Mask Issues

[Taxicab Messiah]

I'm having problems using masks.  When I have multiple layers in my panel I find that masking doesn't work effectively.  You can see in this image that I have my hardness at 0% and I'm trying to use black to mask out the edges of the I LOVE NY image but the edges of the brush are hard, scalloped and low flow.  Not sure what I'm doing wrong but I keep running into this problem once I have lots of layers in my canvas.  ce I have lots of layers in my canvas.  

[carl123]

You appear to have the Pixel Tool selected.

Change to the standard Paint Brush Tool and try again

[Taxicab Messiah]

I looked closer and I think it worked.  It's really confusing.  When I'm playing around pixel layers are added without my knowledge or permission and rasterization alerts pop up all the time so I have to control Z to undo it.  It doesn't feel like I'm in control of the canvas.

[walt.farrell]

6 hours ago, Taxicab Messiah said:

When I'm playing around pixel layers are added without my knowledge or permission and rasterization alerts pop up all the time so I have to control Z to undo it.  It doesn't feel like I'm in control of the canvas.

That is likely to happen if you're using the wrong Tools. But you can influence the behavior using the options in your application Settings, under Assistant. For example, you could change options which mention Rasterizing to "Take No Action". 

[Taxicab Messiah]

Im finding out that my brush is changing to a pixel brush vs a standard brush without my awareness.  I'm finding it challenging to deal with destructive vs non destructive edits I think.  I'm at the phase where I'm learning while also going backwards.

[walt.farrell]

29 minutes ago, Taxicab Messiah said:

Im finding out that my brush is changing to a pixel brush vs a standard brush without my awareness

You're probably pressing B to switch to the Paint Brush, when you're already using it. By default, as the Paint Brush Tool shares a group with two other brush tools, that will switch to the next tool in the group. You can disable that behavior, and only switch if you also press the Shift key (e.g., Shift+B to switch to next tool) in your application Preferences, under Tools. The option is something like "Use Shift Key to cycle tool groups".

[Taxicab Messiah]

I'm 100% going to implement this