A Work in Progress: Flamingo Toy...

This guide was made for entry:
Flamingo Toy...
In Contest:
flamingo

Original image

step 1 of 18

This is the spring selection with pen tool.

sources used for this step:

: source

step 2 of 18

I started to warp the spring in the shape of the flamingo's neck.

sources used for this step:

1: source 1

step 3 of 18

I made a selection of the flamingo neck and made it bigger so that it covers all the spring.
Then, with the spring layer selected (left click+CTRL), I went on the big flamingo neck layer and pressed Ctrl+ Shift+ I to invert and then Del to cut the spring in the shape of the flamingo! A very very useful method.

sources used for this step:

2: source 2

step 4 of 18

This is how it looked after method in step 3 applied.

sources used for this step:

3: source 3

step 5 of 18

Then I duplicated spring layer and brought it on top of the new layer from step 4. I changed blending mode to multiply to reveal pattern and color.

sources used for this step:

4: source 4

step 6 of 18

I added the bottom part of neck using the same method as described in the previous steps.
Added head and blended with the top side of the spring.
Added beak.

sources used for this step:

5: source 5

step 7 of 18

Added a new spring layer and reshaped it by using warp tool to get the shape of the beak.

sources used for this step:

6: source 6

step 8 of 18

Made the beak layer visible again and resized it bigger in order to cover all my new spring shape.

sources used for this step:

7: source 7

step 9 of 18

Used the same ctrl+shift+i+del method as before in order to cut the beak into the spring shape. Added eye and blended all using layer's masks.

sources used for this step:

8: source 8

step 10 of 18

Added sky backround after resizing original image to get rid of the bottom part.

sources used for this step:

9: source 9
10: source 10

step 11 of 18

Added leaves and changed blending mode to multiply.

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step 12 of 18

Added a radial gradient layer from dark orange to light orange.

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step 13 of 18

Changed blending mode for gradient layer to hard light.

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step 14 of 18

Cropped and resized image for composition purposes.

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step 15 of 18

Added light with gradient layer.

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step 16 of 18

Added gradient and brightness/contrast adjustment layer to pop up shadows and highlights.

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step 17 of 18

Added light beams and added gaussian blur (blending mode screen and lowered opacity slightly).

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step 18 of 18

Added one gradient map adjustment layer, blending mode color and lowered opacity down to about 29% to calm down the orange tones.
And another brightness/contrast adjustment layer with a 46% opacity.