Aesthetics First & Third Face Up Attempts

Hey Shiyaria! It's always good to see more people beginning to learn face-ups. It's really hard at first, and I think some of that frustration will continue even as you get a firm grasp of the process.
I think that your tools and materials play a crucial role in your ease of working and your final product. So my advice is that if you find something doesn't work easily for you, to keep experimenting with other tools or (doll safe) materials. I remember when I first began doing face-ups I struggled to find my preferred media for fine lines. I hated watercolor pencils, used regular colored pencils for a long time, then eventually switched to only using tube watercolors for my line work. It's what works best for me. If you aren't happy with your lower lashes yet I recommend you try using watercolor and a very fine natural hair brush (or a shaped brush with fine tip and water reservoir, the type I use is called "Lizard's Lick"). It can be a little hard to get watercolor to stick to the sealed surface (I find using Purity Seal makes it a little easier than MSC) but when you use watercolor you can actually erase and repeat until you get lashes just right before sealing.
I really think you're off to a great start with a lovely color palette and attention to detail. I hope you're having fun learning too.

 

You can try to wet the tip of the watercolor pencil before you do the eye crease- that might make the color go on more smoothly. I'd give it a try to see how it works before going the paint & brush route- it might be brilliant or it might not but you've got nothing to loose. right? Otherwise yes watercolor paints do a lovely job and with a teeny brush you can get the detail in the lashes & brows that you're after. You're definitely on the right track! I love your brow shapes and the lips look really nice. I think you're doing great!

 

I'm a total faceup newbie myself, so I can't really give advice, but I just wanted to say that I absolutely love the way you did the lips on the third faceup. They look so expressive and realistic!

 

Your first try looks good, but the third is even better! I like her lips and the shape of her eyebrows.

For the eyelid creases, I've found that if your pigments are pure enough you can make paint and just use a brush with whatever chalk you've used (which helps with layering colors and color matching), or if it's a watercolor pencil, as renee_chan mentioned you can wet the tip, or you can draw on a small amount of pencil (like maybe half of the crease or line you want to work with) and then smooth it with a brush and some water, and kind of move the paint around to try to get the result you want without needing to rely completely on a paintbrush. It can help you get those wispy tapering ends you're after if you're not totally comfortable going straight for the brush.

The brushes I like are Army brand and they're called "Insane Detail" and "The Psycho," they can be acquired from Junky Spot and they are awesome. They're not expensive, either, which might be my favorite thing about them. They are really really small, probably the smallest brushes I've ever seen, and they're good for layering and doing things slowly to figure out techniques.

Keep it up!

 

Is Ambellina an Amory Wars reference, by any chance?

It is really hard to get a pencil that sharp, I have a small plastic container that is a pencil sharpener graveyard because none of them work well enough or the pencil breaks. The search continues.

They both have lovely even lips, and the eyebrows are looking nice. Another way to get the illusion of an upper eyelid crease without actually painting into the crease is to apply the pastels you want as eyeshadow as usual, and then when you're totally finished and you've applied all your final coats of matte spray-on sealant, use a small brush to apply semi-gloss brush-on sealant (I like Tamiya X-35) only to the part of the eyelid that is below the crease. It makes it pop a little and it will appear slightly darker than the rest of the shadow, so it makes it look a little more 3D without the drawn-in crease. It'll also settle a bit into the crease and make a darker line all on its own, you just have to make sure not to get any of it above the crease and make sure the stroke is tidy.

 

That's cool about her name, I'm also a fan!

I think sometimes the gloss doesn't show up that well when the photo is more straight-ahead as opposed to a 3/4 view, for some reason. I also can't see Ambellina's eyelids because of her cute shaggy bangs, ha.

I keep wondering if I got a mislabeled product because my X-35 is actually way shinier than the X-22 which is supposed to be the glossiest as far as I know? Or maybe a high gloss from another company would be more so? I also noticed that it dried down to a much less intense shine.

I haven't done a complete new faceup in a bit (just some refreshing of an old one) but I think I ended up using Sculpey Gloss Glaze on my second faceup's lips and eyes and I don't know if that's a recommended product or how easy it would be to remove, someone else might be able to chime in on that, but it has held up well for eleven years and it is way super shiny.

Anyway, nice work and I hope some of the suggestions might be useful! Learning new techniques is my favorite part of this.

 

Those both look great! I'm on my third face-up now as well haha. I have the same trouble with the eyelid creases! They end up looking gritty and blotchy on me and it makes me so mad omg. I've been using several layers of browns and blacks and with a few layers my crease lines end up looking a lot smoother, but still not perfect I'm gonna have to try paint or something. I haven't been able to find a brush fine enough for things like eyelid creases or lashes yet, though. Have to keep lookin.