So for my style of shading, what you wanna do is make an unshaded version of your skin.
Once you finish the basic skin, you'll want to start shading. We'll start with the head. To shade the head, use a burn/dodge or lighten/darken tool and go over the edges 3 times, one pixel in, 2, then one, then none, like this:
3 3 3 3 3
3 2 2 2
3 2 1 1
3 2 1 0
Do that on all sides of the head except the bottom, the bottom is the opposite, like this:
0 0 0 0 0
0 1 1 1
0 1 2 2
0 1 2 3
If you have headgear, the same rules apply. So that's the head! next, we shall do the body. for most of the body, the same rules apply. Except the sides. For these, you go over the edges twice, and the center once, because they're shadowed. same thing applies with the tops and bottom of the body. if your skin has like a button down shirt,
cut the shading down the middle, if this makes sense.Lol random spoiler
For the arms, you darken around the edges of the skin once. except the left side, you do two on the outside and one in the middle. but then, for sleeves, the skin and the sleeve get they're own shading. on the top and bottom, do the outline twice and then do like a checkerboard on the inside.
same rules apply for the legs.
that's it! i don't know if it made sense...but that's the best way i could describe it.... sorry about the lack of pictures, i couldn't figure out how to put more in... if you feel like explaining it to me, comment.