I first got my doll, he came with the company face-up. It looks great even after a few years, but it doesn't fit the character I want for him anymore? So, someday I want to get a practice head and try it out myself. Then whenever I get another doll, I can do it myself.
I don't think I would commission because I'm scared of sending the head to someone and getting lost :'D

 

I would send it to someone else with more experience than me. I know that I would not be able to create what I had in mind, thus it would be better for someone with more ability than me to do it. I also like never have time, so the doll would just sit around with a face up that I didn't like forever.

 

I prefer doing them myself. There are a lot of very talented artists out there, and I really admire and appreciate the work they do. But nobody knows my characters as personally as I do.

For me, there's two specific aspects to my reasoning for this. First, I have the idea of what I want for my characters specifically, and I'd have a hard time trying to have that translated by somebody else. Plus, Most of mine are based on characters I'm developing for a graphic novel very much still a work in progress, and so it's a very personal thing for me.

Two, I'm trying to improve my skills and regain confidence in my artwork again, something which comes from doing the work myself. Over the past few years I've been facing a personal artistic crisis, feeling completely burnt out and not confident in what I do. I'm a graphic design student, and it's had an impact on my skill and classwork. Also, doing faceups is kind of therapeutic for me (when I'm not completely having a bad day and messing up horribly anyways), and personal projects are especially important to me at this moment.

Maybe someday I will commission somebody for a specific look for a character that's separate from my current project, but for now, I'd like to work on their development myself

 

I commission artists.

There are multiple reasons I do so but the primary reasoning behind it is that my only artistic skills require a camera and lenses. I'm sure I could learn to do a faceup if I wanted to but the amount of time it would take to get to a level of where I could do my own dolls to a satisfying level would be longer than I'm willing to put in. After all, it took years before I considered myself a decent photographer... and I still maybe know 25% of what there is to know (and that's being generous to myself).

So I'll continue to leave making my dolls pretty to other people and I'll stick to taking the pretty photos afterwards xD

 

Commission. Even IF I was fantastic at face ups(I did one and received many compliments on it) I couldn't keep it. I'm too conscious of my own mistakes. Even if it's one eyelash that's longer than the other, if I'M the one that did it, I have to try and fix it. but if it's someone else that did it, small differences like that I love.

 

I really like the company default faceups so I buy the dolls with the faceup, but if I ever have a doll without, I would definitely commission someone to do it for me. I don't have the space or equipment to do it myself and even drawing stick figures is a challenge for me

 

Oh, I'd definitely commission another artist. I'm very picky about what I want and not at all confident in my ability to make anything like it happen, so paying for a commission from someone with the artistic talent is a must for me. Even if it doesn't turn out exactly the way I want it, overall it'd look much better than if I tried to do it myself.

 

I would prefer to do it myself. I feel like the more hands-on I am with a doll, the more I bond with it. So many of my story details come out of nowhere when I'm working on a doll, like little quirks or birthmarks that add to the story, and I would miss all that if someone else did the faceup for me. When I get a doll, I'm only 40-60% sure of who they are and I need that time with them to figure them out.

 

Commission. I tried to do it myself but not success, and I found it is very troublesome to put Mr. Super Clear on dolls in my living area.