Alright, so to start off I see a lot of skins around heah that often times are very stale. Same color on everything, not even any noise added. So I thought I would talk about shading.

Only recently have I begun to start to shade my skins, but once I started I noticed a huge improvement upon them.
I recently made a skin just for this topic, where I took pictures of it both before shading and after shading.

Before


After


And as you can see, there is a huge improvement. Now I know the hair might not be that nicely shaded (I just very recently tried to experiment with it), but the rest looks nice. So here are some methods that I think might help those in need:

1. The Dodge Tool
The Dodge tool is an essential part of shading .It is mainly used to show where light is being cast upon the skin and is used to show highlights in hair. The Dodge tool is best used by using a painter one pixel in size and applying something like this (numbers represent amount of times clicked):
1 2 3 4 5
1 2 3 4
1 2 3
1 2
1

This application will show a gradient of light, and make the skin look smoother.

2. The Burn Tool
Found in the same section as the Dodge tool, the burn tool allows for shadows to be shown on the skin and is also used in hair. It is best applied in the same method as burning.

3. The Lighten Tool
I find that the Lighten tool is often used in the same circumstances as the Dodge tool. For example, in the skin shown the light cast on the leather vest was created with the Lighten Tool. Best applied same as the Dodge tool.

4. The Darken Tool
Never use this, it makes things way to dark. Instead use the Burn tool.

5. Experiment
Your skins will never get any better if you don't experiment with new programs and techniques. if you look at some skins I made back in November, compared to my new ones, the look extremely lazy. You can see the first skin I shaded on here (www.planetminecraft.com/skin/napoleon-bonaparte-490891/), and the first skin I shaded hair on here (www.planetminecraft.com/skin/evil-old-king-heroes-v-villains-contest-villain/). If you look at say, this skin (www.planetminecraft.com/skin/ser-jaime-lannister-302180/) from my past, it doesn't look so great now does it?

I leave you with this, try new things and you'll only get better results.

Credit:
MCSkin3D(www.planetminecraft.com/mod/mcskin3d/)
I would highly recommend this program, as it allows you to see your skin right there before you even upload it.