I've been working on a wallpaper for the series Pieces Of A Spiral and so far I'm fairly happy with how it has turned out.

http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/8048/piecesofaspiralsummer01ni9.jpg

However, I would like some critique as to things I could improve. I'm mostly concerned with the extraction since that's always the hardest part for me to get right.

I think you did a great job with the extraction.

However, I'm not too sure about the background. The image seems more soft and contemporary, while the background is modern. The same goes for the font you chose for the "Summer Flowers" text.

The background seems like a lot of brushes, and the big flower brush seems to big. If the large flowers are in a diagnoal line, then there should be a part of the flower at the bottom right corner.

The image also has a white border around it, which I personally dislike as it's not visible around the entire image. The image looks a bit blurry, too.

There are a lot of ideas in this wallpaper, but I'm not sure if they all fit. Overall, it's a good start.

Ah I see, I hadn't thought about the soft effects making the styles clash so much. Thanks for the observation. I've gone ahead and redone parts of it. I made the image more sharp as well as the final background as well. And I changed the font to help cut down on the modern vs contemporary look. Then I made the main flowers smaller and added the edge of ones in the corners like you mentioned.

http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/2126/piecesofaspiralsummer02np5.jpg

Thanks for the suggestions. I like this version much better. Though whether or not it's good enough is another question.

Hmm...i think the image needs to be bigger, because its seems to be lost in the yellow and stuff

the bg is nice though xD

I'd make the image bigger, too.
Sharpening the image did help, but the style doesn't fit the background. I'd redo it and place the girl in an environment.

Also, as I see it more and more, I'm starting to dislike the text.