Starting with illustrator and photoshop

[maxietheboss]

Hello artists,
I recently download the extended CS3 suite and I would love to become better at making things like people do here.
First of all I like vector art very much, and I know where I can get those brushes,
but the problem is that there are so many features in Illustrator I'm getting a bit overwhelmed.
Now I do know where to find tutorials but I just don't know where to start, so could someone here give me some advice on starting with Illustrator

*Edit* to give you an example of a creation I like: http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper/down ... 0x1050.jpg ( image is too big, it would stretch SRF )