Arranged Models & Props. Inspired by severalwell knownoptical illusion illustrations. The image was created entirely live. Photoshop was only used to adjust contrast in the image and add sepia toning. Thanks to my friends Shelia and Nathan who were awesomely patient models; Mimi who let me take over one of the dressing rooms in her fantastic store Exile and use her merchandise to dress the set; and Philip who helped with lighting! So what's the story behind this image? What do you imagine these folks might be talking about?
Despite the humid 90+ degree weather today, the Skull of Cabbage is still surviving remarkably well. I took this shot just as the sun was going down, thus the darker image...
Arranged Vegan Pie Topping (uncooked). Thanks to my friend Kendra, owner of Ipanema Cafe, one of the best retaurants in Richmond (that also happens to be mostly vegetarian, though non-vegetarians love it too), for letting me play in the kitchen there. They serve the most delicious fruit pies and she allowed me to arrange the crumble topping on this mixed berry one that will eventually get served to unsuspecting customers!
UPDATE: Here's a post baking picture... ...and the first piece being eaten by Erin and Jeff who were more than happy to volunteer for the job!
The saga of the the Skull of Cabbage continues! The top leaves came off over night, but other than that it's still just shriveling up and not getting slimy and gross yet...
JohnFR in Spain is the tenth and final (Band of The) Hand Skull Contest winner with cool sequential submission made with photos of his own hands!...
AND
One more entry came in right after I got the 10th winner, so Jos Diaz gets a couple of stickers as a Runner Up with this neat image he made using his hands and a scanner!
Arranged Bread. Thanks to Sher at Montana Gold Bread Co., a wonderful local bakery, for letting me come in and play with her delicious products! Thanks also to her employee Mia for suggesting I make something there.
Since you asked, here's the Skull of Cabbage one day later. It's been sitting outside in a mostly shaded area and actually doesn't smell that bad and has just shriveled a little bit, though the layers are separating so I had to lean it back to keep the face intact.
Brandi Sims of Madison, Alabama is the ninth (Band of The) Hand Skull Contest winner with elegant shot! (FYI I've gotten 10 entries, so there are no more stickers to give away, thanks again everyone)...
Cooked Pretzel (5.5in x 6in [14cm x 15cm]). One continuous piece of dough, fourth attempt of four. Thanks to my friend Philip for suggesting this one including the name! And a huge thanks to my friend Carra for helping with all the prep work for this The recipe came from HERE and it really does taste like the real thing (plus it's vegan if you use margarine! Though I added a coating of egg white just to make it darker/shinier in the photo, but it's not necessary for flavor).
The Abominable Cellist is the seventh (Band of The) Hand Skull Contest winner with this sweet little entry! (FYI I've gotten 10 entries, so there are no more stickers to give away, thanks again everyone)...
Digital Illustration. Oh, if only I had one of these at the start of this project! Just kidding. Though, I may look into the possibility of having a few of these actually made at some point, we'll see...
Rob is the sixth (Band of The) Hand Skull Contest winner with this lovely entry that he made with cellphone photos that he says is intended to be used as an icon! There are still a couple more sets stickers for me to give away, so don't wait to submit your own entry (be sure you are e-mailing it to me and not just posting to Flickr sometimes they're slow to add tagged images!)...
Arranged Bodies. Thanks to my friends Christi & Shelia for being my models. While I was inspired by the classic Dali image, I didn't want to recreate it, but rather develop something original. I had actually scheduled four models for this morning's shoot, but two didn't show up, so I had to make this image in two shots (top and bottom) with no way to confirm how they would line up until I got home and could combine them in Photoshop! Thanks also to the folks at Art6 Gallery for allowing me to use their space for this shot.
One final batch of old school submissions before the changeover to the reader driven Skull-A-Day 2.0! Remember that the submissions policy has changed so be sure to visit there before sending anything in!
Another interesting one from my friend Julien in Istanbul. He says, "I just bought this weekly satirical 'paper' with this skull on the front page. It's called 'uykusuz' meaning 'sleepless'. It's a liberal paper and they criticize a lot the actual government. You know, the government recently voted a law permitting the wearing of the [head] scarf inside University campuses. So some young women started to attend classes with their scarf. The front page here says : 'Beware ! There are fascists on the campus'"
...he also discovered this cool bit of stencil graffiti!
Jamie's cool tattoo was done by Chris Culverhouse at Images In Ink in Odenville, Alabama!
Nick Sloff discovered a skull in Boo Berry Cereal! And also shared an image of a carved staff he picked up on vacation a few years ago.
Kurt Marquart introduced me to his Girl Monsters (several of which sport cute skull accessories). In fact Abby Cadaver and Betty Bones are already Skull-A-Day fans!
Kirk is the fifth (Band of The) Hand Skull Contest winner with this clever bit of Photoshop trickery! There are still a few more stickers for me to give away, so don't wait to submit your own entry (be sure you are e-mailing it to me and not just posting to Flickr sometimes they're slow to add tagged images!)...
Arranged Bark on Trees (Big!). Thanks to my cousins who offered me access to the trees in their yard. This was made by marking out a skull in perspective first and then chopping and breaking away the bark along the lines (except for the white tree, which I had to add bark to). The image is really only visible from one vantage point. Here's what it looks like standing to the right...
Brad in Ohio is the fourth (Band of The) Hand Skull Contest winner with this version made from images found online! There are still more stickers for me to give away, so don't wait to submit your own entry (be sure you are e-mailing it to me and not just posting to Flickr sometimes they're slow to add tagged images!)...
Arranged Scooters and Scooter Parts (Big!). You would think that I have some kind of obsession since this is yetanother scooter related skull, but really it's just cus my friends Dave and Chelsea keep inviting me back to Scoot Richmond to play! Tonight was actually a "Halloween in May" event at the store so it made sense that I make a skull as part of it. After moving the bikes around and getting my shot, I got to actually drive a scooter for the first time! Afterwards everyone watched Shaun of The Dead projected on a wall in the parking lot, so quite a good night all around.
Julien is the third (Band of The) Hand Skull Contest winner with this excellent version made in Photoshop with various photos of his own left hand! There are still more stickers for me to give away, so don't wait to submit your own entry...
Henna on Skin. Thanks to my assistant Kristin for volunteering for this one! I designed the skull in advance and then basically free-fhanded the rest of it. I've never done a henna design before so this was definitely a challenge (kudos to the folks who do this professionally)! Once it's set I'll take another photo with the paste wiped off.
UPDATE: Here's Kristin showing off the 1 day old henna...
Fat Dumb Dad is the second (Band of The) Hand Skull Contest winner with this excellent image made from a Sign Language font! There are still more stickers for me to give away, so don't wait to submit your own entry...
Molded Tissue Paper (approx. 12in x 8in [30cm x 20cm]) Thanks to my friend Shelia for helping me make a plaster mold and teaching me this technique. I was hoping to make a mold earlier in this project so that I could use it for some other materials, but I just never got around to it. It took several tries to figure out how best get the layers from sticking to the mold (petroleum jelly worked best), this was the fourth attempt. I'll probably make more at some point (when I'm in less of a rush to get it done!).
Phillip of moreism+re is the first (Band of The) Hand Skull Contest winner with these fun collages! There are still more stickers for me to give away, so don't wait to submit your own entry...
Sushi Roll (Rice, Nori, Bell Pepper, Carrots) (approx. 4in x 3in [10cm x 8cm]). Thanks to the fine folks at Sticky To GoGo (the takeout wing of popular local restaurant Sticky Rice) for letting me invade their kitchen to make this one. I don't expect they'll add this to their menu any time soon though, since it took a few hours to make! Special thanks to Ross for helping set this up and Oura for helping with the prep work. They actually made their own skulls while I was at work on mine (Oura's is at the top right, Ross made the rest):
Hey folks, just a reminder that I'm giving away sets of 5 "I [heart] Skulls" stickers (shown above) to the first 10 people that send me their version of (or a variation on) the (Band of The) Hand Skull! These are high quality, 5in x 1.5in [12.7cm x 3.8cm], non-vinyl plastic stickers that are currently not for sale anywhere, so don't delay! Be sure to post the photo to Flickr with the tags "skulladay" and "handskull" and also send it to me attached in an e-mail as well. Good luck!
UPDATE: All the stickers have been given away! Thanks everyone!
Arranged Insects (approx. 10in x 15in [25cm x 38cm]). Thanks to my friend Laura at Main Art Supply and Framing (the locally owned store where I buy most of the fine art supplies used in this project!) who let me play with her collection of butterflies, moths, and assorted other insects. You can see how she uses them HERE.
P.S. Since a friend of mine asked, these were mostly found by Laura after they had died, or were given to her by friends who found them.
My friend Phil sent me this photo of my Rock 'N' Skull which he recently updated! He says, "There is a festival in the park at the end of the month and the public work crews are starting to do a lot of work on the paths. The Skull may be gone soon so I thought I would do a series of designs as long as your skull remains." He also told me that he expected a work crew to have removed the skull before this, but instead discovered that they had mowed around it and even used a weed eater to trim inside it!
Spray Paint on Wall (approx. 12ft x 8ft [3.6m x 2.4m]). Thanks to my friend Mimi who offered the back of her store Exile for me to use. I've never actually done graffiti before, so it was a fun challenge (especially since it was legal). The trickiest parts were working so large and getting lines to match up on the dimensional surface. Also it started raining shortly after I started so I had to work relatively quickly (though it still took around 3 hours to do), luckily there was no thunder & lightning!
My friend Michael pointed out the classic anamorphic skull painting by Hans Holbein called "The Ambassadors" (if you're not familiar, the skull is in the center of the bottom and can be seen best when looked at from an angle).
...and this fantastic map by Ambrosius Holbein from the third edition of Sir Thomas More's book Utopia via Nature.
Gordon Robb from Stewarton, Ayrshire, Scotland shared this cool die! He says, "I dropped the dice by mistake and one of the corner's chipped off and it looked a bit like a skull, so i carved the rest out with a stanley knife and now it looks alot like a skull. I take it everywhere as a lucky charm."
Shawn let me know about this awesome crayon piece by Ryan Peter Miller on Craft! Why didn't I think of doing that?!? (Thanks to Adrienne for pointing it out as well!)
Robyn says, "I was at the ginger man in rice villiage and saw this staring back at me from my new castle!"
Ken showed off these nifty skull doodles he created!
Nate Higley shared his terrific artwork, including his comic book character "The Stenciler" and an image his band Bantha Fodder!
...and these two fantastic pieces from the Graphis Annual 71/72 via the Nonist! Poster by Giancarlo Iliprandi and album cover by Ron Hughes.
Jack Hankins, a British artist in Japan, showed off the awesome artwork he makes under the name Horrorwood!
My friend Christine pointed out this absolutely amazing functional camera(!) by Wayne Martin Belger! (Thanks to Moose for letting me know about this as well!)
Geoffrey, a 17 year old artist in France, shared his lovely art and an image of himself in appropriate makeup at a party!
Spray Painted Stencil Pattern. Thanks to my friends Carol & Dave who kindly offered their utility room to do with as I pleased. The result was this wallpaper design. If you have trouble seeing the skulls, check out this close up (and cover one half of the image if need be):
I've put a downloadable PDF of this stencil online for you to use: HERE. It includes pieces of the surrounding skulls as guidelines for making the pattern shown in the image above. As with all the other work on this site it is released under a Creative Commons Attribution, Noncommercial, Share Alike license. And of course be sure to send me photos of what you do with it!
Arranged Used Tea Leaves (Organic, Fair Trade English Breakfast, if you're wondering). Hmm, I wonder what the fates have in store for me? Thanks to Jerome for another great suggestion! If you don't know already, I'm a tea lover, so it's nice to get one more made with this material before the end of the project. For more on tea leaf reading A.K.A. tasseography go HERE.
Digital Op-Art Illustration. Thanks to Jerome for suggesting this one on the Skull-A-Day Facebook page! It kept coming out more New Wave then Psychedelic, but that probably says something about where my interests lie.
UPDATE: In case you weren't able to see it, here's the animated version made by Tatman!...
Bokeh Photography. Thanks to Renata for suggesting this technique, which I hadn't heard about before. Basically I cut a tiny stencil in a paper mask that goes over the lens which alters the light coming into the camera, thus creating a shape out of the circles of light normally formed when images are very blurry. There's a more detailed explanation, simple how-to guide with additional examples HERE. I didn't have quite the right lens for this, so the image I cut out was cropped by the actual aperture, but different parts of it were revealed at different locations in the frame. I took these images from a hill overlooking downtown Richmond, VA.
Arranged Tinkertoys (11in x 12in x 6in [28cm x 30cm x 15cm]). I was happy to discover that another one of my favorite childhood toys is still around and still made of wood (though only the sets with fewer pieces). However, this was definitely one of the more difficult materials to get into a recognizable skull form (using only what came in one "jumbo" set).
I'm very excited to announce that the cool folks at Modofly have just launched a brand new site filled with an assortment of amazing etched Moleskine notebooks for sale, including one featuring my very own Ornament(al) Skull pattern! There are also 60+ other designs from wide range of incredible artists that they've collaborated with, so there definitely something for every interest! Please check it out and support these guys, they've worked really hard to make an amazing product.
Also you can find out more about the project in this interview (from a fellow artist) HERE.
[UPDATE 4/09 This notebook is no longer being made, but Modofly has several new Skull-A-Day designs made with their updated fabric printing process]
.22 and 9mm Bullet Holes in Aluminum (skull image 11in x 13in [28cm x 33cm]). A big thanks to my friend Russ who set this up for me, the folks at Dominion Shooting Range for putting up with us, and Neil Neil who suggested this one on the Skull-A-Day Facebook page. I drew the image on the metal and marked where the holes should go with Xs, then I shot the .22 for the outline and let Russ handle the 9mm for the bigger openings. We shot from less than an inch away for accuracy's sake.
Folks who are going to be in or near the Richmond, Virginia area on June 1st are invited to take part in one of the final skulls of the year! Get the details on the Skull-A-Day Facebook page.
Cut & Folded Paper (skull 5.5in x 10in [14cm x 25cm]). I'm definitely not an experienced paper engineer (and this is definitely more than a one day task) so this is really more of a paper sculpture than a truly functional pop-up piece.
UPDATE: Per request here is a PDF of the pattern I made for the 3 pieces used. You'll have to play around with placement on the surface you attached it to since I did that freehand. As always be sure to send me photos of whatever you make with it!
Justin A.K.A. Tatman showed off his fantastic skull collection! He says:
I am lucky enough to have a great wife who lets me keep these on my bedroom dresser. Here's a breakdown of the individual pieces by number. 1 is a skull snow globe(with black snow) bought at Lake Garda in Italy 2 is a volcanic rock skull made with rock from Mount Vesuvius in Italy 3 is some kind of rodent skull I found in the woods at my father in law's house 4-9 were all purchased at various tattoo shows. 5, 6, 7, & 9 are actually ashtrays 10 is a dragon skull ashtray that my good friend Wayne Mosher hand made for me. When you put your roach....er, butt on it's toungue the smoke travels up through the nostril holes. Wayne is a great tattoo artist at Smokin' Guns Tattoo in Fayetteville, NC. 11 is a hand made skull that I bought on Paradise Island in the Bahamas
AND
Christopher Locke mailed me this wonderful concrete skull knob shifter he made! He says, "If anyone you know wants one, I sell them cheap." Check out his other work and get in touch HERE.
Thanks again everyone!
--
Don't forget to check out our submissions policy before sending anything in!
Arranged Hands. Thanks to my friend Mady (shown) who suggested I come make a skull with her tribal dance troupe Caravan Mystique, who were in a local park doing a photo shoot today. And thanks to the hands of Mady, Ivy, Marty, and Phil!
BONUS! CONTEST!: Post a picture of you and your friends making this skull (or a variation on it) with your own hands to Flickr (with the tags "skulladay" and "handskull") and send me an e-mail with the link to the image. The first 10 folks to do so will get 5 "I heart skulls" mini-bumper stickers, which are currently not for sale anywhere!
Arranged Vespa & Lambretta Scooter Gears (4.5ft x 4.5ft [1.37m x 1.37m]). Thanks to my friend Chelsea for letting me once again invade her awesome scooter store Scoot Richmond! And thanks to my friend Dave, who works in the repair shop there, for suggesting this material and serving as my model!
Hand Bent Brass Mesh (10in x 16in [25cm x 41cm]). I spotted this material when I was buying supplies for the Embossed Skull two days ago, which points up a bit of the reality of this project: I don't have a master plan for the skulls I am making. I have plenty of ideas written down and I have pre-scheduled a handful that involve other people, but for most I'm pretty much deciding what I'm going to do and buying supplies that day or at some point a day or two before; I am rarely prepared earlier than that.
Arranged DVDs. Thanks to my friend Erin (pictured) who is a manager at my favorite movie rental store Video Fan, for letting me come in and rearrange the shelves (and thanks to the owner Doug for not minding!). I grew up in the neighborhood where this store is located and have been renting from them since it opened (about 20 years ago)! Not only do they have a great selection, a friendly & knowledgeable staff, and take requests for what to stock (and actually follow through), but they give out free popcorn & tootsie rolls, and even dog biscuits to their furry customers (take that Netflix!). If you live in the area you really should support them!
Embossed Copper Sheet and Acrylic (9in x 11in [23cm x 28cm]). Thanks to my friend Jude who reminded me of this technique the other day. I had actually made a piece this way when I was in middle school: an image of an exploding volcano with a mirror in the lava! Sadly I believe it's long gone.
The people have spoken and I'm happy to announce that Skull-A-Day has won the Webby People's Voice Award for the Personal Website Category! Thanks so much to everyone who voted for the site, I really appreciate it!
Sun Print (8in x 8in [20cm x 20cm]). Thanks to my friend Coryndon who gave me this Sunprint kit several months ago (I believe my friend Carra gave me some of this paper later as well). I arranged an assortment of beads (from my friend Mimi) directly on 4 sheets of the light sensitive paper and then exposed it to the sun for a few minutes. I was actually adjusting the beads while it exposed, thus creating the more ghostly appearance. This was definitely one of those educational toys that were popular when I was young, and I remember getting a few of these kits as gifts over the years, though I never did anything this complex with them.
Arranged Dog Fur (16in x 19in [41cm x 48cm]). Thanks to my friends Phil and Mady who surprised me, when we met up the other day, with a couple of bags of fur, sorted by color, shed by their dogs (yes I lead a strange life). Oddly enough Brandy had just suggested this material on the Skull-A-Day Facebook page a few days ago!
UPDATE: Here's a picture from Phil of his fur contributors (L to R) Dogma, Philosophy, and Midrash. He says, "By the way they are all rescued animals. Dogma and Philosophy came from the pound in Richmond and Midrash came with the house (her mom and her siblings were strays living in our crawl space.)"...
Moose found this wonderful vintage(?) photo on Pixdaus. Anyone know the source?
Binky made this sweet image and also pointed out a fun collection of grim reaper illustrations over at DrawerGeeks!
James set up this neat Skull Bomb for use on Myspace Pages!
Danyelle Ortega-Roberts in San Jose, CA made these terrific works out of Sculpey, entitled What To Say!
Mim spotted these adorable baby booties on lowleepop's Etsy shop!
Lex10 found these awesome folding glow in the dark sunglasses from Yankee Trader in Ohio! Here's what they look like unfolded on models Lana and Molly (who are also eating Japanese whistle candy)...
Daniel made this beautiful stained glass piece for his boyfriend for Christmas! Here are the step by step directions!
Suzie philippot shared this nice image of Mr. Bones III, who is a permanent fixture on her door! She says, "Ever since my first blow-up, life size Halloween skeleton that my family had since I can remember (his name was Mr. Bones and for quite a while, he was more than twice my size... but that didn't stop me from dancing with him every year!) I've had a great fixation for skulls, even if I told people when I was five I was "allergic t them" (along with dinosaurs)."
Rebecca pointed out some of the wonderful art featured in the "Everything But The Kitchen Synch" show at the La Luz de Jesus Gallery in Los Angeles! The first is Lilly by Julian Callos and the second is Skull Face, by Mary Fleener!
Kitty was the first to point out this skullish fellow at I Can Has Cheezburger! (Thanks to Molly, Tina Carson, and Nik who let me know about it as well!)
There's yet another fantastic skull-themed trailer at Trailers From Hell!
Tie-Dyed T-Shirt (still drying). Third Attempt. The first looked sort of like an amoeba, and the second had a decidedly Punisher vibe (perhaps I'll show you that one during S-A-D 2.0). I don't think I've done tie-dye since I was in hippie pre-school in the 70's!
UPDATE: Since folks asked, I'll give a brief explanation of how I made this. I started by sketching on the shirt with a pencil where I wanted white areas. Then I gathered each outlined section individually so that as much of the line around it was visible as possible and then I looped a rubber band tightly around each part making sure to cover the line (working from the smallest sections to the largest). Then I just followed the directions on the package of fabric dye. I definitely needed the initial attempts to figure out how to best gather the sections, and working with mostly circular type shapes is definitely helpful. If you make your own be sure to send me a photo!
Arranged Toys (25in x 20in [64cm x 51cm]). Thanks to my friend Kori who lent me a box of toys from the 80's she found while cleaning out her mother's house. I had several flashbacks to childhood as I dug through and discovered many of the same things my sister and I played with back then. Recognize anything?
Hey folks, as we have moved into the last full month of my year of skulls, I wanted to give you a little update on the future of this project. Since so many people said that they can't go without their daily skull fix, I've decided to keep the site running on a daily basis for at least another 6 months (and possibly longer depending on how it goes)!
Since I'll need to take a vacation from making skulls after I finish my year, I've decided it's going to be YOUR turn to make the skulls. Starting June 4th, I'll be posting a new skull made by a reader every day! PLUS I'll be periodically revisiting some of my older skulls and showing what's become of them. AND every few weeks I'll be having a themed contest to win some Skull-A-Day swag. So hopefully you'll all want to stick around a play along.
Thanks again for all of your enthusiasm and support on this project I really couldn't have done it without you.
Oil Paint on Linen Canvas (12in x 12in [30.5cm x 30.5cm]). I found this lovely stretched linen canvas at the art store the other day and it inspired me to give oil painting another go. This was painted from life and my goal was to work somewhat loose.
SKULLS is in US stores now!
Order from your local independent bookstore, which you can find through IndieBound
OR online via:
Amazon.com Barnes & Noble Powell's Books
I'm available to do lectures about the Skull-A-Day project as well as SKULLS book signings. For details contact me directly at the address at the bottom of the About page HERE.
promote skull-a-day
Copy and paste the button above or grab the code HERE.
Support Skull-A-Day
Skull-A-Day has no ads and is a labor of love, please consider buying one of the items below to help offset the costs of running this project...
Posts
