Contest Customizing Contest: Back to Basics

The respirators, can they be the one time use kind? I only buy those 3M ones that aren't full respirator status but are however meant to be used around sprays, dust etc. So it still covers the needed bits its just the cheaper option I use. Lol

 

Yes, that's fine. If you paint only say the chest and head, then you only need to show those parts

You'll post the thread when you're ready to submit your entry, with photos and everything. There's no reason to create a thread in advance ~

I would highly recommend holding off and posting your entry when you've decided. Once your entry is up it will get processed for voting, and when that happens(when you can no longer see your thread) you won't be able to edit your entry anymore. If that happens, you would need to come to Ask the Moderators to edit your entry, but if it's late there might not be time to change it.

Yes, that's fine, just include one of those in your materials photo ~

 

Do we need to include the photo of the blank head? I have started on the faceup, and realized, that I did not photograph it blank.

 

No, you can photograph the finished head with the materials.

 

Oh, I have a handful of dolls who need face-ups! What a great way to get me off my ass and do them! Now to pick...

I've also never used a pencil for any of my face-ups, I always prefer acrylic paint, so this is going to be a unique challenge.
*eek* time to go look into using a colored pencil, I've always been afraid of scratching my dolls resin....

 

Before I go nuts with doing a faceup(love this theme by the way) I noticed that pearl ex powders and glitter aren’t allowed, but what about powdered eyeshadows like mineral powder? Same deal? I’m not sure what pearl ex powders even are...^^’

 

@Akara
I have always had trouble uploading pictures. Once I am finished would you please be able to help me upload my photos? I only have my phone you see...

 

I'll try this.

 

Yes, same deal there, that would not be allowed ~

You'll have to upload the photos yourself but I did post a short tutorial about it last year so feel free to check that out and hopefully that helps: /threads/triathlon-round-i-dress-for-success.752537/page-4#post-12265208
If you're having issues with the upload, please come to Ask the Moderators.

 

@Akara

Question:
When I do faceups I usually spray some matte medium between layers of pastel to fix the colours in place when it looks fine before I add more layers over it.

Is this method allowed for the contest?
Can it be considered as a sealant?

Which mean I'd list two types of sealants in the entry form.


Thank you for your time!
=^.^=

 

Yes, that would be considered a sealant in this case and that's allowed for the challenge. If a painting medium is used for the purpose of sealing layers (with an airbrush or with the brush on method for example) it is considered a sealant

 

Thank you very much

 

Hi! I am considering to join the contest and was wondering if it would be alright if the doll I'm doing face up for has been previously dyed in black?

 

The body I want to use, bc i'm thinking about doing tattoo work, has a face up on the head... is it ok if when i take pics to black out the face/face up so that you can see it. would that count?

 

I know you have it marked that gloss can be used for finishing touches but i have a few things in my faceup that i want to be glossed but unsure if it would be against the rules. can you specify abit on what counts for finishing touches on say a fantasy style versus a natural. I don't want to go over board on the gloss and get my entry disqualified.

 

That's fine ~

The doll must have no prior face up regardless if you want to paint only the body. The head should be shown with the body for the final photos which means that you can't black out or avoid taking photos of the head.

You can use gloss anywhere on the head/full doll and there's no limit to how much gloss you are allowed to use. You aren't allowed to mix the gloss with the pastels or the pencil(hence "for the final touch" rather than as a painting medium), but you are allowed to mix it with water.

 

never hurts to double check. thank you for the explanation. now I can finish my entry and photograph everything.

 

I was all set to start the faceup, and it started raining. It's now been raining for three days. On the plus side, it gives me the chance to get the doll extra clean, I guess.

 

Okie Dokie!! Thank u

 

Is the watercolour pencil optional or mandatory? Would it be alright to use just pastels?

 

Aww oh no! Silly rain! >w<

You don't have to use a pencil if you don't want to, it's optional. Using only pastels is fine

 

Due to crap weather and time, I've only just started working on mine...but after I took a pic of my materials I went out to spray the head and came back to my cat laying on the pastels XDD

He's purple now.

I just toned my hair purple last night so maybe he was copying me?

 

Thank you for running the contests again this year! (Hoping that the weather cooperates and let's me finish sealing tomorrow.)

Even if my entry crashes and burns by not even hitting the top half of the list votes-wise, I'm already extremely happy:

Due to the limitations on materials I tried a pastels technique I doubt I'd have ever come up with/even contemplated attempting otherwise. And I love it, and fully intend to use it again in future.

 

For everyone worried about humidity/rain: I live in a very humid area, and Zoukeimura finishing powder can sometimes do ok in humidity or even rain. I definitely wouldn't recommend this on commission work or a faceup you intend to keep for a long time, as it may chip easier, but for short term it seems to do ok, as long as the rain isn't falling directly onto the sealant. So maybe if you still want to enter but are having bad weather this week, you could still give it a try? It's not really ideal and if it turns out messy, you might not win, but if you don't enter at all, you're guaranteed not to win!

 

Well, that was interesting! I've never tried painting with pastels before, and although it was a little fussy, I like the watercolor look of it. That's the great thing about these contests, they force me to try new things.

 

Ugh painting with pastels drove me nuts. I think I wiped almost all of what I ended up doing....one specific color of mine did not mix well with water. I do think I am going to try actual watercolors on my next custom job though.

I never realized how much I enjoy posting progress photos until I couldn't....it sucked. XD
Almsot as much as only using one colored pencil. *cries in corner*

I'm about done though! Small touches to finish (and it's supposed to rain all week!! Yay!), then the hard part - photos. I'm a graphic designer and my photography is 10% camera, 90% photoshop. I'm down all my tools on this project XD

 

I ended up completely changing projects. I might get around to the other one eventually, but I'm really enjoying the one I'm working on.

 

I understand your pain...
I never did a faceup without at least 8 different watercolour pencils...

But I got a tool that saved my skin here. I don't know its exact name but it looks like a tiny rubber chisel.
I realized I can dab some pastel powder on the edge and deposit it carefully to make likes and patterns. ><

This challenge forced me to be creative and change my methods...

 

I have one of those too! I have no idea what it is, what it's for or why I even have it XD
You had a great idea for it! Too bad I'm finished! I'm not going back now lol I need all week to get some decent pictures.

 

I am assuming you guys mean something like this? These are supposed to be blending tools used for blending polymer or other mediums like graphite or paints. I think they originally were meant to be used as nail art tools, but people started using them for polymer and art (I might be wrong about their origin). I got them as well, but for blending conté but I liked using stumps better. I haven't tried them with other mediums yet, but I don't think they'll work well with dry materials as they will with clay or paint (although I can't see them working better with paint than brushes do). I am looking forward to using them for my mod projects though, as they seem like they would be really helpful for sculpting in very tight and small places (like lips). (:

I also found this to be really challenging because I always use paint for line work, it was hard using wet pastels lines but it was fun to try doing something new, although frustrating at times.

 

Cool! Thank you @Enzyme !
I will go to bed less stupid tonight

 

No problem, Lawrichai! I feel like I always learn something new on here as well, that's why I love DoA, it's full of people of all backgrounds with a wealth of knowledge to share! Have a great night's sleep! (:

 

What’s that? Busy sleepless mom? School starts this week? Mandatory overtime at work this week too?

Looks like I’ll be squeezing in at the last minute as usual haha!

 

Hello

I hope to start the faceup contest soon also

I have a question

Is stencils allowed?

Thank you

 

Welp. That's my humble little entry submitted. I hope I've understood all of the photo rules - only realised at the last minute that DOA itself was the hosting site rather than the older practice of linking to a URL!

(And typically, the photo I liked the most/thought looked semi-decent is probably the least good photo technically... I'm terrible at photography!)

Woo - good luck to everyone who's entering! If it's anything like previous years I figure most of the entries are going to be absolutely jawdropping.

 

First year that I'm seriously wanting to enter...and I haven't done a face up in five years
I used to use paint for fine line work...but everything is so chalky in pencil and pastel.
Does my head in...I thought I would do some floating heads and pick the best one. So far I have to wipe all of them and my MSC is getting low

 

... aaaaaand it's time to stop working on that head and just consider it "finished".
I spent three days on it already ><

It's time to submit those pictures and hope for the best

...
This is going to be a very long week, waiting for the voting post where we'll see everybody's entries!
I can't wait to see them all

 

I actually ended up enjoying it. And it taught me something, we'll something I already knew. Always, always, always seal between each layer. By the time I got around to sealing my work there was so much pastel dust, I had to spray the sealant on extra thick to seal it all, which ended up giving my piece a look I wasn't going for. We'll I'll just have to make it work as Tim Gunn would say, as I don't feel like trying to redo it, and I've already used up a whole can of sealant.

 

Reading through this thread, I'm only just now realizing how basic my faceups usually are. Once I got the hang of using pastels, I stopped using paint almost completely. Nowadays, I usually only use paint for the eyeliner the liplines at the corner of the mouth. So, once I actually got some inspiration, it wasn't so hard for me.

 

Maybe it was just my pastels. They were so grainy mixed with water. Grain and lumps = ew. I ended up getting some of what I wanted to work, but for the most part, with fine details it wasn't good. It also beaded on my sealed surface. But it's ok...if I'd gotten that to work I probably would have ruined the overall look I have by adding too much. I'll be taking pictures today (was going to try last night but my stupid car broke down. It has the worst timing.) so hopefully I like it in photos too XD

Really I just hope the details show up in a good way....macro lens, engage.


EDIT: and I forgot my battery charger. sigh. This stupid week....
here's hoping it's got enough juice for a couple shots!

EDIT AGAIN: I just went back to read the rules and realized I didn't count my spraying mask as my tools and it's not in the picture D:

 

Oh wow, I have one of those polymer clay blenders... and a stump... and it never occurred to me to use either one for doing the pastel lines! I'll be happy to go back to regular paint after this.

 

Coming back from my work trip! I finished (or did I? ) the faceup a while ago, but the pictures were crap, so I decided to retake them when I got back. If I don't decide to fuss over my work some more that is. It feels so plain.

 

Do we have to include our sealant in the materials photo if it's MSC, and do we also have to include the head?

Thank you~

 

Can we use more than one sealant (like a airbrushed sealant between the layers, and MSC to seal the final layer)?
Annndddddd I just barely cleaned the head I plan to use! Ugh, cleaning old faceups is not my favorite activity, so tedious, but with the old one gone I can see the heads potential again

 

If you cut out/make the stencils yourself they would be allowed. Any other stencils(bought for example) would not be allowed

The head can be included if you want, but it's optional. Any other materials(pastels, pen, gloss) should be in your materials photo, including sealant and respiratory protection.

Yes, you can as long as the medium is used only as a sealant. Just leave a note about it in your entry and it should be fine.

 

I finished my entry last night! Whew. Just gotta take my pictures so I can submit them. X.x I probably shouldn't have entered all three contests for the first time I'm entering haha. I loved this challenge. I actually had NO idea you could paint with pastel. I may use this technique in the future, but hotdamn I will be glad to go back to using acrylics for line work. XD. It also forced me to bite the bullet and pick up some Pan Pastels if I wanted to use any shimmer, and I'm glad I did, because they are awesome to work with. I had wanted to try them anyway and kept putting it off, so this forced my hand.

 

Almost finished! After two photo shoots I think I have photos I like.

After this is over I'm spamming the hell out of it just because I can *so many photos*

 

Finally got some nice photos. But it was painful in more ways than one. Now to stop being lazy and submit!

 

Hello

I want to ask

I did a picture before starting with all of the materials and mask and brush and eyelash with the bare head also.

I went to the mall and saw eyelashes that look more better than the ones I intended of using and included in the photo

Is it okay if I use this new eyelashes? Its different from the one pictured in the materials used

**nevermind, the eyelashes are $45, Ill stay with the daiso lashes I originally pictured

 

I entered! *flails*
I hope I did everything right D:

 

My entry is in too! Best of luck everyone!!!

 

... four more days to go before we can see everybody's hard work !!!
It's going to be a LONG weekend ><

 

Every year I'm blown away by everyone's talent and creativity.

 

Right? I'm dying to see what everyone has done for this!

 

Sigh..... And that's a wipe. Just finished and read the bit about stencils. But am I bitter? Yes, lol, yes I am. Back to the drawing board.

 

Having a great time working on my entry, and almost done! It's really fun to use pencil again in a faceup. I've been using paint for years now, so this was challenging!

 

Haven't been engaged in conversation on this thread, but I just spent the past couple days working on my entry. Not certain if my submission will make an impact against the competition, but it was kind of fun playing around with the materials in a way I normally don't. Especially pastels---I'm not sure if my brand has a different consistency to others', but I managed to get some decent lines with them.

Just gotta get around to photographing the results before the deadline. Good luck everyone!

 

I seriously love this. Thank you Mods and thank you Community for a truly excellent Event!

 

About to enter and then I realized I deleted the materials image with the bare sculpt with the many "rejected" photos I didnt like of my face up

Tried recovery software but it was no use because all the file names looked similar. I took a new shot after I cleaned everything up and am relieved that one of the items I pictured, is not a requirement for the materials picture

I love how it looks in real but in photos it was fun and Im keeping it heh I think maybe my eyes is biased and the camera is showing me what it really looks like instead

I love this challenge, it teached me new things and I like that pastel was more easier to control than airbrush paint, so maybe now it will be my prefered method for blushing and painting dolls It is my second makeup and I hope it is not egotisitcal to say that im proud of it, even if it is not as good, but Im proud I took part with the community and also that I gave it a shot

Seeing past contest entrees and the creativity, I am excited to see what is to come! I hope the winners posted a just for fun to see their take on this contest also

 

I made a last minute decision to try this challenge as well, and now there's a storm outside...
So spraying on a lot of MSC in the wind and hoping at least some of it sticks to the doll xD