I wait under free overpasses in Los Angeles late at night. When the graffiti artists show up I threaten to call the cops unless they do free design work for me.
Keith. Most people use photoshop to make their banners. Its cool to learn, but if your really new you might hire a freelance the first time around. Make sure you get the PSD and any fonts to go with it.
Legos what I used to make my first site - it's seriously the only way to go. Search google for "lego website" you'll see 7,570,000 sites made from it ..... lego website - Google Search