Or you could say Runner was the color (and texture) she was because of her surroundings overall.
Ward had the alien in a wooden environment, so it would have looked completely different.
Now that I think of it, it sounds really interesting. Looking back, its like the fleshy chestburster is the way it is, because it was "camoflauging" into the human's body. I know this isn't the original idea here, but just applying what Ward had thought up, which has been sort of contradicted in other films, anyway.
