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First faceup attempt on DollZone Mia Mia Blue. Please, help!

170 points · submitted 2d ago by u/Agitated-Bottle6523 · QUESTIONS

Hello everyone <3

I tried to do a faceup for my DollZone Mia Mia Blue in moongrey. I guess it's not that awful for a first attempt and it looks almost fine from one angle form afar lol, but I would really appreciate your input and advice.

  1. I guess making things symmetrical is very, very hard. Any advice here?
  2. One important issue is the texture of the white lashes. It ended up super uneven and bumpy. I tried repainting them many times, but still couldn't get a smooth result. How do you make acrylic paint lay down more evenly?
  3. She is grey, and most tutorials I've seen start with black linework and then add pastels for blushing around black lines. I tried to do something similar with white and blue (the blue barely showed up), and then pink (which worked better). But the pastels don't seem to hide any mistakes or blend everything together the way I've seen those other faceups. What do I do with this skin color?
  4. I wanted her horns to be shimmery, so I bought special metallic acrylic paints for them. But when I cover them with my matte varnish, the shimmer disappears. What should I do? Just leave them unsealed and pray I don't mess them up over time?

For reference, I'm using Liquitex Professional Matte Varnish (liquid, applied with a makeup sponge lol), acrylic paints and soft chalk pastels.

I'd like to try again eventually, so any advice would be appreciated!

15 comments · 99% upvoted · source · other discussions

comments

LuckiestLucky 25 points · 2d ago

I unfortunately don’t have a ton of advice specific to your situation but I’m mainly commenting to say I think you’re majorly overthinking things and this looks absolutely gorgeous! Your first try looks better than most people’s fourth or fifth or tenth!

As for the metallic finish, you may find better results with synthetic mica powder, which is what I use. I apply it with a brush in between coats of sealant and it keeps its shimmer throughout.

Agitated-Bottle6523 [OP] 4 points · 2d ago

Oh thank you so much! I honestly don't really like it as I see all the problems I have with it unfortunately
But do you fix the mica powder later somehow? with glossy finish or just msc?

LuckiestLucky 4 points · 2d ago

MSC typically ‘traps’ the powder when it’s applied after, with minimal ruboff after, but in my experience computer duster/compressed air works well to blow the excess off (this also works great for pastels!)

Redleadsinker 9 points · 2d ago

When I was first learning to do faceups I used to use a tiny, see-through ruler to mark out spaces on the face. Like, I would put a little dot above and lined up with the center of each eye, then one lining up with the inner and outer corner of the eyes, as guides for eyebrows. It was the only way I could get them even vaguely symmetrical for a long time. Depending on what I was doing I would also mark out spots that lined up with the ears, or the corners of the mouth. I hope that makes sense? It was mostly giving myself more "landmarks" on the face. I usually used a white watercolor pencil dipped in water for the dots.

If you're using acrylic paint, you need to water it down a fair amount and work in layers to avoid it getting thick/textured/chunky looking. It's kind of a pain and can take a while but you'll get a much better result.

For the shimmery horns, you can get the shine back if you go over the areas you painted with a glossy varnish. Any kind of matte varnish will hide shine, sparkle, or glitter. You want a gloss or semi-gloss sealant to preserve it. Leaving it unsealed is also an option, but I'm paranoid and seal absolutely everything.

Depending on what sealant you're using, some of them don't play well with certain colors of pastels. MSC especially kinda wrecks most light colors. You're in a tricky position already with her gray skin, because the darker the base the more color you need to make it show. I've used liquitex varnish a couple of times and I never had issues with it, but most of my varnish experience is with duraclear so I don't really know if this is a varnish issue.

Agitated-Bottle6523 [OP] 5 points · 2d ago

Thats a great advice, thank you truly, I will get the glossy varnish for my next attempt and will try to use the "landmarks" method! This actually makes a lot of sense and I guess experiment more on thinning the acrllic paints eh If I actually think about it i went from using a lot of water to almost none back and forth and should've been more consistent with that. Anyway, really thank you!

Redleadsinker 4 points · 2d ago

Any time 😊 also I just wanna say that, for a first attempt this is phenomenal. I get it if you're not happy with it and want to re-do, but to me this is very well done. My first faceup attempt looked like something out of a horror movie 😂

ArcAngel1810 6 points · 2d ago

I’m not super knowledgeable about specifically doing face ups but I’ve used acrylic paints before, are you thinning out the paint at all? Also make sure the layer of acrylic is fully dry, the clumps could be from a previous layer being pulled up because it’s not dry

ArcAngel1810 5 points · 2d ago

Also op I think she’s mega cute!, and wanted to ask what size wig and eyes you used?

Agitated-Bottle6523 [OP] 5 points · 2d ago

those are some custom 1/3 wig from chinese artisians (unfortunately the dont sell it anymore) and 14/8mm eyes from etsy natrume shop ( they gave it as a gift for purchase) the eyes 100 percent recommend but white part is a tiny bit smaller than i would like, so be careful

And thank you for the encouragement ! After that I feel more hopeful next time will be better !

Agitated-Bottle6523 [OP] 3 points · 2d ago

Yes, I have no experience working with acrylic paints at all, so I kinda just tried whatever I could think of lol. I had a cup of water and kept dipping my brush into it, so I guess I was going back and forth between almost 100% acrylic and something like 70/30 acrylic and water.

I used Liquitex BASICS Fluid, and I just found out they actually recommend not diluting it with water at all. I'll probably try anyway next time lol And also ypu are right I and could have been Impatient

ArcAngel1810 5 points · 2d ago

Don’t be so hard on yourself you live and learn, I think for a first time you did really good, it’s a really good first experience , Also MiaMia Blue one of my all time favorite sculpt and I love seeing any custom face ups on her

ArcadeBaron 5 points · 2d ago

You'll probably want to use a "flow release" medium or acrylic thinner. Liquitex makes them and they'll allow you to have paint that goes on more smoothly, especially when you're doing small details. There are different types, you just mix in a little with your working paint - you'll probably want to experiment on NOT the doll head while you figure out the ratio of paint to flow release that works for you.

DeviantPost 4 points · 2d ago

A tip I found helpful was to turn the head upside down when doing the other half of the face. It's easier to see where you should draw/paint to make things more even. 

All that said, I think she looks amazing! I'm so scared of trying to create chunky lashes in a face up and yours look awesome! 

SirRavioli101 2 points · 1d ago

For white paint specifically, pick up Golden Flow brand or any premixed for airbrush! The thing with regular white paint is that they need to whiten it with an addictive and this can make it difficult to thin down using normal means.

aanasu 1 points · 2h ago

i don’t have advice for the questions you asked, but i wanted to say that i think your doll is very cute and i really like the face up you did as well 🩷