This is cool, +1.

I'm not sure whether there is an in-depth answer to this, but the meme is indeed real: boingboing.net/2010/07/23/typographic-mustache.html

External hard drives are terribly easy to drop on the floor. Don't rely solely on them

Just FYI for future generations reading this question, Adobe is selling Studet & Teacher versions of their software at HUGE discounts (like, 70-90% off the normal price). You can't resell that software, and are allowed to use it only on your own machine, but it can be a great deal if you're in the right situation.

Ohh man! This looks very promising. Thanks already for the effort you put in this, and I will be trying this out soon.

great - I'll play around with it and see what happens. If I need further info, I'll follow up here. Otherwise, using pencils with a different colour sounds like the sanest option.

And yeah, it's CS5.5. Although I often find myself thinking that not that much has changed since 5.5 - at least not in the essentials :)

Cool ideas, thanks! Coloured pencils are a good option. From old experience, they don't handle as well as normal ones, but I may get myself a set and try out. I'll test suggestion 2) before that though - there is a significant difference between the black of the lines and the grey of the pencil. I'll let you know how it worked out. Re the tablet, I recently got one (a A5 Bamboo) but I use it for post-processing and colouring only - I love the freedom of pen and paper for sketching too much.