@SembazuruCDE gave you the necessary information, but it may help to rephrase the same with other words.
This is the order of manufacturing:
- FR4 is on the bottom.
- Copper is on top of that.
- Mask is on top of that. See How does solder mask layer work?. “Solder mask” is really physical substance and the mask layer in the software is negative of physical mask.
- Silkscreen is on top of everything.
As of the visibility and looks:
- Copper is fully opaque.
- Mask is semi-transparent, so copper under mask may look different than no copper under mask.
- Depending on the manufacturer, there are color choices for mask. Some manufacturers can even use several colors for one board.
- Silk is practically fully opaque.
- Depending on the manufacturer, there may be color choices for silk.
- There are finish choices for copper.
If you want the bare board to be visible, the layers in the software are:
- No graphics in F.Cu (copper) or F.Silk
- Graphics in F.Mask
I think the most difficult part is getting the mask layer right. If you want to draw with thin stripes of mask substance on copper and/or bare board, you have to have large areas of graphics in the software Mask layer and thin stripes of no graphics. For copper and silk it’s just moving your original graphics to the layer graphics.
Do you have your original design in SVG format and can you share it here?