DEALING DOOM AT DAWN painting

I'm learning how to paint as I go. On this painting I learned if I wanted something to look shiny, like the frogs, my intuition was exactly wrong. When something is shiny you would think it would get MORE highlights, right? The opposite seems to be true. A small highlight is what you need. The key is to make it hard-edged. It shouldn't gradiate all that much. These frogs aren't as shiny as they could be. I tried that and they looked kind of gross.

Later I can post a step-by-step of this painting.