Enthroned Escutcheon

I took the one dollar bill and used the pen tool to trace the escutcheon at the upper right on the front side of the bill. Once the outer portion was traced I clicked the (Add New Curve To Selected Curves Object) then traced the inside of the escutcheon as a cut out of the inside portion.

Then I used the donut, rectangle, crescent & diamond tools to form the shapes that I grouped together to make my own fleur de lis key. I selected all the shapes in this key group and dragged a gradient from top to bottom of yellow to very dark green. With the group selected I applied the 3D effect in the effects tab with a radius of about 5. Then inside the group, I applied the some contrast adjustment and some (HSL shift adjustment) to get the proper gold in a dank room effect. I got an eye image and dropped it into an ellipse tool shape then applied an (Inner Shadow) effect in the effects tab with an offset at 90º and a radius of 5px.

The two lower keys are derived from the key of department of the treasury on the one dollar bill. These were comprised of shapes made with the (Rectangle) and the (Rounded Rectangle) tools and the shape that surrounds the 2 eyes was a (Rounded Rectangle) shape that was converted to curve by clicking the (Convert to Curves) button. After this I selected the pen tool and clicked the (Add New Curve To Selected Curves Object) to trace out a sort of figure eight shape inside the rounded rectangle shape which created the hole of the key.

Inside the escutcheon is something like green wallpaper and a striped floor which is derived the shield of the eagle on the great seal. The background of this element is 2 rectangles, 2/3rds green with a dark to light green gradient and 1/3rd white with a tinge of green which both sit inside a simple retrace of the escutcheon shield shape which was placed a layer below the original escutcheon shape. This retrace shape also has (Inner Shadow) effect applied to it which creates the appearance of some depth inside the escutcheon. The wallpaper lines consist of multiple grouped rectangle shapes. I used (CTRL + J) to create equally spaced instances of these line shapes and after grouping them I placed them inside the green and white rectangle shapes respectively.

Ellipse tool shapes with a black fill are placed below the apple and the escutcheon and have the (Gaussian Blur) effect applied to create drop shadows. I adjust the opacity to dial in the amount of shadow I wanted.

The four tentacle horns are shapes I made using the pen tool and have a gradient applied from a light gray green to a darker gray green. The shapes also have both the (Inner Shadow) and the (3D) effects applied. I added a pixel layer inside each of the shapes and with the paint brush tool I selected a texture brush and painted some grunge here and there for some detail. Then to create the shadows, I duplicated the tentacle horns, deleted the pixel layers inside the new instances, changed the fill to black, applied the (Gaussian Blur) effect and moved them to a layer just above the green stone wall back ground.

The green brick wall in the back ground is a seamless tiled image with some layers of more detail above it. There is an image of dripping sludge from the top added and a rough stone image. I traced the grout lines between the stone bricks using the pen tool with a black stroke and a 2px width. After these lines were grouped I applied the (Gaussian Blur) effect. A (Brightness / Contrast Adjustment) darkens these grouped elements and the group itself has the (Overlay) blend applied to reveal a green gradient in the bottom background layer.

The checkered floor was duplicated instances of the rectangle tool filled with black and white and then placed in a group. Then using the perspective tool I dragged the lower corners group to the left and the right and applied the result. Then I added an image of scratches for detail on top of it with the (Overlay) blend applied to it.