[BONUS] Music For Looking At Skulls

The band We'll Write kindly asked for permission to use a photo they took of my Papercraft Skull for the artwork to their new track "Bleached Bone Fields". I was happy to oblige knowing that they were offering the track for FREE and under a Creative Commons license. It's just an added bonus that it happens to be a great tune as well!

Get your FREE MP3 HERE.

[BONUS] Found in San Francisco part II

I spotted this creepy fellow hiding on a tree in the primitive plant section of the San Francisco Botanical Garden in Golden Gate Park. (The image is actually rotated 90 degrees clockwise). After I cropped the image I discovered a second simulacra in the upper right hand corner!

[BONUS] Found in San Francisco part I

I discovered this skull simulacra lurking on the wall of the de Young museum in San Francisco at a fantastic exhibition of Dale Chihuly's work! This was made from light cast through a large multicolored bowl...

Donut Skull

Brooklyn, NY artist Scott Teplin, shared this fun donut illustration he made (which was recently on display at the Art Amsterdam art fair via g-module gallery)...



And check out what's in the illustration he made for the current issue of McSweeney's...


See more of on his great work on his blog HERE.

Eye Skull

Marcel Achard, from Montréal made this keen illustration...

[UPDATE] Skull of Cabbage: Day 24

Well I got back from my vacation late last night and was happy to discover that the Skull of Cabbage hadn't been carried off by a wild animal or dissolved despite the continuing hot weather! And no, it doesn't rest in a refrigerator between shots, it has sat on my back porch the whole time. It also still doesn't smell bad, though it is getting fairly dried out and has a nice tan. I probably won't continue a daily record at this point, unless there's a dramatic change, I'll just post a once a week picture until it stabilizes (or vanishes)...

Skull-A-Day: Webby Update

Hey all, just back from a much needed vacation and I've got a few fun things to post over the next few days. First, here's a recap of the Webby Awards event:

The night started with a pre-ceremony cocktail meet and greet in Wall Street. It's was ridiculously hot in NYC that day and everyone was sweating in their finery (myself included). They had a press photographer there so I made sure to get an official sweaty shot, note the belt buckle given to me by Joseph Biondi AKA b13...


After that we headed across the street to the main event. The space was huge and I was seated at a table all the way to the side at the front, so the view of the stage was fairly poor. I figured I must have been placed at the small fry table. Then I asked around and it turned out I was sitting with folks from ESPN and ABC, so I guess they're considered small fries too!

Seth Meyers did a great job keeping the 4 hour(!) ceremony moving along, though everyone seemed pretty tired as the last few categories were announced. Luckily I got my 15 seconds on stage before dinner and could relax for the rest of the evening.


It looks like I'm singing a soul ballad here, but I'm really saying "This could be a spine." The five words that popped into my head before running up to accept the award.

We then headed over to the after party which featured an awesome set by Ludacris who was promoting his new project WeMix, that actually seems pretty cool.

The two highlights of the night...

Walking by a table with the following people sitting at it: Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, David Byrne, Cindy Sherman, and Steven Colbert! I couldn't bring myself to ask for a group photo, but I did say "hi" to Laurie in passing.

Finding out that Ben Huh of I Can Has Cheezburger? is a fan of Skull-A-Day!


FYI they don't actually give you your award statue that night, so I haven't gotten my "spine" yet, but rest assured I'll photograph it with a skull atop when I do get it!

Thanks again to everyone who voted for the site and helped make this crazy thing happen!

Castle Greyskull Ruin

Butt Johnson shared this simply amazing lithograph of Castle Greyskull in ruin he made!


[UPDATE] Scherke from Germany sent this photo that may explain why Castle Greyskull fell into ruin...

Paint Animation Skull

Sylvain from Grenoble made this fun animation for an art class using 129 still photos...

Baby Skull

I've shown ultrasound images before, but my friend Joriel's is a particularly creepy one. Say "hello"...

Pile O' Skulls Painting

Frank Piccirillo a painter from Providence. R.I. showed off his lovely work...

Six-Pack Skulls

John Padgett discovered the skull-y nature of these six-pack holders...

Lock & Key Tattoo Skulls

Big Mama Kaboose in San Jose, CA showed off her and her fiance's 10th anniversary tattoos! The heart is by Shana and they key is by Adrian, both at Guru Tattoo in San Jose...

Drain Skull

Jennifer in Ohio made this cute/gross skull out of her own hair that she had been collecting in the shower for a few days!

Rust Skull

Roberto Arboleda from Ecuador spotted this awesomely creepy simulacra on some metal...

Red Sky Skulls

Paul Michael Duffy in Northern Ireland shot this lovely photo featuring some sneaky skulls. How many do you see?...

Car Repair Skull

My friend Julien in Istanbul made this fun piece while waiting for his tire to be repaired!

Skully Awards

Just got out of the Webby Awards ceremony, I'll post some pictures soon, but figured you'd want to know what my 5 words were. I had settled on a couple of ideas: "Yes, I still love skulls". AND "Next we save the universe". I figured I'd decide at the last minute, but right be fore going on I was inspired by the trophy's shape so instead I picked it up and looked at it for a moment and then said..."This could be a spine!"

Thanks again for all the great suggestions everyone!

Beer Bubble Skull

My friend Ekin in Istanbul made this cute fellow in her beer...

[CONTEST] Veggie Skulls

Some of the most popular skulls I made were the ones that used vegetables, so I want to see what you can do! You've got two weeks to make your best skull out of arranged or carved vegetables and send it to me. I'll post all of the submissions sometime after the June 22nd (midnight Eastern Time) deadline and give away an Ornament(al) Skull print to each of my top five favorites!

[UPDATE] Thanks to everyone who submitted the winners are being posted now!

Techno Skull Belt Buckle

Mikko Anttonen a blacksmith in eastern Finland created this fantastic belt buckle when he was studying at the College of Crafts and Design...


Check out more of his work HERE

War Baby Skull

Custom toy maker Bob Conge made this amazing piece, "WAR". He says...

I wanted to create an image that would make the viewer feel the horror of war and perhaps move them to take a stand against its ravages of life and land. The Dick Cheney smile on the skull is no accident.

The WAR figure is a one-up hand cast urethane from my original sculpt. It is 10" high by 6" wide with glass inset eyes. The body and feet of the WAR figure are made up of the dead bodies of solders, crashed airplanes, blown up tanks, barrels of oil, etc and his legs are the trunks from burned and broken trees.

As inspired by, "I am become Death,The shatterer of Worlds", from The Bhagavad-Gita.

Frankenskull

Illustrator-Artist Extraordinaire Nate VanDyke shared this terrific image...

[UPDATE] Skull of Cabbage: Day 10

The temperature has been in the high 90's here for several days now and I'm surprised the Skull of Cabbage hasn't been cooked! My lens however did not like the quick transition from air conditioning to the humid outdoors and quickly fogged up before I took this shot, sorta sexy looking now, eh?...

P.S. I'm heading out of town for 2 weeks, so the cabbage updates will be on hold til I return! I'm sure there will be some dramatic changes by then. Don't worry regular daily submission posts will continue while I'm gone thanks to modern technology!

Nesting Skull

Stefan Gross in Rotterdam, The Netherlands constructed this simply amazing "REBIRDY Skull Nesting Box"! Be sure to watch it in use in the video below...

Skull-A-Day Press: MashUp

The great folks at InRich.com came by while I was making the #364 Group Skull and interviewed me for their MashUp video program. Check it out...

[BONUS] Found: Trailer Skull

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that I saw this while driving down the road the other day...

[UPDATE] Skull of Cabbage: Day 9

The Skull of Cabbage weathers on, though I think it's starting to take on an Oscar The Grouch look as it gets more bedraggled...

Tatman Skull!

Uber-fan Justin Lovorn A.K.A. Tatman just sent me this amazing skull he made of aluminum downspouts and elbows and I couldn't wait to post it! He's really set the bar high folks and I hope he inspires you to do something great as well. Here's what he had to say, "I guess you could call it a 'downskull'. It measures 5'6" wide and 6'10" high. I made it from materials that we keep in stock where I work at Jax Building Supply in Kalamazoo, Mi."...


He also sent a picture of one of his tattoos which I'll post at a later date.

Just 5 Words!

So I'm heading up to NYC soon to go to the Webby Awards (thanks again!) and if you didn't know, part of the deal is that I get to make an acceptance speech, but it can only be five words long! I've got some idea of what I'll say, but I'd love to hear what you would say. Post your five word speech as a comment, and who knows if it's better than what I have in mind maybe I'll use it!

[UPDATE] Skull of Cabbage: Day 8

The Skull of Cabbage has developed a Mikhail Gorbachev style stain on its forehead! Perhaps the heavy downpour yesterday had something to do with it...

Skull-A-Day Press: Show Me Your Richmond

The crew from Current came down to my home town of Richmond, Virginia a few months back and made this great little video called Show Me Your Richmond, which includes a really nice segment on yours truly...




The whole show is really worth watching too! It includes a tour of Richmond by Dave Brockie of GWAR, a visit with Dirt Woman(!), and a painting lesson with my friend Wes Freed. Watch it HERE.

Nori + Hellboy Skulls

Two great submissions from the Edmunds clan:

Here are a skull made from nori (dried seaweed, a favorite snack at our house) by my daughter Sarah, age 9. She actually made it using her teeth.
Also, here is a skull drawn with colored pencil by Shelby (who did the apple skull you posted a while back), age 12. She based it on a skull she saw in an issue of Hellboy by Mike Mignola.

I know you’re getting swamped with submissions, but the girls really love your blog and ask me every day to see the new skull! I really admire you for keeping this up for so long. It’s been a good lesson for the girls (and me!) in creativity and perseverance.

Thanks!
Tracy Edmunds
Yorba Linda, CA

[UPDATE] Skull of Cabbage: Day 7

A week out and the Skull of Cabbage is holding up remarkably well. What I thought was a smell the other day, was actually not coming from the cabbage, but from some nearby compost. I'm pretty surprised at how not gross it is! At this point it seems to be mostly shrinking/shriveling up. I wonder if it'll eventually reach a state of stasis, like a dried flower...

[BONUS] 366. Citizen Agent Skull

Well, the mysterious Citizen Agent, a fan and frequent commenter on the site since nearly the first day has risen to the challenge of celebrating the end of the first year of the Skull-A-Day by creating this tableaux on my yard at some point in the wee hours of this morning...

The wreath says "In loving memory from Citizen Agent" and on the ground is his mask with a white flower through it. Thanks C, whoever you are!

Scrap Paper Skull

Tom from England made this fine looking fellow! He says he made it at work from "offcuts, whilst cutting out business cards with a steel ruler and scalpel"...

[BONUS] 365.25 Leap Skull

Several people have pointed out that this year is a leap year and so to be perfectly accurate I should make 366 skulls! However, I felt like ending on my birthday with the more standard 365 was the most poetic choice, but I hate to let down the fans...so I have created a special bonus "quarter" skull to commemorate the additional quarter day that each year should actually have!

For this one I returned to the material and technique of my very first skull: orange paper cut with large scissors while looking at a model skull. This is the same kind of paper from before (and the very last piece of it I had sitting around) and the same scissors and model skull as well. An interesting side note, the model I used for the first skull was never used again as a model for the rest of the project (until now).

I made a point of not reviewing the first skull right before making this, so hopefully it would be less influenced by what I had done previously. I did however intentionally flip the direction so that they could be nice bookends to the project.

So how was this a different experience a year later? I took longer! Mostly because I was paying more attention to the nuances of the model as I found myself trying to emulate it more closely.

I looked back at the original now that this is done and I'm surprised at minimal and stylized it really is. And it has such a sweet expression, while this one seems much more serious. What do you make of the differences?

Welcome to Skull-A-Day 2.0

Well, I've made my year of skulls and now it's your turn! I'll be posting the most creative submissions once a day for at least the next six months and then who knows what will happen!

Don't forget to check out the submissions guidelines HERE before sending anything in.

Also keep your eyes peeled for periodic updates on some of my own skulls that have been quietly aging on my shelves!

AND stay tuned for some skull making contests (with prizes!) in the near future.

Thanks for sticking around!


p.s. Please feel free to comment on the submitted works, but play nice in my sandbox. Encouraging words are always appreciated, but criticism is unnecessary here, this isn't school or work, it's play!

[UPDATE] Skull Cake: Aflame & Eaten

[UPDATE] Skull of Cabbage: Day 6

I didn't forget about the aging Skull of Cabbage, I just had to have my birthday dinner first! So I went out to take this photo after dark and discovered that some earwigs have taken up residence in it! One was even kind enough to wait in the eye socket while I took my photos. Be sure to click the photo to see is closer...

365. Birthday Skull OR (Can you have your) Skull Cake (and eat it too?)

Frosted Birthday Cake. So yes, today is my birthday and I made my own cake (OK I decorated a cake made by a local grocery store famous for its cakes)! At one point I considered making a fondant covered, sculpted cake from scratch, but then realized I didn't want to spend my entire birthday making a skull! That said, this still took around 4 hours to make/photograph. The cake will be eaten by my family tonight and I will of course post some documentation afterwards. I'm sorry I can't share a piece with all of you out there, but I hope you know how much I appreciate the support and encouragement I've been given over the past year. It's been an incredible roller coaster ride and I couldn't have made it through with out you all. And don't worry the site won't disappear at midnight tonight. So tune in tomorrow for the beginning of Skull-A-Day 2.0 and see what happens.

Skull-A-Day Press: Charlottesville News and Arts

Skull-A-Day Featured on C-VILLE Charlottesville's News and Arts weekly and also on their website. Check out the article here!

www.c-ville.com
Issue #20.22 : 05/27/2008 - 06/02/2008

[UPDATE] Rock 'N' Skull Redux part IV

My friend Phil has made one more fantastic update to my Rock 'N' Skull just in time for a festival in the park! He says, "So it survived yet another mowing. Twice in one week! The festival in the park is "Life Through Literature" so I was hoping to do something literature related...If it survives the festival I will move on to the FINAL ACT next week."

364. Group Skull

Arranged People, Belle Isle, Richmond, VA. A few weeks back I sent out an invite to friends and fans to come out to a local park to help make one of the last skulls. They were asked to wear a white shirt and bring a black shirt. Despite good press in a couple local news sources the turn out was on the fairly small side (perhaps it was asking a lot for skull-lovers to show up somewhere at 9am on a Sunday!). However, if I've learned anything from this project it's how to work with what I've been given, and so I am always prepared to improvise. I quickly sketched up an idea based on the quantity of people that were there and then relayed directions from my post at the end of a footbridge to my three helpers on the ground Mady, Phil, and Kenny via walkie-talkie.

Since there was time I had everyone switch to black to make another image. This version (with silhouette added later via Photoshop) shows what I had in mind if hundreds of people had shown up...


Thanks again to everyone who participated, waiting patiently through the process and suffering the morning sun for an hour, I really appreciate it!

[UPDATE] Skull of Cabbage: Day 5

The Skull of Cabbage is hanging in there, starting to smell a little funky, but not too bad yet. The most interesting thing that's happened are the purple veins that have developed on the top!...

[UPDATE] Rock 'N' Skull Redux part III

My friend Phil has made yet another awesome update of my Rock 'N' Skull! He says, "Well it survived another mowing, and the fine folks of public works have graciously weed whacked inside it again."