So here’s the thing about me — I never planned any of this.

I was 14 in a small town in Ohio, making terrible memes in MS Paint, when I stumbled onto Photoshop through a YouTube tutorial. No art school, no mentors, no plan. I dropped out of community college because forums and late-night experimentation were teaching me more than any classroom could. Everything I know about design I learned by breaking things and then figuring out how to fix them.

That path — from bad memes to freelance design career — happened because I started making graphics for friends and word got around. I don’t take myself too seriously, but I take the craft seriously. There’s a difference, and I think people can tell.

I work exclusively from coffee shops in Austin, Texas. I have very strong opinions about keyboard shortcuts. I once live-streamed myself trying to learn Blender and gave up after 4 hours on camera. One of my most humbling moments was spending three days on a composite that a friend recreated in 20 minutes using a technique I’d never heard of. And then there’s the time I accidentally deleted a client’s entire project — that’s how I learned about smart objects, the hard way.

I live with my golden retriever, Pixel, who once stepped on my keyboard and accidentally applied a filter that actually looked good. My buddy Alex Rowe over at Pixel Bubble and I have this running thing where we roast each other’s editing choices online — he’s a Lightroom guy, I’m a Photoshop guy, and neither of us is ever going to let the other forget it.

I publish tips and tutorials regularly here at Photoshop Monkey. If you want to get better at Photoshop without sitting through a lecture, you’re in the right place.

Want to get in touch? Drop me a line at dave@photoshopmonkey.com.