February Thaw at Lynch Park (Digital Woodcut)

February Thaw at Lynch Park (Digital Woodcut)
Originally uploaded by randubnick

Yesterday we had a February thaw, with the high temperature at 59 degrees. Even though the snow is still piled up pretty high, it was a good day for a walk at Lynch Park. I haven't been to Lynch Park since our big snow storms. The city sends snow from the streets over to the parks in dump trucks, so the parking lot was full of great mounds of snow, making it hard to even tell where we were. But in the park itself, the paths were clear and we had a nice walk. It was great because lately it has been impossible to walk outside because of the ice and snow on the sidewalks. I took lots of pictures, in part because I didn't need gloves ,so it was easier to use the iPhone camera. This composition was one of the best shots from yesterday's walk. I liked the way the curves of the path echoed the curves of the shoreline. However, in the original photo, the snow banks next to the path are incredibly dirty. So tonight I opened the image in Painter and used digital airbrush to lighten the problem areas. Then I used Painter's woodcut effect, experimenting with the controls until I got what I wanted. After that, I made my final crop, and here it is. I also created a posterized version of this woodcut (never occurred to me to try that) and I plan to post it here tomorrow.