Part 1, Week 1

[soc_puppet]

And we're back: Welcome to Mood Theme in a Year 2026! Whether you're here for the Maximum Track, the Medium Track, the Minimum Track, or just to watch and cheer along, I'm glad you're here ♥ I hope you have a good time!

This week's moods are: Angry, Awake, Confused

The next six weeks are the only ones where the moods are the same for all three tracks, so it's pretty special! I hope everyone has fun with it.

Anyway! What are you working on? Are you making a mood theme of any size, working on a different art project, or just here to follow the fun? What medium are you working in? Is there anything you're looking forward to? Let's talk about it!

Comments

[bethctg]

*waves*

This looks so fun! I haven't used a mood theme in ages, and I've *never* made one myself. I have no idea what topic I want to build it around, but it'll be fun to decide. :)

[soc_puppet]

Welcome! I can only speak for myself, but I've had a ton of fun running this community the past two years, and I really hope it continues to grow 😊

There are so many fun ideas out there, both fandom and original! If you want ideas, or help narrowing down any choices, feel free to outsource that work here; you can ask in the comments of this or any other mod post, or even make your own post to the community! You sound like you already have some ideas in mind, though; I can't wait to see what you come up with 😃

[emotional_support_demon]

Yay! I made a resolution to make 4 mood themes this year, so now I just have to decide what I want to make and what to start with!

[soc_puppet]

*spittake* Four mood themes?! Holy moly, that's one heck of a resolution! Well, whatever you decide to go with first, we'll be here to cheer you on!

[emotional_support_demon]

My original goal was one a month (doing the one last month made me remember how much I love them), but then reason entered the picture, and I figured one per quarter was more doable.

[elyusion]

I don't know whether I'm making a medium or minimum theme, but I know I will be joining in later in the year. I have lots of art-related and online community-related goals this year, and this helps with both of those areas 😎 Good luck to the other participants!

[soc_puppet]

You'll be welcome whenever you care to join!

[majoukoufu]

This time around, I get to work on one mood per day instead of crunching it. So while I've got images picked out for all this week's moods, I've only made "awake."



I figure throwing a mood image or so into the check-in sort of posts per week is a good way to get myself into the idea that I Am Making This So I Can Post It, while also not feeling like I've posted so much as to take the wind out of my sails that way.

[soc_puppet]

OMG I can feel that mood through the computer 🤣

Let me know if you'd like mid-week check-in posts! I ran them the first year, but interest petered out after a while, so I stopped and stuck to only mood posts in 2025.

[majoukoufu]

Ojamajo Doremi is SUCH an expressive show! I knew I wanted to make a theme with it even before I was sure I wanted to use a custom theme myself.

(And going through that with a rule of actually working on max one mood a day there, too. I'll start using it once I've at least gotten through the full minimum mood set. Onto week 2, not following the amount per week cap here since hopefully a lot of them are just me going "yeah I still think that works" at something I already made!)

Personally I'm just posting one mood image per week until I'm ready to make a finished "part" post, and would be fine with doing that in whatever sort of post happens to be up at the time.

[mrs_leary]

Hello! My plan is to do the Maximum Track this year, and create an Arthurian legends/mythology Mood Theme.

Fingers crossed!

[soc_puppet]

That sounds amazing! I look forward to seeing what you come up with 😃 (I feel like your theme might have an edge on Quixotic 😂)

[mrs_leary]

LOL, yes! I shall have to pay special attention to Quixotic...

Here's what I have so far. Ultimately I want to use a range of media as sources.


Angry: Uther in the Fire Emblem game


Awake: art by Arthur Dixon


Confused: art by Mac Harshberger

[peasina]

Woohoo! I'm going to commit to the maximum track, and I'd like to make a mood theme for my favourite Pokemon, Magnemite.

I'll be using official art (concept, cards, sprites, etc.) and manga scans to make my mood pics. It will probably be difficult, as Magnemite isn't the most expressive of Pokemon with its single eye and no mouth :P but I'm hoping I can find things that work. I'm also thinking of making all the pics black and white regardless of source so they blend in with any future blog layout I might use.

I've never done a mood theme ever before, so this will be fun!

[soc_puppet]

That sounds amazing, and very ambitious! Still, the range of expression you can get out of even a single eye is pretty impressive, IMO.

Honestly, screencaps from the anime episode where Magnemite was introduced might be perfect for both Enthralled and Indifferent; color balance when switching to grayscale on those might be tricky, though.

Best of luck!

[sixbeforelunch]

It's been ages since I used mood themes, but I want to give this a try. I made the first three, all TNG. I haven't decided if this is just going to be Riker and Troi, of if I'm going to include the entire TNG crew.

Angry: (Deanna arguing with her mother)
Awake: (Riker after he hallucinated snakes and leapt out of bed)
Confused: (Can't remember what scene this was from but he looks confused to me lol)

[soc_puppet]

Welcome aboard! I hope you have a good time here 😊

Those look like some fantastic starting images! I, too, would be very awake after hallucinating snakes in my bed. And honestly, not knowing where 'confused' came from is kinda on-brand for that mood 😂

[uai]

Hi! Another newbie here, looking forward to joining with a fannish project :) I'm not sure if I have to do something to join or if there's a rules post or anything like that, but I went through the comm's profile and I'm hoping to do the maximum track, but who knows what the future holds :p

Here's what I have so far in my Identity V mood theme:


angry


awake


confused

Also, a noob question: the whole administration console thing is for "installing" the mood theme, not really necessary just for creating it, right? 🫣

[soc_puppet]

Hello, welcome aboard! If you want to be eligible for the free Dreamwidth points, you'll want to formally join the community, but other than that there's no restrictions that aren't listed in the community profile 👍

I'm not actually entirely sure I know what you mean by administration console (that just shows you how long it's been since I read any of the tutorials I linked 😅), but you are absolutely allowed to create a mood theme without uploading it to the site.

[uai]

I joined the comm, although I'm not really sure if I should be eligible for points just yet, as I've been back on DW for barely a few days and can't say I'm committed long-term to the platform to be deserving of it! Maybe for a different theme, since I seem to be speeding through this one 🏃‍♀️‍➡️ That said, once I'm done (25/132 right now!), I just have to not make a mood theme post like this one to not be eligible for points with this theme, right? (Because I do intend to give credit to the comm on the post in my journal, as it's you who inspired me to make the theme in the first place!)

It's okay! It's an interface made so code-running is easier. From what I gathered of the posts you linked, in the context of icon-making, it generates a code you can use to easily install any mood theme in your journal. For example, this neocities page has several mood theme codes available for usage. But I don't really have any idea how it works or which mood each number represents, maybe the console specifies that upon using the command? I don't know since I can't use it, but I'll find out eventually! Thanks for the answer, I'll just upload the images then ❤️ (and sorry for rambling :| I get excited about tech! djsfdhsjhk)

[teslac0ils]

Hi everyone! My plan is to fill out the Maximum mood theme with drawings of various bulborbs from the Pikmin series. Because I love them.
Here are my first 3.

Not sure yet if I'm Actually going to want to use this as a mood theme. The thing is... digital art is something I've wanted to get into for a while but I get easily discouraged because I feel like I never get half as good results as I do by spending the same amount of time on traditional art. However, I'm aware that the only way out of this is practice! So, later in the year I'm going to have to make the decision of whether this is just a nice series of bite-sized assignments to help me make friends with the tablet, or if I eventually get comfortable with the medium enough that I want to go back and re-draw my initial rough attempts for actual use. Time will tell!