The original here was a picture I took in Paris last year at the flower market on the Ile de Cité in Paris. The wing on one of the roosters reminded me of the teardrop shape of a hot-air balloon, so I built a balloon that incorporated some of the wing features, then added a selected rooster head in overlay. The street view of the Eiffel Tower is another Paris shot:
http://www.rewarren.com/Paris-2006/Thursday/pages/P5-23-Rue-Ste-Dominique.htm
with a gradient substituted for the sky. I added a shadow to the tower and then applied a poster edges filter for the overall dark look.