So here goes. Layer mask painting 101
First a little history. I originally got the idea from looking at some illustrations by Hi-Res for the book Brazil Inspired. This was also in conjunction with eyeballing one of my favorite Craig Mullins pieces and trying to figure out a way of getting those yummy textured layers but still keeping it sketchy, flexible and spontaneous. So it's by no means a new invention; but I have found that masking is generally not very understood and never really seen any guide for using it in illustration/painting. So hopefully this little overview will spark some ideas and add something to your arsenal of digital painting techniques.
Now for some pretty pictures to get us warmed up.
Hi-res illustrations for Brazil Inspired.
Amazing contrasting textures and masking going on (i think) Craig Mullins
Latest discovery that brought this up again. Infiffident on Flickr
1. Masking basics
Before you can start messing around with masks, you need a solid understanding of how to apply them & how they work. If you already mastered this skip on down to #2.
For the layer mask n00bs, fire up PS (...Seetharaman Narayanan...) and create a new canvas.
For this exercise, set Background Contents to 'Transparent' which will make it easier to see what your doing.
Grab that Wacom pen and throw down some blobs of paint. Once your happy with it, hit the 'Add layer mask' button at the bottom of the layers panel. Voila, you have just created your first layer mask.
Now actually make it do something. Notice that next to your layer you now have a little chain-link and white square. This white square is essentially a second, alternate universe to the layer with your blob. This alternate universe is only ever black & white and effect the opacity, or transparency of your blob-layer. Also known as Alpha Channels, these masks only effect the respective layer its applied to rather than the whole image.
Click the white square, or alternate universe and once again using a black brush, paint a couple of squiggles. Take note on how you 'paint out' your original blob. You can paint it 'back in' by changing your brush colour to white (hit x to flip your colours). Also try flipping the mask from positive to a negative by inverting it. (ctr+i or option+i).
Have a bit of a play so you understand the principle. Now we can have some fun with this.
2. Messing with images
Open any photo you like. I am using some stock I found that had some nice colours.
Once opened, you will need to make a new layer out of the image. This is because you can not apply a layer mask to a background layer. Do this my dragging the background layer onto the 'new layer icon' as shown.
Then erase everything from your background.
Now go through the same steps outlined above to create a layer mask.
Once again, using a black brush scribble some lines into the layer mask. (make sure it is selected)
Also try various shades of gray to see how it effects transparency.
Now fill in the layer mask completely with black. This will make the image completely transparent.
Using a thin white brush, paint the hidden image back out. This is quite fun to do as your scribbles let through the colours of the image and slowly reveal the underlying picture. This way you can achieve something similar to the Hi-Res illustration shown up in the introduction.
Now that you have a yellow belt in layer masking, its time to jump into some more advanced techniques.
3. Black Belt Layer masking & parallel universes
This is where it gets messy
We will start looking at using various grays and textures to make some more interesting masks. And to add to it all, underlay a nice bit of texture to mix it up. (or mashup as the kids are calling it nowadays)
Use the same file from above, but instead of just painting with a straight brush dig out those customs.
A nice one to try is the default foliage brushes that come with PS.
Here I have added in some background texture, a bit of wallpaper.
One great thing about layer masks is that you can not just draw, but also paste images into them. This allows us for example, to use the actual image that you are masking as the mask. This may sound confusing, but isn't that hard to achieve.
Make sure the layer thumbnail (not the layer mask thumbnail) is selected and 'select all' (ctrl+a / option+a). Copy the image (ctr+c / option+c).
To be able to paste the image we just copied into the layer mask we have to actually 'go into' it the alternative universe of the mask. To jump into this parallel reality hold down the 'alt' (or option) key and click the layer mask thumbnail. You are now actually looking at the black and white layer mask itself. Paste the previously copied image. It automatically convert to black and white as this is the only colours allowed in this universe.
Click back out of onto any layer which will take you back out of the layer mask. You can now see the effect of you handywork. Try inverting the mask or changing the levels and contrast to enhance the black and white depths.
You can now try all sorts of combinations. Painting in both the image and layer mask, unlink the mask and move it around, use multiple layers and masks - Go crazy.
4. Using it for painting
On a final note, a quick overview of how this technique can be applied to digital painting. You need a good grasp of layer masks and how they work before you can really use them effectively. It is easy to get confused with the layers and how they effect each other.
Basically we can use this technique to separately create textures and then paint these textures into the shape we like. If you look back to the Craig Mullins painting you might be able to spot some areas which could be achieved through this method; for example in the flag and armour textures. The patterns flow through the entire image but are cut-out or masked into the appropriate shapes to denote the objects. The advantage is the flexibility in changing and retaining the detail of the textures while you paint.
To best demonstrate how this may work, have a look at this Knight painting inspired by Craig. You can download the layered PS file below to dissect and analyze. It is a very experimental image with many layers and masks. With a bit of planning you could achieve this with less layers.
Hopefully this has giving you some tools and ideas to use in future work.
Please add any comments or questions, let me know if you find any parts confusing/unintelligible.
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Example files for download:
-Portrait painting experiments
- Knight illustration
