I used the clone tool al lot. I also used copy/paste on some areas and then blended them in.
step 2 of 10
I blend new grass on old grass to have some nice focused grass on foreground were the ape will sit.
step 3 of 10
This is our 'happy' main character. I roughly cut and pasted it and used the erased all the backgroud. I then used the smudge tool to bring back the hair that was erased with the background.
step 4 of 10
I copy the ape, use hue & saturation to make it black, transform it and use gaussian blur and opacity to make the shadow.
step 5 of 10
I selected the sign, transformed it to fit with the new composition.