Skull Girl

1. First we need the two following images from my favorite free stock photo site, morguefile.com. First, the girl. Right click each image, then select "Save image as" (Firefox) or "Save picture as" (Internet Explorer).

And then the skull:

2. Create a new image, 350x420 px and paste in your two images, first the skull, then the girl. Drop the opacity of the girl layer to 50% (in the Layers Window):

With the girl layer selected, hit 'Ctrl+T' to transform the layer. Rotate the layer counter-clockwise and move it to the left so the eyes line up with the skull's eye sockets. Hit the Enter key when satisfied with the placement.

3. With the girl layer still selected, use the Polygonal Lasso tool and cut out a jagged selection of the left side of her face. Click at the top, keep clicking along her face, then around the left side of the image, then double click above the image to complete the selection. Then hit the Backspace key to delete the selection you made. Hit Ctrl+D to remove the "marching ants." Now increase the opacity of the girl layer to 100%. If you need help with the Polygonal Lasso tool, try the Kung Fu Silhouette tutorial.

4. Select the girl layer, then go to 'Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Brightness/Contrast' and darken the layer to your liking.

5. Now let's make some "skin curls" to cover up the area where skin meets skull. Take the pen tool and draw some sections of skin. I zoomed in to 300% in this step. I know it's a terrible chart, but I tried.to show how the first shape is drawn.

Select the Burn Tool with the following settings. Also, select all of your skin curl layers (Ctrl+click each layer), then right click and select 'Merge Layers'. This will give you one layer with all of the skin curls on it.

6. Burn the edges of the skin to give them some depth.

Now with the Smudge Tool, using the same brush as you did with the Burn Tool, smudge the skin flaps that face left to blend them in with the face.

7. Repeat these steps to make flaps along the whole edge of the face.

8. Create a circle to make an eyeball for the skull and give it a Gradient Overlay Layer Style:

Then an Inner Shadow:

Then a Drop Shadow:

For this result:

8. Create a smaller circle for the iris of the eye. Give it this Gradient Overlay:

For this result:

9. Create yet another smaller circle for a pupil. Give it a Bevel and Emboss:

For this result:

10. Take a black brush and cover up the red area in the top right corner. You're done. You may want to adjust the lips to line up better, but I think it's close enough.