Masks, a spread in my new altered book

This is a wimpy spread I created while on the run.  I didn't even think of it that way when I titled the piece, but it's truly appropriate.


On the left, I started by gessoing the pages, then cut out the image you see above from a magazine.  I painted it with several colors of acrylics, then later added it to the page. 

To add a bit of humor, I cut the word RUN out of mini Hershey bar wrappers.

I used the "outside" of the cut image I eventually glued to the left side to create these people.  Unfortunately, the page wasn't the sturdiest, and my once juicy pigment ink is now quite dry.  I used the image to mask each "runner" when I overlapped them. 

You would think my mathematical brain could comprehend the simple task of masking.  But there are some things I find incredibly difficult to envision, and masking is one of those tasks I find hard to do.  I always want to start from the wrong direction.

For this spread, I played with a simple image I turned into a mask.  Are masks easy or hard for you to use?