I have tried similar personal experiments down this path, with the same result. However, for fairly instant gratification, it may be easier to learn about WebGL

I have tried similar personal experiments down this path, with the same result. However, for fairly instant gratification, it may be easier to learn about WebGL first. The code to create a fully lit and rendered scene is much smaller for WebGL, but the principles are the same, and you will still learn about writing shaders.