This is splendid! I love the cartoony look

sooper CUTE!!!! and fun

One of the best this week..... good luck for your effort to create something like this......!

wonderful, so full of fun

Very Cute! Lots of Fun! Love it!

seems like a perfect job, and I was very amused,

simply perfect. the best entry by far & probably for the whole week across all contests. well done & good luck.

Congrats Lois this is really cute.

great idea!

Not bad, but look at the lighting on the source pic & adjust your shadows accordingly. You might consider reducing the amount of empty space around the figure, too.

This was my first contest entry. Glad I checked my messages as it mysteriously disappeared. As I said in my original comment, I used no external sources. The background is just the background of the original picture we were given to work with. I may have touched up some of the scratches on the original background using the clone stamp tools.

The frame around the subject was done making a simple square and applying the gradient tool. Then cutting out a circle with the eliptical selection tool.

Ok, On second thought I see the differences in the background. I am trying to recreate how that was done and the only thing I can figure out is:

Duplicate original picture
Choose the duplicated layer.
Change it to Exclusion blending mode.
Use levels to adjust.
You will see that the light and dark backgrounds are reversed and they are more blue than before.
Merge the layers or take a snapshot then continue modifying the picture.

nice image and blend -- like the reflection -- a few stray pixels in the hair around the chin and a bit of a rough edge on the right shell

a magnificent job, clean sign in contrast to the bottom. very well

i really like this job well done

Really nice source finds! Would still like to see you mask out the coat on the guy which would make it perfect. Good luck!

Good job of keeping the character of the face.

this is awesome work author