Recommended Theme Templates?

Hello,

I was wondering if there any good templates for a blank theme that can easily be adjusted and stylized to fit a custom design?

I had been working off of the default twenty-twelve theme but that requires a lot of editing and I find the style sheet and function.php kind of messy.

Are there any templates for a theme out there that can easily be adjusted for custom themes? How do you develop custom themes?

Thanks.