Aesthetics Newbie face-ups: learning from mistakes / advice welcome!

Hello all, many thanks for reading and huge thanks for any advice!

I'm returning to the hobby after a long break (many years) - with a new focus on crafting and making things this time round. And a newly discovered love for the fashion size / Iplehouse FIDs...

One of the things I'm having a go at is face-ups. I've only tried two before - ten years or so ago - and they did not go well... I've done other crafting hobbies in the meantime, so am much more willing to have a go - and thankfully now, there are a lot more tutorials etc available!

I have two dolls I really wanted to try...Progress images and more details below!



EDITED to add final face-up pics for them both after one more round of revisions!



- The first was a blank Iplehouse FID Leonard. He's been sitting untouched in a box, so I figured I couldn't make things worse. I was quite pleased with my first go (apart from the wonky eyebrows)... And then disaster - the white paint marker I'd been using for sewing somehow got on his face and left several lines, on his cheeks and forehead... I cleaned off and removed as much as possible... And while revisiting, I tried to tone down the 'too red' cheek blush. And added additional lines to his eyebrows to darken them... I still though have the worst lines on his forehead. I don't think it's going to be possible to remove them or indeed to cover them (you can see a bad first paint test) - but any advice welcome! I thought maybe I could also try to turn them into scars or something - if anyone's seen any good tutorials or has suggestions, I'd be grateful!


EDITED to add - with one more round of revisions - I trimmed his eyelashes close, added another round of colour to his cheeks, and built up his accidental 'scar' a bit with glue mixed with pastels, to hopefully make it look a bit more intentional...
So his hopefully final before after is:



- My second partial face-up attempts was also a catalogue of errors... I bought an Iplehouse Isabel FID with the default faceup, but her previous owner had had the lips painted pink. Very professionally done, but didn't suit the character I wanted, so I thought I'd try to change the colour...
First attempt - not shown - I just painted over the top, which looked terrible (thick and gloopy). So, for a second attempt, I managed to remove just the lip colour and started from scratch with the darker red shown in the collage (pic 2). I much preferred the colour. But after a few weeks, my mistakes were really bugging me - asymmetrical, and flecks of red powder beyond the liplines made her look a bit clownish... I figured I could just wipe the lip colour again - but that went horribly wrong, I messed up and damaged her wider face-up. After much cursing and unhappiness, I figured I was going to have to wipe the default faceup. But I really wanted to see if I could preserve the eyes and eyebrows - I loved them!

That led to the panda-like third photo in the collage, with everything else stripped back, apart from around the eyes. Which did though leave a quite obvious transition / line round the join.
So I really tried to colour match as much as possible and blend this in - and also go for a much more natural look on the lips. This is the current state of play this evening, and I'm pretty happy and back in love with the sculpt

But - not sure if she looks a little too flat somehow... Likely because I just used the same colour palette throughout... And now I'm wondering if I should have done more undercoating / basing in different colours... Too late for that now of course, and I really don't want to start from scratch. I wondered about trying freckles (loved them on Leonard!), but she doesn't feel like a freckled character! Any thoughts or suggestions again v welcome (for this or next time)!

EDITED to add - I made another round of additions on her, as she really was seeming a bit too flat... For the final (hopefully!) round I: added another set of small lines to her eyebrows and underlashes to make them a bit darker and repainted her eyeshadow silver to give a bit more definition (hadn't intended to do this, but accidentally scratched it while trying to put eyelashes in!). Another round of colour on her cheeks. Some very faint lines on her lips, another round of colour, and finished in gloss. And - despite having not intended to do freckles / beauty marks. I realised it was one of the things I liked most in Leonard, so tried them here too... Plus obviously added new lashes and her eyes back in. So the difference this collectively made was the below, and I'm much happier, even if not perfect



Final before / after:

Thanks again for reading, and any advice!

 

Ah, thank you both very much, and appreciate the kind words - and the advice @cleverLC ! Agree she definitely needs something a bit more detailed, she feels a bit 'flat' at the moment! I'm just a bit frozen with indecision and the fear of messing things up! Thankfully the weekend is looming, and it may even be dry enough to spray some sealant! Thanks again

 

Thanks very much @quilleth - I think you're spot on, and will try that if I have another go at face ups! In the meantime, I've done what I can do add some more depth with existing attempt, and pretty happy with result I think!