Faceups Has a faceup ever changed your relationship to a doll?

I customize most of my dolls quite a bit, not just face ups but also heavy additive and subtractive mods. I never had any issues or feelings of the doll no longer being my doll. Until I went to attempt redoing my DollZone Mo-Wen's face up. It was a custom work by a talented Chinese face up artist DZ used at the time. The artist didn't really do an accurate job based on what I requested, but DZ only sold through dealers back then, and I got mine through the Junkyspot. I thought it probably was language barrier and lost between the various communication lines involved (me-JS-DZ-artist). It was super disappointing because I paid more than I had up to then, on a "company's" custom face up work. Having said that, it was a beautiful face up, and I grew found of it eventually. I even had a few people DMing me to let me know they wanted to copy his face up, but they/their artist didn't deliver (I always felt weirded out by that, I feel it's pretty awkward thing to do and spread around).

At the end, when I got more comfortable repainting my own resins, I went and wiped my Mo's face. I didn't regretted then, but once I repainted him, I felt only emptiness. I thought if I modded him, I would feel better because I am not great at doing hyper-make-up like faces, or heads that are hyper stylized. Then I lost interest in giant dolls. So, I never learned if modding my Mo was a good idea, because when I came back to BJD, DZ had discontinued Mo, and I just left him in limbo since then.

I have repainted and modded many of my BJD, but he is the first and only one that was originally painted by someone else. I don't regret wiping him anymore, and I feel that if I could go back I would still wipe his face, but I would make sure to purchase a second Mo head sculpt, because I do regret not getting a second one. I think I would feel better about modifying the head if I had two. Because he was the only head sculpt I could have afforded a second one off at the time, and I was wrong to stay out of the loop for so long and missing my chance to get a second Mo head. I feel like I am now ready to work on him again, knowing that I can't have my original Mo back, but I am completely at peace with that.

As an artist, I would never attempt to recreate a face up I didn't paint myself even if I commissioned to create it. I probably wouldn't be able to, because of my shaky hands and dislike of heavy makeup like face ups. Probably not the most cohesive response, and not one that will help. I feel eventually, everything is as it should be. I am happy redoing my own dolls that I painted myself, but there are at least three I would think twice about wiping clean. I hope it's at least reassuring that you're not alone, and it might be something you can overcome in the not so distant future. Good luck! (:

 

Yes, the faceup is a big part of my relationship with my dolls. Sometimes I miss the mark when I'm painting one of mine -- I could like the faceup objectively but it doesn't feel like it was what I really wanted for the character, and that's unfortunate, it can really make me feel bad. Because I have a ton of dolls I usually have some dolls that feel like they are not quite right at any given time, I just try not to obsess over it too much and loop back around to changing them when I've got a solid idea what will fix the problem.
Some of my dolls I will love all the time even through their awkward phases or out of character seeming moments. I think of it like people, most of us probably have those times in our lives that stick out or seem cringe. So it becomes a funny part of the character arc to me at times.
Anyway I hope you can repaint the faceup in the right way for your ideas. Sometimes it takes me several attempts but I try to stay positive and remember that sometimes the steps to success are simply marking off the things that didn't work and trying again.

 

I usually don't dare to repaint the faceups I have given my dolls, fearing it won't be "them" any more, but I have done it a couple of times (out of practical reasons like damage or matching to a new body) regardless. And yeah, the initial reaction has mostly been "oh no", but after some time the new face tends to grow on me. So if you like the faceup in other terms, I would just give it a bit of time to settle. If it still really annoys you in a week or two, it's probably fair to wipe and redo, but sometimes it's necessarily to let yourself forget the initial shock to enjoy the faceup for what it is. Most of the time it's actually fine after all... and if not, the next faceup will always be better

 

Yep! I have felt the exact same! Like it’s not “her” anymore. Sometimes that’s for the better cuz I wasn’t happy with the first faceup. Though sometimes I do end up repainting for a third time. I find that eyebrows really make the character If I change the brows significantly they look like a whole new doll haha

 

A faceup can certainly affect how you feel about a doll: it's what separates your doll from just another version of that sculpt.
I keep wiping and repainting one of my dolls, including wiping the original faceup that was better than what I could personally do, because none of my attempts look "right" for the character. I've had friends wipe dolls again after redoing their faceups because the doll doesn't look like "themself" any more.
However, I do agree with cobaltconduct: let the faceup sit for a week or two and see if your feelings about it change, but if not, wipe it and start over.

 

This happened when I repainted my Cheby. I was so upset I carried him around in my arms like he had died (very dramatic). My friends said it looked fine but IT WAS NOT MY CHEBY!!!! I wiped it very soon after (a day or two) and focused harder on matching the eyebrow shape to his last faceup. I like his current faceup much more than the one he had when he arrived now! He feels even more like my boy!

 

Most definitely my first 1/6 came with this insipid pink faceup by default, didnt like her and half a year later plucked up courage and wiped and painted her myself and had this faceup ever since. If I ever get to refresh, it will be a similar look.

Another had a very clumsy old faceup I did years ago, didn't get her out of the box much. I finally got around to redoing the faceup and ended up blushing the whole body. Been on a shelf ever since. So pleased I did that

BJDs being easily customisable is why I got into the hobby. If you aren't happy as it doesn't fit your vision for her, do it again until you are happy

 

Isnt nice to do this though? The agency of recreating her look into how you want her looking?

I have the same issue with spraying a lot of layers ... apparently with more practice you can get this down to fewer layers using pastels more efficiently... I haven't got there yet myself