Braincase XXXV

Catching up on another batch of super submissions from round the globe! (received 2/24 - 3/02)
Don't forget the submissions policy has changed, so be sure to check it out before sending anything in.


Annie pointed out the amazing paper works of Peter Callesen!














Adam Kern let us know about his fun site myskullshirt.com which is attempting to make/sell a new skull shirt design every day!











Moose pointed out the tattoo Bangladesh Dupree's forehead in the online comic Girl Genius!


















Put on your 3D glasses and check out what Nicholas Joseph Viltrakis made!



















Jeff D. made this awesome ink blot!




















Crystal and Pattie both spotted this adorable knit skull and pattern from Blackrayne!



















Terry sent a whole bunch of fantastic works, in his words: "I live in the country, Al., so I find lots of skulls and bones. Some I put together and make aliens, some just decorations"!



























Eris pointed out this great wine bottle, which is sold empty to be filled with the "spirit of your choice"!



















My friend Julien found this lovely rendition of Eustace Tilley, which was part of a contest to redefine The New Yorker's "presiding dandy"
















...and this Parisian club flyer!

















Julien (a different one!) sent this cool scooter from France...
















My friend Jeff suggested that I make a skull based on stories he had heard of friends "who were furious at their landlords when vacating apartments so they would write messages in honey on the wall and encourage ants to enter the apartment and swarm the honey."








Richard "Lionheart" Garrett Jr made this lovely copper repousse skull in preparation for future armor projects!














San shared this nifty image from Dibujando Huesos!




















Katja found some "strange and disturbing" art made by various serial killers on Ebaum's World!


















M was inspired by Skull-A-Day to create this rad Shirt.Woot! entry!

















Dieter Steuten's 5 year old nephew Timo showed off his sweet shirt!















Metachick666 sent this cool pic she took!


















Constance Parker made this lovely drawing of the Mexican folk saint, Santa Muerte (Saint Death)!

















Nicole found this beautiful paper-cut entitled Calavera made by BittyStar on Etsy!

















Foobella pointed out this adorable onesie in pepperhem's shop on Etsy!


















Jaron and his flatmate spotted this fantastic simulacra on the pavement outside their house!















Deborah, the Editor in Cheif at Lark Books (the folks who are publishing my book!), wrote this lovely Haiku after cleaning out her hole puncher!

White on White

Inside the hole punch
White dots like falling snowflakes
Could they form a skull?

Rik spotted the super creepy Nightmare Mansion while in Virginia Beach!















Ian discovered this remarkable skull hiding in his tub of Ben & Jerry's Fossil Fuel Ice Cream!














AND

Blee discovered this secret skull hidden in my recent Nine Inch Nails video!









Thanks again everyone!
--

To submit your own skull art visit our submissions page.

321. Junk Yard Skull

Radiator Drawing. Thanks to my friend Philip who suggested a trip to the local junk yard to find some skull inspiration! I can't believe I've never been before, the place was filled with endless visual inspiration (and also an incredibly appropriate skull-making location). The hard part was deciding what to do. While moving car parts around was tempting, the act of illustrating on a radiator by pushing on it with the back of a pen found on the ground, turned out to be immensely satisfying. Of course I left this (and an earlier attempt) for others to discover.

320. (Faux) Sausage Skull

Cooked Fake Sausage (approx 2.5in x 5in [6.35 x 13cm]). I know a few of you have been waiting for a meat skull, but if you haven't figured out by now I'm vegetarian, so this'll have to suffice. I meant to make this one this morning (when I was actually eating some of this), but work got the best of me.

319. Two-Part Stencil Skull

Multi-Part Stencil on Wood (Approx. 7in x 8in [18cm x 20cm]). Since the project is wrapping up I wanted to make sure I got at one more good stencil in (though I believe there will be at least one more after this). This time the idea was to create a multi-part stencil that required both parts to work. As always you can download a PDF (2-page) of the art to use yourself HERE. Don't forget to send me pictures of what you make with it!

Skull-A-Day vs Nine Inch Nails

As part of the last few weeks of my year of skulls I'm going to revisit some of my previous posts. Today I'm showing what happened to my Sand Painting Skull ( #259 )...



I actually left the sand painting on my work table for a week before finally getting my hands on a video camera (thanks Kit!). I then trained a small fan on it and filmed it being blown away over the course of about 20 minutes. Not long after this I discovered that Trent Reznor (A.K.A. Nine Inch Nails) had started a film festival based on his recently self-released instrumental album Ghosts I-IV, in which he encouraged listeners to create videos using tracks from this entirely Creative Commons licensed album. With a little bit of help from iMovie I created this time elapsed version of the un-destruction of the sand painting set to the track 6 Ghosts I. You can check out the other submissions to the Ghosts Film Festival HERE.

318. Crayon Skull

Arranged Grated Crayons, before and after melting (approx. 7.5in x 7.5in [19cm x 19cm]). Definitely a flashback to early childhood here. For the life of me I can't remember who suggested this one, so thanks to whoever you are! If you're wondering, I grated the crayons with a cheese grater and placed them on a piece of wax paper; after photographing I put a second piece of wax paper on top and piece of plain paper and then ironed briefly on the lowest setting; finally I peeled back the top layer of wax paper to reveal the results. This is the second of two attempts. I didn't photograph the first before melting it too much and ended up with a blurry blob that looked nothing like a skull.

317. Sewn Skull

Machine Sewn Thread on Fabric (8in x 5.5in [20cm x 14cm])

316. Black Velvet Skull

Acrylic Paint on Velvet (framed size 17in x 19in [43cm x 48cm]). Thanks to fan Todd Budnikas for suggesting this one on the Skull-A-Day Facebook page. I picked up this frame at a local thrift store; it originally contained a faded picture of ducks, which is actually under the velvet now! The image is based on the same photo from the Paris Catacombs that inspired my first Skull Stencil!

A sign of things to come...

Hey folks, Just giving you a head's up that as of today I've updated the submissions policy, which is now on its own page HERE.

I have enough regular submissions to last through the end of year 1 of Skull-A-Day, so I want to start preparing for phase 2! The details of phase 2 are still in the works, so I'll be updating you on it as things get finalized. In the meantime please read over the new guidelines before submitting anything else. I may refine them over time, but hopefully they'll stay relatively simple and easy (and not too lawyer-y).

Thanks again to everyone who has sent me stuff over the past year(!), I hope you will all enjoy where the site is going in the next year and will keep being a part of the Skull-A-Day community!

315. Garden Skull

Arranged Plants (approx. 2ft x 2ft [61cm x 61cm]). Thanks to my friend Carra who helped me with this one and ended up with a pretty nice herb garden in the process. I'm looking forward to some skull flavored pesto when the time is right.

314. Skullevision

Acrylic Paint on Television. Thanks to my friends Carol & Dave who kindly gave me their old TV to play with! It's hard for me to tear my eyes away from a normal TV (which is why I don't own one), and this one is no exception, indeed I think it's even more mesmerizing!

313. Etch-A-Skull

Etch-A-Sketch Illustration. First attempt, drawn from life (though I guess that term is a bit ironic when talking about a skull, eh?). Yet another favorite childhood toy, my old one was used until it was destroyed, so I had to buy a new one for this (and was happy to discover they're exactly the same as I remember). I hadn't touched one in years, but the knob skills came back surprisingly quickly. Are these popular outside of the US?

CONTEST reminder!

Hey folks, just a reminder that poor Mr./Mrs. Squarehead Skull needs a body. Get the details HERE on how to win a limited edition, signed print. Since I've gotten a few submissions so far, I've updated the rules so prizes automatically go the first 10 entries I receive, so get to it!

UPDATE: The contest is over, thanks to everyone who entered!

312. Quilled Skull

Quilled Paper (5.5in x 6in [14cm x 15cm]). I'd never seen quilling before I encountered it on Keltie's site and then the other day my friend Mimi mentioned it as well and even lent me a book with directions in it called "Early American Crafts"! The paper I used is all documents I'd run through the shredder to keep away from prying eyes.

311. Scooter Skull

Vespa Scooter Cut with Oxyacetylene Torch. Thanks to my friend Dave for inviting me to the garage where he works repairing scooters for Scoot Richmond and teaching me how to use the cutting torch! This was a rusted out body that had been sitting on the repair shelf for a while. We returned it to the shelf to photograph and it's still there now! Here's a detail view:

310. Googly Eye Skull

Arranged Googly Eyes (12in x 16in [30cm x 41cm]). Thanks to fan Madplanet for suggesting this material! And of course here's a version with googly eye eyes as well...

Skull-A-Day Press: Total Guitar Magazine

Skull-A-Day stencil featured in "Pimp Your Axe" article in UK's Total Guitar Magazine issue #174 April 2008.

Total Guitar Magazine
April 2008

Skull-A-Day Nominated For A Webby!

Hey folks, I'm incredibly excited to announce that Skull-A-Day is an official nominee for a 2008 Webby Award! My site is one of only five included in the Personal Web Site category! Not only is the site eligible for the The Webby Award, but you, yes you, can help the site win the The Webby People's Voice Award! Voting starts today and runs til May 1st. The winners will be announced May 6th and be honored at the 12th Annual Webby Awards in June! So what are you waiting for? Please vote for Skull-A-Day today!