A belated hello 2026

Goal setting for the new year

I am coming very late to the new year goal setting party but I am here and that has to be good enough.

I looked back at my first substack post from January 2025 to check if I had bothered with any goal setting in there. After reading through a lot of waffle I found it.

Work on what and how I like to draw. Loosen up, draw from life, stick to it and keep sketching and sharing. - I would say I managed this one, I did A LOT of drawing, probably the most I have done in a while. I was also consistent about sharing it on Instagram.

I want to try to put together an actual portfolio and post about what I’ve been drawing on substack. - I sort of managed this. I have a very shaky website with a portfolio but it’s not particularly cohesive. Something to continue working on. I was fairly meh at sharing on substack, it started well and I did post 14 times which is technically more than one per month but there were a lot of gaps. It’s fine though.

I also must not buy any new art materials unless I am replacing something that has been used up…that one is not so much a creative goal as a reducing my consumption and the amount of stuff in my house goal. - I was terrible at this. Oh dear.

So…goals for 2026? I joined the Good Ship Illustration planning party (OK I watched the replay which is still available on their website) so I have a little goal planning drawing I did from that. A mixture of art related stuff and some general creative enjoyment stuff (knitting).

The current focus is competitions, I’m going to try finish a submission for the current Picture Hooks competition which is a fun prompt, I did join in with two of their competitions last year. I am also working on a submission for the Children’s Books North Network Prize which is a much bigger challenge but definitely good practice. I hope to share some of my sketches and planning here at some point. I am not setting any substack related goals though, it’s too much (imagined) pressure.

Have you set any goals for 2026? I’d love to hear about them.

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