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

I like to do my own face-ups, for me it's part of the fun of having a bjd: customizing. I really like to blush my doll and even if I am not really good at it, it make feel good and I have fun doing it.

 

I would love to get a really nice faceup commissioned. I have never done a faceup on a BJD before, but I have on other dolls. However, I am not sure if I could part with my doll for that long and her headless body would make me sad, lol. So I am not really sure. I guess I would rather I do it myself, but if I couldn't get what I was hoping for I would send her off.

 

As of right now, I will be commissioning for faceups. I am new to the hobby, but I want my dolls to be painted nicely and look nice.

However, I do have a practice head for when the day comes that I practice my own faceups. If I manage to get well enough with practice, I will paint my own dolls. But until then, I am sticking with commissions.

 

In theory I'd rather do it myself, but in reality my free time and desire to paint (not to mention the right weather) don't always occur concurrently, and then the doll in question will probably go faceless for years (I have a head in my closet that I've been meaning to get to for three years now!).

So in reality I'd rather comission someone to do it (or buy with the default), because I seem to value my time more than my money these days.

 

I do them myself. I'm quite confident in how well my faceups come out (after years of practice lol), besides this is just a different canvas.

 

While there are a couple of face-up artists that I adore the work of, I will always be one to do my own face-ups. Half the reason I keep buying new dolls is so that I can paint them! It's just so much fun to see a doll come to life (so to speak) right in front of you. Plus, I do believe that I would wind up getting frustrated with having to send out my any of my boys for up to weeks at a time, when I could spend a few hours and have it done myself.

 

Rather doing commission than doing it myself. I might get a huge mistake and fail for her

 

I think that doing the face up is one of the best parts of the hobby and adds a touch of personal custom to my doll so I do prefer doing it myself

 

I've always done my own faceups, but I've always had a lot of the supplies on-hand since I've been an artist since wayyy before I got into dolls. I can understand why many people commission faceups, and there are some great artists out there! But I've always felt like, for me, doing my own faceup was the way to go, because it makes the doll really 'mine'. Even if I did decide to commission someone, I would constantly feel like I wouldn't be able to tell them just what I wanted and it'd be too much trouble for me and them to get it just right. lol

I was also really happy when I realized doing faceups on BJDs helped me improve at painting on 3D surfaces in general (of course) because it was really one of my weak points before I got into the hobby. :>

 

I try my hand at it from time to time, as I would really like to become good at it, but usually end up sending them off anyway. I just ain't that good at it xD I am more interested in having my dolls look professional, clean and nice than to insist I do it myself when I know I am less than so-so on it.

 

I have purchased the supplies but have never attempted it. I even took Volks faceup class at a Dolpa a few years ago with hopes of learning to do this myself. I really would like to do this and if it didn't work out I could always send the doll to a faceup artist like I did with the Volks School head and body I had purchased for that class.

Oh, and even though it wasn't asked I would have to say that I have been commissioning faceups lately rather than getting the default company faceups I had done on my dolls when I first began collecting BJDs. Does cost more but I love how beautiful they become when a professional artist does them per your specs. I also tend to stick with certain faceup artists and have had them do multiple dolls for me as I love their style. One in particular does fantastic air brushing but I think I'd just stick with paints and chalk myself. Now I just may start looking for a head to paint.

 

I have chose to do mine my self, I hardly have the money to buy a doll let alone a custom face, but I could buy supplies piece by piece until I had everything. I have dabbled in painting Mini's for years so it wasnt a huge stretch to paint a dolls face for me. I just needed the info on the do's and dont's and it was fairly straight forward. Working with the pastels has been wonderful and I even get to use some of my mini painting supplies as the sealer I use is fantastic for face-ups. This way if I'm not happy with it I can just re-do it and if I mess it up... well its my fault and no one else.

 

Hands down, I'll do it myself. And guess what? My faceups skills are mediocre at best, but I don't care. I think commissioning them is not only quite stressful and tedious, but weirdly overpriced, and then I've heard of so many scams of 'artists' keeping people's doll heads. No thank you, I think my dolls are beautiful in all their bozo-the-hooker glory and shine through the cheap supplies I use on them.

 

If I really like the company faceup I'll order it. But otherwise I'll like to do it myself because it saves money and is fun to do. I suck at eyebrows but the fun part is learning tricks to make it better.

 

I try to do everything myself. Partly to save money, but mostly because I prefer being able to fix things myself should I accidentally mess them up. I play with my dolls a lot, so I just like to know that I can always re-do a faceup.

 

Same here. I do them myself because I'm super cheap but I also do like doing them myself. I really like to do something special and unique with my dolls and I can control everything about them doing them myself. And the process is enjoyable to me. I learn something new each time. I have one doll that came already done and I really don't like her as much as my other ones because there's a sense of pride with my other ones that I painted myself that I don't have with her. I guess it's kind of a bonding experience to do it myself.

 

I'd like to try doing my own face-ups.. I've done customs on some off-topic dolls and had some success with those. But for now, I just get the default face-up until I get the courage to buy and attempt using MSC. I have pretty much everything else being an ex-art student. ._.;

 

Although I know some very talented faceup artists, I really don't feel I'm ever going to get exactly what I want from a commissioned faceup. I'm currently learning the art of the faceup so that I can paint the faces perfectly to my vision. Stay tuned!

 

Like many of us, I would love to be able to do just what I dream but considering the amazing face ups created by all the talented artists here, I think I will carry on asking them.

 

Commission; visual arts have never been my strong point.