Ill just move an answer i wrote to here,

 

Q: How do you paint so dark? I always have to press really hard to have a dark color

 

A:

 you can do it a few ways, you can just adjust your opacity and flow at the top toolbar while you have your brush selected, if you have black selected and you're having trouble it's most likely because one of these percentages is low, I usually work with opacity pen pressure enabled, opacity 100% and flow 40-100% depending on what I'm doing.

If you have PS CS3 or up I think, in your brush window (Top toolbar:Window > Brush) in the left menu, click Transfer, under opacity jitter if you have pen pressure enabled there should be a bar labeled 'Minimum:" you can slide that to adjust how much opacity the brush will be capable of painting, same applies for flow

if you have both, opacity and flow pressure enabled, disable one of them and it will be easier

If you still can't get it to work leme know

Masks can be pretty complex to just explain them here in the thread so I just bothered google with your question:

http://www.lunacore.com/photoshop/tutorials/tut003.htm

I hope this tutorial I found can help you out!

Thank you Andrew and Markus! will check on that tutorial =D

Another simple way to produce masks are

1/ New (transparent layer)
2/ Paint object/shape
3/ New layer
4/ Press ALT (option) and hover between the two layers. A little eye icon appears
5/ Apply

Now, any changes you want to add, are applied purely to the mask attached to the object below.
Easy peasy.

You can now apply VFX changes, eg. colour balance, opacity schemes, paints, etc.

Try it out!


(NB:trying to flatten these objects, requires a bit of cunning copy/paste later)

Why dont you bind your favourite 8-10 shortcuts onto the function keys

Yes I have my own custome bound keys, that and altering the interface can speed your workflow greatly.  Also the preset buttons on your wacom are HUGE, I only have a Bamboo pen (graphic designers dont tend to use sketching to much) but I have the two pen buttons set to pan and erase plus mouse wheel for zoom.

 

For most folks who are newer to PS I generally send them to http://www.tutcast.com/  he as great tuts on most PS functions.

Maybe Darren wishes to learn the most basic, on the fly hotkeys?

I'll post the ones I keep using the most when drawing/coloring:

Brush -> B

Eraser -> E

Switch colors -> X (it changes between the 2 colors you have selected, like the default black & white)

Move around or "hand" -> Space bar

Zoom in/zoom out -> Z and shift + Z, respectively

Lasso -> L

Deselect Lasso -> Ctrl + D

Marquee -> M

Color picker -> I

So basically, I keep one hand on the keyboard all the time, and the other is free to draw. I maintain the left hand mostly on its side, so I have quick access to the E, B and X (brush, eraser and switch color), and that keeps my workflow smooth most of the time.

One more tip: build your color palette! In the swatches palette, everytime you come up with a new color that you know, or think will use later, just click on the little icon that resembles a sheet with a folded corner in the same window (its to the left of the trash icon). If you want, add a name to each color, e.g. "main char dark skin". That way you will build a color library to your liking and will save time instead of guessing every time just where the hell that color came from... or worse, when that tonality got buried under other colors.

Try to experiment with hard and soft brushes.

A chalk brush, with some gritty edge + opacity/flow variability (to taste) will help.
How much pressure applied and thoughtful strokes make up the rest.

I think

1/ Free transform
2/ Move perspective guide (circular cursor to any arbitary point. In this case a vanishing point)
3/ Type in CTRL-ALT-SHIFT-T (copies last good transform action) - which you can choose to bind as a shortcut key (I havent found its official name yet to bind) or action

wallah!

Increase Sharpness?

Something I've managed to stumble across to achieve sharper detail is the use of the 'High Pass' filter effect.

Whether it be trying to fix blurring due to enlarging an image or some other reason, these next following steps could be of some use to you.

 

3 Steps:

- Duplicate the layer you want to add sharpness to

- then go to Filter Effects > Other > High Pass (of about 1, but experiment)

- change blending mode (any mode under the same category as overlay)

 

This method is probably not the best way to achieve sharper details, but I've posted it just in the event that maybe other people might find some use in it.