Photography FACEUP CRITIQUE

Hey, I'm actually a noob in the doll hobby and face-up in general, so I don't know how much my opinion will matter. I think that you did a really nice job because the face of your dolls are gorgeous and realistic, especially the freckles on the milhwa r head. The only thing that I noticed is, when zooming in, that the bottom lashes and the water line of the Taeheo head are a bit grainy and that is probably the type of pencil you're using. Other than this little thing I think that the shades of the face and the "make up" are super nice and well made. Still I'm a newby and don't know much

 

Hi there! I'm also a complete newbie in the hobby, but I hope I can help. Your freckles are absolutely beautiful! They aren't too heavy handed (which can be cute in its own right), but they aren't too faint, either. The Taeheo head is very nice, but a little sharp with the make up. He looks like a fashion model, which is great if that's what you were going for--he just doesn't look as natural as your other face-ups. Still, they are all very beautiful. My suggestion--if you don't feel like you're progressing, get some cheap practice heads and work on those until you feel you've nailed down your style. I'm in the process of trying to do that as well! Keep your chin up! You're face-ups are great.

 

No problem! I hope I helped you out at least a little bit. May I ask how you are putting on the freckles now? I know some artists use watered down acrylic or watercolor paints and a stiff bristled brush to sort of 'flick' the freckles on, and then blot away the harsher ones. You have less control, but it looks more natural.

 

Your faceups are wonderful! I've been sitting here trying to come up with critique, and I'm honestly coming up blank. The faceups look soft and natural, but also realistic and I think they compliment the dolls very well. I also love the skin texture. Maybe you could try experimenting with more colors and small lines for extra details? I think Bluoxyde has some faceup progress photos that could inspire you. I think you definitely have a talent for faceups. ^^

 

I would suggest you to still use pencils, maybe if you're not switching to watercolor pencils. I use Stabilo watercolor pencils, without wetting them though because they are more precise and I can make sharp lines. I use a lot my pencil sharpener, as for other supplies I think that you can use gouache paint or watercolor. For what I've seen on youtube and online this are more easily removed and less harsh on the resin. With gouaches you can get pretty defined lines, even more than pencils and with tiny brushes you can get even more into detailed. Watercolor, in my opinion, are better for freckles and moles and more subtle details.

 

I have no experience doing faceups so I can't help in regards of methods but looking at the three images, I think you could improve on the eye area. Your last picture shows improvement with drawing the eyelashes so it looks like you've been working on it already. For me the eyes are the focus of the face so the more detail you can put in that area, the better.

I think you do freckles really well! They blend in naturally and and have a realistic look to them. I also think you do eyebrows pretty well and if you want them more defined then maybe a sharp pencil could be used to replicate the hairs?

If you're having problems changing your style, maybe you need to experiment with different materials? As someone else said, a practice head would be helpful, keep taking pictures before you wipe the head and then compare them to see how you're progressing? Also with having a practice head, you will feel more confident about trying more adventurous styles!

 

You might want to try thinned watercolor or acrylic paint for eyelashes, eyebrows and lip lines if those are of interest.
It takes practice and patience, but it is well worth the finished product.

 

Your limiting yourself on your color pallet. Try to use two to three complimentary colors when doing brows, lashes and even on your blushing. The subtle differences pay off. That's the biggest thing I can see to help you out.

Line work is a pain. Have you tried a kneadable eraser? If you use it to blot your lines between colors, it helps to crisp up your lines. Also, I go over the tops of my lashes, where they start under the eye, with pigments to shadow them and thicken them up. I also think that lid creases would help you out. Do those first on your face ups.

Your shading placement and brow shapes are really good. Each of your dolls definitely show their individual style. Freckles are really nice and you have good lip lines. Overall, you do really good face ups. Keep at it and keep posting pictures. They are a pleasure to watch you progress. Fl.

 

Okay first: this is going to be critique on a very high level, 'cause your face-ups are actually good and face-up critique is somewhat taste based anyway.
Btw. if you say, you want to go for a semi-realistic style, does it mean, you wanna be more or less realistic, than you are now?

Actually I don't see you're stuck in the same style. Of course the face-ups are close enough they shouldn't look awkward next to each other, but they do show different personalities and I am sure to see the progress, too.
I guess you started with Taeheo. You went for nice details with the freckles, but asuming it's not due to picture quality, the lips, brows and lower eyelashes are pretty smooth without sharp lines, which is most propably not the natural look you were aimig for. You did nice contrast on the inner eye chin and below the nose, but for my personal taste he's lacking contrasts at ears and eyelid crease (again this might also be a lighting thing in the photograph)
Second I'd say you did Ell's face-up. This face-up is why I think you found Taeheo a little low contrasted, too, 'cause this time you set dramatic contrasts, making him look, like he wears lots of make-up. Which is cool. But since you said, you want something natural, it was most propably not the goal, I guess. Btw. in those make-up tutorials for humans this contrast thing is done in the shape of a 3 (and a mirrored 3) so you're going down from the temple till you're under the cheekbone, than to the mid and back and in the end to the jawbone fading a little to mid. (make sure to go a little over the ear to so it fades in) just in case I'm taking that natural to serious, though I actually do this for natural face-ups, too, but with softer colors and much blur. But unless you plan to bodyblush your doll, you might not wanna make the lower half of the three (or at least not to dark)
It's seeming like, you weren't lucky with the lashes of Taeheo and started to work them out more detailed and did a clear eye line and some dark eyeshadow. Again it looks like make-up and it does this pretty fine, though I don't like that you did the lower eye line only half way through (actually it kind of looks like you did it the whole way and then wiped half of it), but that's defnitly a thing of personal taste. If you want it more natural, I would suggest to put all your black colors into a box far away from where you do face-ups. Black is a dead color and allways looks kind of unnatural. This espacially stands out with his light hair. With most natural hair colors you should be fine with using a dark brown (not to dark with light hair) for the eyeline and some beige, brown and maybe rose shades for the "eyeshadow" How dark or how many totaly depends on taste and what look you want to create.
I feel like I can see some small lines on the lips, so I guess you started with details here, too. If you wand it to look natural and not like make-up those lines are as important as this blur nor panting all lips (which you are doing great by the way) I totaly like the color choice here. It natural and fits the hair color and skin type.
What I personally don't like is the eyebrow color (asuming, that he's wearing the right wig) It's too reddish for the hair color, which makes it look as if he dyed his hair (though if you want that look or see it different it's fine, it's just something I don't like)
And last you seem to have done Milhwar. Btw. I love that face. I think you used more dark brown and less black, the lips are more detailed and natural. You might wanna put some darker color in the deep part between the lips (I personally tend to stick a brush with darker red to brown pastel powder (less or as saturated as the base color I used for the lips) between the lips, if this helps you) About the lip shaping I prefered how you went down the middle of the lower lip on Ell, but the lip lines seem really nice and that's one of the most important parts for natural lips to me.
I really like the freckles, they are looking so natural and I think you did some ear bushing this time, which is doing it's job to a natural look, too.
The lower eyelashes turned out mutch better (or much more to my taste). I think the left ones (from viewer point) are a little to far to the inner eye. In my opinion the natural way is making them a little shorter and less voluminous towards the inner eye and stoping shortly before, but the mixture of lenght and directions and stuff just came out perfect to me. I actually like that you used pink pastels on the lower eyeline. It actually makes it more realistic than semi-realistic, but I defnitly like it. I think I'm trying this for my next face-up. The eyelid crease seems to me like you couldn't decide whether to make it blured or hard (or you made it hard, didn't like it and tried to blur it?) I'm a little unsure, but I would try to softly apply some semi dark (not to redish) brown to the outer eyelid and I had not drawn the eyelid crease line completly to the inner eye (I'd stop round about at the part where it's 45° for this sculpt I think)
I like the brows. The other brows you did were much thicker and lots of people prefer that way on boy sculpts, but I personaly go with this. You might get a more realistic result if you used a little darker brown pen to add some hair (I'm unsure whether it's better to concentrate on the outer brow fading - by using less hair - to the half till two third, or just conentrate on the inner part an set some single hais to the rest, I like both).
And I'm actually not sure, but it seems to me like the right eyebrow (from viewer) is a little thiner and less redish (or did you use some pastel base on the left one? idk)

And just overall, I'm not sure whether you did, since it's hard to tell on photos, I like to (and asume to look natural) to use some brush-on, glossy sealant at lips, lower eyeline and inner eye. Most glossy selant should be discrete enogh to not look like lipgloss with one layer.
Additionally I feel like (though I'm not sure, since that's not easy to tell from pictures) your lashes are not the best quallity. It can really pay of to invest in good lashes. Or make them a little uneaven by shortening some single hairs. They seem totally identicaly in length and thickness. And especially for lighter haired persons, that don't use mascara it might look more natural to not have black eyelashes. Though this is defnitly a question of taste, some people just dont like anything but black lashes, and that's fine.

I hope I could somewhat help you

 

Honestly, i tried some face ups myself, and its really hard, only on the lashes i started like 3 times over again..
Your heads look amazing, i did some freckels on mine and used the splash method i read somewhere,
But its hard to get them realistic, so i would like to know how you did it..
I really like fushia lace reply, lots to learn from her i think, but overall i was amazed by your work...
Really good already, so i hope to see more results after the tips you got....

 

I'm a hobby newbie but I am an art student in real life so I thought I'd try my best to give some critique!
Honestly, I love your face ups! They're so beautiful and feel like real people to a point where I can almost feel they're breathing. The only thing I would really try to focus on is sharpening the eye lid crease. Not to the point where its just a super slick line like most face ups are, but enough to define it more than the kind of blurry line they currently are. Maybe after you do your soft shading of them, go over the area with a slightly darker pencil or paint to just really bring it together? But that's honestly just personal taste and going off the fact my own eyelids are pretty defined but gosh, this is such lovely work! Consider me a fan now!