These days you can implement many oldskool effects as pixel shaders, only with about a zillion abstraction layers added. Another nice and very exploration-friendly way to learn graphics programming from the ground up is the HTML5 Canvas/ImageData API which lets you put pixels into a framebuffer like it’s 1995.
Yes, this is my favourite aspect of being a web developer today, it is possible to refrain from using all the heavy weight libraries and just play with canvas and raw code... you have a lot more fun, have (almost) complete control, get to learn a lot more and the result is way leaner.
Also https://www.dwitter.net/ uses canvas + JS as the basis for it's code golfing. It's surprising what you can fit into 140 characters, and forces you to think more mathematically when creating effects.
