Extract the skeleton - I firmly believe that anyone who enters this contest and does this deserves extra credit! WOW, what a challenge.
step 2 of 12
Distort clock to fit inner fish side.
step 3 of 12
Extract the watch.
step 4 of 12
Copy and warp this piece.
step 5 of 12
Warp, then clip texture to the fish piece. Eventually did some burn shading on all these.
step 6 of 12
Extracted the metal flap, then clipped it to the piece of fish previously cut out. Did some burn shading.
step 7 of 12
Warped the 'fish breath', but decided later to replace it with 'fish spit' (default splatter brush).
step 8 of 12
Removed lower fin bones.
step 9 of 12
Warped the riveted piece, used darken mode to blend with the skeleton - but the right side disappeared, so I added a second one in back at normal mode.
step 10 of 12
Warp the yellow painted 'wormhole', lowered opacity.
step 11 of 12
Cropped the large background image. Added a frame and a couple of shapes center bottom as well as the metal container for the 'inside of the companion ship', used various layer styles. Also had added clouds, then difference clouds for the far background, erasing some & used levels adjustment.
step 12 of 12
Warped the section of the backend a bit (both layers) then erased some of the front layer.