Draw Me!
Back when matchbooks proliferated about as much as smokers welcome in restaurants, many of the matchbooks would have a picture of a clown or dog or some other character with the words, "Draw Me!" across the front. The matchbooks were put out by various art schools, and aspiring artists would do just that, sending in the result to get an evaluation of their skill. Evidently, to the schools, we all have a little artist in us because few people would be dissuaded from signing up for a course.

Figure 1-1. Matchbook cover with a picture of a dog and "Draw Me!"
One of the "musts" associated with web graphics is that we "must" be artists, or we "must" be designers, or even that we "must" have a degree or specialized training. Creating web graphics does require some artistic ability, but as the early matchbook art schools discovered, there's a little artist in all of us.
While a professional graphic artist may be necessary for many effects, it's not true for all. In fact, there are many effects that can be created with only a minimum of training, a little technology, and a willingness to give something new a shot.
For instance, later in the book I'll cover SVG, a way to create graphics using an XML vocabulary. The approach seems intimidating at first. How does one create a sophisticated graphic from simple primitive elements such as the following?
<circle r="6" cx="24" cy="16"/>
Yet there ...