[Jacki Schklar]

I’d use Ctrl-M which is curves. You can bring down the Red, Green, or Blue. RGB works better than CYMK. You can make your changes affect the midtones, lights, or darks. You’ll have more control.

[Jacki Schklar]

You sound like an Illustrator guy to me…

The tablets are great and you can get going with them pretty quickly.

If you REALLY REALLY want to get good at digital illustration, you will need to do what most of us avoid at all cost, and learn the PEN TOOL like the back of your hand. It is frustrating at first and different, but maybe if you spend a weekend on learning it, you will start to get somewhere. It is not intuitive, but it’s important for illustrators. Good luck, and post some work for us to see when you get started!

[Jacki Schklar]

There is
-layer
-align if all elements are on different layers.

If I had to guess, I’d say that the background layer was created to be sort of a stage to help “ground” people in the design process. I’m sure you know this Mike, but everyone does not…You can rename that backround layer and then you can move it like the others.