ND's Spiffy Hard-Soft Coloring Trick (2)

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It is now time to add highlights! I am going to do this in much the same way that I approached the shadows. The important thing is that this time around, "Screen" should be your blend mode, not "Multiply".

Screen is a blend mode that makes everything below it lighter.

Once again, do the layer--- group with previous option that you did with soft and hard shadows. It will give you the happy little arrow icon.

I used a VERY dark bluegreen to highlight everything. Using a soft, fuzzy airbrush, I ran very, very basic highlights across my image.

The reason why I used a dark color is that it is less powerful then a light one. Since everything gets lightened automatically, a darker color makes this effect less harsh, while a light color that lightens via screen makes everything almost pure white (yuck!)

It is finally time for the hard highlights! Create a layer above your soft glow that has a "Screen" Blend mode, and also has the happy "grouped with previous" arrow that we've grown so fond of!

Using a hard edged paintbrush, I chose a dark blue green to do all of my hard edged, animation-like highlights. As you can see, "screen" made my very dark green show up lighter across each color below it.