So how white is uh, white skin?

So I've been playing around with a character idea in my head, and I want to portray her as being a little unsettling. One of the things I wanted to go for was an almost unnaturally pale complexion, and I'm wondering if white skin would be appropriate.

 

When I look up white skin parts on the Volks store, they look almost skeletal white, rather than merely pale skin, which is more the look I'm going for. But I've been looking at pictures of white skin dolls here and elsewhere, and they look a lot more human than the tone that appears on the volks site.

 

So I was wondering, for you guys with white skin dolls, how do they look in person?

I personally find White Skin girls to be utterly impossible to photograph, as their paleness reflects the flash something fierce!

 

but here's some WS girls next to Normal Skin Saber, if that helps you any

 

My only white skin girl is a Saber Alter, and I turned her into a nonhuman character since she's kinda unnaturally pale. It's not a skeletal white, it is technically a tone that a real person could have, but it reminds me more of vampires than people. Because of that and because of how hard they are to photograph I vowed she'd be my only WS girl.

Basically White Skin is very pale, but there is some warmth to the color.

 

Here's a shot of my WS 06 girl (with flash, sorry):

 

Shia by Yukamina, on Flickr

 

My WS Lucy:

 

Iris by Yukamina, on Flickr

There is a pale peachy-pink tone to it, very faint but the color is definitely there. It's not stark paper white.

 

 

Here, part of the doll is against a towel with white in it. Indoor overhead and photo lighting, no flash.

 

Linda S.

galatia9

I don't have one but I've seen some, and my impression is that while semi-white is like a light pink, white is more like a light yellow. So a yellowish skin tone instead of pinkish. Semi-white itself can look surprisingly white at times (Miku's face has a lot of blush, but look at the rest).

 

Here is NS and WS together

Photo above is even lightened a little.

 

Volks tends to overexpose the photos and because of that WS looks white, NS looks pale, and tan looks merely normal on their photos, not like tan at all.

 

In real life WS is quite nice, pale color. And with a proper lighting, can look like this:

 

 

Yes, it's still the same WS Alter...

Edited July 4, 2017 by Guest

I don't have one but I've seen some, and my impression is that while semi-white is like a light pink, white is more like a light yellow. So a yellowish skin tone instead of pinkish. Semi-white itself can look surprisingly white at times (Miku's face has a lot of blush, but look at the rest).

 

I feel like this is pretty accurate. I have girls with all three skintones, I'd agree that that the "tone" of the color is the same, it's the "hue" that varies between white and semi-white.

 

Kumi's photos show the difference between white and normal very clearly, I think! Next to each other the difference is pretty stark. So it kinda goes like this, based on my observations:

 

Normal (pink hue, dark tone), semi white (pink hue, light tone), white (yellow hue, light tone), so they make a nice little lineup when you put all three together.

 

... I got a little carried away with my answer there, but long story short, imo, it doesn't really suit for unnaturally pale characters.

I don't have one but I've seen some, and my impression is that while semi-white is like a light pink, white is more like a light yellow. So a yellowish skin tone instead of pinkish. Semi-white itself can look surprisingly white at times (Miku's face has a lot of blush, but look at the rest).

I also agree that this is accurate. WS is not white or a shade of white. There is a light-yellow hue to it.

 

If you're going for unnatural, WS is definitely... not natural. It may be fitting for some character designs, but I can see why Volks doesn't make a lot of WS girls.

Thanks a lot of the answers, guys! Unfortunately, it doesn't sound like WS is what I'm looking for, but oh well, it's good to know regardless

I suppose I'm in the minority because I don't find white skin to be too pale or "unnatural". It's not really that much paler than semi-white... it just has a more creamy tone to it, while semi-white is clearly pink, like foo said. When I got my first normal skin DD, I was kinda shocked to see how dark it is (my WS girl was my first DD). xD;

 

I've also never had trouble photographing my WS girl, however I only do photography in natural light and never use flash. I've done both indoors and outdoors shoots and haven't had difficulties - as long as I don't sit the doll in stark, direct sunlight.

 

Indoors, natural light

 

Outdoors, sunny day

 

Outdoors, cloudy day

 

You can find more photos of her in my flickr photostream tagged with "Umeko". I haven't photographed her in a while because I'm in the process of collecting WS body parts to build her a DD body (she was on DDS before) so sadly I can't provide any newer photos.

So i'm in this minority too

Light, pale, creamy tone, nothing unnatural, like You said.

 

Btw both my photos above are made with a flash but not direct - it was bounced and/or diffused (umbrella etc). My flashes have settable output, for example only 1/8 or 1/16 of full power. I can set the light just right for the desired aperture and scene.