Aesthetics Catch-all Faceup Journal

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This week we had a sudden break from the summer's wet heat and I was able to start some long postponed faceups! Hooray!
I have been deeply struggling to function after burning out on life stress for a year and so I'm proud that I was able to get everything together to do something actually meaningful to me and enjoy the creative process as well. There are some materials I'm lacking and some techniques feel awkward and rusty... But I love painting my dolls and then admiring their faces for a long long time afterwards so I'm looking forward to getting back into it here and there through the fall and sharing some results with anyone who wants to see.

I started by prepping and blushing on two heads, my Little Rebel Hachi (who I Hybrid on the Aria Doll girl body) and this Volks sdm-f-20 (I previously wrote the wrong sculpt for her here).

First off, the basic blush on her (sdm-f-20)

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Just one layer of basic tones on her.
Hachi, below, I got much further on! Two layers in and well developed. I'm so excited about how she's looking!


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I really like the Hachi sculpt. I think they are very charming with some unique features and a lovely early work by an artist who went on to become very popular I'd say! That being said, I always struggle with how to treat her open-canvas upper eyelids. You could do anything you want I suppose, because the area is so flat. I tried to blush in some dimension for her and I'm really pleased with how that brings her face together.
Currently I'm thinking about how I will polish off her look in the last layers. Her resin and the Aria Doll she's hybrided on have lost all semblance of healthy pink and so I've mostly been blushing some kind of modest human complexion onto her. As for "makeup" I would like to add some color for interest... Just not sure yet. I had a wig I was considering for her, but it had bangs and she now has very wonderful eyebrows so I believe I'm onto the gruelling task of finding a compelling bangless wig to buy for her.
My partner suggested green eyeshadow (someone please remember how that's funny! --> I love my green eyeshadow on dolls and probably overuse it!!). None of the girls on the dresser have green right now so maybe that's the answer. I'd like to keep the lips "natural" / not dark or bright.
What does anyone else think?
Nothing is set in stone. I do have some eyeballs coming for both these which you know, I may or may not decide are the ones. I think Hachi will end up with something medium dark and warm or mysterious no matter what. Wigs are very much sourced by price and availability around here.... But I have a few maybies in mind. I really can't emphasize how kind of gross I think the dolls bleached out resin color is. So I'm trying to flatter her with what I pick.

Anyway sorry for talking for a billion years! We won't have a dry day again for a while so I'll get back to painting them then, whenever it is.

 

Thank you @JL_The_Lion I'm the same way. I usually just have done basic agenda, some personality I'm going for etc, then I discover how to execute it in process. When I have painted a head a time or two before sometimes I have notes on what not to do remembering what I was dissatisfied with in the past. I consider the whole collection as well, trying to give myself some room for variety can be hard in a collection of dolls that are ultimately more similar than I wish but at least I can try for kind of different makeup choices and brow shapes etc etc.
Thanks @carterhaugh ! hm, yeah I have some sort of vision of a striking girl with some strong features and dewy feminine makeup. There are muddled thoughts in my head of 90s Chicana makeup and modern beauty trends like bigger softer eyebrows, creme blush and lipstains... It will turn into something
@thanks @Gothbubbles ! I appreciate it. Will be fun to see how she turns out when actually finished.

I'm kind of glad on this one I have time to think, forced time, waiting for the right weather again. Still not sure how to finish. Selecting a wig will have influence. Right now there's a chance I just throw a little light color on the eyelids, do my lip detail lining and really pearl ex to my heart's content.

 

Thank you @tanjalalie overall I agreed with you, and ended up just polishing up the look she had with fine tuning sone details then adding pearl ex and gloss. I wanted a light touch of makeup look, natural but glowy and I think it happened. Yay!

Adding mint green to eyelids and lavender purple blush in many areas of the face made the best of her complexion which I had previously disliked at the end of other faceups, so I'm feeling accomplished.

Here she is all finished

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I don't have a wig I've picked for her especially. I'd love to find one worth ordering, and I'm sure I will eventually. Or even next paycheck, we'll see. But for now she's all together like this with her updo and fancy outfit I saved for many ages from a trade:


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Edit: in a follow-up post you will see I actually tweaked her a little more before feeling totally satisfied, though it was just a little more work on the look of her lips!

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Update on Hachi: I ultimately decided I wasn't quite satisfied with her lips after finishing the faceup and did a stressful deranged rework after the fact -- one of those ones where I'm taking risks I shouldn't because they sometimes do work out, like glazing over with tinted gloss to try and change the color but then being unhappy with it and scrubbing it, almost losing my existing finished layers etc. Anyway! I eventually got a color and variation on the lips I was happy about and considered her finished this way:


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We went to the garden for photos the next day and you can see how she turned out in the gallery of this visit here

I'm looking forward to finishing up the volks face but I'm not totally sure what the concept is for her yet. Luckily I have time to daydream before the weather is ideal again.

 

Also thank you everyone for the lovely comments I forgot to reply!!

@tanjalalie thank you! I always love the idea of a doll who has a pretty up-do and it just seems hard to plan in practice but I really do think this wig suits her! It's wonderful not to have to order something else for her because this looks cool! I've decided I like it enough and especially the variety it brings to my doll family.

@Rosenfinch ah thank you so much! Not all doll sculpts are for everyone. I do like her exaggerated features and think she is very darling. I'm glad you can like her too all painted!

@carterhaugh thank you! I'm not sure if the definition you like is from the color blushing or the pearl ex sheen but I'm glad you think it's pleasing! As for myself, the sealant I have been begrudgingly using since they changed the formula on me is very semi-gloss and I truly hate that about it. I've found that the best way to suffer it it to blush even more heavy sparkle on top than I used to. So much highlighting on the skin has changed how the sculpts look to me finished and I do really enjoy that part!

 

Alright, darling Volks sdm-f-20 is done done done and I love her

So...

Spoiler: crazy person stuff

I'm really fighting myself on everything lately. Occasionally I have fun but often I'm just fussing and struggling and obsessing. Well I almost always paint 1/3 sizes heads, and I'm out of practice anyway having done only 3 faceups in the last year. So she's smaller and I was just fighting her eyebrow linework so much (because she's smaller) I eventually rubbed half of one eyebrow right off her faceup, and I mean tearing through layers of sealant
That of course sent me into a 24 hour downward spiral and in coming to terms with this major bungle I decided, no I will try to save it after all. And here we are, she's really lovely and I'm so glad I could finish her up instead of starting over.
Patching faceups is deeply horrible and I recommend never having to do it but it is really satisfying when you can actually repair something well enough!

Please forgive that I have no eye putty right now. I have some very acceptable brown glass eyes she will use soon.


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I don't know why this one tickles me so much but I do just love her. I had fun going very old school Kpop smokey eye glam and yes, I'm aware that she's intended to be an msd on her very humble msd body but what if instead we...

Spoiler: Nude hybrid

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You know? really though I was toying with the idea of trying to get away with using her on the sqlab sg53 body because the body is adorable and weird, I love it. I have no other good hybrids for it right now (and it's sentimental , I don't want to let this one go). Even though the resin match is not a match at all and proportions are adventurous when I put these pieces together I feel inspired. So anyway I'll see if it works out. I don't know how the colors look this acceptable together in that snapshot but I think it's the magic of adding tons of pearl ex on the faces these days including interference blue tones which trick you away from seeing the yellow in resin as much, not to mention the miracle of those hot pink wigs.

Anyway thanks for listening and looking! I'm up past my bedtime tonight and jazzed up from some minor victories like this one after a kind of really hard week or so.

 

Thank you @cobaltconduct ! For me, I think I repeatedly collected 1/3 dolls in an old style where the head was bigger and cuter, the "babyface," which probably conditions me to see the potential. I always liked the volks SD cute and I think they come across the same as many of their SD13 models just in the smaller size. Almost a year ago I got this girl and then the Volks f-01 on the sd10 body... My F-01 feels totally childlike... Which keeps throwing me off. As much as I like cute kid dolls I don't think it's what I imagined after all the years admiring f-01. In turn this hybrid maybe scratches the itch of the cute teen looking volks. maybe f-01 will find herself an sd-13 body someday too.
The sq lab body is awkward in many ways and if you look back through the forum you'll see it's virtually impossible to hybrid aside from the intended use for dollfie dream heads. But this body was at one point the smallest one I ever held onto and enjoyed sewing for. She's just so handy, light, cute and fun. Those are the bodies I hesitate to give up in this hobby because they can make so many creative projects seem exciting!

Sorry for talking you to death! I appreciate your comments!

 

@cobaltconduct I agree, I love mini super teen concepts because they make enjoyable characters to work with. Thanks for always being good company

Well, the time has finally come for a repainting of Marina (Aria Doll Narvy). This is something I very much dread but I have been unhappy with the last faceup this whole several years. Now we begin the new era for hopefully the better

Things are going well so far because the work came easily and naturally. I'm learning from some past dislikes and thinking on past successes in different faceups she had to hopefully reach the right outcome. I'm doing some kind of oddball things, like contouring her to death, even at the hairline for two reasons: one, there is no decent color left in her resin and I really must try to bring out the loveliness of the sculpture and breathe some life into her complexion with a selection of soft complimentary colors. The second reason (around the hairline) being that I am tired of the tyrannical reign of get giant round forehead and I want to do everything I can to flatter it.

We're at the no-makeup underlayer stage currently:


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(Having some weird postimages stuff going on today so I'm not sure how these embeds will turn out...)

Anyway so the finished look I'm planning will be a classic red lipstick, black winged upper liner and soft smoky eye, flattering strong brows (not over arched or too high...) and a pretty frame of baby hairs to coordinate with brown wigs. The blushing I am bringing in from the perimeter is to help me visualize where her wig rests so I can paint a hairline appropriately. Fingers crossed!

 

I should be finishing her up today and this morning we are resuming here:


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As you can see she looks like a cute balding man with lovely makeup currently
I'm really torn with how to address the forehead. I've brought the dark contouring way down and given some visual texture which I believe will get more pleasant and interesting in the final layers with pearl ex.
I've painted different styles of face framing hairs around her forehead repeatedly and wiped them ... The issue is not composing them so that they are pretty nor that it isn't very cute on her particular head shape but I'm struggling with predicting just where the wigs tend to sit and also starting to worry about if I will like the appearance at all or if it will just not integrate well with the wig on her visually etc.
There is this curse of Marina repaints I'm hoping to avoid where I am thrilled about a repaint partly or mostly but then I ruin it for myself with some singular decision

Anyway! She should be finished soon, just adding the last details.

 

Well, I am very happy to say she is all done and I think I just might have escaped her curse, as I am really truly very happy with her new face

I did decide to just leave the little sideburn hair details and do nothing else around the hairline. It's a little detail but I appreciate the way the sideburns look when the wig moves just right. (Doll hairlines around the face under long moveable wigs can just be so weird sometimes)

Here she is with her wig on:

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Most of the final work was just done on her lips, layering fine lines and washes of color until I was happy with her lipstick. I did a soft liner on her bottom eyelid with soft pastel painted on wet and irregular for realism. Her left eye (we see on the right side of pictures) has a defect where the resin is very thin and fragile and kind of damaged in one part which I have to disguise by the end of her faceup. You may have noticed iit earlier but adding liner always works. Then finally the arsenal of pearl ex and gloss at the end.

I have never seen her quite like this before, it's really great. I'm really looking forward to making her a few new pieces of clothes and with any luck taking a new pretty photo set of her before the cold starts to set in this year.

Thanks again for watching!

 

Thank you so much @JL_The_Lion Ugh I want to be a able to say "yes, of course she will still get eyelashes!" But... Well I bought them, I cut them, I tried and failed to glue them once, and now I'm used to her again without. It's such a tragedy that I was always so so bad at trying to apply eyelashes! I simply can't get the hang of it if she gets her eyelashes it is.... Not right now.

Thank you too @cobaltconduct I'm really happy with this one. Dolls are so interesting because you can certainly repaint them into new characters but you can also change things and have them feel like made over version of themselves. Sometimes it's surprising where the "identity" lies. I'm glad thos faceup still feels like her to me too.

 

Thanks so much for loving my work@tanjalalie sorry for my belated response! I would love it if all the time was faceup time but sadly winter weather is pretty much upon us now.

Thanks to everyone who's been watching! I hope you all have a safe and happy holiday season.

 

Happy new year everyone
We have been having incredible unprecedentedly warm weather since November around here... I'm trying not to be hard on myself for not getting to any faceups in December. I feel fairly sure it will finally be too cold to paint anyone relatively soon... But I did get myself a new doll I'm really excited about and I have a handful of others I'm daydreaming of repainting, so let's look at what it on the docket for 2026:

I am first going to list off most of my dolls and their status with the following symbols:
- don't like enough/ or just need repaint
+ like fine but would change something
++ creatively happy about their faceup

I also feel like mentioning that I am just really stuck in the hallway of life and feeling pretty bad self-esteem in a lot of places including creatively. So I will encourage myself by listing a bunch of my dolls I think have wonderful faceups first.

So, not planning to repaint this year:
++ Luca - Switch Haji:R
++ Omega - Elfdoll Lydia + Angel of Dream
++ Chelsea - Loongsoul ChenXing
++ Sylphina Angel - Rosen Garden Rosemion + Doll Chateau Bella body
(Painted in 2025)
+ Flora - Volks F-01/ Kira, Origin Body
++ Paloma - Little Rebel Hachi + Aria Doll 14 yr body
++ Bebe - Volks sdm-f-20 + SQ lab SG53
+ Marina - Aria Doll Narvy + iplehouse nYID

2026 agenda:
- Elfdoll tan Ruru (new! Want to paint her myself!)
+ Lena - Gem of Doll green Kira (I want to either repaint similar to what she has now or change style back to something more dark and monotone)
- Hawa - Switch Ryun:R + Resinsoul bigger (his designer faceup is pretty but rubbing off and I want to paint him my way and change some things)
- Allaster Álvaro - Nabarro Yakumo (I want to flatter him with something clean and versatile)
- Kam - Bimong Narin n611 (2008) (he really needs to be resin matched to his body and updated)

Seeing further into the future...
+ Sven - Doll in life Rydel (he could really use an updated paint and resin match to his body)
+ Fer - Little Rebel Seven (I would like to update, especially change his eyebrows and possibly go back to red lipstick)
+ Dimitri - Happy Doll Luke (mod) (he could just use an update)
- Nagi - Doll in Mind Lloyd (we may or may not see him again, I don't know)
+ Raynor - Switch Soseo (I would just paint him differently on a second attempt...)

I have wiped Ruru and Allaster and started spraying them today. Hopefully I can get anything finished by tomorrow evening

 

Got pretty well into Ruru today:


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I also made some progress on the Yakumo. I truly did not enjoy any of the process on these and am feeling really frustrated and inadequate. I wish I could just turn back time to when everything felt better.
Anyway, Ruru is a very very lovely sculpt and easy enough to paint. I just love her and am pretty sure I will still love her when I have the faceup finished.

 

I got Ruru finished yesterday and am very happy with her. I was worried at some point about whether I would like a cat eye liner on her giant eyes (but I did) and I wasn't sure whether I wanted that perfect doll skin with no markings or to add freckles and whether I wanted red lipstick or something like a sheer glossy tint.

I looked at a lot of 1990s Salma Hayek red carpet looks to decide on red lipstick or no red lipstick and asked my bf what they thought too. Ultimately we got this look of soft sunkissed day makeup.

I believe I'll be calling her Rocío.


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Honestly I think the Ruru sculpt is one of if not my favorite face of all time who embodies my most favorite potential bjd things. She is just incredibly beautiful to me and very doll-pretty but not eerie, minorly asymmetrical, semi realistic and very charming. I wish I had 2 Tan Ruru heads so I could paint the other one with the other more-makeup look (cat eye liner, foundation coverage skin and red lipstick) oh well!

Ruru has been a really good impulsive addition to my collection. Maybe the last addition, who knows. It kind of soothes a part of me who loved Marina's face sculpt so much but truly lamented that she was so pale and because of that ultimately couldn't quite fit into the image of I really wanted her to be.

Thanks for looking again!

I will hopefully come back with some more work soon. But hard to say, because it's supposed to be winter...

 

Aw I'm so sorry you haven't seen any tan or brown dolls painted by me before @cobaltconduct genuinely breaks my heart because I have really enjoyed painting them and having them in my collection when possible over the years but a few years ago when I was rotting in my father's house selling off my possessions trying to move out I sold or traded the remaining tan dolls. They would always find new homes easier. I love my smaller doll collection but i definitely feel that the dolls I have left are objectively verging on "junk" dolls.

Anyway I've been really dying inside with my remaining collection lacking in resin color variety (except my green Lena, bless her) so I couldn't say no to Ruru.

I'm not super sure what I'll be doing with her. (As usual!) But like with Marina I have the inspirations of my beach hometown, summertime, carefree nostalgia. I'm invested in making at least one Selena Quintanilla type outfit (beaded bra top and high waist pants/leggings) -- thinking about other adjacent 80s 90s looks and chicana fashions from my childhood.

I tend to kind of work on a few dolls fashions together in a family of themes and see what sticks for whom. I'm most excited about Paloma, Bebe, and Rocío right now and it's hard to describe how they are stylistically related but I kind of think about fashion ideas on a loop and categorize into which of them might be the candidate.

I would definitely say I'm thinking about some 1980s/early 1990s fashion memories recently. I would never really say I was a lover of 80s styles but I'm at this point in my life reflecting back on my young adulthood (as I'm nearing 40 now and feeling like I have floundered) and my childhood ideas about what it was to be an adult woman, and what kind of adult women I admired or thought I might ever be. I expect I'll explore some things like that while I'm sewing.

I talk so much I'm sorry!! I hope the reply is interesting at all. Thanks for caring to ask!

 

Today I have a faceup almost completed for Álvaro and I'm feeling very happy about it! I've had him such a long time and he's been relatively unused since 2015. He has no full time body so I'm just having fun and not worrying too much, but it would be nice to feel he's well painted again and take some occasional photos.


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He's a Nabarro Yakumo with eyes modified very slightly more open.

Hopefully I will get the lips cleaned up and detailed nicely and show him finished soon.

 

Álvaro is done and I love him. Unfortunately I lost his eyes somewhere in the time he was sitting around half painted. (Frustrating!) But I crammed some other eyes in to take some of the photos and ordered him new eyes that will hopefully work out well.


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Here's the wig he will be wearing

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Thanks @JL_The_Lion and don't worry, I think I understand the best answer to the question about why his face is very red this way is because sometimes I like to play with realistic skin techniques that indicate suffering: bruises, wet/crying eyes and cheeks, dermatitis/rashes and blemishes. I wanted to give myself an opportunity to focus on enjoying the process and really paint with some portrait techniques more than a faceup because it's fun to do on the right dolls.
On his forehead I thought it would be interesting to make the magical moon symbol but like it is still part of whatever is happening to his skin, a rash or like it is a birthmark or even mild burn perhaps.
Also, I knew I would stick him in this very bright pink wig which makes the pink rash blend a bit more into an expressive painterly look I think.

I have a body I can put him on after all since the character who would normally use it remains dormant so that is fun!

Thanks again everyone for looking. Hopefully I can paint some more soon.