@jbrannan Hey dude! Well today is Friday, so this time next week I'll be at my farewell lunch I guess. It's pretty surreal. Do I have anything going on? Not at the moment, no. I wasn't updating my site much, so I've got to do that and dust off the resume before I can apply something else if that's what I end up doing. Right now I'm really focusing on Inktober and using that as a vehicle for galvanizing my process for image making and idea creation. I'm posting everything on my instagram if you're interested (https://www.instagram.com/mattsmithmakes/) but also like shoot me a DM or an email and we can talk more if you want.

I think it's really great that he's able to expand his business and really go 'legit' by going to Adobe. However, I think there are some points that a lot of people are missing. For one thing, Kyle's brushes were accessible to everyone- if you were just starting out and using a dubious copy of Photoshop to see if you can make something happen you could use Kyle's brushes for very cheap. You could make work that looked on par with the 'big boys' of illustration. People who were running older versions of PS could still get updates to the brushes and everything was compatible. There are a lot of people that still can't afford that big monthly bill for Adobe CC - for them if they have CS5 or CS6 and they accidentally delete their brushes - those files are no longer available for download. Those pages are just dead now. For the people just starting out Kyle's brushes opened a lot of doors and now they're in the hands of Adobe. Adobe is a lot like Electronic Arts - companies that get absorbed always die.

@carriecopa Thanks so much, that's extremely encouraging. You're totally right- I wasn't able to grow here and felt like I was cheating myself by not putting 100% into something I genuinely cared about. I'm gonna get out there and hustle and see what happens!

@mf-james Thanks! I went through with the resignation and am going to get some good references (and my leave paid out) which is what I was worried about. I'm glad I did it, it's a big burden off my back.

I'm new around here- my name is Matt Smith and tomorrow I might screw up my life.

Tomorrow morning I'm going to have a meeting with my boss and turn in my resignation letter. I've been at this graphic design job for over a year and you guys- it's awful. I moved with my wife to a new area for this job and in the meantime she's (thankfully) found something she really loves. Me, on the other hand, this job is a nightmare. It's internal and in higher education, which has great pay and benefits! The work is truly boring and now I find myself in a review period. All that said it's become miserable to go to work everyday and my anxiety and depression symptoms have exploded from the added stress of being constantly watched (unfairly).

I've been making art seriously for about 5 years. I'm staring to get kinda good-but I really need to kick it into high gear because my wife supports me in taking on something part time next. That means I can dedicate (hopefully) 2 or 3 days a week to making art a career.

I guess I just want to put that out into the world to see what comes back. Maybe other people have had similar experiences and want to share potential pitfalls or tell me to turn back. I don't know. I'm just scared as heck.