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

Making a faceup is a magic ritual of appropriating a doll. I can't paint well, but it's important to me. During the process, I recognize that person. Most of my dolls have something of mine.

 

Commission is the way to do for me atm. I have neither the supplies nor the skills to currently pull off a faceup of my own. It is one of my dolly goals that I'm working towards to be able to do my own faceups one day however! I will need A LOT of practice to feel comfortable painting a beloved head, that's for sure though ^^;

But I'm lucky to have found a wonderful faceup artist whose style is right up my alley for now ♡

 

Definitely myself! I've never owned a doll with a company or commissioned faceup before. Part of what makes this hobby enjoyable for me is the faceups!

 

I’ve comissioned faceups in the past but now I want to start trying my own again. I did my first ever faceup on my first Dollshe Bernard but then i bought dolls already with faceups or commissioned them since then. But something happened in a last commission that made me want to try making them my self again.

 

Too scared to ruin the beautiful original face of hers! I fell in love with the way she is, but I definitely wanna try to do it myself one day, on another doll though. I agree that it can be really important, specially if I'm trying to create a certain type of face that I just can't explain to someone else... I'd like that kind of control of doing it myself.

 

Right now I would want to commission someone since I’ve never done a face up, but eventually I want to be able do them myself. There’s also something really cool about having something from an artist you admire. That’s another reason why I might commission someone.

 

Send one of my babies out of my home...NEVER!!! I just can’t do it! Fortunately I’m fairly proficient at artistic things, so I do their face-ups myself. That being said however, I won’t hesitate to buy a doll with a pre-existing face-up I like, whether from a company or an individual. It’s just the sending them away part I can’t deal with. I’m too much like an overly anxious mother to do that!

 

While I suck at face ups, I'd rather do it myself. And they may not look good but as I get better, I can always redo them myself. Its practice and honestly I always feel so happy when I complete one.

 

I would like to learn how to do faceups, but, for now, I wouldn't trust myself with something as valuable as my doll's face. I'd definitely prefer to commission an artist.

 

I haven't been active in the hobby for years now, but I realised a few things having found my way back. I've also probably posted in this thread before, and so it'll be interesting to see how my own opinion has changed!

1) I love doing faceups myself and have always done so. I've never commissioned one.
2) I used to offer commissions years ago, and I found that I actually strongly prefer working on my own dolls. I might be one of the few people who doesn't want to take commissions for faceups ever again lol.
3) I do my best work on my own dolls, because I see their characters come to life so strongly. I've done faceups that I honestly thought were quite beautiful (LOOOL!) on my own dolls, especially when I know what I'm going for!

I've got to re-purchase a lot of the materials again because the ones I'd had are very old and very worn, and now quite difficult to store properly, but it was looking at my dolls - especially my beautiful Deon that really made me want to get back into the hobby.

 

From what I can tell I will be bit of an outlier here. I have dome my own face ups and am reasonably happy with a couple of them. But I also like to commission face ups for some of my dolls.
Money is a factor I cannot deny. It'll always be cheaper to do myself.
But for some of my dolls I just am not happy enough with my skills to do a faceup I'll be satisfied with. Main example of that is Sir Thomas because he's a likeness doll. He has to look like someone from a existing movie I wanted to put him in the hands of a good artist so he could look his best.
Also I want to commission face ups from certain artists I love like Sugar Stars and Angel Toast. Same way I collect prints from other artists I want a doll done by each of them.

 

For me it would be both. There are a few artists I certainly would not mind painting a doll for me. Seeing some of their work is absolutely stunning. That said, however, I just purchased my first blank doll and a bunch of art supplies to do my first full faceup by my self. I'm looking forward to it. I'm going to replace the lip stick on one of my gals first for practice, but then do the full face up. Looking forward to sharing how it goes.

 

I do them myself because I'm terrified of losing the head/faceplate. That and because it's already an expensive hobby. Doing myself makes that cost less.
If I have an old face up I like but needs refreshing I'll usually just add a little tinting to brighten the old face up and seal if needed.

 

My current plan is to do the faceups myself, figuring I can always improve and redo them. Even though what I want is relatively simple, I'm afraid someone else might not have the same vision I do and I'm relatively picky. That being said, if I get frustrated enough with my own skills, and am impressed enough with a commissioner's skills, I will pay to have it done right... or at least better.

 

I’m new, but the reason I got into this is because I wanted to create my own characters, so I’m planning on doing them myself on the blank dolls I get. I’ve done one so far and am really happy with the way she came out, and I just started another one. That being said, If I see a full set I love, I would get it With the face up the original artist intended, like I did with my girl Hawk.

 

If I had the tools and some time- I do not- I would absolutely.
The thought of sending a head in the mail and to wait on it scares me. If I found a local artist I could drive to, then maybe.

Now company faceups? If they're nice and reasonably priced- you bet I'll go with that! I don't have to ship anywhere which saves me some!

Also I agree with @NikkiB -- No plans to shell my characters, buuuut if I do it'd have to be me.

 

Commission,
I suppose there are the two sides of the coin here in that if you can do it yourself you are free to have the flexibility to change the faceup as you wish. However, as a person who has bought tons of doll faceup art supplies and attempted faceups myself, I'm really not that arty and don't have the patience or skill to create faceups on dolls I'm happy with. Thus I ended up selling all my art supplies (that overall, cost the price + more of a very good faceup on a doll that I would much rather have then my many poor attempts :P ).

So I would recommend a commission if you're like me and am very fussy and not very arty, then doing it yourself (as decent art supplies themselves add up more pricey then of a faceup you could get commissioned!) Of course if your an arty person and can do it youself, doing faceups yourself will help you in the long run

 

I've looked at a lot of "career faceup artists" and while I love their work, I dont connect with it and feel that if I send my doll to one, I wouldnt be happy with it.

I am an artist. I've been drawing for a long time before I got into the hobby and so the idea of putting my skills to the test for a 3d form is pretty exciting. Plus, if you seal it well, you can keep practicing until you're blue in the face.

I'm still undecided on the final faceup on my dolls, thus why their profiles still have them blank, but I much rather say I put the effort into my own dolls than just sent them off. No offense to anyone who does.

 

So far, I like doing them myself! On top of being afraid of sending part of a doll out and possibly losing it, I would be afraid of not being 100% satisfied with someone else's work, and being afraid to speak up about it. That would probably never happen, because most of the time when I buy dolls that happen to already have a faceup, I am enamored with the artists' work. But just in case, I would rather be upset with something I did myself, because then I wouldn't mind fixing it. If I was upset with a faceup that I paid for, I would regret wanting to wipe it and start again.

 

I would commission a face-up if I had the perfect artist in mind! I wouldn't want to do it myself because I don't think I can, and also don't really want to. Actually, the idea of wiping the doll's face clean and redrawing it over and over when you grow tired of how it looks bothers me for some reason. I'd rather just commission one face-up and be done with it!