Part 2: Virtual Egg Painting

A mask hides and conceals
If you've never used a mask in your paint program you may not understand how something "invisible" can be such a time saver and help make your work go more smoothly.

It may help to think of a mask as a stencil. You've probably used a stencil before. Shapes or words are cut in a piece of paper or plastic. Slap on some paint from a brush or a spray can. Remove the stencil and your picture or words are perfectly painted -- no unintentional crooked lines or bits of paint in places it doesn't belong. (OK, in reality it seldom works so well unless you are very, very careful.)

In your graphics program a mask works exactly the same. It covers parts you don't want to change and leaves holes where you do want to make changes (change colors, apply filters, etc.).

In the image here, you'll see the difference a mask can make. In the example on top painting across the egg puts a streak across the egg and background. In the example on the bottom, with the background masked (covered) the paint only "sticks" to the uncovered egg.

You'll need to look at the tools and menu choices in your own software, but chances are it has several different ways to create masks. You may see a collection of selection tools that look like a square, a circle, a paintbrush, a lasso, and a magic wand. These tools let you mark parts of your image (select them) but also act as a mask. Only the parts of the image selected with the mask tool can be changed.

Another option is to use another image as a mask. For example, you may use a black and white checkerboard image as a mask. Place it (using the appropriate options in your software) on top of another picture. The black squares of the checkerboard protect the underlying image. The white squares of the checkerboard are like the cut-outs on your stencil.

Corel Photo-Paint users: When you use the Mask...Load...Load from disk option you won't see the actual image on top of your existing graphic. A dotted marquee line appears outlining the masked/unmasked portions. If you don't see the marquee, select Mask...Marquee visible or Ctrl+H.

Mask your egg
Use the egg we drew in part 1 as a mask. One way is to open the file (open a copy of it and keep your original so you will always have a plain egg shape to work with) in your paint program and mask (cover up) all but the egg shape.

Corel Photo-Paint users: Assuming a 2-color image (egg all black on a white background, or vice versa), use the "magic wand" selection tool to select the egg. A dotted line around just the shape of the egg creates a mask that covers up the background.

If your software allows you to load images as masks, create a new, plain white image that is the same size as your egg image. Load the egg image as a mask on top of your blank image. You'll probably only see a dotted line in the shape of your egg, or the masked (covered) portion may show up as red or some other color. If the wrong portion is masked, look for an option to reverse the mask. You want your egg to show through.

Corel Photo-Paint users: When loading an image to use a mask, in a black and white image the black portion is covered and the white portion shows through. If your original image is a black egg on a white background you will need to select "Mask...Invert" after loading the egg image as a mask. Otherwise you'll be painting the background and not your egg.

By now you're probably ready to really start painting. That's next! In Part 3 we'll look at two different ways to paint your egg.

Next Page > Painting Your Egg > Page 1, 2, 3, 4