help needed_digital painting

[sfcrafael]

So, I did a speed paint and here is where I got:

http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/968/colourw.th.png (http://img227.imageshack.us/i/colourw.png/)

Now I'm having some problems when trying to paint a background...

1) There are some transparencies in the grey parts, because I used the eraser to do some of the lighting, and when I try to paint a background, it messes the colours because of it (it darkens the lighter areas in this case)

2) The red colour is in a separate overlay layer, so, when i paint the background, the overlay also is applied to it..

This is my first try paint stuff, so I'm very lost here.. how can I proceed to painting the background without this affecting my character? How to remove the transparency of the grey parts of the armour and how to make the overlay not be applied to the background layer?

Thanks in advance!!

[Metsys]

I would create a new layer, have it as the last layer behind your character layers (but above the background layer of course) and paint white where you need it to be. You can change your background color (or add a temporary layer above it) to something obnoxious like blue so you can make sure you got painted white where it needs to be. You'll probably have to fill in the whole character silhouette, but that'll be necessary. This will create a white layer that your character layers can blend with without the background layer interfering.

This is why I always use a solid silhouette for my foreground objects, so I don't have to worry about layers blending inappropriately with the background. Having a silhouetted shape for each object is also nice because then I can lock layer transparency and paint over the edges (which allows me to work fast so I don't have to be as careful painting at the edges), or using a clipping mask (holding down alt and then clicking between layers) so the blending layers won't go past the silhouetted shape.

[sfcrafael]

the white layer worked great, I feel so dumb now for not thinking about it haha

and about the overlay, using clipping mask didn't work at first.. it became very faint, maybe because of the already existing transparency on the grey layer, so I merged the "white silhouette" with the grey layer and problem solved

really thank you a lot!