I just baked the AO in max and tweaked it in photoshop - the space on the board underneath the bolt was blank so I filled it in to prevent any bleeding.
spacemonkey, how are you achieving the color in these paintings? just very quickly, if it isn't a problem - what blending modes, colors, steps etc. -kill
It feels like everything has the same high-frequency bump applied to it and everything is sort of blending together. The lighting and glow is pretty extreme as well.
Can't you do it in two steps? Paint your mask and apply it to the layer and then blend it. Keep a copy of the original without the mask effect applied to it.