New Theme is Ready... Sort of

After playing around with Blogger for the better part of the last 24 hours, I have managed to put together a new look for this blog. Most of the time was spending on making images and making sure they looked okay on the blog. It's funny that I spent about 3 hours studying for my midterm next week but spent at least double (if not triple) that time working on this makeover. I sure have my priorities straight lol. It's why I call this blog A Product of Wasted Time.

Anyways, my three goals for this makeover were:

1. Move on to Blogger's new batch of themes.
   The main reason for this is because the new themes have more widget areas and I didn't want to code them into my old theme, so might as well start anew. The Template Designer (an interface for customizing the color scheme of the theme) looks sleek, but to get any real customization you still have to dive into the template code.
2. Incorporate mascots into the look of the site.
   I spent so much time drawing that stuff. Might as well put those drawings to some use.
3. Rearrange the widgets to help with the layout/make site easier to navigate.
   Double widget sidebars were a bit cluttered.

I am happy to say that I have accomplished all three, although whether the site is easier to navigate should probably be judged by the visitors. In terms of the layout, the content column is wider than before, and I plan to take advantage with wider pictures. There is now only one (wider) sidebar for widgets, and some of the widgets have been moved to the footer. In terms of the look, images of the red ranger mascot Naomi has been plastered in three locations, and I even made a new picture of her just for the "banner" (see below). Why the broken visor and tears? I dunno. Just kind of felt like drawing something other than a happy face. The random artwork window introduced in the last theme is still around on the right side of the banner area (refresh page to see a different piece of artwork).

(click picture for larger version at DeviantART)

So that's about it for this makeover. Unless Blogger pushes out a really really cool must-use feature in the near future, I'll probably be sticking with this look for a while. There are some small issues to work out in the future, but at least the theme appears to be in a working state right now. Am I 100% satisfied with the new look? Of course not, but it'll suffice for now. Future additions include incorporating the other mascots (rangers/super sentai always come in a team right?), but I have to get around to drawing banners for blue and yellow and designing the other colors, and that's going to be an ongoing effort. In the meantime, Red will be the dominant color.

Oh, and Happy Halloween.