I am starting to get seriously frustrated with this whole designing issue.

The work I do is okay, just not as well developed as I'd like, and since there's no chance of me going back to school (I've already been over that with Larry, I'm not doing it again - I just can't go right now), I'm pretty much just floundering about on my own with no clue of how to get any better.

I can't make wallpapers, I don't know how to do more than the most minimal image manipulation and I know approximately **** about working with brushes.

I think part of the problem is with the programs we have on our PCs, though even if that does turn out to be an obstacle I don't know how to fix it, because I have no idea which programs I'd even need. Larry has Photoshop downstairs but I can't get it to work for shit. What I want to learn how to do is make my own layouts using more than one image (a wallpaper type thing), and use the brushes to enhance the images. Those little curly things really look pretty when they're done right. I also want to learn how to make blinkies. the things I want to do are fairly simple, but they may as well be eons out of reach.

I can write code really well but that only goes so far when I have no idea how to make my images better. For once I'd really like to put something together with my own work. I have six images from one of my favorite movies and can't put them together the way I want. If I could make a template that looks the way I imagine it in my head, the design here would be beautiful.

Don't mind me, I've been trying to work this out for months, but having wasted a lot of time online just now, trying to get the information I need and coming up empty, I'm really starting to get pissed off.