This is part 3 of a series (part 1 and part 2) on creating my own WordPress theme. Here are a few screenshots as it evolves. At this point the basic structure is in place but will be expanded as I go. The header, body, right sidebar and footer are in place. These elements make up the basis for many WordPress themes as well as the style.css file that holds all the styling that goes into creating the various colors and layout attributes of a blog.
Click on image for larger view (800 x 600)
The background color is a favorite color of the artists who will use this theme. The background color will help emphasize the art by bringing out the colors of the art as opposed to the colors of the blog. At this point, the decision was made to have the art gallery the landing page of the blog which will be a WordPress page and not the main blog posts that are the default landing page of most blogs. WordPress allows you to easily do this by providing the Front Page section where you can set a static page. That setting is under the Options -> Reading menu selection in WordPress.
Here’s the theme with the header.
Click on image for larger view (1024 x 768)
The empty square in the upper-left corner is where the artist’s photo will go. Most likely there will be an audio welcome message under the blog description area. Still undecided on that. I’m also looking for different RSS icons. I’d like to find or create an RSS icon that is spashed with paint or the RSS figure is created by spashed paint.
Here’s the menu bar added with one menu selection – Blog and the search box.
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That’s it for now. Next time we’ll finish up with the post, sidebar and footer to come.
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