Photo Play

I bought a new book today and just had to try out some things in it  using Photoshop Elements .  I used Feathering, the Gaussian Blur Filter, Impressionist Brush and layers.  I took my original photo and applied Feathering and the Gaussian Blur Filter to blur everything but the American Horse.  Then I created a new file and used the Impressionist Brush and painted a background with various colors.  Then I brought in the American Horse with about 90% opacity just so I could get a little bit of the background effect.  Next step was creating another layer, used the rectangle marque tool to create a frame and inverted the selection.  The paint bucket tool was used to fill the "frame" with a color I had selected from the American Horse.  Not sure I am 100% satisfied but it's a learning experience. I see that red shirt needed to be toned down.

This is the original

My finished product.