Dollieh Sanctuary

I have been trying to paint a face-up for a 27cm obitsu head. I'm having the most trouble with making both sides even as possible. (Make one side look nice. Then fix the other to match. Mess up. Wipe it and start all over.)

Looking to see if anyone has any alternatives or ideas. I've read that you can easily make your own rub-on stickers.

It might help if you pencil in some guidelines before you start painting. Things like where you want to put your eyebrows or eye shape. Otherwise, I know that Lamia sometimes uses temporary tattoos; rub on stickers might work too.

I like to blush on a base for the eyebrows first before I shape them with an eraser and then seal and detail over. Eyebrows are a pain in the bum to get remotely even.

Thank you for the tips! :)

I use watercolor pencil or a really sharp pencil. There are a lot of tuts on how to do face ups.

Actually you might not want to try quite so hard for symmetry. Look at people's faces. Study some pics. How many people do you see that have perfect even features? I used to be a lot more anal about that, getting both sides of a face perfect but then one day when I was studying pics of various doll repaints that I liked I realized that the ones that looked the most real to me did not have absolutely perfect faces. I still try to do the best job I can, but I don't get into making both eyebrows the same or the mouth sides exactly the same as much as I used to. I do watch the blush to make sure that's even but otherwise I tend to vary it up a little bit because I'd rather a doll looked more real. Look at most of the makers of dolls too. Tonner is a good example. The eye sockets, eyebrows and such are often realistically not symmetrical. Food for thought, shrug...

I used a really sharp watercolor pencil to do Cordie's stripes for the new face-up. You can use a fine brush to blend the pencil lines with a little water afterward.

If you are right handed, always do the left eye first, then the right, right eye first if left handed. That way your hand will not be in your way when you are painting the second eye. Also if you have problems lining them up you can put thin elastic bands around the face carefully, sort of like the lines used to sketch out faces in drawings.

I actually cheat a little and either photoshop a mock up or sketch out what I want, then keep referencing it while painting.