Wednesday, April 30, 2008

332. Topiary Skull

Trimmed Boxwood. This one was suggested a while ago by Christiane and I believe a few other folks as well, but I didn't think I'd actually get to do one and then a few days ago my friends Mimi & Tsondu kindly offered this bush in front of their house to be chopped up by me! I didn't notice that the grass on the bottom right made a perfect bottom jaw until after I looked at the pictures!

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

331. Bleach(ed) Skull


Bleach Painting on Denim. I started out making a straight forward image and then decided to play a little more with the medium, since some splatter started to happen in the process anyway. Thanks to my friend Carol for suggesting this medium/material and thanks to Phil and Mady who gave me this jacket when I was in Petersburg making the Rock 'N' Skull!

Monday, April 28, 2008

330. Bent Objects Skull

Ketchup Painting and Bent Objects. After months of planning I'm extremely excited to present the official Bent Objects/Skull-A-Day crossover! I've been a fan of Terry's clever work on his Bent Objects blog since early on in my own project and it wasn't too long before I proposed that we figure out a way to work together. However, it was only just recently that Terry came up with this brilliant idea. He actually built these characters and mailed them to me to do my thing (which I must admit was quite daunting since he and I have fairly different styles). Thanks Terry!

UPDATE: Per request here's a detail shot of the skull...

Sunday, April 27, 2008

REMINDER: Help Skull-A-Day Win A Webby!

Hey folks, Just a reminder that if you haven't already, you still have a few days to vote for Skull-A-Day and help us try to win a People's Voice Webby Award!

Just go HERE, sign up, and look for Skull-A-Day in the "Select a Nominee" menu at the top. Voting ends on May 1st and winners will be announced May 6th!

A huge thanks to everyone who has voted already, I really appreciate it!

329. Skull-Ray

X-Ray Photography. You no longer need to wonder what's on MY mind! Yes, this is an actual x-ray of my own head, as well as a possum skull that came along for the ride. A huge thanks goes out to friend of mine who works with x-ray equipment and very kindly set this up for me. We did a bunch shots of a "phantom skull" (a real skull encased in Lucite, used for practicing on the machines) to work on the layout before before actually x-raying my own head (with the possum skull balanced on top), though it still took 3 shots of myself before we got it exactly right.

Braincase XXXVI

Another slew of superlative submissions! (received 3/03 - 3/11)


Andy Brown made this terrific elevator button skull in his apartment building (though I definitely would not have like to have been stuck on the elevator afterwards!).














Moose spotted this fantastic image on VVork from an exhibition at the Palais De Tokyo in Paris. [My assistant Kristin says: "I saw this exhibition in person, and this skeleton really was quite amazing!"]














Jefferson Hayman made these beautiful photographs!

























My friend Eliza pointed out the clever work of Jason Freeny on Ectoplasmosis!























Leo Bella discovered this elevator skull face!


















S.3 made this wonderful paper toy as well as a bunch of other awesome skull themed works like this...



































Daniel Spehr a photographer from Switzerland has created a lovely new book of images from Buenos Aires, including several pages of stencil art skulls! You can see more images from the book (or even buy a copy) HERE.































Glittergirl shared a photo album of all the skulls around her house, including this these really nice guitar knobs and planter!























My agent Kate was the first to point out this awesome ad for Craftsman on Neatorama! (Thanks to Jackie and Dave for letting me know about this as well)


















Eric suggested I make a skull out of cinnamon toast!





Sedrik at Evomo shared this awesome t-shirt, appropriately entitled Braincase designed by Bryan Thombs, which can be bought HERE! And Scott B., an avid mountain biker, liked the image so much that he had it tattooed on his arm by John Cseri!





























Lauren's cousin owns this rad 96 Yamaha Virago 1100. The eyes light up red when you hit the breaks!
























Rot shared these skulls of the Ghost Dead featured in his annual yard haunt on Halloween night!


















Daniele from Italy made this excellent stencil of the mask worn by the band Tre Allegri Ragazzi Morti!

















Nate make this incredible illustration on paper that he aged by pouring coffee onto it and then baking it in the oven!


















Cobwebs pointed out several great items for sale on Z Gallerie, including this wonderful dinnerware set!






















Claire sent in a bunch of great images including this cool decoration on a graveyard gateway around the corner from Fenchurch Street Station in London and these wonderful images she made while playing on Pen beach in Wales!
























Kathleen Conahan made these fun pirate flags!




















Frequent commenter Monkeygurl made these super cute mitts for her daughter!












Thanks again everyone!

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I recently updated the submissions policy so be sure to visit my submissions page before sending anything along!

Saturday, April 26, 2008

328. Rock 'N' Skull

Arranged Rocks (approx. 8ft x 8ft [2.4m x 2.4m]). Thanks to my friend Phil who suggested this medium and location (and Mady for making a lovely picnic lunch for us here afterwards). The rocks were salvaged by Phil from a small creek running through Poplar Lawn Park (also known as Central Park) in downtown Petersburg, VA, where this is located. We left this for others to discover, but eventually Phil will return the rocks to their original purpose of shoring up the side of the hill above the creek. Here's a shot showing more of the area (the rocks came from the lower right and will be returned to the middle left)...

Friday, April 25, 2008

327. Skullringe

Arranged Syringes (16in x 22in [41cm x 56cm]). Thanks to my cousin for giving me her used insulin syringes to work with!

Thursday, April 24, 2008

326. Pile O' News Skull

Hand Carved Newspapers. I went through about a dozen X-acto blades doing this (and gave myself a few blisters on my fingers in the process). I tried using a drill on it, but didn't get far. Thanks to my friend Jen who saved up her newspapers for a couple of months for me!

Skull-A-Day Press: Mental Floss



















Skull-A-Day featured 0n the Mental Floss website on April 24, 2008.
Check out the award here!

http://www.mentalfloss.com/

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

325. Tile Skull

Arranged Ceramic Tiles (22in x 28in [56cm x 71cm]). I found these lovely odd shaped tiles at a local store that sells salvaged building supplies to support Habitat for Humanity.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

324. Audience Skull

Arranged Poster Board & Students. My friend Aaris invited me to speak to the graphic design students at St. John's University in Queens, where she teaches. As part of my lecture I had the students help with today's skull. I recreated my early 8 x 8 Skull:
by having the students hold up squares of white poster board (with black poster board sitting in the seats between them, since there weren't enough people to hold them all). I wasn't sure what the lecture space would look like when I planned this so I was a bit lower and closer than I expected, but even distorted I think it's still fairly skull-like. Thanks to fan Neil who suggested this one on the Skull-A-Day Facebook page, and thanks to the students and faculty of St. Johns for playing along!

Monday, April 21, 2008

323. NYC Coffee Cup Skull

Crumpled Paper Coffee Cup. If you've ever spent time in NYC you'll recognize this as the classic paper coffee cup given out at bodegas/delis (why it has Grecian art on it I cannot say). Yes, I found this on the street, and no I didn't leave it there. On a side note my sister, who lives up here, said I really should do something other than skulls made of trash when I'm here since it might give people the wrong impression of this town we both love.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

322. (File Under) Folder, Skull

Cut and Bent File Folder. What a surprise to discover a new material to work with this late in the project that has been staring me in the face the whole time! In fact the rest of the pile is made up of my current in-progress client folders from my actual job.

P.S. Just a head's up that I'm going out of town tonight through Tuesday night. As always there's a chance I may be delayed in posting the skulls I make while I'm away, but rest assured I'm still making them and will post as soon as I can!

[CONTEST WINNERS] Presenting Mr./Ms. Squarehead Skull!

Congratulations to all the folks who submitted such fun solutions to my request for a body for my Mr/Ms Squarehead Skull! I'm giving a prize to everyone who sent something in before the deadline! Here are the entries in all their glory...

Todd Budnikas:


Justin (A.K.A. Tatman):


Carlos Collazo:



Lex10:



Alex D.S.:




Paul DiLena:





Eric (A.K.A. that one guy):



Ian:


Brad in Ohio:


Dog Cat:


Janet Lackey Schmalfeldt:

Colleen:

Shotgun Mario:

Concretin Nikoli:

Elena:


AND Jonathan Sims made a very cool one that is Not Safe For Work or Kids so click HERE to see it.

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Also these came in after the deadline, but since I hadn't posted the winners yet I wanted to go ahead and include their fine work as well!...


Christiane:


Patience:


Bob: