Chequered Mask

This tutorial was written in psp 8, but can be done in other versions.

You will need:

My Chequers Filter HERE

Open a new blank image 500x500 and floodfill with white, select black as the Foreground colour and select the brush

tool. Choose the psp default brush called 'Twirly Star' set it at size 470, Layers>New Raster Layer and draw a star in the

middle of your canvas, don't worry that it looks pixelated:

Adjust>Blur>Gaussian Blur, Radius: 15. Effects>Distortion Effects>Twirl, 250 Degrees:

Layers>Duplicate Layer and Image>Rotate>Free Rotate, 25 Degrees right:

 Layers>Merge>Merge Visible.

File>Export>Custom Brush, give your new brush a name and click ok. You can now close the canvas you won't be needing it now that you've made the brush.

Open a new blank image 500x500, Flood Fill with white and apply Effects>Plugins>FA Filters, Chequers, set at 15.

Layers>New Raster Layer and Flood Fill with black.

Select the Eraser Tool and find your new brush in the drop down menu on the left of the eraser settings and set the rest to

Size:500, Step:32, Density:100, Rotation:0 and Opacity:30.

Click a few times in the centre of the black canvas to erase away some of the black, Layers>Merge>Merge Visible, save as .jpg, name your new mask and you're done ;o)