Who didn't know what to title this post? * raises hand *

The background image I chose for a manip I'm working on has a stone sort of ground. The horse stock I chose was primarily compatible, except for two of the hooves being partially covered by grass. I'm not sure what exactly to do to fix this without making it look like it was obviously edited and I've tried searching for a tutorial covering it on da with no luck (probably because I'm not sure how to word it lol). Does anybody here know of a tutorial that covers editing hooves to fit the background?

Thanks in advance!

edit// I'm using Photoshop CC 2017

https://www.deviantart.com/citylight-skylines/art/Equine-Manip-Tutorial-Part-Two-280862733

However, when I am removing grass from hooves, before I do any smudging I always clone out the grass by zooming in until everything is super pixelated and then using a super small brush to clone it away.

What Con said. I clone out the grass as best as possible. I would suggest creating a clipping mask layer on top of the horse, so if you've already cut the horse out, the painting will only cover the horse, not spread onto the background. Then place the clone anchor on the area you want to clone while on the horse layer, move to the clipping mask, and paint in small strokes or dabs over where the grass is.

I have used some tutorials to repaint hooves, for ground that are more solid and and sandy, where grassy feet would ruin it. I usually repaint, or if I can just draw on the hoof already(sometimes salvageable) and try to blend them to make it look solid without grass.

For blending with grass i color drop the different shades of green or whatever the grass color is, make a layer just with those colors. And draw the blades, 1-2px with 80% opacity. 

https://www.deviantart.com/cas887/art/hooves-tutorial-190506888

https://www.deviantart.com/xylia6387670/art/Step-5-Hooves-Painting-307990640

https://www.deviantart.com/lunaxi/art/Hoof-Drawing-Tutorial-295223894

i know they can look super edited. But you can always add layers etc to tone down the BOLD look of the base layer of the hoof. It is a trial and error situation. 

here are a couple more tutorials on da

https://www.deviantart.com/firestormhorses/art/Hoof-Reconstruction-Tutorial-281406615

https://www.deviantart.com/phoenixaureus/art/Hoof-Tutorial-354906650

https://www.deviantart.com/xxaurorastudios/art/AuroraTutSeries-Part-8-Painting-Hooves-272079691

I always did a mix of cloning them out and hand painting over them. Usually if you go back and forth between the two you can reconstruct them. There's also cloning off a bare hoof and trying to blend it together.

Link Tree

Fantastic, thanks, guys! These were super helpful!