describing skin colour?

[dannychan]

ok so, i'm not sure what ways of describing skin colours would be ok, and what was wouldn't. i'm not sure what words to use and i wanted to create a character with very dark skin, but i also don't want to describe them as having very dark or black skin bc i'm a writer and i need synonyms. i tried looking it up but i only found stuff with like.. food and stuff (which i know is a no-no) and i'm just.. really paranoid of offending someone??

[fuentes]

[justify]I’d just look up a giant list of colors or smth and reference those? Like golden skin, for example. Obviously the skin isn’t 10/10 golden, but maybe it has a tan? And if this is for tags, you could always link a quick picture or smth of what their skin tone is if it’s hard to describe.

Uhhh idk how dark/black their skin is, but maybe stuff like bronze, ebony, deep black, or you could go the poetry route and put “_'s skin is the color of the black in the night sky” bUT idk if you want that? [/justify]

as a black person, i agree with most of this except the whole "black as night" and "ebony" descriptions, as both are pretty odd when coming from a nonblack person
tbh, don't be afraid to use brown, it's not a dirty word when it comes to writing poc (black people especially, since i figure that's what you're trying to write about). don't feel pressed to use pretty synonyms all the time, like usually brown does the trick just fine

[basorexia]

[quote author=Hootowls link=topic=14631.msg339363#msg339363 date=1517366720]
[justify]I’d just look up a giant list of colors or smth and reference those? Like golden skin, for example. Obviously the skin isn’t 10/10 golden, but maybe it has a tan? And if this is for tags, you could always link a quick picture or smth of what their skin tone is if it’s hard to describe.

Uhhh idk how dark/black their skin is, but maybe stuff like bronze, ebony, deep black, or you could go the poetry route and put “_'s skin is the color of the black in the night sky” bUT idk if you want that? [/justify]

as a black person, i agree with most of this except the whole "black as night" and "ebony" descriptions, as both are pretty odd when coming from a nonblack person
tbh, don't be afraid to use brown, it's not a dirty word when it comes to writing poc (black people especially, since i figure that's what you're trying to write about). don't feel pressed to use pretty synonyms all the time, like usually brown does the trick just fine
[/quote]

dittoing this. also?? just write normal i suppose?? like you don’t need to describe their skin every five seconds if you don’t do that with someone who isn’t of color.

bronze, tanned, olive, warm brown, russet, etc. just don’t go overboard and compare it to food. use it sparsely if you choose to describe skin.

[sharkbeak]

[align=center][div style="background=transparent; borderwidth=0px; bordercolor=; width: auto; font-size: 9pt; font-family:arial; line-height: 1.4; text-align:justify; width: 500px"]Dittoing this, if skin colour is in their tags / mentioned once in a post it doesn't need to be repeatedly brought up, so it's probably easiest to just stick to simple descriptions of colour like the ones mentioned above ^^.

[Wafture]

[align=center][div style=" background-color: transparent; border: 0px solid black; width: 450px; min-height: 9px; font-family:; line-height: 110%; text-align: justify; color: black; padding: 20px"]hhh i've read a lot of books where they compare darker skinned people to a night sky and a pure ebony tone, so i wouldn't personally? mind it? and this is coming from a mixed person, but i feel like comparing skin color to something like chocolate is. acceptable. since people know what chocolate look like and it gives a ~sensual~ feel to the text, like it's trying to seduce you or smthn, and that might just be a selective artistic choice but whatevs. i mean, for the most part, some of my light-skinned characters are compared to those porcelain china dolls.

i think you should try whatever you feel like works with the way you, yourself, write. while it's good to ask for opinions and everything, i don't think you should put too much thought into input and offending others, because in the end it's YOUR writing and YOU'RE the only one that should be comfortable with it.

+ again with the artistic choice stuff - comparing skin colors imo to other stuff, even stuff we eat, is super okay when it has symbolism. for example, if i or someone else writes something like this:

"He was a tall man, broad of shoulder with skin so dark that it could rival a clear night's sky. His eyes were like twin stars, his grin blindingly white, and she thought he was the handsomest man in the world in those moments, and she knew he thought the same of her, too. He told her at every chance he had that every inch of her was as fine as china and her skin porcelain, two rosy dots on her cheeks and eyes framed by delicate lashes to complete the look of a doll."

[basorexia]

[align=center][div style=" background-color: transparent; border: 0px solid black; width: 450px; min-height: 9px; font-family:; line-height: 110%; text-align: justify; color: black; padding: 20px"]hhh i've read a lot of books where they compare darker skinned people to a night sky and a pure ebony tone, so i wouldn't personally? mind it? and this is coming from a mixed person, but i feel like comparing skin color to something like chocolate is. acceptable. since people know what chocolate look like and it gives a ~sensual~ feel to the text, like it's trying to seduce you or smthn, and that might just be a selective artistic choice but whatevs. i mean, for the most part, some of my light-skinned characters are compared to those porcelain china dolls.

i think you should try whatever you feel like works with the way you, yourself, write. while it's good to ask for opinions and everything, i don't think you should put too much thought into input and offending others, because in the end it's YOUR writing and YOU'RE the only one that should be comfortable with it.

+ again with the artistic choice stuff - comparing skin colors imo to other stuff, even stuff we eat, is super okay when it has symbolism. for example, if i or someone else writes something like this:

"He was a tall man, broad of shoulder with skin so dark that it could rival a clear night's sky. His eyes were like twin stars, his grin blindingly white, and she thought he was the handsomest man in the world in those moments, and she knew he thought the same of her, too. He told her at every chance he had that every inch of her was as fine as china and her skin porcelain, two rosy dots on her cheeks and eyes framed by delicate lashes to complete the look of a doll."

[BORZOI]

food + similes ie "skin like melted caramel" & "skin dark as the night sky" are used a lot as an artistic expression so honestly i'd not limit yourself just to not offend anyone like dysthymia said? but if you're not writing ~poetically~ and you just decide to say something like that, that would be really weird tbH
so i'd stick with the simpler descs like the others said, and yeah only use a description of skin every so often! and not for a filler word like how people say "the blonde-haired boy sighed" like idk about you but that just seems weird to me?? nobody goes around saying "the white-skinned girl breathed in" or whatever. + poc are a lot more than the color of their skin. you can use culture to your advantage, so ofc read up on that and do a lot of research!

sorry if any of this is confusing i am. hella dead

[rosey.]

dittoing whats been said!!! i know that the food one gets mixed reactions from other people, n i have poc friends who dont mind it, and i have poc friends who think its icky and annoying, honestly it just depends on the person,,,, personally i dont rlly like it bc u dont say shit like "her skin was the colour of whipped cream" or like "she looked like mashed potatoes" or smth, yknow? but like i said its up to you if youd want to use food terms as a description!!