What graphic programs do you use? I started out with paint shop pro and have been using it ever since. There's still a lot I don't know about the program yet. I haven't played with the mask feature at all and I suck at vector layers.
Another great graphic program is paint.net. It has plenty of bells and whistles and best of all, it's free. Google it for more info.
personally, i've always used photoshop. i'm using CS2 currently, although my brother-in-law's getting me CS3...
i love geeks...
i also used poser a long time ago. i haven't used it in a while, though... sometimes i feel like i should get back into it, but there are just soooo many filters and add-ons that i want, and it all costs money, lol.
Woot! on the CS3. I have an old version of Photoshop that someone gave to me way back when. Version 6 I think. But I never got around to playing with it since I was already so comfortable using paint shop pro.
Speaking of Poser... I thought I'd put up a link for Daz Studio. It's similar to Poser and it's FREE to download. You get one basic model to work with. If you want more you have to pay for it of course. lol