msql php question

This may be a stupid question, especially one coming from a newbie, but my background is in graphic design, photography and fine arts and though I am generally computer literate (I use SuSE linux as my OS of preference for personal use) I am not a programmer, I tend to get drowsy when flipping through the plethora of books I have concerning web development.
the programs I use range from PS to Gimp and Maya to VUE for my graphic design tasks, and though I have used server side webpage development platforms like dotnetnuke (I hate it) I am a WYSIWYG person, I HAVE to do everything visually.

After coming across sculptor and site assist I have found working CSS much much easier to learn chunk by chunk, but the MYSQL and PHP requirements for the developers suite intimidates me a bit, and I don't think my system can spare the resources for me to set up a local testing server and my networking skills to set my linux box to network with my windows box is practically nil.

If I use a host like yahoo where I can essentially use their control panel to simply set up mysql and php via a gui(setting root and password, etc) can I use programs like e-cart to set up the website locally within my dreamweaver site and upload it to the host server to have it recognized by the host's DB? I mean will ecart and data assist, security assist, etc generate the code necessary? Unfortunately I have a lot of clients who love the look of my static pages and are pushing me for something more dynamic, but some of you guy's ability to hand code blows me away...I am sadly not one who is able to code, but I can create top notch artwork.