1/4/2026 - Starting fresh again in the new year

Hello friends,

I hope the first few days of the year have been smooth for you. As I do every year, I took account of the previous year and what I accomplished. Overall, 2025 was a really great year for me art wise and personally. Every year, I make a little chart to document the days that I worked on art. As you can see, more days than not were filled with some type of art activity in 2025, which I’m proud of.

My only defined goal was to make more work overall and I definitely accomplished that. I think this Substack has been the biggest factor because I wanted to have new work to show you with each post. I switched from weekly posts to a biweekly cadence which is doable for me. Over this next year, I want to write about more than just superficial things and my own interests. I’m not 100% sure, but I’m thinking more like essays (accompanied by my artwork, of course). If you have any ideas about what you would like to read about, please leave a comment or reply to this email and let me know.

I took a trip to Greece that was really life changing for me spiritually and I also got out of my little bubble a bit. I have been too much of a homebody in recent years and it was good to go somewhere physically. I am tentatively planning another trip for myself in 2026 and I truly hope that it comes to fruition.

The other accomplishment that I am proud of is completing my coloring book. I am the most pleased that I was able to take it from idea to execution and complete all the steps of the project without abandoning the effort. I proved to myself that I am able to stick to something and get the work done.

As for goals for 2026, I’m not much for vision boarding, but I came across someone who made a personalized bingo for themselves and I thought it was a clever idea. I filled mine with some things that I am definitely planning on doing, as well as some others that I would like to accomplish. When the year is through, I’m interested to see how my bingo card looks.

Finally, here is a new digital watercolor painting that I completed recently. A bright and colorful pink zinnia, one of my favorite flowers of all time.

There are far better things ahead than any we leave behind. - C.S. Lewis

Lori from Little Truths Studio is starting The Analog Life Project partnering with Anne Butera, one of my favorite artists that I follow online. It sounds like just the kind of thing I need. This post also has some more info and context.

If you purchased Affinity V1 or V2 before the recent upgrade, there is an offer for a package of free fonts as a thank you for being an early supporter.

Stefan Grosse Halbuer is starting a new art challenge called Zinuary, which is a zine making challenge in January. I’m not going to do it this month, but making a zine is on my list this year.

I’m wishing all of you the most creative and inspiring start to your year. If you have posted about your goals online, please leave me a comment with a link and I’d love to read about it.