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."

363. Skullusion

Arranged Models & Props. Inspired by several well known optical illusion illustrations. The image was created entirely live. Photoshop was only used to adjust contrast in the image and add sepia toning. Thanks to my friends Shelia and Nathan who were awesomely patient models; Mimi who let me take over one of the dressing rooms in her fantastic store Exile and use her merchandise to dress the set; and Philip who helped with lighting! So what's the story behind this image? What do you imagine these folks might be talking about?

[UPDATE] Skull of Cabbage: Day 4

Despite the humid 90+ degree weather today, the Skull of Cabbage is still surviving remarkably well. I took this shot just as the sun was going down, thus the darker image...

362. (Mmmm) Skull Pie

Arranged Vegan Pie Topping (uncooked). Thanks to my friend Kendra, owner of Ipanema Cafe, one of the best retaurants in Richmond (that also happens to be mostly vegetarian, though non-vegetarians love it too), for letting me play in the kitchen there. They serve the most delicious fruit pies and she allowed me to arrange the crumble topping on this mixed berry one that will eventually get served to unsuspecting customers!

UPDATE: Here's a post baking picture...

...and the first piece being eaten by Erin and Jeff who were more than happy to volunteer for the job!

[UPDATE] Skull of Cabbage: Day 3

The saga of the the Skull of Cabbage continues! The top leaves came off over night, but other than that it's still just shriveling up and not getting slimy and gross yet...

(Band of The) Hand Skull Winner #10 and Runner Up

JohnFR in Spain is the tenth and final (Band of The) Hand Skull Contest winner with cool sequential submission made with photos of his own hands!...

AND

One more entry came in right after I got the 10th winner, so Jos Diaz gets a couple of stickers as a Runner Up with this neat image he made using his hands and a scanner!



Congratulations again to all the winners!

361. Bakery Skull

Arranged Bread. Thanks to Sher at Montana Gold Bread Co., a wonderful local bakery, for letting me come in and play with her delicious products! Thanks also to her employee Mia for suggesting I make something there.

[UPDATE] Skull of Cabbage: Day 2

Since you asked, here's the Skull of Cabbage one day later. It's been sitting outside in a mostly shaded area and actually doesn't smell that bad and has just shriveled a little bit, though the layers are separating so I had to lean it back to keep the face intact.

(Band of The) Hand Skull Winner #9

Brandi Sims of Madison, Alabama is the ninth (Band of The) Hand Skull Contest winner with elegant shot! (FYI I've gotten 10 entries, so there are no more stickers to give away, thanks again everyone)...

[UPDATE] Rock 'N' Skull Redux part II

My friend Phil is at it again with another update of my Rock 'N' Skull!...