7) Highlights

Highlights are in my opinion, the most important touch. Shadows solidify an image; highlights make it real. I add another grouped layer to all of my grouped layers, and this will be for highlights only. This layer is set to "screen" like the line art layers are set to "multiply."

 

I like to use a color (in this case orange because of firelight) that's bright, but not too saturated. I use a very soft brush at low opacity, around 30-40% and highlight the parts of the image closest to the light source.

8) Backlighting

Backlighting is something that I think far more artists should take advantage of. The only time you DON'T have natural backlighting is when there is one strong, intense light source in a dark, dark environment...and even then...it's iffy. What is backlighting? Well, on the darkest part of the shadows, you can see a sliver of light. Sometimes this sliver is reflected light. Sometimes it's from a competing light source. In this image for example, the main source of light is the fire, but Talon is backlit by the moons. Using the same brush that I used for highlighting, I add bright, blue (at about 30% saturation) color at 40% opacity. If the backlight source is closer and/or very bright, then the opacity and the hardness of the brush is higher. Vice versa if the backlight source is futher away.

 

9) Final Touches:

As one would think, the final touches are added last. Silver in the hair, eye color and mouth color, background, that kind of stuff. About backgrounds, mine are always on a separate file, reused and inserted behind all the colored layers.