I'm not sure if my issue is simply an error with photoshop, or an error with my workflow. I'm not new to PS, but I'm new to the tools/styles that are used in mapmaking. When I have been making 'clouds', it makes the cloudy appearance, for the first few attempts...and then it just starts making the layer black. Why would this be? Has anyone had this happen, where adding a new layer and applying clouds to it does not work? I also noticed that the 'difference clouds' stopped working at about the same time. I'm wondering if I have a bug in my photoshop that is causing this.

The reason it may be a bug, is because on step 20, when I went to apply the gradient to the base layer, it didn't show up. No matte which layer/way I applied it, I couldn't get it to visually appear on my screen (though it was there in the layers palette). Also, when I was in the dialog box and about to apply it...if the preview WAS checked, it did not show up, however, if it was NOT checked, it showed up. But no matter what, when I hit OK, the gradient was not applied to my layer.

This is frustrating, and I have no idea whether or not to conclude that I am doing something wrong, or if it is a bug with my photoshop that is causing some issue.

Any help would be appreciated. If I should post more information/images, let me know. I already created this whole thread and posted it ,but it didn't show up. Already my second time writing this up.

Cheers,
emarde