Not bad except for the conflicting light sources.

good. suggest 'soften' the selection before deleting the original background of the deers might be better. The light source is in daylight, but the deers' are more suited to night-time... perhaps substitute with night-scene background might be better?

Congrats!

Gosh I was thinking to do the same thing!!!! I quit!!!
Great job, good luck, author!

Congrats on third place

Congrats!!

Here's a tip for masking out the grass. Go to Select - Color range, then pick the color between those grass leaves adjust fuzinness and check in the preview what will be selected( the white part), click ok. Then either click delete or press the mask button and Ctrl +I the mask(inverts it).

Nice idea, just follow the great tip from greymval, that would improve the work considerably. You might check the cloning on the background, it's a bit too obvious. GL!
BTW a high res image is always helpful.

Nice concept ... wish you had been able to do a high res ... I would love to see the detail in the peacock.