How can I keep pushing these highlights? Other C+C appreciated!

[steep frigate]

You could add a contrasting colour in the shadows to make the highlights pop more. Maybe a really dark Blue would push the orange tones in your highlights further

[burnt phoenix]

Will def do that! any tips on the highest red/orange?

[steep frigate]

Once you’ve pushed your highlight brighter you can always glaze over it with an orange/yellow/magenta ink to add back saturation/intensity.

The choice of orange/yellow/magenta are subjective and just depend on how you want the piece to look.

You could also do that with a regular acrylic paint too doesn’t have to be an ink. You can get really pigmented opaque inks that do this well but are not necessary - just an added fun thing to have as a tool haha

[burnt phoenix]

Thanks! I did exactly that (I tried)

how is looking?

[steep frigate]

Nice and rich now! Looks good.

Did you do the shadows too?

[lyric thorn]

lovely red! Trick to paint vibrant and punchy red lies primarrely at midtones and shades. Chromatically red is very dark colour and moreover cant be brightened with whites.

So the key is to make shadows really dark, use very small amount of midtones and use very bright punchy highlights of pure ped or red orange as last resort

plus you can amplify result by glazing red or orange fluo over

for example the recent mini of mine. messmer. after preshade i did very dark shades using red+ dark green and then added my brightest reds to highlights. Then i mixed 70 of shadow color with 30 of highlight red to make midtone and blended everything by few glazes