100 Painted Skulls #87

To celebrate year 5 of Skull-A-Day I've decided to paint 100 skulls on 4 x 4in (10.16 x 10.16 cm) wooden panels over the course of the year... 

Another mix of watercolor style with a more opaque white for highlights.

Sunday Simulacra - Version 5.50

Today's twofer addition to our trophy room come from Josh Haplea in Ohio.

This robotic style skull on a coin operated island view finder from Marblehead, Ohio...

...and a broken tower fan base.

These are a splendid pair of simulacra. Being that these are man made and not natural could be a clear indicator that we unconsciously incorporate skulls into our everyday products. Or maybe I just like to think that. Be sure to submit your hidden skull finds so we can keep the hunt alive. Thanks, Josh!

100 Painted Skulls #86

To celebrate year 5 of Skull-A-Day I've decided to paint 100 skulls on 4 x 4in (10.16 x 10.16 cm) wooden panels over the course of the year... 

Skull Shrubs

Janelle Rene is going green with a victorious cry of, "I'll have your head on a stick!"  She whipped up these bad boys in an attempt to bring renewed life to the deadliest symbol around.

Remember the Knights of Ni? I'll bet those guys would have totally wanted a skull shrub if one had existed.  Luckily, we are appeased by Janelle the Shrubber with a most worthy shrubbery to brighten our day.  See how to make your own over at her blog.  Cheers to you and your craftiness, Janelle!

All Is Vanity Reception

Just a reminder that the reception for my show All Is Vanity, featuring 60+ pieces form my 100 Painted Skulls project, is tonight from 7-9pm!

If you're in the Richmond, VA area I hope you'll swing by Clippi Headren and say hi. Even if you can't make it out tonight, the show it up until the end of July, so definitely check it out when you can...

ALL IS VANITY

May 4 – July 31

Clippi Headren

929 Meyers St.

Tues & Friday 10–5pm

Wed–Thu 10–8pm

Sat 10–4pm

100 Painted Skulls #85

To celebrate year 5 of Skull-A-Day I've decided to paint 100 skulls on 4 x 4in (10.16 x 10.16 cm) wooden panels over the course of the year... 

Woodblock Skull

Brazilian artist, and past contributor, Ramon Rodrigues, returns with another pair of his intricately designed woodcut prints.

Complex C says:

I am truly in awe of the amount of detail that you are able to achieve from your designs. Your subject matter in this pair reminds me of the classic images that appeared in periodicals and books that were on blocks set up for printing by hand , long before the invention of the camera, half-tones, or steel plates. Thank you once again for sharing your work with us.

Dia de la Abby #74: Spilled Skull

Today, while looking for something, I bumped into my box of sequins and seed beads. The box hit the floor, spilling it's contents. While cleaning it up, I decided the sparkly pile deserved to be a skull. It's a symbol of the death of my tedious organization of the box contents.

Every other Thursday in the 5.0 year, I will post my own Dia de la Abby creations   Every Thursday in the 4.0 year, I posted my Dia de la Abby creations and occasionally tutorials with instructions on how I made my pieces. 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  Facebook, Google+ and/or Twitter.

Sugar Skull Makeup

Pam Adkins wore sugar skull makeup on Halloween 2010 in Pittsburgh, PA.

I love how festive people get at Halloween. Makeup is a great way to transform yourself into something unusual  for Halloween or any special occasion. My favorite festive makeup is sugar skulls. Everyone has their own interpretation of this Mexican sweet inspired makeup. I like seeing the different variations.

100 Painted Skulls #84

To celebrate year 5 of Skull-A-Day I've decided to paint 100 skulls on 4 x 4in (10.16 x 10.16 cm) wooden panels over the course of the year... 

I've been wanting to try to do a more angular piece, so this was entirely painted with a flat brush used to create mostly straight lines. Definitely harder to do, but I like the results.

Doodle Skulls

Today’s skulls are a pair of Doodles from a pair of readers.

Jeff Thorsgaard of North Dakota said: “I've been featured on Skull-A-Day before. I drew this for you guys. It’s on my sign bench. I’ll never remove it EVER if you post it... I dare ya!”


Mike C. told us: “I used to draw this skull all the time in High School. I did this at a bar one night... mainly because I wanted to submit, so I can rock the Skull-A-Day Union Card. ”


Marker C says:

Well Jeff- it seems the ball is now in your court. Mike, congratulations on earning your membership card, but like the saying go- “Oz never did give nothing to the Tin Man, That he didn't, didn't already have”. Thank you both for sharing your doodles with us.

100 Painted Skulls #83

To celebrate year 5 of Skull-A-Day I've decided to paint 100 skulls on 4 x 4in (10.16 x 10.16 cm) wooden panels over the course of the year... 

I started doing this one in a watercolor style, but then ended up adding more white to it as a highlight, so it was rather like working with gouache in the end, but I like that you can still see the grain of the wooden panel I was working on some areas. I also started thinking of this as Frankenstein's Monster's skull because of its greenish hue.

100 Painted Skulls #82

To celebrate year 5 of Skull-A-Day I've decided to paint 100 skulls on 4 x 4in (10.16 x 10.16 cm) wooden panels over the course of the year... 

Skull Wagon

Bob Conge is the main man over at plaseebo.net, a shop "ded­i­cated to cre­at­ing unique one of a kind col­lec­table fig­ures".  This "Skullwagon" was made for the Playsam 500 custom show at Super 7.

This sweet ride has an awesome backstory that I couldn't resist sharing:

  " The 1919 Skullwagon Land Speed Record Car "
© Bob Conge 2012

The 1919 Skullwagon was designed and piloted by Claude Faytte Bragdon, the american architect based in Rochester, New York. The car was sponsored by the Fox Sisters, a clairvoyant duo from the same city, who dabbled in the paranormal and spiritualist beliefs.  The Skullwagon was powered by a 500 hp psychic energy turbine, the first and only of its kind. At 1:30 AM on November 23rd 1919 the Fox sisters had arranged for 8,697 of their followers to tune in and direct their psychic energy to the specific coordinates of latitude and longitude of the location of the Skullwagon on the starting line of the Salt Flats Racetrack Playa in Death Vally California. At 1:31 PM the cars aluminum skin began to shimmer, emitting a pulsating blue light and at 1:36 the Skullwagon broke inertia, silently inching forward. Continually gaining speed at an ever increasing rate with only the sound of its wheels turning through the white dust and the air whistling along its sleek body, the Skullwagon appeared more akin to a sailing ship than car. At 1:43 she reached a top speed of 167 miles per hour shattering the previous land speed record. A title the Skullwagon would hold for the next 28 years. Some years later, long after the memory of the Skullwagon had faded from racing history, the first siteing of the "sailing stones" appeared and continues to this day. The "Sailing Stones" which leave linear "racetrack" imprints are a geological phenomenon found in the playa. The stones, some weighing over 100 pounds, slowly move across the surface, leaving a track as they go, without human or animal intervention. They have never been seen or filmed in motion. The stones only move once every two or three years and most tracks last for three or four years. Some believe the stones are being moved by the residue of psychic energy from that long ago run of the Skullwagon.

 Thanks for the sterling submission, Bob!

100 Painted Skulls #81

To celebrate year 5 of Skull-A-Day I've decided to paint 100 skulls on 4 x 4in (10.16 x 10.16 cm) wooden panels over the course of the year...

Chakra Skull

Jon MDC is back again with another great skull piece. He says, "My site MDC Industries has a pretty comprehensive documentation of my art based obsession with all things skull, there are a number of step by step progression shots of this piece if anyone is interested in my process."

Immediately when I saw this piece, I thought of a map of Chakras. Though the color and symbol where the upward triangle is protruding from, should be blue and a lotus blossom, it was just the 1st thought that crossed my mind. In regards to being able to see the step by step process of creating, I always love seeing the creation process of artwork. The final pieces is beautiful and intriguing to see, but the process of how the artist gets to this point is always more interesting to me. From what inspires the artist, to seeing the layers of medium and creation techniques, it's all inspiring and mesmerizing.

[BONUS] 392. Moss Skulls

During my recent stay at a literal cabin in the woods I felt compelled to work with some of the beautiful moss growing along the paths that wound through the forested land on the property.

I wasn't sure if I liked it better with or without a jaw, so are both versions...

 

100 Painted Skulls #80

To celebrate year 5 of Skull-A-Day I've decided to paint 100 skulls on 4 x 4in (10.16 x 10.16 cm) wooden panels over the course of the year... 

This is one of several pieces I painted while I was staying at a literal cabin in the woods for the last 4 days. I love how being in a different environment, using a different set of acrylics, causes me to paint differently!

Sunday Simulacra - Version 5.49

Our loyal band of skull hunters keep coming through and this week we have a couple of container style craniums.  

Txelu Balboa captured this leather toothed chap just hanging around....

....and Karolyn Knight found this flower minded fellow having dreams of fields of wildflowers. Come on, you can use your imagination, too.

The sneakiness of the hidden skulls around us keep me guessing. The skull hunters are doing a stellar job of keeping our trophy room stocked so feel free add to the fun if you find one of your own. Submit it to us and we'll let the world know of your skull spotting. Thanks, Txelu and Karolyn!

Potato Skull

Clay Kasserman was peeling this potato back on Halloween and noticed that he was really peeling A SKULL!

Normally skulls have meat on them, but this one has the potatoes instead, and now that I mentioned both of those I'm getting hungry. Thanks for the spud skull(and the munchies), Clay!

[Flashback Friday] 5.48 - Sewing Machine Embroidery Skulls

Welcome to another addition of Flashback Friday.** This year the guest editors, Tatman, Citizen Agent, and myself, Azurafae are taking turns reflecting on 17 of our personal favorite skulls from the previous four years of postings. So please join us as we visit the archives and add our additional commentary on some of the original pieces.

Dia de la Abby #25 - Free-form Embroidery Skull

I wanted to play with a free motion embroidery sewing machine foot for years. My involvement in the Skull-A-Day project gave me a great excuse to purchase the special sewing machine foot and use it to make a skull. As you all know, I love Dia de los Muertos, so I created a simple style sugar skull with accompanying stylized marigolds. I've been machine sewing since I was 12, so the majority of the sewing, though free motion, wasn't terribly difficult. Sewing the details on the skull was more challenging, but sewing slowly gave me a lot of control.

Dia de la Abby #46: Floral Skull Quilt Square

When it came around time for me to make my quilt square for the Skull-A-Day and Becky's Fund Quilt Project, I used a combination of the new free motion embroidery skill I had learned, and older embroidery and beading skills that I'd been building on since I was 4 years old. Since the machine embroidery was over a piece of fabric, after sewing, I stiffened the fabric and sealed the fraying edges with clear acrylic paint. This is one of my favorite embroidery pieces to create, since it combines a variety of techniques of a skill I'm proud to do.

317. Sewn Skull

I was aware that Noah had created this skull using a sewing machine. I asked him one day if he did it with the same type of foot that I had used. He hadn't. He used the standard sewing machine foot and forced the fabric through the feed dogs. If you aren't familiar with what "feed dogs" are, they are the metal ridges that help feed the fabric through the sewing area of a sewing machine, by gripping onto the fabric pressed against the sewing foot. This makes drastically changing the straight direction of the fabric while sewing, difficult. Looking at Noah's piece again, I notice the almost etch-a-sketch feel to it, since the sewing was done by pulling the fabric in a non-straight direction while sewing, and using the backwards button to form long zig zag stitches. This is very difficult to do, so I commend him on being able to do this and creating a successful image of a skull. When doing embroidery with the specialty foot, the feed dogs are down, so there is no traction while sewing and you can freely sew without an encouraged direction.

 **Flashback Friday was a weekly countdown of the fan selected top 52 skulls of Skull-A-Day 1.0. Each week during year 3.0 The Skullmaster posted the original skull along with some additional commentary in order from lowest to highest rated, with the #1 skull appearing in the last week of year 3.0, all 52 can be found here. During year 4.0 the editors had their chance to countdown their favorites Azurafae HERE, Citizen Agent HERE, and Tatman HERE.

100 Painted Skulls #79

To celebrate year 5 of Skull-A-Day I've decided to paint 100 skulls on 4 x 4in (10.16 x 10.16 cm) wooden panels over the course of the year... 

 It's been a little while since I've done a watercolor style piece. This is painted with thinned acrylics directly on the wood panel so the lightest color you see is actually the wood and the vertical lines are the grain in it.

100 Painted Skulls #78

To celebrate year 5 of Skull-A-Day I've decided to paint 100 skulls on 4 x 4in (10.16 x 10.16 cm) wooden panels over the course of the year... 

I've been wanting to do another looser painted piece for a little while. This is definitely amongst my favorite styles I've developed over the course of the project, but also one the harder ones for me to do, which is probably a sign that I should do it more!

Zombie Girl Skull

Bruna Rasch, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil created "An 'art' by myself about me like a Zombie Girl."

I love a good skull makeup, but this isn't makeup. This is her skull artwork overlaid on a photograph of herself, the artist. Reminds me of how much our artwork is an outward piece of ourselves. This piece was inspired by zombies who are somewhere between life and death, fleshy and decaying. Seeing this concept depicted like this shows a nice blend between life and eminent death...regardless if you are a zombie in between.

Kid-ing Around Skulls

Today’s pair of skulls come from a brother and sister team in Avondale, PA who used pieces from a popular connecting game for an alternative artistic purpose.

First up is Ben with his yellow rendition of a skull


Followed by Ali’s pink skull creation


Gridiron C says:

In this version of the game everyone wins! We are always thrilled to have an opportunity to feature the artistic pursuits from some of our youngest fans. Thank you for thinking of us and taking the time to record the final outcome of that game.

100 Painted Skulls #77

To celebrate year 5 of Skull-A-Day I've decided to paint 100 skulls on 4 x 4in (10.16 x 10.16 cm) wooden panels over the course of the year...

100 Painted Skulls #76

To celebrate year 5 of Skull-A-Day I've decided to paint 100 skulls on 4 x 4in (10.16 x 10.16 cm) wooden panels over the course of the year... 

Beach Cruiser Skull

Over in Germany, Klaus Schade is doing custom airbrushing, and here's his latest skull design for a beach cruiser.

Cruising the beach with this bad boy sounds like a great time. Although I'd hate to think that people might get the impression that you're in a biker gang if you have a skull on your ride. Oh wait, didn't we bury that stereotype a few years ago? I thought so. Thanks for the rad skull submission, Klaus!