I can see from your profile that you've answered the profile photo question yourself aha~
But for the signature, I would just recommend playing around with the bbcode for awhile. The only one not mentioned in that thread is the gradient code which is [gradient=#number,#number]text[/gradient] (pretty common use of that one as you can see lol). It takes a while to get but experimenting with it can really help you get used to it. In the meantime, you can ask someone in the signature request thread to make you one while you experiment and learn. ^^