Krita for Beginners: Highlights, Rim Light, and Material Cues

What highlights actually do (beyond “making it shiny”)

Shadows describe form by removing light; highlights describe form by showing how light arrives and how a surface responds. A highlight is not just a lighter version of the base color—it is a combination of:

• Light direction (where the brightest area sits on the form)
• Light size and softness (hard edge vs. soft bloom)
• Surface response (diffuse vs. specular)
• Material cues (skin, fabric, metal, plastic each “announce” themselves through highlight behavior)

Two key terms:

• Diffuse response: light scatters in many directions. It creates broad, gentle light areas and color stays closer to the local (base) color.
• Specular response: light reflects more directly. It creates tighter, brighter highlights that can shift toward the light color and can approach near-white on glossy surfaces.

Highlight placement: the “where”

On a simple sphere under a single light, the highlight sits on the side facing the light, slightly offset from the brightest diffuse area. On complex forms (faces, folds, props), think in planes: highlights appear on planes angled toward the light and disappear quickly when the plane turns away.

Highlight intensity: the “how bright”

Intensity depends on (1) material gloss, (2) light strength, and (3) exposure of your painting. A common beginner mistake is making every highlight equally bright. Instead, choose a hierarchy:

• Primary highlight: the brightest, smallest, most attention-grabbing (usually on the focal area).
• Secondary highlights: dimmer and/or softer, supporting the form.
• Ambient sheen: very subtle, broad lift—often barely visible at thumbnail size.

Keeping highlights cohesive (so they don’t look pasted on)

Highlights look cohesive when they share consistent logic:

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• Same light direction: all highlights “point” to the same source.
• Same light color: even across different materials, the light tint should feel related (warmer sunlight vs. cooler indoor light).
• Consistent edge language: glossy objects get sharper edges; matte objects get softer edges.
• Consistent value ceiling: decide how close to white your scene goes. If everything hits pure white, nothing feels special.

A practical check: temporarily add a neutral gray layer on top set to Color blending mode (or use a filter layer) to view values without hue distraction. If highlights are randomly bright, you’ll see it immediately.

Layer modes for lights (and when to use them)

Use a dedicated highlight layer (or a small stack of highlight layers) so you can adjust intensity without repainting. Common blending modes:

• Screen: gentle brightening; good default for soft highlights and broad light passes.
• Add (Linear Dodge): stronger, more “light-emitting” feel; good for small, intense specular hits and rim light accents.
• Color Dodge: very punchy and can shift saturation quickly; use sparingly for tiny sparkle points or very glossy materials.

Restraint rule: start with Screen at a low opacity, then only escalate to Add or Color Dodge for the smallest, brightest accents. If you begin with Color Dodge everywhere, you’ll fight blown-out values and neon color shifts.

Recommended highlight layer setup

• Layer 1: “Highlights – Soft” set to Screen, opacity ~10–40%.
• Layer 2: “Highlights – Specular” set to Add (Linear Dodge), opacity ~5–25%.
• Optional Layer 3: “Sparkle” set to Color Dodge, opacity ~2–10% (tiny brush only).

Keep these layers clipped to your painted forms (or placed inside the same group with an existing mask) so highlights don’t spill outside the silhouette.

Step-by-step: adding highlights in a controlled, believable way

Step 1 — Create a separate highlight layer

• Add a new layer above your shading/painting layers.
• Name it clearly (e.g., Highlights – Soft).
• Set blending mode to Screen.
• Clip it to the object/character (or place it inside a masked group) so you can paint freely.

Step 2 — Choose a highlight color (don’t default to pure white)

Pick a color that is:

• Lighter in value than the local color
• Slightly shifted toward the light color (warmer light → warmer highlight; cool light → cooler highlight)
• Often a bit less saturated than you expect for matte surfaces (but can be more saturated for certain plastics or strong colored lights)

Quick guideline: for matte materials, highlights are usually “lighter + slightly warmer/cooler.” For glossy materials, the brightest specular can approach the light’s color more than the object’s color.

Step 3 — Block the highlight shapes by plane

• Use a medium-soft brush to place broad highlight areas on planes facing the light.
• Think “bands” on cylinders, “patches” on cheeks/foreheads, and “ridges” on folds.
• Avoid outlining forms with highlights; place them where the surface turns toward the light.

Step 4 — Add specular accents (only where the material supports it)

• Create or switch to Highlights – Specular on Add (Linear Dodge).
• Use a smaller brush and sharper edges.
• Place specular hits on the most reflective areas: tip of the nose, lower lip gloss, polished metal edges, shiny plastic corners.

Step 5 — Test visibility at thumbnail size

Highlights should read even when small, but not turn into noisy glitter. Do this:

• Zoom out until the canvas is thumbnail-sized on your screen.
• Ask: Do the highlights clarify the light direction and focal point?
• If highlights become distracting specks, reduce detail or soften edges.

Optional workflow trick: use the Navigator docker or create a temporary “thumbnail” view by zooming out and panning; avoid repainting at tiny size—just evaluate.

Step 6 — Adjust saturation/value for believable light

Instead of repainting, adjust the highlight layer:

• Lower opacity first (fastest fix).
• If color feels off, use a non-destructive adjustment method (e.g., a filter mask on the highlight layer) to nudge Hue/Saturation or Value.
• If highlights look chalky, slightly increase saturation or shift hue toward the light color.
• If highlights look neon, reduce saturation and/or switch from Add to Screen.

Rim light: a special highlight with a clear job

Rim light is a thin highlight on the edge of a form, usually caused by a back light. It helps separate the subject from the background and can add drama, but it must still obey material rules.

Rim light placement

• Place it on the silhouette edge facing the back light.
• Keep thickness consistent with distance and softness of the light (sharp spotlight → thin crisp rim; large soft light → thicker softer rim).
• Break it where the form turns away or is occluded (don’t trace the entire outline).

Rim light layer suggestion

Use a separate layer set to Screen for soft rim, and add tiny Add accents only on the most reflective materials (metal/plastic).

Simple material cues: how to paint highlights that “say” skin, fabric, metal, plastic

Skin (semi-matte with soft specular)

• Diffuse: broad, soft highlight transitions on cheeks, forehead, shoulders.
• Specular: small but not razor-sharp; often on nose bridge/tip, lower lip, eyelids.
• Color: highlights often shift slightly warm (even under neutral light) because of subsurface scattering; avoid pure white except for very wet areas.

Practical cue: keep most skin highlights on Screen, and reserve Add for tiny moist spots (lip gloss, tear line).

Fabric (mostly diffuse, broken highlights)

• Diffuse: soft, wide highlights that follow folds.
• Specular: usually minimal; exceptions are satin/silk (then highlights become longer, brighter streaks).
• Shape: highlights often appear as interrupted patches because fabric micro-folds break the reflection.

Practical cue: use textured brushes lightly or paint slight irregularity in the highlight edge so it doesn’t look like plastic.

Metal (high specular, strong contrast)

• Diffuse: often subdued; metal reads through sharp value jumps and reflected environment.
• Specular: bright, crisp, and can reach near-white quickly.
• Pattern: expect alternating bright and dark bands along curved metal (reflection behavior), not just one gentle gradient.

Practical cue: on a metal cylinder, paint a narrow bright streak (Add) next to a darker band, then a softer mid band—this contrast sells metal more than saturation does.

Plastic (clean specular, smoother than skin)

• Diffuse: present, but smoother and more uniform than fabric.
• Specular: clearer and more “graphic” than skin; edges can be fairly sharp depending on gloss.
• Color: colored plastic can keep saturation in midtones, but the brightest specular tends toward the light color.

Practical cue: use a soft Screen highlight for the body, then a sharper Add highlight with a clean edge; keep it simple and controlled.

Mini-practice: three material swatches → choose a style → apply to your illustration

Part A — Create three small swatches

• Make a new group called Material Swatches.
• Create three squares/rectangles (about 300–500 px each) filled with different base colors (e.g., warm beige for skin, muted blue for fabric, neutral gray for metal/plastic).
• Add a simple shadow pass if needed so you can judge highlight contrast (keep it simple—one light direction).

Part B — Paint three different highlight styles

For each swatch, add a highlight layer stack (Soft/Specular) and paint:

• Swatch 1: Skin — broad soft Screen highlight + tiny Add accents on “moist” spots.
• Swatch 2: Fabric — soft, broken Screen highlights following fold-like bands; avoid strong Add.
• Swatch 3: Metal or Plastic — sharper Add streaks with strong contrast; optionally a tiny Color Dodge sparkle point.

Thumbnail test: zoom out until all three swatches are small. The material should still read correctly: skin = gentle glow, fabric = soft/broken, metal/plastic = crisp/bright.

Part C — Choose one highlight approach and apply it to the main illustration

• Decide which material behavior matches your main subject (or split by parts: skin for face, fabric for clothing, metal for accessories).
• Create the same highlight layer stack above your main painting.
• Apply highlights using the same rules you tested: placement by plane, controlled intensity hierarchy, and consistent light color.
• Do one final thumbnail check and reduce any highlight that steals focus from your intended focal area.