I think he usually takes screenshots from the Nexus and/or other sites that have quality screenshots of hi res armor retextures. Much of his recent build artwork uses armors from the aMidianborn Book of Silence texture pack, and since Mason plays on Xbox, he can't have taken those himself.
I can't speak for Mason specifically, but the general method for this type of job is to work in layers -- have the human model layer, the armor layer, the background/environment layer, the lighting layer, and then overlay effects like depth of field and maybe film grain and such. Mason has a couple of Photoshop tutorials in the Art group where he does this.
So as far as finding the art for each layer, it's basically just a matter of knowing what you're looking for. Again, you can't go wrong with hi res retextures such as the aMidianborn series, Nightingale Prime, gloriouz's Daedric/Stalhrim sets, Rafuel's Robes, etc. Generally, you can find solid screenshots of these on the Nexus. From there, the only other big thing to consider is to make sure you find a model whose pose will work with your armor screenshot. And, of course, that you can handle the actual image manipulation process.
I think he usually takes screenshots from the Nexus and/or other sites that have quality screenshots of hi res armor retextures. Much of his recent build artwork uses armors from the aMidianborn Book of Silence texture pack, and since Mason plays on Xbox, he can't have taken those himself.
I can't speak for Mason specifically, but the general method for this type of job is to work in layers -- have the human model layer, the armor layer, the background/environment layer, the lighting layer, and then overlay effects like depth of field and maybe film grain and such. Mason has a couple of Photoshop tutorials in the Art group where he does this.
So as far as finding the art for each layer, it's basically just a matter of knowing what you're looking for. Again, you can't go wrong with hi res retextures such as the aMidianborn series, Nightingale Prime, gloriouz's Daedric/Stalhrim sets, Rafuel's Robes, etc. Generally, you can find solid screenshots of these on the Nexus. From there, the only other big thing to consider is to make sure you find a model whose pose will work with your armor screenshot. And, of course, that you can handle the actual image manipulation process.