Original architectural photo used (my own photograph) See gif for manipulation

Photo used to add lion figure outside arch (my own photo). See gif.

The Ivy layer was created using the standard "ivy" brush in Photoshops default brushes.

The tree branch (for the ivy) is from an image of my own. I am searching for it but it is not a digital image and I am having trouble finding it.

Tree branch used for the base of the outside ivy. Ivy was created with the Photoshops default "Ivy" brush and a lot of messing around!

Gif gives basic creation. I will try and add steps but it is an older image and not sure if I have the layers. Hope this give you an idea. Any questions please feel free to ask me.

Poem that goes with the image.

Like a Moth

Did she dream his Mesmer gaze
As he bent to taste her wrist
A touch so fine, so delicate
Her body trembled to be kissed

(Behind closed lash a memory stirs
A remembered glimpse of pain
Wings frantic-flutter ‘gainst the globe
Again, again, and again)

It was long ago; can she recall?
How she yearned to feel his bite
But he comes no more, she's all alone
Lost and hidden in the night

(Again the dream; much clearer now
She is sure she feels it's pain
Wings battered, broken ‘gainst the glass
As it battles the campaign)

Was it real, that last sunrise
When dawn licked her heated skin
The dappled light upon her brow
Dew-drenched dress against her shin

(Will it be as in the dream?
or will she never feel the pain?
When like the moth of memory
She's devoured by the flame)

Sunrise breaks, she fights the sleep
Dawn's gold pours in, oblique
As birdsong fills the empty hall
‘Tis the suns touch she’ll now seek

(Now she has become the moth
To be eaten by the fire
Sorrow lost in centuries
Burned away by her desire)

And if he comes for her at last
He will surely come in vain
For nothing’s left but an ashen light
And a dusty, blackened stain.

by Author