Faceups Repainting lips without ruining the faceup

You can partially remove parts of a face up, using varying methods. A less invasive way might be using a melamine sponge although, it might take a while to see any progress depending on the gloss and thickness.

I have been repainting OT resin sculpts with acrylic paints only, and you can use them to paint on resin, as you would with pastels. You just need heavily watered down paints and extremely thin layers of paint to slowly build up the color. You don't have to seal acrylic paint, to layer it, you just have to have the paint somewhat dry. You do have to prime the resin for the paint to adhere and to protect the paint at the end. Hope that helps you, good luck. (:


Here's my last repaint on my mature tiny MYou Bettina male, using only acrylics for the whole face. I've redone him a few times already using only acrylics, which is a method I much prefer now, after a lifetime of using mostly pastel and acrylics for linework.


Here's the previous face up I gave him, using only acrylics.


And the 1st repaint I did on him, using acrylics for the most part -- I grew impatient and added some light pastel at the very last minute. wWhich was unnecessary I feel, but a learning experience.

 

You'll need extremely watered down paints, and acrylic mediums such as fluidity and retardants aids. You want your paint to look almost like dirty water, rather than paint or ink. Not necessarily the color of dirty water, but the consistency of juice, perhaps. You can look for 1:6 repainting tutorials on YouTube, that's how I got the inspiration to use only acrylics, by repainting my 1:6 head sculpts, via a more "proper" way to repaint 1:6 figures. It's super easy once you get the hang of it, and erasing or fixing mistakes only takes a bit of water and a clean brush! Good luck! (:

 

I’ve used a melamine sponge to gently remove the eyebrows from a company faceup, because I wanted them a different color and shape than the default. Just be gentle and precise with it, try to only scrub away the specific area you want to change, and make sure to put down a fresh layer of sealant for before you go in with your pigment.

Also, when working with acrylics I find that using good quality acrylics thinned out to about the consistency of milk helps it look much smoother while still providing good pigmentation. Many thin coats will end up with a more even look, while a few thick coats usually shows the brush strokes and looking a bit textured and chunky. Just make sure seal regularly, since acrylic is water based you can end up wiping away your previous work if you go in too soon or too hard with the next layer of watered down paint. I run into that issue a lot because I get so impatient when working on faceups haha.

 

If it helps, you can also look into how miniatures for tabletop games are painted - they use similar techniques of thin, watered down layers to achieve certain effects, including cloth texture. People who repaint fashion dolls tend to use a mix of pastels, watercolor pencils, and thinned acrylic paint, so they're another good resource.

I don't do faceups myself, don't have the necessary skills built up yet, but I've spent an absurd amount of time watching people repaint and customize toys of various types, and a lot of the techniques between them are the same.

 

No problem! Doing repaints the action figure way, is more akin to painting on canvas for me, as an old-fart-traditional-artist. I feel like BJD style face ups are more like applying make up (which I've never done on myself). I probably feel more comfortable repainting toys that way for that reason, but it's probably not for everyone. You definitely don't have to seal the work at all with using only acrylics, I use artist grade ones, but the tutorials I've seen, 1:6 artists use mostly hobby grade paints. Which are far less viscous and less saturated than the paints I am used to. However, I am all about less waste, so I stick to the paint I already know and own.

As far as layers of fixative, acrylics dry really fast, and you won't damage the work nor will the water reactivate the older layers of acrylic paint (that is not how acrylics work). If you read through some threads on here, you'll see people complaining about acrylics drying and being a pain to remove as they are working on a regular BJD face up application. There is no need to waste fixative for an acrylic only repaint, not just in my opinion, but based on experienced 1:6 customizers, and their experience repainting head sculpts made of all types of plastic including resin. You do have to prime resin, as I already mention and seal at the end, if you want to preserve the work or just matefy the paint -- the multiple layers of acrylics mixed with mediums can look shiny depending on how many layers there are. It is of course up to you, if you want to seal every few layers, but there is absolutely no need to -- that is what I find most appealing about using acrylics only, and it's less waste of fixative. It's 7AM for me, so I am more likely than not rambling like an idiot, but I do hope all this helps you! (:

 

You can certainly remove just the lips of a faceup with cotton-buds and acetone. Just go really carefully and slowly so you don't smear the rest of the face!
I've had success in my very new learning process of faceups by only using chalk pastel and water-colour pencils. If you're like me, using pencils is infinitely easier than using paint.
Hope we get to see the results, and good luck!