Brush tool not working when masking

[Sbrandt]

My brush tool is not working. When I mask a layer and want to reveal using white or conceal using black it does a combination of both. When making my brush black it doesn't conceal or work at all. When making my brush white to reveal (after clicking control i) it will alternate between reveal one second then conceals the next second. Please help. Thanks!

[hatstead · Accepted solution]

I don't have a clue which version of PSE you are using, but try the following:

1. In Editor, go to Image>Mode and be sure that RGB color is checked.
2. Make sure that you have the ordinary brush tool, not one of the other "brushes" that are available in the brush slot
3. Open the image
4. Duplicate the Background layer
5. Add a Solid Color Adjustment layer between the Background & Background Copy layers.
6. Group the top 2 layers (press CTRL+G), and shut off the visibility of the Background layer by clicking on its eye icon
7. Left click on the Layer mask thumbnail (the white rectangle)
8. Paint with black/white to hide/reveal. The brush should be @100% opacity

[janiceb4]

I followed these instructions & i picked a solid red color , following the instructions, I was able to brush off the red & my photo underneath came thru.  does this mean that the problem I'm having with the ' action' I'm using , that is what is not working ?  Never ever had I had this problem before.  

[coling80872403]

I've just had the same problem. Turned out the blend mode in the tool bar was set to Difference even though the layer mode was set to Normal

[I Shoot My Dinner Twice]

This was exactly my problem - thank you! Now if I could just figure out what random accidental keystrokes made that happen...

[Louise234523489nvf]

Thanks.  Have not been able to figure out, my blend mode was set to Multiply.  

[Angela32636351g3b8]

In my situation the brush's blend mode was on mulitiply! Just wanted to add this in case anyone else is having the same issue! 

[Moiz32122958fiuu]

Thanks a lot!!!

[cmykfangirl]

Same lol I feel so silly!!

[creativemarkup]

I was having the same issue and started toying around, looking for any possible properties that could alter the quality of the masking brush feature and I found that opening the Brush settings. Check to see if the color dynamics have been activated. If they are on simply just uncheck the box and this should solve the issue. Again, this is just a possible solution to the problem but it happened to work for me so I thought id share it. Hope this helps! 

[martino30484777llkf]

It happened to me often until I realized the black showed in the color box it wasn't pure black. Click on the color box (or press ctrl-d) and check if the black is #000000

[default3ynkuajmhbez]

I was about to tear my hair out then I realized I was trying to do a mask with a yellow brush, ugh switching to a 100% black brush fixed it.