Creating a Silk purse from a Sow's ear

Hi Folks;

Sent Gina off on her weekly hike at 6:AM. As I had a great day in the garden yesterday taking about 400 shot at birds coming in from everywhere. WOW! Anyway fired up LR3 and started looking and being ruthless about what I kept. About 30 files in I saw this #! "Sow's Ear" that looked very interesting and challanging for a "Silk Purse." I sent it into CS5, cropped and sized it, and saw the vision of a blue sky background from a sky photo I had taken, so I opened the sky file, sized it the same size as the Sow's ear, saved it as Sow's sky, left it opened, pressed "V" (move) and moved the ear over the sky. Then with eraser & BG Eraser, magnifying to 500% most of the time and varying opacity of erasers, with a lot of patience and imagination I ended up with #2 which I thought would be ideal for a pixel bender>oil painted Silk purse. So, I opened Filter>Pixel Bender>oil paint>Used my natural settings>S-7.822 C-7.008 C-1.06 BS-1.387 BC-1 >OK and gave it the finishing touches on my CS5 Workspace #3

CC's welcome and very much appreciated

GUS :cheers:
Glass of wine coming when sun is over the yardarm :w3

Here's the #1Sow's Ear - European Starling bring home the bacon! (Suet)

Here's #2 Sow's Sky

Finally #3

Pixel Bender Oil Painting "Silk Purse"- European Starling bringing home the bacon! (Suet)

Looking forward to Sun over Yardarm"

Gus aka MP

Very nice image and application, Gus.

Like the final effect and know the work involved in getting there was challenging and "fun"! :e3

But success is worth it. :cheers:

Gus, what an amazing transformation! Thanks so much for your workflow - I learn so much from it. I could also see pane #2 with a fractalius filter on it.:S3:

Hey Gus - That's a great transformation - I like the final image, an really glad that kept the catch light. And you even got your border in, as subtle as it is - nice touch! Great work!!

Gus, Very nice work especially after seeing the base image and what you did. I might try to reveal a little more detail in the eye on the final image if it were mine. Thank you for sharing your work flow.:S3:

Hello Gus, I would never have guessed that the final image started out the way it did and you are a brave man for tackling the selection! I like the PB oil rendering and the way it turned the starling's feathers into hair. Very cool!

Very nice capture and effects, Gus. All nice effects although my favorite is the third one with pb. Nicely done.

Wonderful work Gus, love the final result!

Wonderful transformation, Gus. Thanks for the tutorial. :S3: