Ok, the background image is set. What I am in the process of doing now is making my header image which will be my name with an underline my name going width-wise across the screen.
I wanted my name to be an image because the regular run of the mill fonts and size bore me. I would like my name to look like a signature, so I'll be using my tablet also. Going along the left side will be my link buttons, yes, I had to change my original idea of the links being blobs along the bottom for a few reasons. First, because I would loose those link images when a linked page opened up to let's say, display images of artwork. It just makes more sense to have the links off to the side in the same place on each page so as to provide a continuity and ease of browsing through the site. Secondly, I would have to get into image maps, which honestly scares me a little, (having to figure out at what exact location each image is in html to show where the link would take you). Eeeek!
As far as the header image goes, I scanned some shell chimes I had and have altered them in photoshop, then will play with the color so text will be a little easier to see on it. I've made a webpage folder that has all of my images for the webpage in it so I don't have to go and hunt down my images from documents, desktop, etc....