Cheers gurch - was just making sure.
Well if you think its ok for public consumption, here it is for all without any pics for a change. Will post pics if someone REALLY wants me to. My dinosaur has changed abit..... looking good I think. Will post at the end of tonight work so far. erm, think i will run over 4 hours though :(
I am sure others, particularly jackdaw, no alot more about photoshop than me though so will be able to shed better light.
Using channels with a drawing to make a layer from a scan that contains ONLY the pencil work and not the paper bit.
1) open the image (duh!)
2) Open up the channels tab. It will either be hidden on the top left with other tabs, along with the brushes tab and perhaps a couple of others, or you can find it on the WINDOWS menu at the top left of the photoshop program window, sitting between VIEW and HELP
3) Either hold down CTRL button on your keyboard and left click the RGB channel, or else make sure the RGB channel is selected and then click the little icon at the foot of the channels panel that looks like a selection ring.
4) back on the layers pallet create a new layer. You may now need to press shift and CTRL and I (SHIFT+Ctrl+i) buttons at the same time to invert the mask, you will only know when you perform the next step. Alternatively go to the SELECT menu and choose 'inverse' which will do the same thing.
5) On the new layer, choose whatever colour you want for your pencil work to be and press ALT+DEL (alt and delete buttons together) which will fill the selection. Did it work? Great! Did it all go black? Go back to step 4 and select the inverse, you'll know for next time.
6) Prove to yourself you did it right, create a filled layer above the background layer and below the new layer you just created and make it a different colour. If it has worked then your drawing will appear on whatever colour paper you selected.
7) Changing colours. Lock the transparency (click the little icon right next to the word LOCK at the top of the layers pallet) Choose your new colour and finally click ALT+DEL button.
Added tip. before you do all this, you can creat an adjustment layer (use the funny black and white half circle thing at the bottom of the layers pallet and choose 'levels' - shove the sliders left and right until you have quite a reasonably dark pencil line and make the white as bright as possible. Leave the adjustment layer on and go through steps 2 to 6. That way you will not get any of the grey shades that might come off the scanner light bouncing off the grain of the paper.
ps - thanks sinstral for your 'hobby' comment. Ever thought of trying to make a living from it? Anyone got ideas of how hobbyists can break into the world of payment?
www.onegraydot.com
Sinistral:
(cloverfield). no beauty sleep for me, too hideous for that, i'd have to go into a coma to get any affect from beauty sleep 
