I am a programmer, not an artist. I have very little experience in using photoshop (or any paint package except for Delux Paint for the Amiga back in the days of Yor.) Anyway I have been tinkering with photoshop for a few hours have gotten virtually nowhere in making some decent HUD Artwork. I can only manage a few plain or downright ugly texture strips. I just need some 'frame' elements I can use as a box for the main game viewport, and maybe some panels and buttons for other parts of the hud. At some point Ill need some fanciery stuff like 'triangle controls' and sliders and the like. For now, Id be happy with some place holder art. Anyway, is there any basic tips or tutorials on how to use photoshop or perhaps another paint package to create decent looking hud elements? Most of what I can find is on drawing much more complicated stuff like characters or full blown textures for things. Id really like just to be able to draw a bar that looked metallic with round or square joints, that at least looks like it is a 3D object opposed to a awfully bad textured flat rectaingle.

Generally, drawing a wall involves many of the same aspects involved in drawing a character, a texture, or a GUI. Primarily things like dithering, anti-aliasing, shading, blending, perspectives, etc. You could try having a look at some of the tutorials down at Pixeljoint, and having a look at the (freeware) RTS GUI's for Hard Vacuum, which could help give you some inspiration.

Incidentally, what kind of game is it going to be?

It is going to be a space game, a action heavy 4x - RTS game. I am doing it all in 2D with sprites instead of 3D objects.