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.
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!
Hiero shared this lovely "Garden Skull"!
satanoid A.K.A. Nick Mollberg discovered this amazing simulacra on a beach in Irvine, California!
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).
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."
Lex10 pointed out this fun mini animated story (click link to watch) of Ried Fleming, The World's Toughest Milkman, by David Boswell!
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!
My friend Julien pointed out this cool Young Turks update by katemoross on Flickr...
...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!
Karine from Bodie and Fou pointed out this nifty door mat on her other site Where Did You Buy That!
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.
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.
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.
Ryan (age 7) - Old Bridge, New Jersey
Dewi - Toronto, Ontario, Canada
D. Berube - New York, New York
Karen Wood - Big Bear Lake, California
Estelle Toby Goldstein, MD - San Diego, California
Mim Golub - Richmond, Virginia
"100 Years of Beauty" Angel Arvello - Morgan City, Louisiana
Keith A. Buchholz - St. Louis, Missouri
McCormick - Baskerville, Virginia
Emily T. - Princeton, New Jersey
Sidney Tome - São Paulo, Brazil
Phil - Petersburg, Virginia
Christine J. Lehec - Besançon, France
Rolland Halbritter - Nuedlingen, Germany
Chimerastone - Bristol, England
Chimerastone - Bristol, England
