After getting over the challenge of setting up multiple Environments (refer to Multiple WordPress Development Environments), it was time to start on my theme.
Research
Once I was done with some due diligence, I came to learn that it was most best to start off with a pre-existing theme and build a child theme of it (modifying the parent theme's files prevented any chance of future updates). I decided on the Thematic Theme that a good friend had mentioned at a last job I was at. It's a great theme that's very bare-bones and even has a few little protips hidden inside the code to help first-timers (like me).
Gettin into it
The documentation for the theme is outstanding, and since it has been around for quite a long time receiving proper updates, the community has come up big and contributed quite a bit of good material to supplement.
- Thematic Theme Documentation
- Thematic Page Structure
- A Guide to Thematic
- Right Way to Override Theme Functions
A warning is to be careful when searching for more, it would appear that the theme underwent a major update sometime in its past and there are quite a few pages out there that contain outdated information. For example, this one explicitly mentions it is old and outdated.
Pro-Gress
With some tips on how to get the damn child theme working (and falling victim to a teeny-tiny typo that actually caught me again two more times), I was up and ready to go.
From above, the Thematic Page Structure and Right Way to Override Theme Functions were the two most viewed bits of info as I started to actually add and remove html via functions.php functions. I won't get into specific details because I'm still rough around the edges. Maybe after I make some decent progress and learn a couple little tips and tricks.
Get 'er done
If you're someone who's wanted to have a custom WordPress theme and understand how to handle yourself around PHP, HTML and CSS - do it. Go get your hands dirty with the resources above. There's plenty of info there to get started and get comfortable making your changes.
EDIT: I got a new entry in the series: WordPress Theming: Injecting Some JavaScript