When beginning my second Sustained Investigation piece, I wanted to incorporate outer space and cowboys. I got two different backgrounds of a dirt cliff and some rocks to keep the Texas theme since Texas is known for dirt to start my piece. I created a layer mask on both layers and then took a soft brush to go around the edges to look more natural. Then I selected different parts of the cliff layer, adding different lighting sources, and adjusting the curves to create a more realistic look. After, I found a picture of a cowboy riding a horse and add that layer behind the rocks layer. I took my lasso tool and gently went around the horse and then created a layer mask. I went to adjustments and took down the brightness, and adjusted the contrast. 

then decided to go off the space theme that I had wanted to incorporate in my project. I created a layer for space and moved it behind all of my other layers. On another tab, I placed an image of the moon and created a layer mask to clean up the edges. I then moved that picture into my piece and placed it. I used different tools and different effects such as outer glow to create a larger planet's glow effect. I then added another layer with the smaller planet to make my piece more denominational. 

To finalize my piece I used my lasso tool to select different parts of the cliff and the rocks and turned up the contrast and down the brightness. I wanted the light source to stand out more so that is why I made that decision.