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

I personally would rather to commission someone who's face ups I admire. I'm not great at face ups yet so until I get better I'd be more comfortable doing it that way

 

I am not artistic when it comes to painting so I would rather commission someone to do a faceup for me as then I know it would not turn out looking rubbish. Also there are so many talented faceup artists in this community that I would love to support and I can do that by commissioning them to bring my ideas to life.

 

I'd love to do my own faceups but the fact is that I'm terrified of inhaling sealant, I once bought a practice head, a mask, and some MSC and I must not have had my mask on the right because I got a faint whiff of something sweet-smelling when I was spraying it and ran. I proceeded to have a three day off and on panic attack about it, threw out my MSC, and vowed never to try it again. On top of that, I live in a cramped condo complex and I'd worry about someone else on their porch inhaling it if I tried spraying it. So yeah commission only for me.

 

I prefer to do everything myself. For some reason I'm much happier with a bad result I did myself than a perfect one done by someone else. Scruffy yarn wigs and all. Plus while face ups are hard, articulating what I want to someone else is impossible. Plus, you know. I'm too poor to have people do things for me that I have a shot at doing for myself.

 

I want to be able to do my own face-up myself because I am very picky and I feel like it'll be more meaningful for me to put that time and effort into designing my doll. (I went to art school, however I have no experience painting dolls atm so I plan on practicing a lot)

Commissioning another professional would probably visually turn out better but I also will be painting the entire doll (since they're a fantasy doll) so it'd be me throwing money at something that I kind of wanna try out and see if I'm capable of doing it.

 

I'm commisioning someone else until I'm good enough to do their face-up lol I'm trying small things though, like body brushing.

 

I always do mine myself because I'm terrified of sending my doll heads to someone else. Maybe I'll order a doll with a company faceup one day?

 

I'd rather do my own - it's fun to customize the doll exactly as I want I althou have to admit that sending a doll out after I waited for so long to get them already is not a thought I enjoy... Maybe if I had a big collection and could occupy myself with other dolls while I wait... But currently it's all on me, just the way I like it

 

I have no artistic talent so I'd have to commission someone for a faceup. Just thinking about trying to do it myself is giving my anxiety and would rather let someone more comfortable and better skilled do it than me mess up the doll. lol

 

If I want something really well done, I'll commission. Especially on more expensive dolls because I want them to be just right. My cheaper dolls I don't worry about too much about doing their faceups for some reason.

 

At the moment I'm doing multiple different things;
including face-ups, so definately I'm doing my own faceups so I can learn and get experience.

 

I've never commissioned a faceup. I was an artist student. I prefer doing it myself because it gives me a sense of achievement. Doing a faceup is different from painting on paper or canvas. It is pretty fun.

 

In general, I’d rather do it myself. Before getting into BJDs, I enjoyed drawing women’s faces. I always had trouble with symmetry but enjoyed highlighting, blushing contouring and all the details. With sculpts, it feels like I don’t have to worry about the hard parts and can just enjoy bringing a face to life.

My first faceup kinda sucked lol but I’ve done 5 since and feel I’ve improved with each. I wouldn’t be able to handle the wait otherwise.

The one exception is a Peakswoods girl I have on layaway; the company faceup was gorgeous so I decided to have it done by them in this case.

 

The first doll I owned got face up made by someone else but the newer ones one has the company makeup and the other 2 I did since I figured that if I'm going to be part of this hobby I'd better learn to customize myself. And it was a lot of fun for me to see the blank face turn into something with more detailed lips, red cheeks, eyelashes etc! Due that I feel like I'm more connected with the two whose faceups I did than the one who has the company faceup even though that one is definitely much prettier than anything I could ever create. But practice makes perfect and hopefully once it's spring and warmer again I can give it another try and make something hopefully prettier, meanwhile I'm just gonna try getting better hang of using brushes on paper.

 

I thought I’d do my own face-ups, but it turns out that I’m simply not good at doing them. I caved and commissioned someone who knew what they were doing to paint my dolls. No regrets. XD

 

When I first got into the hobby, I thought the entire point was to do everything yourself. So when I heard people actually paid someone else to do a faceup I was like, "why even bother getting a doll." but I know better now. For me though the whole appeal of the hobby is to do the faceup and create for yourself. Even though I'm not very good. I will keep going until I am happy

 

While I'm not the greatest (or even really good at all) at faceups, I already have so much mail anxiety about my dolls arriving to me once, so I couldn't imagine sending them out to the world AGAIN where they could get lost, or at best, take ages to get back to me. No, I'm too possessive over them and they'll have to suffer my faceups for the rest of time (or until I get better).

 

I would much rather do them myself. It's much cheaper since I already have the materials, and I want to have the doll feel self-made. I haven't done a faceup yet, but I'm an illustrator so I should be just fine. I'm just worried about the eyeliner and eyebrows being symmetrical!
Edit: I also agree with WasteOfMuch, I don't feel safe sending it in the mail.

 

I always do them myself.
Sure the first ones weren't really all that good but the satisfaction you get from it is so good. Over time you will get better and seeing that evolution is, to me, wonderful to look back on.
Then one day there will be that one face-up where you will think, 'did I do that?'
That feeling is just wonderful and completely worth the effort and learning curve.

I also find that it causes me to bond a lot more with my dolls than to have a company or comissioned face-up.

 

@M_Kun009 Have you thought about sponging on Liquitex instead? That's what I plan to do for now, and if I like doing faceups, I'll buy an airbrush+compressor later.

It seems to require more base layers, and works best with acrylic paint (can't smear/lift like watercolor pencils/pastels when being sealed). I plan to thin mine with retardant for longer workability.