I think the look, the internet art, of a website is one of the most important aspects, (although it isn't something that Google is good at recognising). When I am adding a visual element to my website I start with a drawing that is made up of only black pen lines on a white background. I then scan this original art in to Photoshop.

 

 

 

I used to use the fill tool to add colour to the spaces between my sharp black lines. But now I use the pen tool to create various levels of vector shapes on top. I use many more vector shapes than fills recently. They give much more versatility and can be independently changed and modified. The more vector layers built up the better, the internet art looks more and more proffesional.

 

 

Gradually building the picture up, one block of colour at a time.

 

 

I have found this intersting way of having the digital equivalent of a mixing pallet. When I put some colour on top of another in a new window as in the picture above it produces all kinds of beautiful gradations of the two colours I'm mixing all around the border between the two colours. For me this is a lot easier than messing about with the colour settings provided by photoshop.

 

Another great way to change the colour of an object is to add a colour on top in a vector layer and then alter the transparency of that layer with the control in the top right of the layers window.

 

I use this technique to produce art for online fiction, space combat game spaceship, role playing game creature and game robot designs.