HEY KIDS

It's time for the first (and probably last) installment of...

SOUP TEACHES YOU HOW TO SHADE!

Today's topic is...arms and legs!

Now, I've been noticing something. Something bad. Something that's made me cringe. It seems like many people are choosing to shade arms and legs in a way that makes absolutely no sense. Instead of shading in a way that makes the arms and legs look at all realistic, they've chosen a different way. A darker way. That way is...

LINES.

Now, what do I mean by lines? I mean something like this:



Notice how sad this guy is. That's because his shading makes absolutely no sense. I've been seeing this sort of shading everywhere (it seems especially prevalent in girl skins), and it absolutely baffles me. That's not how arms and legs look. It makes them look all weird and wrinkly. In fact...



Why do people shade with lines when it makes their skins look like some sort of weird blocky Michelin man? Do they not actually understand what their shading means? Do they not realize that shading should get darker where the 3D mass of the body goes *in* and get lighter where the body *protrudes*? Because last time I checked, my arms aren't made of tires. I think the biggest wtf part of this kind of shading is that it takes a ton of effort. In my example above, I used a very simplistic version with only 4 colors. Most of the skins I see that use this technique, though, use many more shades than I did, and I'd guess that it'd take a lot of effort to draw.

So, what's the alternative to shading with lines? Well, pretty much ANY other technique is better. Here, I've made a very simple and easy example:



Notice how, even though the shading took about 80% less effort, it still looks generally realistic. I used lines in the appropriate places--where the arms/legs actually bend and where the mass of the body actually goes in, and most importantly I didn't use lines where the skin would be smooth. In other words:



Of course, there are many ways of shading that are generally realistic, and my version is only one example. It still looks much better though, don't you think?

So, to recap...



Stay puffy my friends.