looking to create a fairl nice looking site, what kind of programing should i look into? also a little advice on getting started would be much apreciated.

Here is what Ive got so far, but as you can see i need some ideas, i am currently working with dreamweaver mx.

lol, i don't know if you'd count that as starting...but can you be more specific? WHat kind of programmin you should go into? Well, first off, I don't know what the site is for. But generally, you're gonna need html and css. PHP is also a good web coding to use, but check to see if your current hosting supports it...

Design-wise, you're gonna need more colors and images heh, good luck with it

I am currently using dreamweaver mx. My site is going to be a forum/gallery focusing on tattoo art and history. I've made a few changes, mostly a little color, but am not so sure about my choice of colors. I know a bit of html, and am looking into PHP. As far as the color schem goes, I would like to use a lot of dark colors, like in tribal art, but also incorporate some eye catching color, like what is found in falsh art. I don't know if i like the orange and black, too halloweenesque, and black and red is soo over used, mabe black with some hot pink? I really want to make this the best site i can, and really appreciata any feedback I may get. Thanks for the help!

personally, i think black with anything is "soo overused". It is also, nasty looking.
in general, when i do web work i go like this
1. content - lots of it, lots of blurbs, pictures, more the merrier
2. concept - 'i want a main part with content running like a blog, then i want images, the i want pages for each artist...'
3. organization - make the pages, don't worry about style, just put things in div's
4. design - make a css style sheet, plus if you don't like it later, easy to change one page rather than all of your content

for more info on this strategy go here http://www.csszengarden.com/

personally, i think a background of a tribal partern with medium low saturation colors and content on the right side would look good, but that's just me.

EDIT: Also, this topic should be moved by an admin

Hey tattopunk - I dunno how you are going to present the page contents - or about your overall color scheme - but this is from a particular online branding (adv. management) class i had done once - we were repeatedly told to avoid creating sites/banners with black (or very dark colors) background with bright text in foreground. As told before "black is extremely overused" and, besides such a page causes opthamlic trauma (eye stress) due to the boldly colored text that stands out against the dark background. I'm sure you can fiddle around with the colors and come up with something nice... here are some tools that might help you in the wrong run. They consist mostly of color picker and color matching softwares where you can lay two or more different colors on top of each other and figure out the best combination. Some of them even allows you to save these color schemes for future referral.
1. http://www.gold-software.com/internet43-40.html - look down the page or search for "color"
2. http://www.gold-software.com/download5987.html - shareware but good one.
3. http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/colortoolswin/ - color pickers/tools for win
4. http://www.linxexplorer.com/colorpicker.html - Visual Color Picker (this is one of the best & is freeware) - I use it all the time for designing the interface for my softwares, not just web design. You can move the mousr cursor and select any block of the screen (shown in a magnified windows) and pick out colors of inidividual pixels. The sw spits out the color codes for the same in about 7-8 different color formats (html, rgb values, photoshop color value, vb & vb.net color vals, delphi etc...)
5. http://www.dirfile.com/freeware/color-scheme.htm - another list of free & sharewares to choose form
ummm.... thats it I guess... I highly recommend the 4th link and the 5th... in fact all of them. Just look around and take your pick.

.:: cheers ::.

When you have decided what you want for your web site. then use a color scheme that will be suitable for it.

If you need suggestion, please tell us what is the main topic of your web site.

If you go to the website review section, then to my post, you will get a discription and a link.

Hmm...I like black colors....Staring at something white for hours on end could really do some damage to your eyes...It'd be like looking at notepad for a hour or so each day....not a wise suggestion

And yes....I like the black abdpurple thing you had before...And um... The choice of using dreamweaver was a wise one...Its a easy program to edit with...But what are you using to edit your pictures?

I am a photoshop pro and also quite skilled with illistrator. Black and purple? I have a black and hot pink if thats what you mean. Check the forum out and give me some suggestiuons for my main page if you could. It's http://www.inkedinflesh.astahost.com/forum
Thanks!