This shows the bits and pieces I used to create the skull. All told, there were 9 different layers involved. Basic brushes, natural brushes and smudge.

basic brushes and smudge

I added some decoration to the candle stick, but took it out later.

I used the pen tool to get the shape right and also for the strings. The wood grain was made with a wet media brush.

This was made with a basic brush, wet media brush (for the wood grain) and a natural brush to make the sand. The sand was made by making several layers of various shades and then merging.

The bristles were made with a wet media brush using several shades and layers, then merged. I erased to shape.

I used a combination of layers and dodge and burn

Going clockwise, the first layer is the table cloth done with dodge and burn, the second layer is the shadowing done with a soft large brush and smudge, the third layer is the light texture done with a watercolor fat brush, fourth layer is the light yellow that I erased a hole out of, fifth layer is a copy of the fourth layer darkened and shifted bit, layers six, seven and eight are the shades of mortar done with the rough ink wet media brush, the last layer is the brick with light and dark shades done with a natural brush.

I used dodge and burn for shading and the eraser on the links. After I finished with the pendant, I used color balance to change the yellow to a richer gold color.

Pen tool, dodge and burn and I forgot we can't use the text tool, so I took it out.

I finished it by putting an overlay layer of color over everything