Rose with Hy and Mel (Digital Woodcut)

This image is based on a snapshot that my sister-in-law recently sent to husband, showing his mom, dad, and himself as a kid. It was great to have the image, but my sister-in-law said the photo had been double-exposed. I downloaded the image and opened it in Painter to see what I could do with it. There were horizontal bands where the image looked bleached out, as if it had been even photographed through plastic. I started by trying to restore the photo, but there were too many problems to tackle. Instead, I decided to do a more interpretive version. I started with the biggest problem: the right side of father-in-law's face was almost completely washed out, next to no features showing. I did some selective posterizing and added woodcut effect just to increase the definition and tease out more information. Then I used digital air-brush to invent even more definition, trying to mirror the shapes on the other side of his face. Then I used more airbrush and some cut-and-paste to fill in the bleached out areas that ran across the photo in about three bands, over clothing and background. I simplified the background, and then added posterizing and woodcut effects, working with small selections until I got colors and textures that I liked. I think I could do more with a really good scan or image of the original snapshot. But meanwhile, here is a nice little family portrait, and I am posting this today in memory of Rose, my mother-in-law, who was born on August 18th. She never liked to say what year she was born, so I won't either.