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Description
I though this could be useful for some people.
When you draw people one of the most important things is the skin. The thing is that skin is a surface with very peculiar properties, and the brain is set to recognise real skin from a surface with a "skin colour".
Obviously I'm not covering every skin colour here, just some variety to cover a a few concepts.

The first thing we need to understand is that despite the rich range in pigmentation, skins are essentially the same. What I mean is that they are composed by the same things, what varies is the amount and behaviour of them. In reality it's not important to know all that, what you need to know is the 3 main properties with respect to light:
-Diffuse reflection: This is the type reflection of a "regular" material. When it's the material is illuminated part of the light is absorbed and part the light bounces off in somewhat random directions. Most of the things you see every day have this type of reflection.

-Subsurface scattering: Skin is not completely opaque, even for the darkest skins. This translucency makes it that light enters and it's reflected back inside. This is most noticeable in pale skins, that is what gives it a reddish tint (the most dramatic example of this is when you put a lightbulb behind an ear or below your fingers, it seems like it's glowing very red). This is what gives skin a certain luminosity that makes skin-coloured silicone materials look artificial (also why fake tans look weird).

-Specular reflection: This is the kind of reflection in a metal surface, where light is reflected sort of like a mirror. In skin you see it more in oily or sweaty regions where light bounces off directly. So how it looks depends on the direction of the light and the eye.

How these characteristics show depend on the skin colour, the light and other factors but you should keep them in mind if you aim to make believable skin. Lets see how these things show in the examples:
-Tanned: I call it like that, but it's about the medium of the spectrum. People of Mediterranean, Middle East, Hispanic and white people that can tan fall somewhere around this. Light brown, a bit translucent, it will be easier to see the properties when we discuss the others.
-White: Slightly less opaque than the tanned skin, the diffuse scattering is whiter, and being more translucent it looks a bit more red instead of light brown.
-Pale: Much more white and very translucent, that is why in certain regions it looks red (it's the blood under the skin) and if you get into the details the veins are often clearly visible.
-Pale Asian: You may have noticed the pale people of Chinese, Japanese or Korean origin are often slightly different from pale people of European origin. The skin is less red and more yellow. It can be very subtle the different is there.
Black 1: Skin can get much darker than this example, but it works as a reference point. This skin is much more opaque, so there is little subsurface scattering, so it's the regions opposed to the light that make it look dark. But people with dark skin have specular reflections, and with the contrast it looks much more noticeable.
-Black 2: Not all black skin is the same, obviously, and here we see what I mean above. The regions directly in front of the light can be the same colour as tanned skin, but the regions with less light look darker.

Like I say, this is not even close to covering all types of skin. You should also keep in mind that there is variations. Men in general have darker skin than women within the same group (more opaque to be precise). In fact there is variation in a single person, some regions the skin is less opaque (hands for example), regions are less or more oily (forehead, nose...).

And that is what I wanted to discuss for now. Any questions?

Description
I though this could be useful for some people.
When you draw people one of the most important things is the skin. The thing is that skin is a surface with very peculiar properties, and the brain is set to recognise real skin from a surface with a "skin colour".
Obviously I'm not covering every skin colour here, just some variety to cover a a few concepts.

The first thing we need to understand is that despite the rich range in pigmentation, skins are essentially the same. What I mean is that they are composed by the same things, what varies is the amount and behaviour of them. In reality it's not important to know all that, what you need to know is the 3 main properties with respect to light:
-Diffuse reflection: This is the type reflection of a "regular" material. When it's the material is illuminated part of the light is absorbed and part the light bounces off in somewhat random directions. Most of the things you see every day have this type of reflection.

-Subsurface scattering: Skin is not completely opaque, even for the darkest skins. This translucency makes it that light enters and it's reflected back inside. This is most noticeable in pale skins, that is what gives it a reddish tint (the most dramatic example of this is when you put a lightbulb behind an ear or below your fingers, it seems like it's glowing very red). This is what gives skin a certain luminosity that makes skin-coloured silicone materials look artificial (also why fake tans look weird).

-Specular reflection: This is the kind of reflection in a metal surface, where light is reflected sort of like a mirror. In skin you see it more in oily or sweaty regions where light bounces off directly. So how it looks depends on the direction of the light and the eye.

How these characteristics show depend on the skin colour, the light and other factors but you should keep them in mind if you aim to make believable skin. Lets see how these things show in the examples:
-Tanned: I call it like that, but it's about the medium of the spectrum. People of Mediterranean, Middle East, Hispanic and white people that can tan fall somewhere around this. Light brown, a bit translucent, it will be easier to see the properties when we discuss the others.
-White: Slightly less opaque than the tanned skin, the diffuse scattering is whiter, and being more translucent it looks a bit more red instead of light brown.
-Pale: Much more white and very translucent, that is why in certain regions it looks red (it's the blood under the skin) and if you get into the details the veins are often clearly visible.
-Pale Asian: You may have noticed the pale people of Chinese, Japanese or Korean origin are often slightly different from pale people of European origin. The skin is less red and more yellow. It can be very subtle the different is there.
Black 1: Skin can get much darker than this example, but it works as a reference point. This skin is much more opaque, so there is little subsurface scattering, so it's the regions opposed to the light that make it look dark. But people with dark skin have specular reflections, and with the contrast it looks much more noticeable.
-Black 2: Not all black skin is the same, obviously, and here we see what I mean above. The regions directly in front of the light can be the same colour as tanned skin, but the regions with less light look darker.

Like I say, this is not even close to covering all types of skin. You should also keep in mind that there is variations. Men in general have darker skin than women within the same group (more opaque to be precise). In fact there is variation in a single person, some regions the skin is less opaque (hands for example), regions are less or more oily (forehead, nose...).

And that is what I wanted to discuss for now. Any questions?