Hi, all. I'm new to Krita.

I've drawn this comic (https://www.instagram.com/p/B1diMK9DD5a/) and in the 2nd balloon, the wall's line is masked out (using a pure black and white alpha) but is still visible. The shaded areas were created by filling a layer with a pattern and, again, using black/white alpha mask... but the pattern is still visible everywhere there should be white.

What's going on here? Any clues?

Hi joshuaanderson,

Welcome to Krita Forums,

Can you show us a screenshot of the layer stack , possibly with the alpha layer selected. Is the alpha mask completely black? make sure it is not gray if you are okay with it, You can also share the file so that we can check it.

I just noticed that, though I have tried selecting a pure #000000 black, Krita keeps reverting it to the default #090609 black.

Maybe that's the problem; it's not using a pure black. In that case, since selecting #000000 isn't actually changing the selected color from the standard #090609 "black", how can I get a pure black? If I can't change the swatch, can I add a new one?

I'm not sure where to host my file to give you access to it but here is my screenshot (click to enlarge):

You seem to be painting in CMYK, why is that? A recommended workflow is to paint in RGB with CMYK-based soft-proofing turned on for a few reasons - amongst others unless you get a specific CMYK profile from your printer, your colors won't be accurate anyway, and your display can't show some colors that are available in CMYK anyway too. Soft-proofing ensures you don't use colors that are unavailable in CMYK.

I checked it and using Specific Color Selector with maxed out Black and zeroed all other channels it gives you a greyish color, however if you use Advanced Color Selector and choose black there, it's dark enough to make image parts look transparent. I believe Masks are in GREYA colorspace while the color selector you're using shows color in CMYKA color space, so there is a conversion happening somewhere.

Thanks, Tymond. That solved it. I got into the habit of drawing in a CYMK profile document because I've printed minicomics in the past. I didn't expect Krita's use of CMYK to be so different from Photoshop's. Thanks again!