#faceup commission

[ppilotco]

After wanting to do it for so long, I’m finally opening some beginner portfolio-building faceup slots! Because I’m new and cautious, I’d like to only take one or two comms for now.

Please DM me for any questions at all, I’m more than happy to talk out face-up ideas and provide rough mock-ups before any commitments are made! Clean mock-ups are included in the commission prices.

Shipping is from the US, and is not included in prices. I am happy to purchase blank DD heads from Volks to repaint, but otherwise you will be responsible for shipping the head to me, and I will reuse the box sent for its return.

[izasfaceups]

Doing this spooky inspired skull faceup on this Faewoods Dolls Dahlia in lavender skin was fun and a challenge! The skull part is mostly acrylic with some pastel blushing.

Want to see more of my work or commission me? Then please check out my website at www[dot]IzasFaceUps[dot]com!

[meanae]

Some commissions <3 A rare Garden of Dolls Narah, a Minifee Sarang 2020 and two Lunarmate Sorens. green skin was a realy challange, but a lot of fun to paint.

[the-bjd-community-confess]

I commissioned two very famous, popular, and expensive doll artists in the community, and I thought with their portfolios of work, there was no way my commissions could go wrong. Both of them ended up terrible. In one case, it looked fine in the approval photos, but upon arrival, the materials used were the cheapest, crappiest materials available. In the other case, the artist's terms and conditions clearly stated that no changes, remakes, or fixes were allowed. Even though I knew from the preview pics it wasn't close to what I asked for, there was nothing I could do about it. Neither artist ever posted my commissions anywhere. Needless to say, I have trust issues now.

~Anonymous

[lilyindollyland]

EU-based faceup artist (📍Italy)

Been in the faceup game since 2018, great feedback on IG and DoA

☀️Custom BJD faceup €65/doll

🌄Artist choice BJD faceup €55/doll

💅 Mani (only purchased with faceup) + €15

What's included:

✨Standard lashes (black or brown) - (**please DM for custom)

⭐Piercings (glued on) up to a maximum of 3

🌹Small face tattoos/designs (<50% of face) **

Other services:

Extensive tattoos/designs (>50%) +€10

Deep cleaning service +€10

Pls note!

Shipping to and from NOT included in price.

Legit BJDs only.

3-5 weeks turnaround.

Contact to book! Only 4 slots/month.

[20dollarlolita]

Hi, kids,

Remember it's okay to not want to do your hobby as a job. It's okay to not want to sell the things that you make. It's okay if you want to make art without taking commissions.

It's fine to completely lose enjoyment in something if you're doing it for money. It's fine to say, "I don't like doing this when I have to do it," and to just never do it.

You don't need to make your hobbies pay for themselves. You don't need to turn professional or semi-professional. You can love the freedom of starting something when you want, working on it when you want, and finishing it (or not finishing it) when you want. If you find that taking that away makes you not love the thing, that's just a lesson that you've learned. It's not a failing. It doesn't mean you're not dedicated to your art or your craft. It doesn't mean you're not doing it right.

Not everything needs to be a business. Not everything needs to have financial worth.

While we're at it, you don't need to be good at a hobby to want to do it. You don't need to have a goal of improving. If you get a guitar and you love playing it, but never get beyond cowboy chords and 4-chord songs, you're still valid. You don't have to be the best in the world to have it have worth. Your grandma's chicken enchilada recipe isn't going to rank in the top 100 enchiladas ever, but you still love them and enjoy them and they taste great. Maybe your doll faceup isn't going to look like a youtube tutorial's did, but if you liked making it, that doesn't matter.

But it's also totally fine to do things just for the response you get from other people. If you're only updating that fic because you have nine dedicated readers who want to know how it ends, that doesn't mean you're not dedicated to the story.

"This is just something I like doing," is enough. It doesn't need to be a job, or something you're good at, or a labor of love, or an otherworldly calling from a holy being. You can just make things. You can just do things. It's okay.

[queenofsquids]

Ohhhh I think this is the f-11 I have now. You can just barely see her beauty mark beside her left ear too. This explains sooo much, Engelmech faceups are amazing.

I have literally been anguished that I would never know who did her perfect face since I bought her off eBay, and here I stumble on this post at 3am outta nowhere. I'm dumbfounded! And so happy!

I've had their commission info open in a tab for over a month deliberating who I might send. And now for sure I know where I would send a Nono if I ever manage to get one 😍

[kerosen]

Did the faceup for Alec! It's only my second attempt on a bjd sculpt but I actually like it! It matches what I envisioned beforehand anyways.

I already had an outfit ready so all he needs is a wig, which I just commissioned. I'm really happy with how he's turning out. :>

[studiodarjeeling]

While I'm at it, let's catch up:

Tamako Rocket had her face refreshed by none other than the world-famous, talented @micaeverywhere!

Femtocell's signature outfit was completed and I also indulged in some very pricey hand-tufted rugs.

I finished the faceup on Polaire's second head (Little Monica Sweet Sophia) and became very sad over the fact that Little Monica shut down. If time/budget allows I'll trawl the secondhand marketplace for an Innocent Sophia, Sarubia, or Yuria.

For Polaire's 8th birthday I also commissioned a peach Selkie-inspired dress from hauteplastic/lovelywoods to match my own Peach Skin French Puff. We also have matching Nodaleto dupe shoes.

[kosomolski-dolls]

Some faceup and wig commissions I did for my sister.

All of these are Luts sculpts, but I don't know which. I think the tan ones are Lapis and Silver?

Either way, finally, I'm done with these 🙈 took me way too long to finish them.

[zaksdolls]

WIP Unicorn Bella

Some WIPs of the recent unicorn Rainbow High commission. For full behind the scenes, you can visit my Patreon. /selfpromotion

Started off with a Pacific Coast Bella Parker. Funny how after awhile eyeless dolls are no longer off putting.

Time for unicorn horn making with Apoxie Sculpt:

(featuring my own Bella as a model)

Commissioner felt it was too long so it was cut down a bit:

Starting the face up with watercolor pencils:

Began adding thinned acrylic paint and some light blushing:

But it turned out I hated the eye makeup. Not so much the colors, but the order in which they were layered. So I decided to wipe it all off and start over.

But first, I wanted to test out reinserting the eyes and see how much damage that would cause:

Surprisingly, not that much! Felt better about the durability of the paint.

I also decided to smooth and round out the eyes a bit in hopes it would facilitate reinsertion next time:

Yeah?

Anyway, back to the faceup:

I planned (and tried) just using soft/ chalk pastels for the gradient effect, but it was going to take forever and use up too many precious MSC layers which would probably end up in cracking around the eyes. So airbrush times:

Not bad so far.

At this point, the eye makeup was pretty much finished so I decided to reninsert the eyes at this time and mask them:

The problem isn't so much the eyes themselves, but the eyelashes which get in the way.

Pique photography skillz:

And then I thought, "Huh, I sure am close to finishing this doll up. But you know what I should do? I should try to do a simple soft gradient to her inner eyebrows!":

"Oh, that's not working. The airbrush isn't enough. I'll lightly sand and buff the inner brows first."

"I can fix this."

"I swear I can fix this."

Anyway, lots of tears and screaming were involved.

But then, I had a little mishap with some rubbing alcohol right at the end and some of the paint around the horn bubbled up a bit. Can't be seen too well in photos but could definitely be seen and felt in person:

More tears and screaming and flipping of tables.

At this point I was using the absolute last drops of custom mixed paint. Could absolutely not afford anymore mistakes.

And thankfully there weren't!

Finished it off with a light dusting of glitter:

And that's how you repaint a Rainbow High doll.* 🙃

------

*not an actual tutorial

[recents]

when ppl talk about ridiculously expensive niche hobbies like mtg and warhammer i think about my personal deal with that, which is BJD customization. basically if you know about people who customize monster high dolls, imagine that, but instead of starting with mass produced toy dolls like a normal person wouldnwith a creative hobby, you started with limited run artist dolls created specifically for this community primarily from small companies in japan, china, and korea, and they cost $1,000,0000,0000,000 dollars (i am exaggerating it really depends but it is the notoriously expensive subcategory of doll customization)

i’ve been taking a long break from it because my financial priorities have changed since i got my first living wage job and got really into it. i also had a tragic experience where i was doing a really elaborate custom of an OC and i managed to get a commission slot with a very popular artist to do the faceup (you mail them the doll’s head, they paint the face and mail it back) and it got lost in the mail and lowkey emotionally destroyed me. i don’t really have any interest in getting back into it, still, anytime soon, although i still have my two customs (milford, who is an oc, and my custom killua zoldyck!!!)

like im prefacing all of this with GENUINELY i have no interest for the time being

on an unrelated note to absolutely anything going on in my life i found out today that iplehouse makes a sculpt, once again, intended for customization, called “oscar” (bald uncanny valley doll jumpscare:)

[izasfaceups]

We're finally on the year of 2023 for faceups! This cutie is a Fatemoons Puu in milk skin. The client asked me to paint him similar to the company blushing, so more pink overload!

Want to see more of my work or commission me? Then please check out my website at www[dot]IzasFaceUps[dot]com!

[meanae]

Some commissions - a Holyanora Asya and a Myou Doll Bettina, both pretty small.

[the-bjd-community-confess]

I was an active faceup artist for years, took intl. commissions and all. I was forced to go on a hiatus due to moving for work and health reasons. I feel better now and my life is stable, and I still get a lot of requests to open up shop again, but I just...I just can't. Working on my own stuff, and having a day job that covers my living costs, made me realize how much I actually dread it towards the end. 

 It's just not worth it for how little a faceup artist earns in this hobby, and how much one has to do to even get that meager payment. Hours and hours of leaning over a tiny head, destroying my back/eyes/wrists in the process. On top of that I do Photoshop mockups, take a lot of WIP and final photos, have to discuss matters with the customer, handle shipping and customs. Materials are expensive, and sometimes difficult to get. Even when a commission goes smoothly it's still a lot of work for very little pay. And often it doesn't even go well! 

 No matter how hard I try to reduce any risks/issues, I still have customers who try their hardest to make the whole commission an absolute nightmare to deal with. Like thinking it's okay to change their mind in the middle of the commission, as if it's no big deal and I should just start over (for free, of course). Hounding me for updates several times a day, even though I had just received the head a day ago and am extremely open about my schedule (like only painting on weekends). Approving WIP shots, and later admitting they actually disliked something early on but deciding not to tell me. Arguing about my prices, as if I am not already crazily undervaluing my own work out of fear of being harassed. Wanting me to change my style completely, and then being pissed when my work looks like...well, my work. Not replying to messages for a long time, and then complaining about how long the commission takes. On a more heartbreaking note, showing absolutely no enjoyment or enthusiasm throughout the whole commission and leaving me doubting whether I made them happy and did a good job. Never confirming they actually received a package. 

 And what for in the end? 60, 70, maybe 100 bucks per head when the customer is nice and willing to pay so much? Health issues? My own doll projects waiting to be finally customized by me? In other doll communities customizers are treated so highly, just look for how much Blythe customs go and that weird cult-like fanbase some artists have. But BJD faceup artists are just seen as little painting robots. Good enough to help you get that perfect face for your doll, but not good enough to be paid a decent wage or be treated with some respect. A lot of people don't even think of what we do as art. And I am not interested in the drama if I would open up "artist choice, 300$ per faceup, I decide who gets the slot" commissions. The community is just not made for that. 

 Sure, I made good experiences too. It felt nice to help people own the doll of their dreams, or to make that character they wanted for their doll come alive. I had some great customers that were a joy to work with. Creative, patient, friendly customers. Commissions I felt helped me greatly to get better at my craft. Moments of warm fuzzy feelings when a customer received their doll and was just so happy about the face-up. Interesting dolls I was happy to see in real life, or ideas I just thought were great and wanted to execute. 

 But all this isn't enough to make me return. I dealt with this all for a very long time cause I needed all the extra funds I could get, but I just can't muster up the energy anymore. I feel bad for my nice customers who had hoped to commission me again, and all the new people who just found my work and are sad they can't commission me anymore. 

 Sorry guys, offering commissions just sucks.

~Anonymous

[skelevision]

cut a couple wigs for the little guy over the weekend. really badly. but it was fun! and they turned out alright. when i finally earn enough to commission faceup + blushing for him we're gonna be so back