I worked on it pretty seriously, so u will have it tomorrow evening. I started from a picture of flower (almost the same than working with a sea or fish pic)...it's good to work all source. But iff it's the worsessource pic that is coming soon , like a sign (damn) , u will have to complete this with external sources, to create a basic scene, even quick chopped,...then do arty transformation..If it's a people, or animal you can bring external textures for instance. On my tutorial, it's just the arty work (the source alloowed it), but it can be a second or third step the whole work if the source is less "organic".But by organic i mean architectures, bridges etc too...can be good to work too.

okay first brave one Bsoholic...
First important thing...to .create several layers in order to give depth to the work and be able to fluidify on several grounds,without disturbing shapes you don't want to.
each layer could be different lightening of a same color for instance....l
2nd : before to work, determinate a mood you want to give, will you change the main colors, generally i like to desaturate a bit the pic to better see shapes,then i re-add colors, playing with the neutral tones (selectiive color), to give an new main tone.

BRUSHWORK : creating brushes from scrtach can be usefull ..;u can blend or erase parts for an exciting "action painting" session.

What is important to is to find out a reel dramatic light...ihere it's obviously a central lightening. Don't hesitate to crop the source... a square space here fits well here. Spending time to adjust lights at each step is good too. Keep an eye on blurs and sharpeness allt he time, and each action done, a high FADING is required to make more subtil changes.
For all liquefying work, much more blending, cloning ,healing etc is required, FLUIDITY TOOL is useful for creating a "squeletton", of the reel work, but of course depends of which surface u wanna render. On my "cars" entries i let the fluidity work a bit more appereant cuz ithe scene had to make feel of a shiny futurism for instance.
Don't forget to work with several layers...;use cloning a lot (merely more than fluidity in fact), If u create multiple opacities, you can EQUALIZE with OVERLAY or Multiply, in order to see all layers like one.