Intro:

This article goes out to all those who request skins like so:

"can I haz a skin of kakashi from nartuto plz xD xD i would be sooooo hapy if you could do this <3"

Hopefully this tutorial on proper etiquette when requesting a skin will turn that ^ into this:

"Hi I saw you made a couple anime skins so I was wondering if you could make me a skin of Kakashi from the anime Naruto."

Why I am making this:

As a skinner myself I know when I see a decent request. Now a skinner may still respond to the first example and make the skin, I myself wouldn't

a) Plenty of Kakashi skins out there
b) I loathe people who don't use a little bit of proper grammar, punctuation, spelling etc. (not saying I'm perfect)

Anyway, I think it doesn't hurt to give a hardworking skinner something nice to read, after all they are giving you freeart or character customizatio- whatever you want to call it. The least you can do is give them a nice request.

Step One: Spelling, Punctuation, Grammar.

While trying my best to not sounds like my English teacher, here are some tips.

-Open a sentence with a capitalized letter.
-Put some time into that sentence you're writing.
-Don't abbreviate words with things like "cuz" "yh". These are good for chat, but not for something that's not as spontaneous.
-Don't rage at people who try to help you improve your grammar.
-Make it understandable, they shouldn't have to go over it a few times to know what you meant.

Step Two: Content

Skin makers like it when you provide picture(s)! That way we don't have to look up the picture, and then get bashed for using the wrong picture! I'm using the word picture to much! And don't forget to make sure any of the links aren't broken. Perhaps you can give us some context to the character as well. If you tell us that your requested skin is of a cold blooded killer, we probably won't give him cutesy eyes.

Step Three: Requesting a non-popular character

Lets say the skin you want isn't of a character that you couldn't find a good for, or it's for someone you just made up. In that case go into good detail about the skin. You can use your skills in describing to explain how you want your skin, or you can go and find a picture for each part of the skin. For example:

Method 1)

I don't have a picture of my character but I'd like the hair to be a buzzcut, except with some 'bulk' on the top. His shirt should be grey and a v-neck etc. . .

Method 2)

I don't have a picture of my character but this is what I'd like the parts to look like.

Shirt: laterallineco.com/catalog/images/_Crisfield_TropicalSummer_FishingShirt_Aqua%20Blue.jpg
Pants: www.google.ca/imgres?q=trousers&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=1223&bih=642&tbm=isch&tbnid=1jzfDJPahmkdgM:&imgrefurl=http://hoemjiv.livejournal.com/5111.html&docid=JlTFzfZUYSV16M&w=600&h=600&ei=yuqMTunuGsOysALr7ZGuBA&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=400&vpy=162&dur=26&hovh=225&hovw=225&tx=132&ty=128&page=1&tbnh=119&tbnw=119&start=0&ndsp=23&ved=1t:429,r:2,s:0

etc. . .

Final Step: Dem rules is rules!

Don't try and make a skin maker do something he doesn't want to do. By this I mean if he's decided to not do anime skins, don't bug him about it. Of course you can ask if s/he knows another person who does do anime, if he doesn't you'll have to do some research yourself :)

A 'perfect' request!

"Hi, I was wondering if you could make me a skin of Cole Phelps from the game LA noire. If you've played it you'll know about the character, but if you didn't he's basically a cop in the 40s who works his way up the 'ladder' and becomes a detective.

Here's a pic of the outfit I want the skin to be in (he has several in the game) :
technobuffalo.technobuffalo.netdna-cdn.com/files/2011/02/L.A.-Noire-Cole-Phelps.jpg

Could you do the hat as well for me please.

Anyway I hope this has enlightened some of you to use a little grammar and spelling.

Have a nice day!

Rox