Sunday, March 29, 2015

Mom 1972 Polaroid (Digital Woodcut)



This image began with a Polaroid photo of my mom, taken by my dad in 1972. The photo is on the very first page of his album of Polaroid portraits. (Although I knew my father took a lot of pictures with his Polaroid back in the 1970s, I had no idea that this album existed until it arrived in the mail earlier this year.) Today I wanted a nice picture of my mother to publish along with her recipe for apple kugel on our food blog. I remembered this photo which I really liked because my father had captured her expression. But the lighting was a little harsh and I wanted to modify the composition. So I opened the image in Painter and used digital pastel to soften some of the effects of the camera flash. While I was at it, I added more color to the blouse. Then I applied Painter's digital woodcut effect, using trial and error to get the right amount of outline. Finally I did a close crop to get this composition. It was great to feel like I was collaborating with my father in creating this image, and I like to think that my camera-shy mom would have liked the result. (To see this picture, along with my mom's recipe and the illustration for it, go to https://seasoningforeverypalate.wordpress.com/2015/03/29/moms-passover-apple-kugel/)

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