Highlighting Help

[shoe]

Im not %100 sure on how to highlight so could someone tell me what this actually means? I cant find anywhere where it tells me. My guess is its painting the raised areas without drybrushing? I dont know how many times GW has told me how to drybrush... they have never told me how to highlight though! Sorry for the EXTREMELY noobish question.
Btw I probably do highlight because most of my models look really good.

[Pheonix]

actually highlighting is a little beyond noobish and i am glad to see you are taking the time to learn it. Highlighting is simple, you just want to touch edges of models where there is at least a 45 degree change in the line, now i have seen highlighting where they have painted every edge but basically yes, the areas where if you JUST touched with an almost entirely dry brush are the areas where you would highlight. And the idea of the material used and what would best be described as the spectral value of the surface will determine the amount of highlighting.

For example, An Eldar Viper


this particular one uses a mostly glossy concept of fairly nicely polished metal with an intricate design on it. Here you would have long defined highlights of a color fairly close to the teal color, then have shorter highlights of a brighter color where the light source for that model would be.

in specific you would see the highlighting around all edges of the front hull and the side fins, and then only on the rear edge of all the curvy parts. from here it would only be where you can see that the light makes an edge on the model (IRL i mean)

Contrasting to this you would maybe consider that the model has a little bit of battle wear and the colors have faded and it is more of an eggshell to rusted finish, here you want the highlight to look more like a closer color (like from desert yellow to bleached bone for example.) one ONLY highlight where the light can be seen making a specific variance in brightness on the model, in this case the tips of the fins (farthest out) (unless of course you are scaring that surfice with wind and other types of damage from long drawn out conflicts. Save that for another tutorial). and the lower tips of the front armour closest to the driver. Really it is going to come down to a decision on light source, but if you blend in the direction of your light sources you can see where you should be highlighting. I will try to find some examples for you if you request.