Flag Day Skull Flag Reminder

In the spirit of Flag Day, I just wanted to reminder you that there are just a couple of weeks left to submit your Skull-A-Day Flag for the June Contest and be entered to win the amazing Skull-A-Day trophy! Don't miss out, get your submission in no later than June 30th! Details are HERE.

Sunday Simulacra - Version 3.2

This week's collection of simulacrum are brought to us by 3 different forces of nature:

James Oliver from Sandston, Va. sets his skull eye level and shows us an example of man made forces at work:



Rain from Canada pointed her skull eye upward and helps us see what weather forces can present us with. She says, "I know that skullery is in the eye of the beholder, but I was drawn to what seemed like a smirking skull in the clouds today, just before the thunderstorm!"



Personally, I see a few skulls in these clouds. Here's what Rain saw:



Finally, Therese has her skull eyes pointed downward to find animal forces at work. She states, "I discovered this skull on a worm-eaten log while hiking on Cougar Mountain in the Cascade foothills of Washington state".



Therese gives us a little help as well:


A gracious Tatman says: Thanks for sharing these. What will your skull eye see today? Be sure to submit it so we can show others the hidden skulls that surround us everyday.

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Lots O' Skulls

Richard Page presents us with another of his great skull creations. This painting is a boxed canvas painted with acrylic, Posca, and spray paint. Rich says: "There's plenty more skulls and monsters to see over on my blog and flickr feed, and also the occasional custom resin toy."


Tatman the tattoo fan says: I highly recommend Rich's stuff. I noticed in Rich's blog that he is picking up the tattoo machine as well. You're striking a chord with me, Rich. If your tats look as good as your other works then you should be very successful. Keep up the great work, and keep the skulls coming. Ever thought of sketching a skull flag? Maybe for a certain contest that ends June 30th? There's a great prize involved!

SKULLS is Required Reading

I just found out from my friend Karen, who is a librarian in New York City, that my book SKULLS is required reading for a library sciences course on young adult literature at Pratt Institute this semester!

[Flashback Friday] 250. Crosskull Puzzle

Flashback Friday is a weekly countdown of the fan selected top 52 skulls of Skull-A-Day 1.o. Each week I'll be posting an 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 of the project...

#51: 250. Crosskull Puzzle

I was inspired by the fantastic documentary Wordplay to make this functional crossword puzzle. The film included a sequence on building one from scratch, so I used that as my starting point. It was an incredibly difficult thing to do, having never made one before and it took the better part of a day. At the same time, it was incredibly satisfying making everything fit (even if I did have to use some pretty obscure words). I had a contest for people to solve it and several serious crossword puzzlers gave me some nice compliments on it.

If you want to try this one out yourself you can download a print ready PDF HERE. You can also cheat and check your answers against the solution HERE.

[UPDATE] This skull has now been added to the Facebook Send-A-Skull application!

A Major Skull Award

Longtime friend of the project artist Larry Pearson of Pearson Metal Art has made this absolutely incredible Skull-A-Day award to be given to the winner of the June Monthly Contest to create a Skull-A-Day flag (so if that's not incentive to get your submission in, I don't know what is!).


He says, "It is a wall piece, plasma cut out skull stencil with SKULL-A-DAY plasma cut on the bottom. Rusted steel with many coats of clear. It has a removable back plate, allowing the user to display with one of the following, 1) Mirror background 2) Blued steel background 3) Sanded steel background 4) Or no background, allowing wall color to be visible #s 2 and 3 can also be painted by user to any color they wish." Dimensions are 18" tall, 16" at the widest and is 2.5" deep.


So what are you waiting for? Submit your flag today and get a chance to win this excellent prize!

And be sure to check out the rest of Larry's amazing work HERE (and a video of the process of his making a really, really big moose head HERE).

Skull Italian

Our friend Pasquale Caruana shares his rock skulls from the beach of Calabria, Italy. He titles it "Bob Sponge Skull". Of course most of us(with kids) know that a certain sponge named Bob lives deep in the sea, but maybe these are the washed up skull remains of his relatives. Rocks or skulls, either way they have a nice view for their eternal peace. Thanks, Pasquale.



Tatman here: Pasquale is a man of my own heart. I see rocks everywhere that remind me of skulls all of the time. Even if they need a little help to be seen

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Skull-A-Day Press: Boing Boing

Guest blogger Bill Gurstelle, made a nice mention of my art show and wallpaper in Boing Boing:

"BoingBoing readers may already be familiar with artist Noah Scalin Skull-A-Day project from a previous post. I met Noah at the 2009 GEL conference in New York City and was immediately struck by his ability to so creatively render an idea in so many different media (vegetables, shoelaces, bed sheets, concrete construction barriers, and so on.)

In early July (July 3 to August 22 to be precise), a solo art show of his work in opens in Richmond, VA. It's at the Quirk Gallery, 311 West Broad Street, Richmond, VA. He'll be displaying his newly available Skull-a-Day wallpaper as well."

BoingBoing.net
June 10, 2009

[BONUS] Paper Doll Skull in Use

Shawn seems to be having a lot of fun with my DIY #148 Paper Doll Skull. Captions are his...

"Barbie needs to eat more."

"Abe's night life never before seen."

Mosaic Skull

Rebecca from Prescott, AZ wrote: "hola! skullanistas, i have just stumbled on your site. so i just have to share number one in a growing series of mosaic skulls i am making."

Tessera C says:

Welcome Rebecca, this is a great first piece to a future collection. You show a great amount of talent and skill in your work, and I look forward in seeing it progress. There are some historic examples of South American mosaic skulls going back to the 10th century CE around the web you might like to look at for inspiration.


☺Hope you all have enjoyed the flag submissions this week, remember the deadline for the June Contest is the 30th.

Tuesdays With Tatman #1

Hello, skull friends..."skriends"? Forget what you know about Tuesdays with anyone else. Welcome to the first weekly installment of "Tuesdays With Tatman". Each Tuesday during the 3.0 year I will follow in the great shining path of the Skull Master and present a new weekly skull of my own. This is a far cry from Noah's daunting task of daily skull art, but I hope that you will all enjoy the skulls I have to offer. Expect to see more of what Noah started from Skull-A-Day 1.0 along with my own examples of the monthly contest skulls. If anyone would like to suggest a skull for myself or Citizen Agent to do then please feel free to send it to the submission email address. And yes, Citizen, this was partly my fault so I'm at least asking our fine readers for help.

Today's skull is for our June flag contest. It is a tribute to all of the hard working Skull-A-Day contributors who have made this site a great place to visit everyday for the past year(and more to come). To those who take their love of skulls to a new level of professionalism I say, "Skull lovers, unite!". Whether you're a sculptor, painter, metal worker, or any kind of -er or -or, join the Skull-A-Day contributor's union "Local 666" and reap the benefits* of being a skull artist.

*Dental plan not included






12"(30.5 cm) wide by 9 1/2"(24.1 cm) high. Hand cut felt applied with heat bond tape.

Now there are 2 flags you can go by, but in the long run, there's still time to make your own. Make your own flag for the contest and represent YOUR skull. Don't forget the June 30th deadline.

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Avian Skull

Steve Depino presents us with this unique sketch of an avian type of skull. Let us not forget our fine feathered friends who tirelessly eat all of the bugs (especially mosquitoes) that carry all types of diseases. This is a glorious reminder of the sacrifices they make for us on this place we call Earth. Or maybe it's a pterodactyl?

Tatman here: Steve isn't only a great sketch artist, but he's also an awesome photographer. Be sure to check out his site as well as his blog . Looks like Steve and our own Skull Master have one degree of celebrity separation (see his blog to find out who).


Okay, you can see the Skull Master here

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In Memory...

The sister of a good friend of this project committed suicide this weekend. In her memory I am asking people that have been inspired by the Skull-A-Day project consider joining me in donating to a suicide prevention organization of your choice. Two that come highly recommended are SPAN USA and the Kristin Brooks Hope Center.

And more importantly if you (or someone you know) is in emotional distress, please call the Hopeline for help and support 24 hours a day: 1.800.SUICIDE

And the winner is...

Congratulations to Andrew in Pittsburgh who was the randomly selected winner of the Wrapstar giveaway! Stay tuned for future giveaways in the coming months. And hey if you have something you'd like me to give to the Skull-A-Day community as part of a contest get in touch!

C-Rations: 0C1

Welcome to new feature here on Skull-A-day 3.0. How this facet of guest editor happened? I don't remember, but I like to blame Tatman so I will leave it at that. Each Monday during the 3.0 year I will be posting an original skull design. My weekly offerings are nothing compared to the one-a-day massive project done by the Skullmaster in 1.0, but hopefully you will find some nourishment in my weekly offerings.

My first offering is a Contest Example for the June Flag Contest, see here for more info.

My flag is a digital design. In reality the flag would measure 4' x 6'. The flag includes elements that are symbolic of "C" (recognize anything?), a Latin motto just like any reputable flag, flora symbolizing remembrance (poppy) and resurrection (willow branches), and an inside joke, because this is fun after all.

The flag contest runs through June 30, what are you waiting for, get to work.

A Skull in a Sticky Situation. (Safe for Work)

Skip wrote: "I work at a film company, and made this from the label scraps after a co-worker/friend had me burn 70 DVDs in house. Another coworker saw it and told me about your blog."


Printer C Says:

Wait I have a couple: Is it live? I don't think you should be advertising DVD piracy.

Welcome aboard Skip, we are glad you found us. I really like that you saw art when others just saw trash. You must have some pretty amazing things around to inspire you for a future submission.

To Skip's coworker: Thanks for sharing Skull-A-Day with a new person.

There have been a number of past submissions from the work place, I truly enjoy seeing work done with the tools of your trade.

[BONUS] Gifts Fit For A Skull

I just had to share a few of the great skull-y art gifts I was given for my birthday this past week...

Artist Rob Tarbell made this incredible piece for me! It's part of his Struggles series of works made from old stuffed animals that have been infused with porcelain slip and fired. Many, like this one, wear a mask made from another stuffed animal's head, but so far this is the only one with a special skull face...


My godsister had an amazing airbrush artist at the beach make this special one-of-a-kind shirt for me in honor or my current project League of Space Pirates!...



And my friend Holden, who is nine, made this terrific custom Lego skull for me!...

[SKULL NEWS] Skull & Tree art show NYC

Artist Nathan Lavertue let us know about his upcoming solo skull-themed art show in Brooklyn...

Skull & Tree
Opening Friday, July 10th 6-10pm

Live Fast Underground Gallery
57 Clinton
Brooklyn, NY
212.228.8863

More details HERE.

image: "Catharsis"

Sunday Simulacra - Version 3.1

Sunday Simulacra has been so successful that the Skullmaster, Tatman, and myself, Citizen Agent, decided to continue it for another year. Keep sending those pictures in to our submissions address. Just keep in mind that since we only do this once a week it might take a little longer to have it posted. To get you started here are a few of our readers recent finds.

This one is from Cassandra who said: "I snapped a picture of this before I went through the car wash. It's a bird dropping."

From Sean Bentley: I spotted these two skulls in a Ferrari last weekend at an Italian car show in Issaquah, Washington."

Finally, Erin's Submission: "I have been a fan for a while but don't seem to have much luck with my camera, but today I thought it was pretty ironic that right as I logged on to look at your site today, I looked over and saw my daughter's book and the pigs seemed to be in the shape of a skull to me... "

Explorer C says:

Great job to all the skull seers this week.

I am personally astonished by the number of skulls that are hiding out there just waiting to be discovered, so what are you waiting for go find some skulls.

Tatman and I will be alternating weekends, so I will see you in two for Sunday Simulacra- Version 3.3. Until then keep your eyes open and your camera ready for what you may find.

Let Them Eat Skull Cake

Lets wrap up the first week of Skull-A-Day 3.0 like a present and celebrate with some Skull Cakes in honor of our Skullmaster's recent birthday.

The first comes from Phil in Kent, OH who wrote: "I am neither a photographer... nor a cake decorator(I'm a bit messy with icing LOL) but my daughter really wanted a skully cake for her 7th birthday, so it was daddy to the rescue..."

The next two are from Ashley who said: "I am a skull fanatic and several years ago I found out that I am also a baking fanatic..."

"The first cake had a layer of strawberry glaze in it so that when it was cut the blood-like substance oozed everywhere."
"The second cake is covered in a whipped butter cream frosting and the embellishments are made from colored rolled fondant that were each cut from hand."
Finally, Mary Anne Stanley from the Elizabethtown, PA Public Library wrote: "Our teen librarian, Paula, was planning a skull day for the Teen Craft Club at Elizabethtown Public Library... One of the girls who's a frequent visitor had coincidentally asked me if I would make her a marble cake... I asked her jokingly if she would like a skull cake with chocolate and vanilla butter icing. So here it is: my Skake. It's a composite of one 9" round layer cake for the cranium and 1/4 of a 9" square cake for the jaw."

Baker C Says:

Phil, Ashley, and Mary Anne excellent Skull Cakes all around. Each one is beautifully done and very tasty looking. I am inspired to try making one myself.

On a side note, Ms. Stanley expressed that she would like to have our beloved Skullmaster up there to do a workshop at the library. If any loyal readers want to assist her with this wish please contact the Elizabethtown, PA Public Library.

P.S. Today is also the second anniversary of my first comment on Skull-A-Day 1.0. Who knew where that comment would take me?