VILE TRICKERY #12: "Color Masks" (Patreon)

POINT 1: START USING MASKS IN PHOTOSHOP

I don't always use masks, but for characters with heavy colors and/or complicated patterns (like the thorns and armor here) I find that adding them in first can make the whole image come together much more quickly. They can keep local colors together, and most importantly, they can help knock shapes out from what is behind them.

Now, I do caveman-tier masks. I never took any courses on Photoshop, (I only got into the program in early high school so that I could doctor school photographs for blackmail purposes) so I am self-taught, and poorly self-taught at that. I don't cut up actual masks like a civilized human being. Instead, I literally make a multiply layer and use a 100% brush opacity with the brush sensitivity turned off, and just paint red over my shape to define the mask.  I save these layers in a folder and keep them handy while I work.  So as I paint I can just alt+click on them to select the shape when I need it. 

This is NOT how you are supposed to do masks, but it works for me! 

My favorite part about using masks is the ability to add subtle shading to the edge of a figure and in adding broad areas of texture, but maintaining clean edges. You can super textured airbrush shadow and then cut it out from the figure with a click.  I love it.

Now, if you are working digitally, you already know about masks, and you are likely doing them already. Which brings me to my second point...

POINT 2: STOP USING YOUR MASKS

I make masks, but their edges always feel artificial and constrictive. They help me get started, but they don't let the figures breathe. The shape looks too much like something computer generated and not like something made by a human. So the closer I get to the final layers of an image, the less I use them.  

Sometimes, it is important to not use the mask, and instead to erase out where the edge is. That slightly uneven edge (especially if your eraser has some crunchy texture) will give it a human look, and will help you avoid the synthetic look digital work often has.

So that is it guys! TL;DR: Use masks at the beginning to make your life easier, but abandon them at the end to give your work a more human look.