Thanks for criticism guys  it helps me improve on my other works in the future. I will take that into consideration.
Reason I went messy with the mask was I was trying for a different approach for shading. I'm guessing that isn't a good way then
and yea @ eric. I prefer GIMP because it is easier to make .gif though |
There's nothing wrong with that kind of shading but it doesn't fit for what you are trying to do.