The hand Magic Lighting

To create a lighting effect surrounding his hands, I chose the magic brush in the FX Brush category. I duplicated the layer a couple of times and turned the upper layer to linear dodge or color dodge mode to produce the bright lighting effect shown in Fig.16 & Fig.17.

The Background

I produced two different background color palettes: one bright and one dark. I now had a choice – which one best let the viewer read the character? I took a step back and considered them. The eye stood out well on both, but when I narrowed my eyes while looking at the dark one, it was hard to make out the whole figure and pose. Also, the magic hand light was standing out more than the eye, which wasn't my wish.

Because of this, I chose to go with the brighter background in the final composition (Fig.18 & Fig.19).