Would you rather commission a faceup, or do it yourself?

Defs get it commissioned, tried doing one of my doll's (not a bjd though) faceup once and it was just horrible, esp the brows ! ><

 

To be honest, I'm bit confused about that at the moment.
The first face up I did myself and I failed big time
That resulted in commissioning a face up artist, alas with mixed results. Most of them turned out amazing. But a revision turned out aweful and on the latest commission I never got a good result (2 artists).
So back to doing things myself. Currently recruiting my sister to lend a hand, because she might be a better at it after all.
If shipping would not be so d@mn expensive I would definitely commission again.

 

I have never intentionally bought a doll with a faceup, occasionally I've gotten a secondhand doll who already had a one but I have never ordered one from a company or commissioned one... Not even for my first doll! I'm very much a do-it-yourself believer when it comes to faceups ^^ I really like being able to customize my dolls myself...it's the main reason why I collect. I actually don't think I would buy BJDs if it wasn't to work on them myself. It's Aldo how I bond with my dolls, for whatever reason dolls that I haven't painted myself don't feel like mine.

Everyone's opinion is different but I always encourage people to try faceups themselves! It's a big part of this hobby!(:

 

I've done one face-up very nicely on my Merry, but the second I did on my Incubi was an absolute disaster... So I'll be commissioning his face-up, and I'll train my face-up skills on Merry's human face.

 

I paint them myself. I used to be not so good when I first started but I didn't like the idea of sending my dolls off so I kept practicing. Now I'm much better. =)

 

I used to love doing face-ups, but now I prefer having them done by someone else/getting defaults because of CTS. At first it was a little irritating to accept that I couldn't really do it anymore, but now it's not so bad. :3

 

I plan on doing all of my face ups myself. I ordered my first boy with the company face up just to see how they looked in person. Now that I can see it, I decided I will do them for myself unless I really like the company's face up.

 

So far I am enjoying learning how to do my own face-ups. It's fun and with a magic eraser, mistakes aren't a big deal! It's also coming to be my way of bonding with my dolls. I keep them without a face-up for awhile until I have settled on the exact way I want the characters looks to be on the doll, and then I go from there. I think if I ever got a limited edition or some really fancy idea that I couldn't do with pastels and watercolours I would send them out to an artist though.

 

I have done all of my own faceups so far. There are some great faceup artists out there to commission, and I'll readily admit that they're better at painting dolls than I am, but at this point there are several reasons why I have no intention of commissioning a faceup: 1) I enjoy doing my own dolls and am learning and improving more with every faceup and I want to continue getting better, and 2) if I were to get a pro faceup done on a future doll, they would look out-of-place with the rest of my dolls that all have my faceups, and that would bug the crap out of me for a myriad of reasons. My faceups aren't the absolute best in the whole world, but all my dolls have my style and it makes them coherent with one another. And 3) the whole reason I enjoy bjds so much is because of the customizing. Each doll is a fresh art project! I don't want to have anyone else do ANY part of that process. I love trying new customizing stuff/different types of modding, doing the faceups, designing the style/hair/eyes, and sewing their clothing. Commissioning any of it is, to me, like paying someone else to have MY fun!

 

I can't paint at all. My hands shake too much and I wouldn't even try to paint a faceup on expensive doll. Therefore all my dolls' faceups are done by others.

 

I really enjoy doing the faceups myself! However, I have a huge admiration for the person who does the bjd faceup stories on youtube. If I were to commission anyone, it would be them ^_^

 

I would love to be able to do my own face-ups (I can be rather, um, frugal. lol) BUT since I cannot draw or paint a recognizable facial feature to save my life... I definitely send my dolls off for custom face-ups! :-)

 

It would be nice to be able to do my own faces, but I've always hated painting doll's faces from the time I was a OOAK doll artist. Plus I can't paint a thin line if my life depended on it. Of course, having a friend whose a professional face up artist live just 20 minutes away, means I don't need to. I LOVE what she does, so why bother? Now, if I had to actually pay to send my dolls off in the mail, that might be more incentive to try it myself.

 

To be clear, it's definitely not cheap to do your own faceups! I do my own, but I've invested quite a bit into the pastels and watercolor pencils I use, the cheapest sealant I'll use is still $10 for a small can, and even the gloss I use for finishing doesn't run cheap. That's not to mention the pastel brushes (that eventually get trashed), the tiny paintbrushes for the gloss, the eyelashes and glue for those, the materials for cleaning off old faceups and cleaning them before facing up and blushing, the respirator mask and cartridges for it, the stands to hold pieces when spraying, plastic gloves for handling clean pieces... there's nothing frugal at all about doing your own faceup!

But to me, it's satisfying to make a doll my own that way. Even when I have a problematic faceup or blushing, it's still mine, and I can fix the problems or make it better later on down the road.

 

I'm in the commission club for now. I am artistic enough to draw what I want, but painting is not my medium. Not sure I would do it enough to get good at it.

 

I enjoy doing faceup by myself. That way, I feel like I can bond with my doll better and proud that doll faceup is made by me.
Also, I'm quite an impatient person and probably can't wait for the waiting time given by the artist, so rather than I bugging the artist, I just do it myself

 

I like doing it myself. It helps me "bond" and I feel like I could have a really good skillset to maybe take commissions someday if I keep practicing. I find working on them to be quite relaxing, too. It makes you focus on just one thing and the real world kind of melts away for a few hours.

 

9/10 times I prefer to do it on my own, except if I want a very specific style I can't pull off or there's an artist whose style I like really much and want to have it done by them.

 

Commission if it doesn't have official faceup.
I just can't do it nicely.

 

I'd prefer to commission it. Face-up artists out there are great at painting small details which I can hardly do

 

Commission. I am never happy with my own work and single flaw will prevent me from enjoying my doll. I don't have that problem with a good commissioned piece. Not to mention I love the diversity of having different styles.

 

I would rather commission someone. I am an artist, but I wouldn't dare to attempt a face-up. My hands are way too shaky and there's no chance my results would turn out good.

 

I would prefer to commission , but I Have to choose someone in Europe... On my french forum, I saw that somtimes the face is blocked at the custom, because they want the bill of the face, which is impossible to give when you buy the whole doll ! So, either the doll comes with the compagny faceup, either I have to find someone that I like in Europe...

 

I do my own face ups because for me it's a real bonding experience with my dolls.

They're not perfect, but they make me happy to know that I was the one who breathed life into my dolls, not anyone else. Also, every doll I do is slightly better than the last and seeing my improvements makes me so proud of myself.

 

I do my own faceups and I do have a faceup shop for people that don't want to do theirs. But if I didn't think my art was good enough for my dolls I would definately commission someone I admire in the faceup field. I have lots of respect for talented people and I want to encourage them to do their thing - commissioning them is a fine way to do it! I'm not talented in any other field like sewing or photography but the painting is my thing, I'm really happy that I can make someone's doll alive/come true when people decide to order stuff from me. I don't question anyone's decisions, I just like when people do what they enjoy of. It might me making your own faceups or commissioning the fabulous paints on a doll just the same. It's all worth it.

 

I actually like to commission face-ups as I really like how to see they come out in the end with their artistic skills.
A close friend of mine has started her own face-up, mods etc commissions and I'll always let her do my dolls face-ups as I think she's great. ^^

 

I think I would rather do my own face-ups. If my first face-up goes well, I'm sure I'll prefer doing them myself!

 

I would love to do it myself but I'm not really an artistic person and there are some many other artists' styles that I love & when I picture what they can do with my kid I'd rather have them do it! But the wait is unbearable!

 

I'd do it myself... way too terrified of packages getting lost or damaged, or something else happening.

 

I'm too cheap to commission all my dolls face-ups, and I'm happy (for now) with the ones I've done. I have commissioned a few of my dolls' face-ups before, though.

Honestly, I haven't had the best of luck with commissioning artists. The first time I asked my friend to do a face-up for me, he took so long (seriously, it was months) that when I finally got the doll back, I turned around and sold it because it didn't feel like my doll anymore. I understand that there are more important things than a free face-up, but it was an extremely frustrating experience. A couple years later, I commissioned an artist to do face-ups for some heads I had struggled with. When the artist was struggling with what a had asked for, instead of starting again, just erased the parts she didn't like and sealed it without trying to hide or fix the erased spots. It was one of the first face-ups I'd commissioned, so I was too shy and polite to mention anything, and just had her send it back. I removed the face-up almost as soon as it got home. It was a total disappointment and a waste of money.

So I'm not really sure which method I prefer. I'm really wary about who I commission now. Most of the time, it's just easier to do it myself. At least then won't end up with a face-up I hate because I'm too polite to say anything.

 

I really doubt I will ever do my own faceups. So it'll be commissions for me all the way. I'm just not a very artistic person and I don't have a very steady hand. Also I already know that I'm bad at things like eyebrows and making them symmetrical.

I couldn't agree with this more, I think that's exactly how I would feel if I started doing faceups myself. I'm never happy with my art and I always find something I want to change with it. I think that would drive me crazy.

 

Commission, definantly. Although, it would be nice to learn how to do your own face ups and stuff, but I'm such a perfectionist with my dolls. They have to have the perfect face, wig, personality etc. So never gonna happen. xD

 

I do my own faceups. I admit that a professional could perhaps do a cleaner and more polished job, but I feel that by doing it myself I can still get the look closer to what it is I actually want, which is usually extremely specific.

So, I guess because I'm a control freak xD;

One day I'd like to have a doll with an artist faceup, though... Just a random one that came on a second-hand doll, even. They're so pretty. e-e

 

This is a hard one because I do not draw very well. So right now I am thinking of sending out my dolls for a face up. But I do want to learn how to do it myself.

 

I'd do it myself. I always have a hard time describing what I like, and am super picky about little details. At least if I do it myself, I only have myself to blame is something goes wrong :P

 

Commission!!!
I got my first blank head of MD Vampire Miho last year. That was when I was still quite innocent about BJD things, such as "FACE UP". When he came... I laughed and thought, "Face up must be easy as pie, since I always got A in art at school". Then I began to face up him without any experience or...just found some info from internet. The result was really shocking me He looked like a monster from hell! I tried it 6 times but still the same. Now I understood, I had totally no talent. And decided to pack him up and waited until I joined German BJD forum and found a reliable artist who saved me from this nightmare. I swear, I will never try to DO FACE UP by myself again. That is too scary! My parents and friends still laugh at his old face up photos until now.

 

Definitely commission as I have zero knowledge and a pair of shaky hands. For the happy lives of my dolls, I should commission an artist to do their face up LOL

 

I would actually try it first by myself and if I see, I really cant get a vision real, I would 'give up' and send it to a faceup artist.
But its still a hard decision, because I feel quite attached and would be afraid to send parts of my doll away.

 

I would rather have someone that was more skilled than me do it....because Im really afraid that I will mess up and then something terrible will happen LOL

 

Commission. I can't draw well, so I ask people who are more professional in it

 

I bought my doll blank so that I could attempt his faceup myself, since it looks kind of fun (if not a lot of hard work and patience, but still) and I really want to try my hand at it! I want to try and see if I can do a faceup in a similar style to how I draw, since my doll (and any future dolls) will be based on characters I already have so it would fit my mental image of them better. I'm sure my first few attempts wont be great, but I'll just have to keep at it until I en up with something I like!

 

I do it myself! It's part of my bonding experience with my dolls. I know what I like and usually can get the desired result or close, and anyway I love the practice and the sense of improvement over time. If I try several faceups and I can't get my doll done properly, maybe it's not the doll for me. That said, I would like to send a head off at least once for the experience. I am a little worried though that I'll end up paying a lot of money for something I won't like.

 

I prefer doing it myself^^ I'm far from being a pro, I'm still beginning and ain't very talented but it's so much fun ! It's really one of the things I enjoy doing the most with BJD, the customization aspect !

 

I do my own. Not because I'm worried someone else won't get it right, but because usually I can't stand to part with a doll for a while after they've arrived. So that would mean I'd either have to leave them blank until I was willing to let them go to someone else for a face up or I'd just have to do it myself. Years ago when I first got into bjds and had no experience, I decided I would rather have a horrible face up and not have to part with my doll. But I feel like I've gotten better with practice so it's not as big a sacrifice now.

 

I ordered my first head with the company faceup and I left it for a few months before I decided to try a faceup myself. Naturally the first few were awful, but learning how to do it was really the fun part. Now I order all my heads blank and just do my own, which works for me because I can just do it over again until I've got something I'm happy with C:

 

I'd much rather do them myself, but I'd have to learn.... and I'm lazy. I've spent ten years learning to draw. I don't care to put that much effort into faceups. So. I'd rather pay for someone else to do it for me. xD I can draw for them what I want at least.

 

I usually send out my dolls to more experienced artists because I really like their work, but the most recent dolls I've acquired, I've been trying to do it on my own to get better at it.

 

I only did one face up by myself till now. It was really fun and didn't look that bad for the first time. So I decided to do the next one(s) also by myself to get more practice.

 

There is part of me that really loves doing my own face ups because it's fun. I'm pretty terrible at it though especially when I compare what I do with some of the better artists here. If I could get past my worry about not getting my doll back I would would probably commission a face up. I don't think I'm allowed to though since I've not been on here long enough.

 

I prefer to do it myself. Since I have the basic materials to do the faceup, I think it would be fun to paint the faceup. Another reason I think is because I don't want to send my doll's head far away and have to wait months before the head is send back to me.

 

I will try myself and if im not good at it i will send in commission and buy a practice head and keep practicing and when im satisfied then i will do it myself

 

For the time being I get the company to do the faceup as the dolls are so expensive to start with. I would love to try a faceup though, I've been thinking about just getting a head to practice on, but then I have to get the materials to paint it also.

 

Definitely do it myself! I really like taking the time to bond with the doll - often little decisions I make in the faceup process helps inform their character for me!

That being said, I am an artist outside the hobby too. Although my field is printmaking I've had a lot of study to help me. I'm not the best faceup artist for sure and I'm definitely still learning (eyebrows are so hard ugh) but I also like seeing my improvement over time! I think a lot of people are afraid to start because they know their first faceup will likely be bad but... you can't get better if you don't try!

I'd say if it's something you'd like to try - maybe see if you have a friend who has some supplies you could use! Meetups are great for this and there are a lot of facebook groups for local people in the hobby so that's another way to meet people! You can also ask people there to help you learn if you're super nervous!

 

If I don't have a specific look in mind, then I prefer to commission an artist that may come up with a face better than I would have imagined. When I envision a specific look, I like to tackle the job myself . . . at least the first time. If I can't get it right, I clean it up quickly and then find an artist whose work I like. It's important to relate specifics as they provide progress photos and before the artist reaches that point of no return. Some artists can be a bit temperamental, though, and may prefer to put their own little twist on the finished look. Once you establish a good working relationship with an artist, that shouldn't be a problem. Try to find one that will work with you.

 

I prefer doing it myself. I'm an artist after all.

 

Commission. I have next to no artistic talent.

 

I have one that I did myself and it made me really bond with her. My friends have now started asking for me to do theirs. So be aware that if you do good you will be asked by friends. Also realize you can get more than one face up out of the supplies. So in the future you can redo some of your other dolls.

It may seem intimating at first but I watched a ton of videos on youtube of others doing it. It really gave me the confidence to give it a go myself. I found it rather relaxing to do and the process of seeing it take shape is awesome. (Like I said it really made me bond to her)

I have seen some great commission work though. If you have an artist that you really like then maybe you may want to go down that route.

Either way make sure you do your research and pick the supplies or artist that best suites you.

 

I'm scared I will mess up big time so I'd rather have someone who knows what they are doing to do my face-up, but since I got a lot of the same dolls I would like their face-up to be different from each other. So I would try my first face-up on one of them one day.

 

Oh gosh, since I'm trying to get my first, I would be a nervous wreck if I tried to do myself- definitely send to someone else so that I know that I'll love her (and won't damage!)

 

I will do it myself soon but not now.

Because I dont have airbrush it is pricy here in my country

But do have talent in painting so that I am really want to paint them on my own