I use the G.I.M.P.
I have no Knowledge of the program, just what I can find in tutorials online and Ask GaMeR about.
I intend to get a used Photoshop someday, but I have a lot of things I want and this is not the top.
As for Vivid Text, Why, If I make it not match it looks like Heck.

The G.I.M.P. is the ultimate XD

It's what I use when I do any digital colouring shenanigans

A few more,
these two aren't great, as they were simple pastes of images together.
I'm taking a course though, so I may be good soon.
You've probably seen this one before, I made it when I changed my Gamertag.

i made this one to show some Star Wars Geekiness.

I did this for Dx4, he accused me of reusing his stuff, I only used the person.

One of My first Items

Like I said, getting better.

I'm not too fond of that green you used in the font. Also the "g" is a bit cut off, I'd move the text up a bit more.

/end of constructive criticism lol.

Also, when you PMed me about your username change you spelled it like: The Dr0w Ranger, and I changed it to that just now. If you actually meant an "o" rather than a 0 you'll have to log on using the 0 for now. Just posting this in case you can't log in for some reason, and happen to read this post.

I meant Dr0w, because the Gamertag change actually made it into Dr0w, so I want searching for it to be easy
As for the sig, that little thing is not worth opening the Gimp again, and I used that color because for some reason all the other colors mixed with the background and became unreadable.

You are getting better. It just takes a lot of practice, and a lot of time. Not always, but most things do.
I did this one about a year ago before I had forgotten how:

And I made this from a text generator for a buddy of mine to use along with me. We were partners on the forum, helped each other out, defended each other:
"Datpool"

This was banner for my forum for a short timr:

And this was a campaign I had against spamming, flamming: