STEP NINE

I don't like erasing against the gray checkerboard, so I have created a new page with the dimensions of 6"x6". I then filled it with cyan. I like absorbing the blue color while I work. For most flower images it works well, but there will be times that another color will work better.
*******
The shortcut for the fill tool = G. Another very useful one for our purposes.
*******
You will need an electronic drawing tablet for this. That is how I got started in all this. My son bought me drawing tablet for Christmas and I had to see what I could do with it.

At this point, I zoom in to 66.7% or 100% and use the standard eraser tool at a diameter of 20-40 pixels. The idea is to clean up the larger areas around the image. I use the hand tool ( shortcut = H ) to move around the image.
*******
The other very useful keyboard shortcult is to use the right and left brackets to increase or decrease the diameter of the eraser. I use this for the brush and healing tools as well.
*******
Once I have the big stuff taken care of, I zoom into 300% and set my eraser to around 3-5 pixels to do the detail work. I use smaller diameters to get into tight spaces and the larger diameters where I can go faster.
*******
With this image, we don't have a lot of background left; it is more about smoothing out the edges left by the magic eraser.
*******
It is up to you how detailed you get with this. For the mandala, the edges don't need to be too smooth. Once you have the flower extraction done, however, you will be able to use it for all kinds of projects some of which may demand more detail, so it is worth taking the time to do a neat job.
********
Sometimes, as you work around the flower, you will come across an area where the extraction filter or magic eraser gouched out too big an area from the petals. Take the eyedropper tool ( shortcut = I ) to sample the color in the area and switch to the brush tool ( B). You can then brush in to fill the gap. If the area is large, you don't want it to be conspicuous by its uniformity compared to the rest of the image; so sample more colors and sort of dab them in to imitate the existing texture.
********
With this image,the edges are in relatively sharp focus. This is because the flower is a relatively flat, simple shape. With most flowers, however, with more complex forms; you will have areas of sharp focus and others with more fuzzy focus. In the areas of sharp focus, the edge will be well defined with little tolerance for variation in the line. In the more out-of-focus areas, however, the foreground and background blend into each other and exactly where to define the edge is a matter of choice, and there is more tolerance for varialbility in how you actually define the edge.