Color temperature of skins

Valandar · Feb 2015

A while back, I saw a picture that showed the "color temperature zones" of the face - reds across the cheeks and nose, yellows on the brow and forehead, blues on the outer lip and jaw regions, that sort of thing.

Is there something similar for the body? I've tried Google and got pretty much jack and squat...

JedTheKrampus · Feb 2015

Regions with lots of arteries and capillaries near the skin will probably be more red, and regions with lots of veins near the skin will probably be more blue. You'd have to look in an anatomy textbook to know where these things are for sure.

ZacD · Feb 2015

There's a few things, make sure you tan lines and make the underside and inside parts of skin lighter, things like the inner thighs and the under side of arms are always going to be lighter even if they aren't really tan lines. Feet and hands tend to be redder, along with knees and elbows, and the back side of your elbows and knees.

CharacterCarl · Feb 2015

Also, areas with fat will generally appear more yellow-ish than others (except breasts, they have a special tissue which gives them a paler color, don't ask me why).
According to Jeremy Engleman's Creating a 3D Figure Study DVD there's also more of a green-ish tint to certain areas of female skin compared to male skin (e.g. left thigh of the model on the DVD).

Definitely also interested in more resources on this, though.

Valandar · Feb 2015

I read somewhere that the insides of the elbows and the backs of the knees tend to actually be a little more desaturated as well, but I am unsure of the veracity of that one.

jfitch · Feb 2015

Just a trick I've seen a lot of artists do--grab some good reference, bring it into photoshop, and crank the saturation values up. You'll see where the areas of red/blue/yellow are, but it's not always entirely accurate. It seems like a lot of artists tend to paint their values at a high saturation and then with a low opacity paint in a 'base' skin color over the top to dampen the values (if that makes sense).

Color temperature of skins

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