Fourth Stage - The Highlighting Stage
Super-highlights are usually the lightest colors or the warm tones (yellows, oranges and reds) that are either the primary light source or its closest reflectors.
Normal highlights are a step or two down in brightness depending on their placement in the picture and resulting reflective ability.
Highlights are meaningless without a dark under-painting. The problem is we all suffer from 'black blindness'. Light only comes out of darkness. God said "Let there be light". He always works from darkness to light. You can not show light without darkness. Your lights will only be as light as your darks are darks. It is that contrast that makes your colors bright.
Experienced artists often ask me, "How do you get those colors in your pictures? What kind of chalk do you use?" I use the same chalk they do.The answer is in one word: BLACK.
Black in your picture allows the iris of the eye to open wider. This allows more color into your eye. The result is the colors 'pop', and actually make you believe their is light coming from the drawing. Without black, all you can get is 'bla'.
Some artists are afraid of black. Some even make it a rule never to use it. Tactile investigations have shown me over and over that most things must have black in them to look real. Some require an under-painting of almost total blackness.
I have heard professional commercial artists say I wish that I could draw eagles like you do. As I study their eagles I usually find one thing missing. They try to do it without the black under painting.
As an experiment I have asked classes of artists, "What color is this eagle's wing on my drawing?" The answer is always a unanimous, "Brown". The wings are actually completely black with only a small thin HIGHLIGHT: a broken patch of brown. Why can't they see the black??
Our conscious mind is so used to not noticing the black in everything that it ignores it completely. Black is after all the color of everything with the lights off. With enough light only a few things in our world are actually totally black. We all have a 'black blindness' that washes out our drawings and robs them of their color contrast. To overcome this, make your underpainting darker much darker and your highlights will glow!
Highlight Summary
Effective highlighting places the subject in time and space relative to its own environment. This involves the echoing and muting of primary light source based on the objects reflections and proximity to the light sources. Sound confusing? Its easy, remember: all you have to do is see.
The general rule for highlighting
One touch is perfect. The second touch ruins it.
For highlighting you can use the first three suggestions mentioned under reflections and a new method I have not mentioned:
1. Three Steps: Study / Spot / Sketch
2. Marbling
3. Knifing
4. Reverse Drawing which carves out a highlight by darkening its background. This is great for any object you want pushed forward into the viewer's lap.
The dark edges around the cloud brighten the highlights by contrast.