For some reason I haven't drawn scissors before and that's a little strange as they offer a nice combination of materials and reflective surfaces. Fortunately today I was able to remedy this by picking up a well-used pair of scissors and transporting them to my art room for examination:
Curiously while the plastic handles are quite reflective they don't display a huge range of tone; most of the material is dark with just a few slightly darker areas where the shadow lies. In contrast the metal blades are rather more interesting with their metallic tone and sharp highlights. Funnily enough, despite this, I spent most of my time shading in the handles and working out the best way to create darker shadows within an already quite dark background. By contrast the blades received a quick going over with a cotton bud (that had been used to smooth out the handles) and some sharpening of their edges:
At the end I used a template to help me add highlights, by erasing small areas of shading, and curiously these small changes appear to make all of the difference. With these areas of contrast in place (and despite them being much less subtle than the real highlights) somehow the whole piece feels more substantial and accurate. It's funny how you can spend ages working on the body of a drawing and yet it's the small details that make all of the difference. Another useful lesson.