WordPress templates

I am looking forward to purchasing a WordPress template to customize my portfolio site. My current site is bare-bones, almost to a fault. I have yet to browse what’s out there, but I am curious how different templates will affect the capabilities of a site. Many of the portfolio sites I’ve visited, sites that belong to friends and acquaintances, are hosted to Behance or WordPress. They are ridiculously stunning. My goal is to come away from this semester with a solid grip on WordPress possibilities and have a potentially-stunning site.