Self Portrait Project

So i have this crazy idea for my self portrait project. Crazy in that I've never attempted to do something as multi-media as this, nor as fine arts as this, since starting design classes. I hope i can pull off what I visualize by the time its due.

My inspiration for this project comes from the art within Panda Bear's new album...



I'm having problems with my software though. Because this will be a collage piece i need to remove a lot of objects from their backgrounds in the photos I've taken. When i remove the background of an image (in photoshop) leaving just the image i want for the collage, I place it in my illustrator file and the white space around the object is still there. I only have trouble with this within my software though. I hope i didn't spend a ton of money on screwed up software. Either way, I'm doing it all by hand now and scanning it in, which hopefully will only make it look better - I hate widows. =-)