When you really want to stretch your creativity, ask yourself "What If?" when you're working on your art.  That's what I did after I pulled out this photo to work with:

"Big and Small" - this was one of those images I asked myself "What If?" a lot on!

What if...I added a hummingbird to sit on his horns?

What if...I added lots of textures, focusing the light on the area where the bird sits?

What if...I desaturated those textures to tone down the color of the elk, while still keeping the hummer more richly saturated?

What if...I added lots more textures from a variety of collections on top and underneath the elk in different layer modes, forcing the light and dark areas to happen exactly where I wanted?

What if ...I ran a painterly preset in multiple programs and blended them together using layering at various opacities?

What if...I used a smudge tool to soften the hard edge on the hummingbird that I missed when masking?
What if...I added a slight - very slight - shadow on the horn under the bird?
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Take your time...ask yourself "What if?" a lot...it takes hours of work, but it's well worth it. 

I've had numerous people ask me "Can you do your texture work with photos in Procreate on the iPad?"  And the answer is YES!  I created Where Crows Roost this morning, using ONLY the Daily Texture resources, and a couple of my custom brushes I made for Procreate.  I photographed some crows recently, and I had a vision of a strong textures, mixed media background for them.  That was my goal with this piece:

I began by opening the new Painted Ground background, and then opened the Better Days barn background on top.  I created a mask on the barn layer, and masked away all of the background, and that little attached shed on the left side of the barn.  Then using the liquify tool in Procreate, I warped my barn a bit to give it some unique and whimsical interest.  Using the mask again, I blended the barn right into the ground level of the Painted Ground Background.

Then I started adding multiple textures on top, in various layer modes and opacities.  It was at this point, things got a little crazy and I lost track of what I used.  I do know I used several textures from the Studio Collections and the Restored Collection in this category. 

I decided to add just a couple of my custom drip brushes at the bottom of the barn to give a little more painterly interest to the piece. I also stamped a couple of my custom brushes at the top edge of the barn, coming over the edges a little.  This was all completed on new layers so I could resize each brush stamp, as well as move it exactly where I wanted it on the art.

I added accents from the Gold Leaf Collection as final touches at the end.  Finally, I sent the image back to my computer and sharpened everything up a bit.

Now I have an interesting, mixed media style background to use with one of my crow photos!

As you can see, yes, you can do layering and masking with your textures in the Procreate App.  I know we are limited on the amount of layers which can be added in Procreate, but once I get things looking good, I often merge the layers down, and start adding new layers on top again for additional accents and looks.  This way, I am never limited on what I can add. :)