How to Create the Castle in the Sky Artwork with Gimp.

I love fantasy artwork of all kind. Now as I have very limited traditional art skills I prefer fulfilling my urges for creating fantasy art using Photo-Manipulation. In the huge world of fantasy there is a very significant and important topic which is The Castle in the sky. Different people imagine it in different ways, but all of them want to show the same thing.
  So in today's tutorial we are going to create an awesome castle in the sky artwork using some stock images I mouse-picked from deviantart.com and our own image manipulation program GIMP. Resources I used in this tutorial are enlisted below..

• Castle
• Sky
• Birds
• Stars
• Dolphin Brushes from here.

An this is the Final Result you will get if you'll go with the instructions.

Fascinating Right?? So Let's Make It.

Step 1: Load Sky image in gimp.

Step 2: Now create a new layer above the sky layer and name it gradient. Then chose gradient tool from the tool pallet. Set the for-ground color to #2c4a74. And in Gradient option chose FG to Transparent.

Step 3: On the gradient layer apply the gradient from top to bottom to produce following result.

We are using this gradient to create some darker sky.

Step 4: Now is time to add the castle to the canvas. Place the castle on the canvas via drag and drop above all the layers and name it "castle". 

Step 5: Now it's time to blend in the castle in the sky image so that it will look like the part of sky. To achieve this chose the Eraser tool from the Tool pallet. Choose cloud brush from brushes pallet and set the opacity of the brush b/w 50-65% only. Now apply the brush on the lower parts of the castle on castle layer to produce the foggy effect as in the following effect.

Step 6: Now let's add some more elements to the canvas. Create a new transparent layer elements and place it b/w castle and gradient layer. Set for-ground color to #ffffff Choose brush tool and choose birds, stars,dolphins and Moon brushes one by one and apply them on the canvas to produce the effect like this.[Use the amount of stars and brushes according to your preferences]:

Step 7: Now it'd time for effects. Go to Fx-Foundry>>Photo>>Enhancement>>Local Contrast Enhancement and apply. Then open  Fx-Foundry>>Photo>>Effects>>Cross Processing Effect and mark Flatten Image and Apply. Result of above steps will be as follows.

Step 8: Now open Fx-Foundry>>Photo>>Enhancement>>Graduated Filter and apply with default settings. Result is as in the figure below:

Step 9: Now it's time to make this image more wonderful. So open Script-Fu>>Sharpness>>Softer>>Make Wonderful. In the setting window of this filter set Blur:35, Luminosity: 11, Contrast:0. Mark Flatten Image and apply.

Result will be something like the figure below:

Step 10: Finally Go to  Fx-Foundry>>Photo>>Enhancement>>Vivid Saturation and Apply. 

Now Crop the final result to your preferred size and save it. Our Castle in the Sky Artwork is finally Complete. 

Note: Ty to add or remove elements according to your preference. Thus you will learn new methods by your self.

Thanks.

Final result is as shown in the figure below:

ENJOY...[*_*]