I don't know so much about making clothes but I can definitely tell you something about faceups!
Materials depend on what kind of faceup you want to make. There are ppl who are satisfied with pastel only faceups, and then there are those who go all out or already have a lot of the supplies. Having gone to art school, I already had a lot of the supplies and just added to them when I found I really loved doing faceups. Here are a list of supplies that I feel are good for a beginner.
1. MSC (Mr. Super Clear), ZM Spray or similar - I really recommend getting a can of MSC from Junkyspot or ZM powder spray from Volks USA. I use both depending on my needs and if used correctly there are few surprises. Make sure to shake the can well. Temperature wise it is best to use in low humidity (so you can't use it when it's raining) and a medium temperature. If it's too cold, I've found that it can dry funny. Only use this in a well ventilated area and wear a respirator if you have one or a very good dust mask and hold your breath.
2. Respirator/dust mask - In all honesty a respirator is a good investment if you plan on doing a lot of faceups. If not, get a good dust mask, spray in a well-ventilated area ( I spray outside) and hold your breath. You can never be too safe.
3. Pastels - Soft pastels or chalk pastels. Don't get the oil based ones. The right kind is powdery. Quality pastels will cost more but be better pigmented. Cheaper student pastels will still work well so don't feel you have to get the expensive kind. Pastels are the heavy lifters in faceup work since they add the layers of color. I have yet to do a pastel only faceup but I've been tempted. Here is a shot of just pastels on a Custom House Stella head.
To save money you might consider only getting colors you will use instead of a set since art stores sell single sticks. A shader color for skin (a color a little darker than the skin color of your head in the orange/tan range.), a blusher (pinky/peachy to your preference) which can double for your lip color, a red lip color if you prefer, a dark brown or black for shading around the eyes if you wish. That is 3-4 sticks. If you find you really like faceups you could expand your collection later. The one draw back to single sticks is that you won't have a case for your pastels but some art stores might have empty foamed boxes lying around so you can ask for them.
4. Brushes/q-tips for pastels - You will need some tools to apply your pastels. I have 6 different brushes ranging in size and shape that I use so far and am probably going to add another two. To start out though, you probably can just use 2 and q-tips. The best kind for pastel application should have softer bristles. Get a teeny tiny flat or filbert if you can find one that is 3/16 wide or so. This kind of brush is good for darkening around the eye and blushing the lips. For the other brush get a larger fluffy brush that will help with blushing the cheeks. The q tips are a bit larger than the flat size i recommended and will be good for helping with blending out the lip and eye area. You can add to your brush collection later as well.
5. Kneading eraser - For clean up if you add too much pastels. These are very cheap.
These are the basics. After that you can add paints and watercolor pencils
6. Watercolors- Some ppl use watercolors and mix it with acrylic mediums to use on faceups. It is similar to using acrylic paints but some claim watercolors to be more transparent...which in my opinion isn't true with the traditional watercolor pigments. (the pigments in traditional watercolor and acrylics are the same. it's just the emulsions and binders that are different so in reality ppl who use watercolor+acrylic mediums are really just mixing their own acrylic paints.)
7. Acrylic Paints- You can get all the colors in the rainbow or just stick with basics you will need. White, red, brown, black, yellow. The yellow is to mix with the red and the white to get peachier colors if you wish.
8. Acrylic retarders and thinners - My favorite is very cheap. It is the plaid extender. I hate to say it but it beats out both liquitex and golden retarders/fluid extenders for me because it is so thin it is like water but it slows dry time too. You will need retarders to make sure that the paint doesn't dry out too quickly and to thin out the paint so you can get fine thin lines. You can just use water but too much water mixed with paint to thin the paint down leads to beading on resin instead of a nice thin line.
9. Brushes for watercolor- Even if you're using acrylics you can still use watercolor brushes. I just find they come finer. I get size 30/0 to size 0. My size 0 gets the most use and can give me the tiniest lines. In fact I use the size 0 exclusively on my 1/6 heads for a long time. If you keep them well the brushes can last a while but will need to be replaced over time if used a lot.
10. Winsor & Newton brush cleaner - good for your brushes. Good for removing faceups.
11. Watercolor pencils- I own some. I've owned some for a while that i used to play around with. Did I ever become a fan of them on paper? no. Did I ever become a fan of them for faceups? no. I tried. I will try some more but I just like brush and paint better. Some ppl have used pencils in faceups to great effect. I am sad to say I am not one of those ppl.
12. Gloss- I use Tamiya clear gloss but you can use any waterbased gloss varnish. I hear liquitex is good and my golden gloss varnish works well too but I find I prefer tamiya.
I will talk about methods in the next post....this is getting looong.
Posted: Fri Feb 10, 2012 8:25 pm
