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One thing that I can't emphasize enough when it comes to learning masks is workplace layout. There are a few things to notice in the image below. 1. I've customized the Layers Palette to include the buttons I use most when working with masks. Starting with the fifth button from the left, they are - Mask Show All - Mask Hide All - Mask from Image - View Layer Overlay - Invert Mask/Adjustment Don't panic, we are only going to use Mask Show All and View Layer Overlay. 2. I keep the Layers Palette right next to, or even overlapping, the picture I'm working on. 3. The swatches in the Materials Palette are solid black and solid white. You've all heard that the cool thing about masks is that you can use different shades of gray to "paint" different degrees of transparency. That is true and not difficult to understand, but I honestly think that my previous frustration with learning masks was in trying to relate that concept to what I was trying to do with my image. That's why we're going to completely forget about that for now, and just work with black and white. The grays will come later in the procedure. 
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