Skins and Accents

i have a transparent "skincent" concept, but i'm worried that while i am technically not using pure black, when it is pasted over a dragon that already has shadows or dark colors, it makes their colors almost completely black. even looking at a comparison of the actual color next to pure black is basically imperceptibly different to the naked eye. does anyone have experience with making large transparent skins or skins which add "shading" under the shadows layer who could help me figure out if i'm still in compliance for the color and shadows rules? i'm not sure how skins and accents interact with standard shadow layers on the actual website-generated dragons, especially for transparent full-body skins.

basically, i'm not understanding whether or not the image generation on-site involves a pre-built shadow layer, which always applies over or under a skin or accent, and if in my attempts to make a near-full-coverage but transparent skin the clipped shadows will double up and make dark dragons too dark.

@AstralKepeire Oh! If that's the case, look up some references online for smears. It should be a reasonably easy fix. I would suggest some of the darker color streaking up into the lighter portion, like shown here. Those tapering thin bits and small gaps will add a lot more believability to your accent and make it look more like a smear.

@gemsandbones The thing with accents is they don't act like a multiply layer. The darkest color on your accent will be as dark as the thing underneath it will be. No need to worry too too much about making things underneath it too dark. I wouldn't go too many shades darker than the canon obsidian though, staff gets a little shifty in regards to what they'll accept for darkness.

Edit: To clarify about the shadows, that's why they tell you to use the clipped shadows in the original PSD. It's treated like a sticker, they don't put any residual shadows over your accent.