I’ve seen a couple of posts in the last little while that deal with either accusations made against artists for whitewashing OCs, or dealing with colour theory and its application to painting skin. It’s true that skintones are incredibly difficult to nail properly, especially if you only have one or two reference pictures to work with. Most artists don’t whitewash intentionally, but if it happens to your commission, it’s a difficult conversation to have regardless. Canon characters aside, what I’m proposing is that if you are commissioning an artist to draw your OC, it might be helpful to use an established makeup shade to indicate the base colour of your OC. 

The only reason I’m suggesting makeup specifically is that it’s easier to find a model wearing that makeup shade than it would be to use a colour code to indicate what skintone you would prefer. If you find a model wearing that shade, then you can send the artist a swatch or guide of the makeup to use as a base colour, and avoid miscommunication via reference pictures with varying lighting. 

Model skintone reference (example):

Swatch/guide reference (example):

(These are both from Fenty, which is well-regarded as having an actually wide and accurate colour range, but correct me if I’m wrong)

Generated by https://artres.xyz/references/ & images are from unsplash, so they are  freely useable. 

https://artres.xyz/needcolors/

HUMAN CHARACTER: This person is a androgynous newborn that is tiny in size, slim in build, and has a medium-dark complexion with a warm undertone. The eyes are dark af violet and medium in size. The person has very long length hair that is smooth and wispy and dark dark brown with red highlights in color. Face is rather trianglular, and other facial features can be described as boxy and compact. Personality is mysterious and sometimes gentle, yet occasionally jealous. The character enjoys wearing a costume and accessorizing with a hat. Perfers the following colors: translucent black and irridescent green.

POSE: This character is skipping in a rigid manner. The back is very straight, the neck is in a neutral position, with the head tilted upwards. Relatively, the arms are very bent and the legs are neutral https://artres.xyz/ideas/

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