Aesthetics First Faceup Ever on Second Doll Ever

I actually think you did a great job, there's just a few things that need a little work, like the eyebrows which you've already mentioned. I think they look great, just uneven.

The thing that sticks out the most to me is how shiny she is. I don't know if it's the sealer you used or maybe she wasn't dry when you took the pictures, but her face looks oily. (To put it in people terms)

Otherwise, I think it looks great, a little thick around the eyes. Try watering down your paints. And you already mentioned the eye creases.

Good job overall.

Edit: oh, and the mole under her eye, I would make it a dark brown. Unless it's supposed to be makeup. The black just looks kind of strong.

 

You did a good job blushing for your first time! I really like the shadows under her eyes

of course this depends on personal taste but I think either using orange tones or pink by itself will make for a more consistent look instead of using both. Blushing the top eyelids like you did the bottom also might look more natural as the black lines are a bit harsh, or you can try using brown C:

 

good luck on your next faceups! you'll definitely learn a lot as you go

 

It's pretty good for first time. You can try to make the lines thiner, it will make the face up more delicate!

 

I really like what you've done with the eyes, especially adding the lower lashes. The look great! Really good for a first faceup, so I can't wit to see how your second will turn out if you decide to share it!

 

The eyes look really great. Especially for a first time! Most things, people have already mentioned such as her face being shiny. The eyebrows look really good but maybe a little too high on the face. I struggled with this one a lot. Also, for the creases, maybe try shading with dark pastel.
Overall, it looks way better than my first attempt!

 

Very nice first faceup! You've definitely got the hang of pastels, which is more than a lot of people can say after their first attempt. Even if they got a bit smudged, that's just a matter of practice (keeping those pastels under control is a hassle). You chose good colors and they're blended nicely.

You've already pointed out the things I would critique. For the eyelid creases, you need to thin the paint more in order to get a thinner line. If you're using gouache, I'm not sure what to recommend thinning it with. If you use too much water, the paint will bead up on the surface of the head. I use acrylic paint with ZM Acrylic Color Thinner, though I have used the thinner with acryla-gouache too. Acryla-gouache and regular gouache aren't the same, so I'm not sure if you can use with regular gouache. I'd also use a lighter color for the line, since you can always go darker if needed, but making a dark line lighter isn't easy. I usually mix a medium or dark brown, and after it's thinned out I can basically layer it until it's as dark as I want it to be. You can also get this effect where the center of the line is darker than the ends, which looks nice!

Whatever you used to draw the eyebrows looks really good. The main problem with them is that they're too high and they aren't symmetrical, which is common enough! I recommend looking at photos of people before drawing on the eyebrows next time. They are closer to the eyes than you may think. Especially when looking at a bald head, it's hard to judge where to put them. For symmetry, one thing that helps a lot is looking at the head in different ways. I always check the eyebrows with the head upside down, and sometimes in a mirror if I can't figure out how to fix the symmetry. Be careful about using the mirror because you WILL see how asymmetrical the brows are and you might feel bad XD (You'll also spot asymmetry in the head's sculpt, which can potentially bother you forever, trust me.) I gave up using mirrors for the most part because eyebrows were driving me insane... so now I remind myself of a saying I heard from my friend, "Eyebrows are sisters, not twins." I do recommend that you "block in" the eyebrows before painting all the hairs. What I do is put on the basic eyebrow shape with pastel very sloppily, then use a kneaded eraser to refine the shape. The pastel comes right off, so you can fix it as much as you want. Once they look good, I seal that layer, and paint the hairs on top using the pastel shape as a guide!

If you're using MSC Flat, it's definitely not supposed to look like that no matter the lighting. I suspect that you're either spraying the layers too thick, or spraying with the can too close to the head. When spraying, hold the can about 12-18 inches from the head, and don't use one long, continuous spray. Don't do super short bursts either. I do 3 or 4 bursts a couple seconds long. The head should look wet, but not drenched, and you should be able to see it start drying right after you stop spraying.

The lips look perfect, no critique there! If you want to step them up a bit and get the same level of detail there as the eyes, you can paint some faint vertical lines on them to give them texture. You could either use a slightly darker version of the lip color, or a translucent white. It's difficult to master, but the effect is beautiful, if you want to give it a try next time. You've already done a very good job, so I think after a couple more faceups you would be great at this. The only problem with being a perfectionist faceup artist is that after you've painted a bunch of your dolls, you start itching to repaint the earlier ones again... hehe XD

 

The pastel work and the lips especially look really nice. overlordu had some good advice about paints and the eyebrows/eyelids already. It's probably a good idea to try using a slightly lighter colour for the creases than pure black, as well as thinning them a little, since overall the look of the face-up is quite realistic and so a brown would probably look more suitable. You covered a lot of things that need adjustment next time already so I can definitely see you continuing to improve, awareness of what you need to focus on is an important step.