Faceups First Faceup. Constructive Criticism Needed

The eyebrows look great! But I think the crispness of the rest of the face up makes the shadow around the left eye look blurred or smudged. I think you could clean up the crease lines above the eye a bit too.

Great first job!

 

I've found pastel takes many layers before you get real pigment. A layer of sealant, then a layer of pastel, another layer of seal, more pastel. It may also be that you are using less pigmented pastels. I used to use cheap ones I happened to already have but then I switched to some nice artist quality ones and it's like night and day there.

Sometimes sealant doesn't stick to some bits when you spray which results in it not having enough "tooth" for the pastel to cling to. If you find that, spraying it again won't do any harm.

Overall not a bad first attempt though, particularly considering the issues you were having. A lot of learning to do faceups comes from learning how to use the mediums and not just the pastels and pencils but the sealant too. Sealant can be rather temperamental and you'll learn how your particular chosen sealant works over time.

 

It's so hard to critique without knowing what look you are trying to achieve. For example, his lips are way too dark to look 'natural', which is best expressed with a lighter color and some variation instead of a flat tone, but if you are going for a more vibrant look, they are fine. His brows are high, thick and dark, which kind of gives him a surprised expression, but again, it's all about what you want him to express. The area around the eyes is a little smeary, but again, not bad. Well done, and the only thing I'd suggest is practice, practice, practice. No one's first try is sheer perfection, and honestly, for a first attempt at a faceup, I think you did an amazing job!!

 

Hehe...ironically, I adored his company faceup...and when I got him, I was sorely disappointed because the lips are darker and thinner, he looks a lot more macho, and basically it didn't match their pictures at all. In fact, overall it is a whole lot less soft, and you probably would have loved it!

 

I'm not a professional face up artist, and you already got plenty of wonderful suggestions, but I think there are few more things you could still consider.

For the pastel, it really depends on the brand and quality, as it does matter for most art supplies; how pigmented the results will be, highly depends on the quality of the media. If you're using something other than artist quality paints and pastels, you'll probably need a lot of layers of fixative and pastel to get the desired pigment saturation. If you are using artist quality pastel, and still are not getting richer results, then try shaving your pastels and using the powder directly on your brush, instead of just rubbing the brush over the pastel. Having your pastel in powder form helps a lot, when you don't get the desired saturation. You should also be priming the resin surface with at least two to three layers of fixative, before painting. If you're suing a single layer, you might not get anything to stick to the resin, because of how smooth resin tends to be.

I love using acrylics for lashes and brow hair, because I am super stingy when it comes to fixative. I only want to waste as little as necessary, for pastel and acrylics to stick to the resin, and nothing more. However, I prefer lighter pigment (although I also overdo body blushing, despite my preference for more subtle coloring for it). Using acrylics on resin do require a bit more practice, patience and experience, as well as a steady hand (which I sadly don't have). Despite that, once you get the hang of acrylics on resin, it's just a single layer of paint, and you're done! Because acrylics are so richly saturated (the artist quality ones, at least), you don't really need a lot of it, or even layers. That's why I love it so much, even if I struggle to paint clean hair strokes all the time. Hope that helps a bit and good luck! (:

 

Hey!
I did my first two dolls face-ups with basic acrylics and some cheap pastels and felt like I was fighting with my materials the whole time. Here's my experience for my second round, so you can take from it what you will!

In preparation for my 3rd & 4th face up tries (which I just did), I recently went out and picked out some gouache and high quality pastels at my local art store and it was life-changing. The gouache, when watered down, retains it's color much better because it's dense with pigment, so doing thin lines is now a matter of my own skill in managing brush wetness and my own hand dexterity/steadiness .... The high quality pastels transfer from pastel to brush (q-tips in my case) to the face SO much better than cheap pastels. I won't go back... the materials are now within my control, not me trying to bend to them

For the gouache, I bought a few colors by Windsor and newton, in small tubes, and I got Rembrant singles pastels. If you're curious I'm happy to share with you the colors I've used so far out of my little selection. Stuff like this costs an arm and a leg for a reason, but for example, the pastels are clearly going to last forever since I'm using a tiny puff of dust from them for each faceup.

With the gouache, I will be getting a wet palette, as even though I'm kind of able to use tiny amounts from the tubes, it's still more than I need and it keeps drying out. So the wet palette should save me some $$ over the long run.