Re Poll

I thing the poll forgot the occasional skinner.
I do about 3 to 4 skins per year, each taking me about 30 hours (I think your 30 hours is normal for a complete Windowblinds skin, Fuzzy Logic).
I guess if I do an average it comes to 1 to 10 hours a week, although it seems a lot.

I think the poll is more generic than that. It doesn't state that its for skinners only. So it could include people who use skins. So how many hours a week do you spend on download skins, trying out new skins, etc....

Usually I try a couple of skins per week. There are so may good skins its impossible to try them all. I keep about a dozen favourites. At the moment my part finished skin is on my desktop - looks weird! I spend most of my time reading messages... As for using skins, my pc is on 24/7, so I suppose that counts?

i'm not really a skinner like you guys i just make a wallpaper or skin for myself now and then. i probably spend 1-5 hours a week on this kind of stuff. but i might start doing more because i just purchased photoshop

I'd like to be able to make better wallpaper. At the moment I'm using Paint Shop Pro. Photoshop costs too much for my 'infrequent' needs. PSP's ok for doing skins, but I would like a prog that can make a better effort at wallpaper.

I don't think you should put any time constraints on making a skin or wallpaper. If you are doing this for fun,(which I assume you are, as there is no profit to be made for most of us!)just take as long as you need to produce something that YOU would like to use on YOUR desktop. Too many people pump out bland, "template" skins, as I call them, to satisfy their needs as "download junkies", and this ultimately affects overall quality of sites like this.
Being "old school", I am used to quality, artistic skins, and this trend of using the same template with a different gradient across it and calling it a new skin, disappoints me

So, what I am trying to say is, just take as long as you want to make a skin. Essorant, one of the great skinners of the moment recently said to me "It's not a race, is it?", and I agree. I have at least three DesktopX themes that I have been working on for about 3 months now, and I am in no rush to release them, as I am not happy with them yet.

I agree entirely. The skin I made, the one I'm making and the ones I have planned are all for my own use. If they don't look good on my desktop they will be binned.

However, as a beginner, I have to use the template - at the moment I'm concentrating my efforts on producing the quality of graphics I need. I will learn more about how skinstudio works, but it takes time. So far my new skin has a top bar and a button! That's taken three days, mainly because I'm not happy with the effect I'm getting. I know what I want and I know what I like and this isn't it - bin, start again! As a photographer I'm used to working with light/shade, complimentary colours, form etc, so I'm trying to use those skills rather than my primitive artistic skills. I have a lot to offer the skinning community (as a thanks for all the stuff I've downloaded), but not yet..

I was delighted with the response my first skin got, It has encouraged me to keep going.

I've fooled around with making skins some. I can make a simple skin in 3 or 4 hours. But a whole skin would take 30 to 40 hours easy.

I agree with BoXXi. For me, it would take all the fun out of skinning (and creating) if I just replaced and colorized. It is definitely more time consuming starting from scratch for each skin, usually taking for the most part 40 hours or better (sometimes months). If I wouldn't use it it gets trashed and I start all over again. I do like to experiment and try new technicques and different styles. That makes it fun.