Brush Composition

I used 22 layers total. I begun with cutting the model out with the pen tool and positioning her on a purple background. I created an overlay layer and used the burn and dodge tools to emphasize shadows and highlights. I then found a picture of a lake at night and but it behind the model on a 40% opacity screen layer. I placed 2 more layers behind the forest layer with variations of the purple color to provide contrast. I then took an aurora image and put it on a 65% opacity soft light layer and used a clipping mask to erase the harsh edges. I then created a triangular selection using the polygonal lasso tool and filled it with white using a soft white brush and put the layer at 60% opacity. I then took various feather brushes and positioned them around the picture, adding motion blurs and transformations to a few for motion. I then added two more layers above the model and filled them with light and dark colors to create more contrast. on a new layer i made small white flares with a soft brush in a few places to emphasize the highlights, and did the same with a color overlay layer to emphasize the darker areas. I painted over most of the image with a soft white brush and set the layer to 5% opacity to blend the model into the effects. I then took the 2 galaxy images and put them on soft light blending modes. i used the clipping mask to cut off the edges and and then positioned them around the model. I then created 4 more adjustment layers on top to create more contrast, and duplicated the background forest image to emphasize the tree to create more  visual interest. The most difficult part was deciding where to position the brushed and effects, and how to make it all flow together.