To start the mental health project, I had to think about some struggles that people face during COVID that may affect their mental health. I feel like during this time a lot of people feel isolated and shut out from the outside world, almost like a bird in a cage. I started out with a photo of a cage and added some shadows on the layer on top of it with a black brush at 62% opacity. 

Next, I place embedded a photo of some birds onto a new layer ("bird"). I cut out the unwanted areas using the quick selection tool and also by using the brush tool on a layer mask. 

Then, I decided to move the birds to the right side of the cage. I place embedded a photo of a man sitting down on a new layer and put him on the ledge of the cage. I used the quick selection tool to cut out the unwanted areas. 

Next, I decided to place embed a photo of a butterfly on a new layer and used the quick selection tool along with a layer mask and brush tool to cut it out. 

Next, I place embedded a photo of some flowers and after cutting them out using the quick selection tool I put the "flowers" underneath the layer the butterfly was on. I also made the butterfly a little smaller. 

I added a layer mask to the "person" layer and used the brush tool to clean up the man sitting down some more. 

I added some more flowers by clicking command+J on the previous flowers layer and added some sunflowers by place embedding a photo of one and copying it as well. To cut out the sunflowers I used the quick selection tool, layer mask, and the brush tool. I also added shadows and made the images darker by clicking command+M on each layer and dragging the point down, making the images darker. 

Here is the final piece, I got all my images from Unsplash.