"Spirit of Solstice (Winter)" was created using DazStudio 4.9, Hexagon 2, Photoshop CS6 and GIMP 2. There was not any particular inspiration other than I have always wanted to do a series of elemental spirits for various seasons. A little snow maker seemed like a good fit for both winter solstice and this contest. Overall the creation process took the better part of three days. Admittedly it was very much a learning process, as I spent much of that time experimenting with various cutout opacity maps and lighting effects using the NVIDIA Iray engine.