For this piece, I wanted to illustrate the tradition from childhood to adult hood with the focus on education. I changed my idea a couple of times because I didn't feel like it truly represented the meaning in the best way. 

At first, I was gonna focus on just the transition from childhood to adulthood by using the tree house (representing childhood) and the city (representing adulthood) and use a bridge to symbolize the transition. I changed this idea because I wanted to show how education is major part of growing up and finding ones self. 

So then I illustrated a kid flying a kite on a book. I replaced the kite with a graduation cap. This shows how a child has the ability to control their life and how they assert their talents towards success. I wanted him to be standing on a book showing that his foundation is built upon his knowledge. 

For the background, I illustrated grass fields to symbolize freedom and how in ones childhood their have freedom to choose what path they take. I wanted to integrate the book into the scenery so I used layer mask and filters and cut it out and placed the grass around the book and on it. I used the Rocky Mountain side to involve movement in the direct of the focus point (the child). I also used perception by keeping the leaves in the front to show that it is closer to the view because they are bigger. I cut the kid out using a layer mask and the select and mask feature. I placed yellowish filters on all the images I merged because it complements the grass background. 

Finally, I cut out (layer mask) the graduation cap and changed the color (blue) to red so it could pop out and be a focal point. I replaced the kite string with a golden rope because that is what the cap tassels look like. next for the background I used a photo of tomorrow land to show that whatever path a child takes, academically wise, can change the future. I illustrated how they are a vital factor to the future. This is the final piece.