Regarding colors, shades, gradients, and noise, try spending some time on bjango. This guy has a lot of bang for a small amount of reading: http://bjango.com/ar

Regarding colors, shades, gradients, and noise, try spending some time on bjango. This guy has a lot of bang for a small amount of reading: http://bjango.com/articles/noise/ http://bjango.com/articles/noise/