This is the last scan I did before I finished the pic. It wasn't all that involved, so it gives a pretty good idea of how I worked.

Anyways, Here you can see that I finished painting in the markings, and started to better define the character through shading. To paint the shadows on the character, I used the same color as the background ... to make her fit in the environment. To paint the highlights of the character, I settled on adding white to the color I used for the background, and painting her arm, top of her leg, edge of her face and hair and breast. I also outlined her in this color, very lightly, in the shadows to define her outline and make sure her form doesnt get totally lost in the dark.

After this step, I darkened the whole background. I actually mixed some Carbon Black in with the Ultramarine Blue and Violet mix, instead of bone black, to hasten the darkening. Carbon Black is solid black, so I only used a very tiny amount to do the trick. I didn't want a black background - and I wanted some variation and texture to it, to give it more life. For painting the big spaces, like the background, I mostly used a #12 round watercolor brush. For the smaller spaces, like the markings and most of the character shading, I used a #6 round watercolor brush. Using the very tip with not a lot of water in it can get a pretty fine line, which is good.

From that point, I just pushed the contrast - I had all my colors mapped out, I just needed to make it 'pop'. So I darkened the darks, lightened the lights, refined the textures, and made sure that *I* liked it. Thats the most important part for me - I have to like it. If I don't like it, its not done. It doesn't have to be perfect, I don't expect perfection from myself, but I do expect some amount of pride in each completed piece I do, or else what's the point?.

Finally, I shaded the dragon to give it more form and texture - I shaded the dark spots with the same color I used for the reflected light off of Lumina.. And then, I painted in my signature.

And voila - you have the finished piece.

My idea for the colors themselves - which is actually kindof funny - came from my memories of the Peter Pan ride at Disneyland - and watching my t-shirt and shoes glow from the ultraviolet light, and what those colors looked like in my memory. I also have a blacklight and looked at some stuff with it - but it looked cooler in my memory so I went with that. LOL Peter Pan FTW.