Year of Gold January mobile header with bold golden typography, perfect for January promotions and seasonal branding.

Welcome to January! How are you doing?

As part of our calendar journey, we’re excited to share more about how these images come to life. Each month, the featured image from the previous month will be available in new formats for a limited time, while cards will remain available all year. Thank you for being part of our community—we’re so glad to have you with us!

The Thomas ʻOhana @ Post Nautical

Year of Gold January mobile header with bold golden typography, perfect for January promotions and seasonal branding.

Welcome to January! How are you doing?

As part of our calendar journey, we’re excited to share more about how these images come to life. Each month, the featured image from the previous month will be available in new formats for a limited time, while cards will remain available all year. Thank you for being part of our community—we’re so glad to have you with us!

The Thomas ʻOhana @ Post Nautical

So, How Are Our Images Made?

Over the next few sections, we’ll walk you through a high-level overview of how this month’s imagery was created. Follow along to see the process unfold!

Step 1: First, We Start with a Reference Image

Golden retriever reference image

Luckily, my mom is a trainer of competitive Goldens (Skyefire GR), so we have a treasure trove of photos. We choose a photo we own the rights to (taken by us) and aim for a balance of simplicity, action, and inherent beauty.

Step 2: Creating a Style

Examples of prompt variations

We work between two programs, MidJourney and ChatGPT, to construct prompts. These prompts shape the image and can take days to perfect. This example shows how different prompts can greatly impact the final result.

Refining the Final Prompt

Final January image

After a lot of trial and error, we finally landed on the following prompt that brought the vision to life. This is the prompt that produced the January image in conjunction with the Skyfire dogs reference image:

An impressionistic, 4K oil painting of a golden retriever. The scene captures a quiet, contemplative atmosphere, blending soft, flowing brushstrokes inspired by Claude Monet with the storytelling quality of Norman Rockwell. Warm, natural light filters through the foliage, casting rich shades of green and earthy tones, evoking the feel of a serene scene. The dreamy quality softens the lines between the figure, the dog, and the landscape, creating an intimate, reflective mood where details melt into vibrant washes of color. –ar 1:1 –v 6.1

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