Supplies Specific Faceup Supplies

some makers sell small sets of pastels assorted for flesh tone, dark colours etc. Winsor & Newton watercolor pencils can be found individually at craft stores, art supply shops or on the brand website. Same goes for paint tubes. I recommend to invest in reasonable quality supplies. I find store brand materials are difficult to handle and pigments are..how can I say, more corse? buying only few colours you need shouldn't cost as much as cheap and large sets anyways. I also use wet brush on watercolor pencils to use like regular water colour sometimes too Good luck!

 

You can get single soft pastels from certain brands, but depending on the brand, sometimes it's less expensive to get a set. For example, Rembrandt ones are 8USD for a micro set of 4 purple toned pastel sticks on Amazon. Compared to 5-8USD for a single full stick on D. Blick. The portrait or other larger sets of half sticks would probably be less expensive in the end, even if you get colors you might never use, as opposed to getting single sticks or micro sets.

Amazon also sells single watercolor pencils from certain brands, if you don't want to get a whole set. It's probably less cost effective, but you won't be getting colors you don't need. I personally prefer acrylic paint, which you can get single color tubes, and from varying price points, depending on the brand. A little goes a long way for doll face painting, even if you only use paint and no pastels for shading.

I only use synthetic brushes, and because I mostly paint on tiny 1:6 scale off-topic action figures now, I like to see the brushes in person. I get whatever synthetic ones are cheapest at Michael's, with their 40-50 percent coupon. I always re-use the brushes, even when they are damaged, because I like texture and you don't need nice new brushes for applying pastels. I mostly get new ones for "fine" line work with acrylic paint, when the brush gets damaged. However, I keep the damaged brush and use it for applying texture or applying pastels.

Hope that helps you some. (:

 

For pastels, I've personally found it easiest/ most affordable to buy a set like the 64 color student grade mungyo one, which is about $10 on amazon. It's got a lot of colors that you may not use, but you might be surprised about what color eye shadow works for a character, or if you want to do more realistic "glowing" style faceups, you would actually use some blues, purples, greens, etc in certain areas of the face! I also customize vinyl dolls, and use them in drawing to add depth when markers and color pencils don't cut it too, so I get more than enough use out of them. They're well pigmented and a little goes a long way, so they're a good deal compared to splurging on the outset for a limited number of expensive supplies like pan pastels. I actually specifically bought that set, because my other set of the handrolled pastels didn't have enough variations of blue or purples.
Like Enzyme said, pencils and paint tubes can be bought individually at most art supply or craft stores. Personally, I've also bought sets of those, but like with pastels, I have multiple uses for them other than just faceups, so it works for me. You may need to ask an associate for assistance, since sometimes they're kept in a locked case to prevent stealing, but the nice part about getting things at the craft store, is that you can usually find a coupon. I like gouache paint, since it can be removed with water if you make a mistake, so it's more forgiving than acrylics, and gets less clumpy for me, but either will work.
For brushes, I use a mix of synthetic paint brushes and makeup brushes. Nail art brushes are also pretty good for things like lashes and eye brows because they tend to have long springy hairs, which are good for lineart. I'd recommend a liner brush or nail art brush for line work, a couple of filbert or eye shadow brushes for blushing, and an eye brow brush (has short, flat bristles and is angled) for eyebrows, liner pastels and possibly lips depending on the size doll you want to work on (it works great for brows on my fashion dolls for example, but is too big for their lips). A couple small round brushes are also always handy if you don't want to get a set. I'd also suggest a very soft fan brush or large fluffy brush to help brush away dust or eraser bit when you're working. Scaggly little round brushes are great for adding some texture in blushing, so I have a couple old ones just for that purpose that I use.

 

Seconding that you can buy separate sticks of pastels, pencils and tubes of paint. I found having a bit more variety in the pastels is sometimes useful (if you want to add some blue undertones, for instance), but I never use the greens I had in the set and had to get some different browns separately later regardless. You can also mix your own tones, too, though, when shaving a tiny bit of pastels into dust and mixing a couple of tones together if you feel like you are missing a specific colour (same with paints). With watercolour pencils, I only use black, brown, pink and white, so I bought those separately and expanded as I needed something more specific. With paints, I usually only use black and white acrylic or gouache and have a small palette of watercolours for a bit more of variety. I only got a large makeup brush and some nail brushes as an extra to what I already had, but I'd say a variety of 5-6 brushes is a good start (a liner, a large one to get dust off, some soft ones in various sizes for blushing, something a bit more rigid for eyebrows).

If you are unsure what colours and tools to get for your first go at a faceup, I'd recommend using a blank photo of the sculpt and making a mockup first (either digitally or on paper) so you get a better idea of what to gather

 

It's worth saying that if you use pastels to blush, you might look at make up brushes. They hold chalk pastels very well. I usually use ELF ones because they're inexpensive ($1 - $2 a brush).

 

You’ve already been given great advice so I’ll only add a couple of things.

Firstly don’t be quick to write off certain colours as wasteful, you never know what you may need (some blues and purples are great for reproducing more realistic skin tones) as you never know what your inspiration may be.

Secondly buying sets of pastels or pencils isn’t always a bad thing especially if you look for sets that are designed for use drawing portraits, they’re more likely to give you a decent range of colours to use, a range you can build on as you move forward.

Some other supplies to pick up are gloves (cotton, latex, nitrile… whatever you prefer), a good pencil sharpener, erasers, cotton buds (Q tips), craft glue (for eyelashes), good lighting and a steady surface to work on.

 

A lot of art supplies can be bought in small themed packs (like "skin tones"), or even just on their own! I've bought some pastels and paints on their own without buying those huge, expensive packs of them with colors I'm unlikely to use often. While more unusual colors have their purposes, if you're new to face-ups they're generally not worth it until you've gotten more experience. Though big packs of art supplies aren't bad - I have the 64-color mungyo pastel kit someone above mentions! I personally actually buy the bigger packs of colors, but then get a higher-quality brand for colors I use more often, like reds and browns (I personally buy panpastel pastels for the nicer ones). I also second the recommendation for non-art supplies mentioned above, gloves are very important! I keep forgetting to use them and now my hands are a rainbow of colors