ok.. well let me first say I used Minershoes in my earlier days of skinning. Now I use a program called skin edit! I really need to make a youtube tutorial on how to shade because people keep asking me for help. But pretty much I usually find a color I like and make a pallet somewhere of to the side and change the hue by increments of 3, but the amount you change depends upon your style. I usually use 3 because it looks smooth. I also use a free online photo editor kind of like photoshop called pixlr. I use the advance editor to combine skins and do different techniques such as change the colors of things. That's a bit more advanced, but is really helpful for making some neat stuff!