Holidays are over, winter's still here...

January 6th is the Feast of the Epiphany, it's perfect that it lands on a Monday because in my house growing up it signified the end of the holiday season—back to school, back to work, back to the ball & chain. But after the initial shock of a return to the grind calmed down, the really pleasant aspect of the season would quickly dawn on us—Winter! Best of all seasons in New England!

When that really cold weather set in we were like little wolverines —our activity levels went through the roof— in inverse ratio to the temperature outside. Below is a photo of my dog, Honeybear, demonstrating this wolverine-like, cold-weather energy.

Juliana Trotta and I were thinking about this kind of seasonal, wacky energy a couple of years ago when we put together the Winter Motifs collection (also known as Photoshop Brushes and Creative Tools: Winter). We collected lots of different types of winter images, and converted them into a set of Photoshop tools—brushes and vector shapes, then threw in a bunch of Photoshop styles and painterly brushes to complete the kit. It's such a diverse group of images that you can really create some radically different feels: 

A mad dash down the slopes...

A party on the pond....

or a social mixer for the polar bears and penguins...

or a primordial get-together in the woods—

or perhaps just a quiet little outing on the day after the snowstorm—

Anyway, take a minute and check out the collection:

Winter Motifs

And stay warm!