Adding Second Colour Digitally

Seeing as my final two colour prints are going to be printed digitally, I have the opportunity to tidy up some parts of my original lino prints on Photoshop. I am not going to make many changes, only clean up a few smudges because I want to keep the characterful imperfections of the original prints. I also edited some parts where I had cut away more than I should have, for example on the chess board in the knight image and on the string of pearls in the pawn image. I used the clone stamp tool for this so the printed quality of the additions were replicated. 

I first tried adding the second colour with the magic wand tool because I thought this would be the most effective way of selecting all the different areas. However, when I did this, it never properly met up with the black lines and I was left with think white patches between the two colours. Obviously I didn't want this so I had to take a different approach and used the brush tool on a lower layer and making the black print a multiply layer so the colour could be seen through it. 

My ideas for colour have changed since my initial plans. I wanted the colours to be quite dark to reflect the dark themes of the images but since then, I have thought that paler, more tasteful colours might be more appropriate. I am thinking this because I want the initial impact of the images to be quite calming and nice to look at, representing the quintessential country setting of Christie's novels and also the generalised view of her as a typically English lady.

I briefly went back to my initial idea of used reds and tried to put a more subtle twist on it but this wasn't working well. The pinky oranges this is creating don't fit well with my theme because I don't really know what it is trying to say. With my other ideas for colour I know there is a clear concept behind it so I feel better about pursuing these. 

I looked on Pinterest for some interior design photographs themed around the 1920s and 1930s because this is the time period where most of her stories are set. I used the colour picker on Photoshop to select colours I liked and then played around with opacity to try and create a set of five that work together. I decided against using one colour for all of them because I think each print needs its own identity and I have chosen the colours individually to help communicate the theme of each one. For example, green on the knight to show jealousy and purple on the queen to symbolise wealth.  

The final steps were to add the mono print textures I have in my sketchbook and apply these onto the second colour. I added this as an overlay layer to get the desired effect, I tried it as a multiply layer but it overwhelmed the colour and made them all look a bit grey. The overlay layer uses different tones of the same colour to give it a texture. I am going to ask for opinions from my peers on the colour scheme just for some assurance that they work as a set. I also have concerns that the colour on the bishop and knight prints might be too similar.