Blushing in cold colours...?

I am planning to get my beloved Himeno blushed. I have seen some gorgeous examples of blushed dolls, and it truly enhances their beauty if it is well done.

Since my husband is the one with the artistic and model-painting experience, he's going to be the blush artist. I merely dabble on the painting side of creativity, and there will be no dabbling done on Himeno! :grin:

But after thinking hard about it, he says that he thinks greyish purple would be the best colour to use. He also wants to add white highlights to Himeno.

And I am sort of ...! Yes, shadows on pale skin are greyish purple, not beige or pink, as every blush job I've seen. But....! ops:
The blushings I've seen done in warm colours look good if it's well executed. The resin looks more...real. That's been my goal for the doll I love so much. Would a blushing done with cold colours look even more naturalistic?

Has anyone any sort of experience with working with cold colours on a BJD, or any thoughts on what the result would likely be?

 

This is Quiet Queen's Dragon speaking.

Actually, "shading" is pretty much the effect I believe "blushing" often attempts to accomplish.

What shading is for is essentially to compensate for scale.
On any scale model, including one of the human body (such as a doll), the topography will by necessity be proportionally more shallow than would be the case in full scale. Shadows will then naturally be correspondingly less deep. Shading is applied in order to compensate for this, and make the model look more like the full scale original, by enhancing its three-dimensionality.
This is why unblushed dolls seem "flat".

It thus is a question of replicating the play of undirected light on the surface of the subject, along the nooks and crannies and recesses, and hills and ridges and peaks, that form its topography. This is why shading is best done in the palette that light on the subject will naturally form on its surface.

Look at yourselves in a full-length mirror, in your birthday suits. Unless you've just stepped out from a sauna, you won't notice much blushing going on in many places - and least of all in the points where doll "blushing" usually is done, such as between the ribs or under the breasts. These are however all points where shading usually is applied - and you will notice the depth and contours of these features being defined by the play of light and shadow along them.

For my own part, I find that "blushed" dolls, even well executed blushes, look somewhat unnatural, or as if they had just been through a most vigorous ... Finnish Sauna.

As for the shading, it is, as I noted, only there to accentuate the three dimensions of the object. It only simulates the most general, ambient lighting, and is not intended to simulate shadows created by any specific light source.
If you look around, you will notice light falling towards you from a variety of sources - astronomical sources (i.e. the sun, the moon, the stars) and lighting fixtures, of course ... but also light being reflected from shiny, or just light coloured, surfaces (windows, water, walls, etc). Some light is also diffused and spread as it propagates through the molecules in the air.
Unless you are in an entirely black painted room, with only a single spot light as a light source - or in deep space - you will hardly be able to find any really deep shadows anywhere on your body. You will however find some places where there is a bit more shade than in others, and some places where there is a bit more highlight than in others - and these places remain fairly constant, no matter how you turn in the light.
You will also find that the skin in the shaded places seems no more blushed that in any other place. What it does seem is slightly garyish-purplish compared to the other surfaces.

This is the effect shading simulates, and I feel it is also the effect that blushing seeks to emulate, albeit with a less than optimal palette.

As the shading only simulates the effects of ambient light and not of any specific light source, there is no danger that the doll would look strange in some certain lighting.

The Dragon has spoken.

 

The Dragon, again.

This is indeed the conventional recommendation when painting garage kits, and the like. It is also frequently used in cel-shading. My personal opinion however is that it tends to make models look somewhat tanned (it usually works well in cels though - but on the other hand, cel-shading isn't quite naturalistic, either).

If you want to preserve the "pale beauty" look of the lighter resins, without making it look tanned or unduly flushed, it seems that a colour that subtly marks that shade, while very gently bringing forth the blue of sub-dermal veins, would be the way to go.

In any case, as with all shading, subtlety is of course essential. Saturated colours are naturally out of the question (shudder).

Thanks for all the comments, though!
By the way, shadrad - what brand of colours do you use?

The Dragon will now go to sleep...

 

The Dragon is sleeping, but since I am home with a cold I am still awake! ops:

Thank you for your insights and ideas!

Himeno is a Cyndy 1, SD13 normal pureskin. The goal is to give her a natural but paleskinned look, absolutely not tanned or flustred! She is a goth girl, after all...