Layer mask - difficult to see the area as I paint black

When I work with layer masks, it is difficult to see the area as I paint black, covered all over.
How do I show one layer mask without making the picture appear?

Chris Cox wrote:
Option/Alt click the layer mask.
Nice one Chris.  One of these days I'll go through the full list of shortcuts again.
[edit] Just having a look see, and Shift Alt (Shift opt) clicking the mask shows the mask overlaying the image in Quickmask mode.

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