C is for Cookie, S is for Skull

This bit of awesomeness is the handy work of Ed Harrington. I've seen other renditions of fictional characters in skeletal form, but Ed displays just how much of a true monster this character is.  Especially with the toothless skull that seems like it would only be adaptable to gumming cookies into their original doughy state; not suitable for masticating any kind of food except for the cookie kind.  Thanks for sharing this with us, Ed!

[BONUS] 422. Cereal Killer Skull

I recently bought some retro boxes of the classic monster cereals to put on display in my office and while I'm planning to never open Franken Berry, Boo Berry, Count Chocula, and Frute Brute, I did break into Fruity Yummy Mummy and decided to make this with it...

Did you eat breakfast cereal as a kid? If so what were your favorites?

Dia de la Abby: #11 - Frankenstein's Monster

My interpretation of Frankenstein's Monster's skull is a companion piece to last week's Bride of Frankenstein Skull.

The classic tale of Doctor Frankenstein and his monstrous creature is one we all know well, but if you don't, I highly suggest reading it. As with art, there can be a struggle between you and your artwork. The masterpiece in Frankenstein of course is his monster. The struggle is the relationship he has with him and the fact that Frankenstein built a being out of dead parts, then brought him to life. Who are we to play god? "Frankenstein" was inspired by Mary Shelley's experience with watching one of her father's friends apply electricity to a dead criminal, which caused his appendages to jerk, as if he was being brought back to life. This experience combined with a weekend spent with friends where a game of horror stories on a thunderous night, produced this thought compelling work. For me, I don't recall rain, but then again, I also don't consider my piece a master piece. The next time it rains, curl up with a good book. Might it be scary or silly, your imagination is better than any film adaptation.

As with last week's piece, I used the same supplies...acrylic paint, brushes and a paint pen to create this piece, so no tutorial.

Every week in the 4.0 year, I will be post my own Dia de la Abby posts as well as a tutorial with instructions on how I made my piece. Hopefully you feel inspired by my posts just as I was by Noah's Skull-A-Day 1.0 daily project. Need more of me than just a weekly dose, follow me on Twitter.

Dia de la Abby: #10 - Bride of Frankenstein

With Halloween coming soon (well, 86 days away), I've had monsters on the brain, so I've made a couple monster skulls for you...one for this week, and one for next week. I even plan on becoming a monster for Halloween, but that is for another post that is closer to Halloween.

This lovely lady, is of course the iconic Bride of Frankenstein. When I think of female monsters, this is the one that I immediately think of. The Bride/Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, aptly named after the author of "Frankenstein" or "The Modern Prometheus", is played by Elsa Lanchester. She has stiff tall hair which is a result of her life giving electrocution. In this piece, I've portrayed her as post mortum (post post mortum?), but with hair intact as if her body bandages had mummified her hair some how or maybe her hair is just that impressive, that it needs to stay. The choice of black, white and gray are of course because the movie is a black and white movie, which are my favorite kind. Despite having color TVs in my household as a youth, I always preferred to watch TV on my mother's old black and white TV...you know, the kind with the rabbit ears, that only gets a few channels. Granted, I was watching mostly regular shows, occasionally I could watch old ones, and that unified the nostalgia of the black and white tv experience. Since we are on the topic of old movies, what is your favorite old movie?

There is no tutorial for this one. I used acrylic paint, a medium paint brush (for the grey background and black hair) and a black paint pen (for the skull and waves of the hair). If you haven't considered using a paint pen in your paintings, I recommend it. You get better control of lines and details. I've used them for various paintings and am always pleased with the easy of use and result.

Every week in the 4.0 year, I will be post my own Dia de la Abby posts as well as a tutorial with instructions on how I made my piece. Hopefully you feel inspired by my posts just as I was by Noah's Skull-A-Day 1.0 daily project.