I read thims front the master collection of imagine fx on skin

[Chaoz]

So one thing that caught my attention is that one of the artist said add allitle bit of cooler tone on thin skin like the skin under the eyes and the under arm. and add warm color on places more exposed on blood like cheek and knees. is there any scientific reason behind this? is it because blood is purplish so its slightly cooler? i understand the more blood part on the areas more blood concetrating but not the cooler color thing. or is there a temperature map on the human skin? if there is can you link me to one?

[Arshes Nei]

http://danidraws.com/2007/05/14/pain...ur-skin-tones/

[Qitsune]

Be careful with the whole Yellow/red/blue division thing. I have looked at a lot of people and don't see it very often. I have seen it in paintings where it looked very stupid however. Look at people, really look at them (try not to be creepy) you will see some of them have cooler tones under their eyes and on the inside of their forearms. Some have blue veins on their necks and their temples.Some have very red cheeks. The inside of people's ears usually darkens to red, not to black, because ears are translucent and full of blood. Same for nostrils and fingers. In some places, skin is thinner so you can see the veins, Big veins often appear blue from the surface. Capillaries often appear red. I'm not sure I can explain it, but it's not that some blood is blue when unoxygenated, that part is an urban legend.

[QueenGwenevere]

I thought the big veins look blue because they ARE blue (blueish, anyway...) That is, the veins themselves are blue, not the blood inside them.

I can see mine pretty clearly anyway, and they look pretty darn blue to me.

I'm a tiny bit skeptical of universal rules for skin tones, because various skin colors result in such a huge range of color effects. In people with minimal pigment, you get a translucent effect where the colors of underlying tissues and blood are showing through, but in people with denser pigment you get more of the pigment colors in the mix (and I wouldn't be surprised if the light is being bounced around in different ways depending on pigment color and density...) I've noticed that very dark skin can have an almost blue-black effect in some areas, depending on the light.

[Arshes Nei]

Darker skin is a bit less translucent so you'll see how that affects drawing.

I actually find the zones helpful but, I always observe people in life as well. It's not a hard fast rule - it's areas to watch out for. It also has some of that due to the planes of the face and construction of the face. The zones are way more subtle in females besides areas that would have more red in them.

I really do stress observing from life because many go to supermodel or fashion mags and they airbrush the hell out of those models and use specific lighting that bleaches out a lot of features.

You can find tips in here helpful as well http://navate.deviantart.com/art/SKI...rt-2-145159387 but again it's not this hard fast rule, each person I remember linking to has said they're more guides. I agree with this. But observation is key...just like Briggs showing some more technical matter of lighting on the subject for skin http://www.huevaluechroma.com/104.php

I often found myself using more purple some blues when painting with really dark skinned people, it certainly wasn't some form of near black

[QueenGwenevere]

I often found myself using more purple some blues when painting with really dark skinned people, it certainly wasn't some form of near black

In harsh lighting it can look nearly blue-black in the darkest shadow areas... To me, anyway. (I'm talking really dark skin here...)

But anyway, yeah, the more real-life observation you can do, the better. Skin color is complicated.

[Arshes Nei]

In harsh lighting it can look nearly blue-black in the darkest shadow areas... To me, anyway. (I'm talking really dark skin here...)

But anyway, yeah, the more real-life observation you can do, the better. Skin color is complicated.

It's a tangent, but I really enjoy trying to paint more dark skin tones - there's like 50 billion tutorials and such on pale girls, but less on ebony skin tones. Especially since ideal beauty puts a female at a lighter skin tone than males, so it's a bit more fun and challenging to reverse it.

[briggsy@ashtons]

Big veins often appear blue from the surface. Capillaries often appear red. I'm not sure I can explain it, but it's not that some blood is blue when unoxygenated, that part is an urban legend.

That's right. The explanation is that skin tends to back-scatter short-wavelength (blue) light while letting long-wavelength (red) light proceed straight through. The latter is reflected back by subcutaneous fat, but is absorbed where the skin lies over a dark vein, so that the overall reflection is darker and relatively bluer. The actual reflection over the vein may or may not have blue light dominant, but even if it is neutral or still weakly reddish in isolation, its bluish appearance can be understood as a contrast phenomenon. This paper gives more detail, though I don't think it really needed to drag Edwin Land into the explanation:

http://www.uhnres.utoronto.ca/labs/b...s_are_blue.pdf

[kinjark]

Blue blood is more of an exaggeration not a myth. The structure of human hemoglobin which is chemically iron and oxygen reflects a spectral distribution dominant in the longer wavelengths. When transporting carbon dioxide this changes the shape of the molecules, thus changes the spectral distribution (color shift). Higher levels of carbon dioxide in blood changes the spectral distribution from appearing red to a purplish red. The color filtered through skin may appear blueish/green due to scattering of shorter wavelengths . As Briggsy pointed out, the experience of blue is perceptual and not necessarily because of the dominate wavelength. What I want to shed light on is that amount of carbon dioxide present in the blood may affect how blue we perceive the veins to be. In an extreme case of high levels of carbon dioxide, such as someone suffering from cyanosis, the perception of blue skin is quite startling.


Of course there are a number of factors involved but I thought this was interesting.

[QueenGwenevere]

So of course I got curious and wanted to know what color veins and arteries really are when you're not looking at them through a lot of skin and junk... Apparently they can appear to be anywhere from pale yellowish to pink to red to, yes, light purple-blue... http://microbreastreconsf.blogspot.c...astomosis.html

(Don't click that if surgical close-ups make you feel squicky...)

The whole idea of blue veins is not helped by the fact that every medical illustration ever shows arteries in bright red and veins in bright blue. Even otherwise highly realistic illustrations. What's up with that.

[kinjark]

The whole idea of blue veins is not helped by the fact that every medical illustration ever shows arteries in bright red and veins in bright blue. Even otherwise highly realistic illustrations. What's up with that.

They color code them for pedagogical reasons. In surgery of course, it is not so distinctly clear. Though there are technologies that are making it become clearer to prevent collateral damage by color coding nerves and vessels in surgery.

[QueenGwenevere]

They color code them for pedagogical reasons.

Yeah, I figured that - otherwise you'd just have a confusing fractal mess to look at. Like this.

It sure is hella misleading when it comes to the perception of blood vessel colors, though.

[Chaoz]

oh my so much information and discussion so hard to absorb

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oh my so much information and discussion so hard to absorb

Don't listen and read so much: learn to look!