Ohh, it's really interesting that you find blending easier than blocking, for me it's the exact opposite. Blocking is just like... anything goes lol. But in blending it takes forever to find the right caps that mix together well. And hey you mentioned the thing I've been wondering about, whether there's a difference between different blending styles. I guess a true 'blend' would be what you said, keeping the orignal background (or parts of it?) and finding a blend mode that mixes the two caps in a way where it's impossible to tell where one cap starts and the other one ends... but thats' like SUPER difficult and my attempts don't work most of the time, so I rarely even try! However, the way you do it (cutting the bg out of one cap) is what I'd call a 'collage' and it's one of my favorite techniques, so that's definitely not a wrong way to do it either, imo. Your way of doing a blend/collage with a monochrome image is gorgeous and I'm glad you see it as progress! :)