Here’s a theme for SPB Mobile Shell 3.5.3 that resembles what an artist’s sketchpad may look like if you asked them to recreate one of the more popular UIs for Windows Mobile. Titled Sketch Theme (created by DOC3000 & Warhammer83), it’s unique because it skins the interface and other elements in a sketch-like design. Sketch widgets include: an analog clock, black temperature, weather, sound profiles, notifications, lock, SPB Menu shortcut (elephant or tree drawing), and link backgrounds (note or sketch). There are also a number of other skin choices for widgets, but they’re either Sense UI-like or more traditional.

The sketch skins for notifications, represented as quote bubbles, are quite interesting. Rather than have a viewable shortcut for them at all times, they will only appear when you actually have incoming items. Otherwise, they’re transparent, which cleans up the screen by giving you a better view of your wallpaper. Unfortunately, it looks like the theme maker forgot to translate the text for the notification icons into English (like he did for the QVGA version). Hopefully this will get fixed soon. Download Sketch theme 2.0 from XDA-developers. It’s available for (W)VGA and (W)QVGA devices. It’s recommended to reinstall Mobile Shell before installing the theme.

Update: we reached out to DOC3000 and he’s delivered quickly, the English translations for the notification icons (VGA/WVGA) are now available!

Where to find sketch skins in “edit layout” menus:

- Analog clock (Sense Mid Transparent)

- Black temp (White Mid)

- Weather (Sense Image Mid)

- Profile (default)

- Status invisible (default) – widget appears when missed call, sms or e-mail

- Lock (default)

- Tree (Sense Panel Dark Large)

- Elephant (Sense Panel Large)

- Links (Sense Text 1Line, Sense Text 2Line)

(via: XDA-developers)