I am starting out as a freelance website developer so I need to improve my graphics drawing skill. Up till now I'm using an open source tool GIMP to create the concepts and mock ups of the websites I design.I know that Photoshop is the Industry standard(at least as far as I know).

So,what books can help me in learning some advanced Photoshop techniques used frequently in web designing.Also I want to learn how to draw cartoon characters like this.I know it is a matter of creativity but still there must be some techniques which I can learn.Please express your views.

Just for the record, I'm basically a web developer so my graphics drawing capabilities are very limited(but I want to improve that). You can have a look at this site I designed using GIMP. 


Question: Status bar notifications in a timer
Answer: Pass context to your class constructor when you create its instance:

class Download extends TimerTask{
   Context context;

   public Download(Context c){
     this.context=c;
   }

}


 //inside Activity or whatever
    Download download=new Download(getApplicationContext());


Then use this context variable to create Notification.