I use Photoshop CS3 and my banners are still terrible!
I've only recently started using textures and before that, I'd only been using brushes for a while. I always felt it was cheating or something but now I've just stopped caring. XD; Most of the textures and brushes I have are icon-sized though, which is probably why I have such trouble making full sigs or banners these days. :(
Fireworks doesn't allow brushes o_o
But I use something else to somehow import them in... that's if I wanted to use them.
You should use it for more than that. XD That's how I started out, then one day I randomly got into iconing and then into banner making. I still really suck with getting text right. *points to sig* I'm still not that great at banner making, but I'd like to think I'm getting better.I actually like the banner in your signature right now, Ty. oo;;
I use CS3 as well, but I've never actually tried to use brushes and such to make graphics. I mainly just use it for cropping and resizing. XD; I utterly fail with text and the like, I just don't know how to do it well. ;-;
You should use it for more than that. XD That's how I started out, then one day I randomly got into iconing and then into banner making. I still really suck with getting text right. *points to sig* I'm still not that great at banner making, but I'd like to think I'm getting better.