Aesthetics ~GG's Face Ups: HELP ME GET BETTER~

You're doing really well with your colors! You clearly have a good grasp of what goes where and I can see you're taking advantage of vibrancy in your pastel shading. Your lip lines are a little thick, though. If this is a stylistic choice, then you're all set, but if it's not, I would suggest that you consider buying a thinner brush (e.g. a scriptliner) and thinning your paint with either water or paint thinner before laying down color. In addition, using a thin brush with thinned paint will allow you greater precision so you can paint fine lines for eyebrows, eyeliner, and eyelashes!

Keep up the good work!

 

I really like you eyeshadow coloring!
I do also think you could thin your lines down some - I see a lot of your eye creases and eyeliner look to be quite thick, and even gloppy in one or two places. And I can see while some of your eyebrow hairs are nice and thin, some of them are quite thick as well. A thinner brush might also help with the thick gloss you also have. If you layer gloss too thickly, or over too large of an area, it tends to look 'off,' usually a less-is-more approach is best for looking classily understated. ^_^
As far as some personal preference, my eyes tend to be distracted by how bright a lot of your blushing is. It looks interesting and stylized on the 4th photo, but on the others, it looks a little too bright, or applied over too big of an area.
Also I'm missing lower eyelashes.

But they do look quite nice! I'd say you have a pretty good grasp of the basics - practice makes perfect, is all! ^_^ With the help of a smaller brush! XD

 

I think you have a very nice style! ^_^
I like the way you blush and outline the eyelids to give each dolls' eyes a very round shape.

I do think that these faceups are very high contrast. Part of this is stylization, but I think there are also a couple of other factors at play.

1. I also agree that some of the colors seem too vibrant for the areas you are using them in. Mainly the blushing on the cheeks, forehead, nose, and chin is very red/hot pink and so makes a very bold contrast with the resin color of the doll. In the first faceup, it reminds me almost of animal fur markings because it makes the NS of her resin in the center areas of her face really stand out as white-ish. I know that isn't what it is, but it just made me think of it because such large areas of her cheeks, forehead, and nose are blushed.
The color in these areas in reality would be filtered through the individual's skin, so choosing a warm pink that is closer to the doll's natural color will help to give this illusion. Think about blush colors at the store. They are created to compliment the skin tone of the person. Usually there isn't such a strong contrast between a person's skin tone and cheeks unless they are in very cold weather.

2. The black used on the lips is also very bold. Black is going to be the darkest color you can add to a faceup, so it will automatically draw the eye to the areas in which you use it. Both the lightest and darkest areas will stand out to the viewer. Since the black lines on the lips are very thick, it also adds more weight to them. Using thinner lines will help to "lighten" these areas, but I would also suggest trying a more natural color such as brown or even just a darker red tone of the color you used for the lips (I use a mix of reds and browns). This will help it seem more like natural shadows.

Other than that, In regards to the faceup with the freckles, I think that they are a bit too evenly spaced. When I look at photos of people with freckles, there will be areas where the freckles are very closely bunched together and then areas where they are more sparse. Try adding more very small freckles around the larger ones, especially in the areas that are most touched by the sun (bridge of the nose, cheek bones, top of the ears, for example), then let them become more spaced out as you get to the edges of those areas.
Are you using watercolor pencils for the freckles? If so, something that I have found is to dab each freckle with a just slightly damp brush after they are drawn. This will help to soften the color of the freckle and make it look more blended so that it looks like it is part of the skin. Having some freckles that are more faded in color will also make them look more natural, so I like to rub off more of the color on some and leave others more pigmented.

Hehe, sorry, I tend to get very wordy when I write about faceups. ^.^"
I hope that was helpful though. I really do like your faceups and I think you are doing very well! Keep up the good work. ^_^

Edit: Oh, hehe, I was going to say, I don't put lower lashes on my faceups either!

 

I like that you have a very strong specific style, that does not just look like you made a bunch of mistakes. Be yourself. Keep going!

 

you have a very interesting and cute style! some may find the colours too vibrant but i think you can actually get way with it as a stylistic choice <: if everyone uses normal colours where is the fun in that? keep doing your thing!

i would suggest getting a finer brush as said before and make sure all your lines are straight and confident (in some of the eye creases you seem to have flattered a bit so it's not as nice as it could have been)

as for the freckles i would highly suggest splattering them on and not painting them on as that almost always tends to look strange, practice a bit and see how different brush bristles splatter the paint and pick the one you feel the happiest with

if you must paint them on make sure your paint is watered down enough to have smooth edges when you put it on but not so runny it drips, it looks like you dry brushed them on (or drew them with a pencil?) so they are not particularly freckle like

over all your face ups are quite lovely, not many people can successfully pull of such an intense look successfully! dispute any flaws the face ups have they are all aesthetically interesting and confident, i think with a bit of refining an practice you could be quite incredible

 

You can paint freckles on and get a random effect, you just need to do uneven spots, and go in with a qtip and smash some/all of them. Splatter can be a bit disconcerting, and hard to control.

It's funny I don't usually go for the dark mouth line, but yours is so stylized I like it. I think du-hast said it most eloquently, your faceups are aesthetically interesting and confident, to use their words.

 

I agree with previous comments, that your style is very defined and unique. Bright pastel shades and black on lips were the things I noted first to comment on. And as said, if they are artitics choises, that's good. If not, there were given some tips on them already.

Some really good/intereting points: I liked much about how you have outlined the lips. It's very good looking effect on your dolls. And really beautiful eyebrows. Also, I liked those black-lined lips, were black was not on one line, but few dots (1st, 2nd, 4th) - look of them is not very realistic, but it works.

But all in all, very good work, and with some more practice you'll be amazing. ^^

 

I like the bold style and colour use though two things I've noticed is that
1. The eyebrows are positioned a bit too close together in most of the face-ups, so in examples 2 and 3 the eyebrows looks fine because the space between the eyebrows is the same as the distance between the eyes.

2. The black lines around the mouths looks a bit too harsh so maybe try toning it down with a dark brown so that you still have the line detail that you want, and it won't distract from the other details of the face-up.

 

It is pleasant to me that you use bright colors.
but, 1) it isn't necessary so many black to draw on lips. enough very thin line, and color 2-3 tones more dark than color of lips. it will be so more natural
2) in corners of lips too the dark shouldn't draw very much
3) freckles, already advised you as it is better to put and color can be used more natural, approached to complexion
4) eyebrows are very stylized become skilled and at you everything will turn out
I wish good luck in your undertaking

 

These two new face ups are definetely better! Great to see your works! The redhead is really beautiful. For the minifee, I personally would like some texture on her eyebrows (hair showing), but it's not neccessary. ^^