This guide was made for entry: snakes In Contest: tree cut
Original image
step 1 of 6
using the original source i created the body of the larger snake.
i cut out part of the tree, duplicated it, flipped, masked out the edges in order to have a smooth transition between the parts. duplicated again and again, cloned out some parts to avoid obvious repetitions, then using warp and liquify i made the body of the snake.
step 2 of 6
using the leaves contest source i created the "hair" of the snake.
i cut out the leaf, warped, duplicated warped duplicated warped duplicated and so on, i used many warped versions in order do avoid repetitions, at some point i probably had somewhere about one million layers (or maybe just a little less)
then merged some of them together, duplicated warped, masked...
finally i got what you see below.
step 3 of 6
using the stone ball contest source i made the egg, first cutting out the ball,then spherizing and warping.
then using pen tool i selected two parts of the egg i wanted too keep, put them one over another and i got the egg.
using the sowing wheel contest source i made the small snake, using practically the same steps as for the body of the large snake.
finally i put the small snake inside the egg ant the large snake surrounding the egg.
step 4 of 6
from stones source image i cut out several stones, waped them to fit my needs, then arranged them around the snakes, putting some in the background as well.
using grass source i added the grass, using burn i made the shadows under the rocks and snake. i blurred the upper part of the ground in order to give an impression of depth, also blurred the large rocks from behind the snakes.
using the pen tool i made a bird-like shape, multiplied it to make the birds flying around one of the mountains from the background.