Custom Theme Complete Novice

Hi Guys,

Not sure if this is the right place to post this. But I need some guidence

Im a graphic design not a web developer, however am adamant I want to create my own WordPress blog that look just like I want it too (this and the fact I want my own domain are my only reasons for making a wordpress site rather than using the free wordpress.com) I know what coding and html and css is – but find it very difficult to get my head around…. that being said I have made a very basic website using html and css duing uni, and with the help of a decent tutorial I’ve made one off flash websites etc I am a decent self learner…

Can anyone point me in the right direction to get started? I want to practise making my own custom word press theme, however I do no want to pay for hosting/domain until I understand how to make a custom theme/wordpress first (as it may take me a while)I know when you make websites they don’t need to automatically need to go ‘online’. Is this the same for wordpress?

I understand wordpress has its basic coding/structure that I need to work around hence my difficultly (I dont know how im supposed to work around it!) I have Dreamweaver, Photoshop illustrator and FileZilla and set to go even have a temple of how I would want the blog to look, but all the tutorials I find presume I am a novice webdesigner – which I am not.

Do I need to just read the wordpress advice properly or am I missing something ?

Thanks in advance for any help !