The end of 2025 went by in a blur, like most December’s do; but I had enjoyed the previous couple of months and getting to create again. So at the start of January 2026, I promised myself I would spend at least an hour every Sunday creating something. It won’t matter if it’s sweet and simple or something that could eventually turn into a masterpiece. Nor does it matter if it’s created using digital elements from another digital designer or based on a photograph of one of my muses. What does matter is that after a year of doing not a lot, I need to get creative again. It also means that I’ll potentially have a new body of work by the end of the year.

This is how January 2026 panned out!

Nothing happened the first weekend as that’s the day I decided to embark on this whilst writing my monthly newsletter in the late afternoon and time got the better of me.  

The Rising Sun.

The following weekend I was ready and had Photoshop open before breakfast. I decided on something simple yet striking so opted for black & white watercolour elements with a splash of red from the sun. The Rising Sun was created using 2 digital elements and 4 different brushes.

The following week was spent in London at The Societies annual convention. I didn’t enter anything this year but John was nominated in the Sports category and sadly was runner-up. 

Blue Dancer

As time was limited when we returned, I created Blue Dancer using 3 elements (the lady, an extended background and some butterflies) and 2 brushes were used to create the shadow and the paint splatter effects. A couple of layers were embossed to give them depth as you can see in the image below.

And finally 

Ice Maiden

The Ice Maiden was created using 2 layers, the flower/branches layer was repeated 3 time to give a full effect. The flowers were then colourized to make them darker, and an overlay was applied to create the edges. Finally a blue photo filter was applied to the whole image to give it a cold tone, embracing the Winter look.

Initially I’d included some swirls and flowers in her hair and a moth on her shoulder but after much procrastination, I’m good at that, I took them out as they didn’t feel right, leaving a nice and simple image.

It feels like I’ve had a productive month and looking forward to February already.

*Elements & brushes courtesy of Art House Whimsey, Amanda Rockwell & Fusion Dream Print