I am penciling a childrens book, mainly animals and a couple kids etc..

the animals, typical elephants, zebras, giraffes etc...
I have used snapshot references for the images, but the coloring/inking has been basically all imagination...

I am using photoshop8
I have picked up some tips like, cleaning the pencils using channels, and locking transparency to darken the lineart...

The back gorunds are where I am having the most difficulty...
any suggestions would be appreicated.

The hooves are in the middle of being re-worked, so ignore them if you please, these are MOUSE DRAWN ... and NOT going to stay.