A character looks at another character, skin colour creates certain associations. A character looks at himself, and associations would be shaped by society, and by what is "normal" in that society. What we refer to as "black", for example covers a huge range of brown shades, that would only be jumbled together as "black" where "white" is the "norm". "Brown" is an even more confusing category, that appears to be a catch-all for all the shades that are neither "black" nor "white". And all those distinctions are only half about actual colour, other half being things like ethnicity.
Now, I need to throw away all those weird cultural associations, and start from scratch. Both novels I am currently working on are set in the Middle East (or a fantasy version thereof), so the range of Middle-Eastern skin colours is the "norm".
I am narrating my stories in third-person, one limited, the other - omniscient. Culturally, my "narrator voice" is very much where my characters are.
Under those constraints, how do I describe my MCs' ("brown") skin colour? (Other characters can sort of follow from the MC's baseline and the MC's perception.) I have so far used "tanned", but that isn't right at all - it suggests that the character is naturally paler than they currently appear, which is not what I'm trying to describe. "Brown" doesn't really work either, for the reasons explained above, and also because it's not really descriptive - so many shades of brown. And it would be strange, I think, to describe my MCs' appearance in exotic terms, since they're supposed to be pretty much the norm.
(It might be that I'm having a blind spot, because this is what I look like. Since it's mine, it's just "skin" to me.)
This question is related, but its point of reference is different, and the accepted answer has a "Houston, we have a problem" in the exact colour range that I'm trying to describe. This one is about describing a "white" character in a "non-white" setting, while mine is about describing the average "non-white" character in the same setting.
EDIT: A valid concern has been raised, as to why I need to mention skin colour at all. Two reasons:
- Because if the characters were Caucasian, I would not have struggled to describe their skin colour, and I would have mentioned it in passing (one character being tanned from spending a lot of time outside, another having pale, almost translucent skin, etc.) so it's weird to avoid describing a different skin colour just because the frame of reference is not Caucasian.
- Because through the MC, I wish to set the norm for the society I'm describing. I also wish for the freedom within that norm: if I mention a character is pale, having spent most of their life indoors, I want this to be the pallor of a princess in Japanese legend, not the pallor of a redhead.
Answer
I like to equate skin tones with food or natural objects. Caramel, chocolate, cream, sand, etc. Eye and hair color work well this way too.
There are so many beautiful shades of skin it is a shame to leave it out of descriptions. White people tend to focus on hair and eyes and ignore skin aside from the very large divisions of black and brown and white (not that anyone's skin is truly black or white). Or they mention "tanned" which implies a change from the natural color due to leisure or work in the sun.
The Black community in particular has a rich history of naming different skins, and then depicting them in written or visual art. Many other ethnic groups have gorgeous descriptions. Reading how they do it should help fuel your ideas.
People notice if you leave it out. Maybe not white people (they'd notice if you never described hair color), but certainly people from the cultures you're writing about.
In addition to comparing people's colors to natural objects, you can compare them to each other.
"Her lover's skin was translucent against hers. Cream marked with the slightest tint of beet. Her own ebony seemed almost blue in the morning light."
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