OK first have a beer!...then look for sources. It is crucial that you spend a good amount of time looking for the right source images that will work well together. I had an idea I was going to use a lion but here's an example of the images I considered just for the statue part:
[Edited by Moderator on 2/3/2010 7:26:45 AM]
OK when you have found your sources open the statue image and the real life image and paste the real life image over the top as a new layer. Next lower the opacity slightly so you can see how it will match up (it's easier to work this way). First adjust the size of the image by using the transform tool or CTRL T.I generally hold the shift key down when transforming as this will keep it in scale and next try and match the real life features to the statue's features as close as possible. Mine was not an exact match so I had to cut it in two and then use the WARP (not liquify) tool to get a perfect match. Once it was in place I created a mask and began to paint out the parts that were not needed like so:
[Edited by Moderator on 2/3/2010 7:27:16 AM]
The next step was thinking about what other areas I wanted to make the real lion protrude from. I used a lion's mane from another lion source and pasted it over the stone hair. Then I created a mask and with a VERY soft brush I just painted away the hard edges. This actually gave the effect that I had done more work on the hair because the area left looked like shadow.
[Edited by Moderator on 2/3/2010 7:35:24 AM]
And now for the fun part. I chose this source for a reason and that was for the claw!!! I already had the claw source saved for a rainy day and it was perfect for this image, the tongue was also taken from a separate source. Again these were just pasted as new layers and masked out and a little bit of shadow added to give them more depth.I also decided that it was looking fairly dull so went back to the layer of the lions face and adjusted the levels and upped the saturation slightly. To enhance the eye I created a new layer, set it to overlay and painted over the eye with a bright green then lowered the opacity to about 35%:
OK you've had your beer so now it's time for the crack(s). These were actually relatively easy I used a brush. There are some here. I'm not sure if these are the exact ones I used but experimentation is the key anyway. When you have found a nice big dirty crack brush, just create a new layer and paint once over the face. With it being a new layer you can move it round to tweak it if necessary. Then mask out the areas that don't need to be cracked. I also then went back to my original lion's face mask and painted it into the crevasses of the cracks. Finally add a bit of shadow and lighting to the cracked pieces and also shadow on the lions face:
[Edited by Moderator on 2/3/2010 8:20:12 AM]
A few more tweaks later, a spout of hair from the arm, this was taken from the lion's mane. I also decided that the background was a bit too cluttered and distracting so applied a gaussian blur filter and masked out the background only then darkened it slightly.This is the final result:
[Edited by Moderator on 2/3/2010 7:36:36 AM]