I'm only a beginner painter, and normally paint over other repaints, adding my own colors/text etc, this is all done on the background layer, so say I select a stripe to be colored, I just get the magic wand, select the stripe, then floodfill whatever color I fancy Lately i've tried layers, but as soon as I add a layer, i've lost the ability to use the magic wand, as it just selects the whole layer.I thought layers were supposed to be easier? I can't figure out how, guess i'm missing something, but what?Any help, thanks

Well layers let you modify things without messing up the original. So you could have like a Red layer, Blue layer, Green layer, and you could in theory make 3 planes from the same file, just by turning on/off the other layers. If you want to use your wand (I assume you use PSD or similiar), you make a Selection first of the area then fill the Selection. I use The Gimp, but I'm sure it's the same for PSD.

Thanks for the reply, i'm using PSP, so I assume I would make a selection using the "point to point" feature, off to give it a try!

Also, make sure that Layer is active when you do it.

Usually if it selects the entire document theres nothing on the selected layer for it to.. select :)

Yep, that is my point really, meaning I have to draw/trace whatever on to the current layer, before I can select anything, and I have to do that even just to change a color!This strikes me as work! compared to changing colors/text on the just the background layer, which compared to layers, is easy, unless of course, i'm still missing something :)

Think of a layer as a piece of transparent plastic over your drawing. You are not really changing the original drawing, just changing the plastic on top of it, which you can remove at any time at will.For your situation, it would probably be easier to do it on the background if you are just changing colors. But, if you plan to do multiple color varieties of the same thing, a Layer would probably be handy or if you plan to change the entire design of the plane.If you add graphics or images, it would be best to place those on a layer so you can turn them on/off at will.

>Yep, that is my point really, meaning I have to draw/trace>whatever on to the current layer, before I can select>anything, and I have to do that even just to change a color!>>This strikes me as work! compared to changing colors/text on>the just the background layer, which compared to layers, is>easy, unless of course, i'm still missing something :)Sorry, but how do expect to select something on a new blank layer when you haven't drawn anything to be selected? I suggest you read a few tutorials explaining how to use layers.

Thankyou "Revraz", glad you can see where i'm coming from

Layers can also be very handy like when you want to keep something on the top. For example, passenger windows.. you could put those right to the top of the layer palette so any paint applied on a lower layer will be behind the windows. Theres a little tutorial on my site (link about signature) which may help :)

That's true, would be very hard to paint around windows without layers.

Try this. select your base layer, use the magic wand to select the area you want to re color. then change to your new layer, flood fill in the selected area, but on the new layer.... should solve your problem.John

Yep, many thanks, that works really well! :)

Glad to be some help.