[Flashback Friday] 5.45 - 346. Bokeh Skull

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.

346. Bokeh Skull

Photography is one of my favorite hobbies. One technique that I discovered was bokeh. This can either be done by adjusting your focus on the subject, so the background is dotted, not clear or blurred. It's tricky, but the effect is very neat. There is also a false bokeh using a paper mask over your camera lens. In the above bokeh skull, Noah cut a small skull from paper, so the skull image was the removed piece and the rest is intact. This allows the light from the subject matter to pass through the lens in a restricted pattern. The camera focus and light acceptance has to be manually adjusted, so the effect is the clearest. In Noah's post, he included this great tutorial, that shows and explains how it's done. This is definitely a neat photography effect that I would love to try.


 **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.

Leather Skull Bags

Brian Griffin of Griffin Leather creates remarkable skull purses out of leather. They are the same size as a human skull. He uses a special process he developed to sculpt the leather.

These skull purses are beautifully crafted. Though I am familiar with Brian's work, I'm in awe of his skull purses every time I see them. I own several unusual hand crafted purses, but either of these would be the star of my collection. They are very realistic and always make me think of "Silence of the Lambs", where Buffalo Bill is making human leather for a "real girl suit". Granted, this is far less gruesome, and a beautiful sort of creepy.

Skull Crafting at the New York Public Library

I will be at the New York Public Library this Saturday to lead their Hand-Made Crafternoon!

Saturday, April 14,  2 – 4 pm

New York Public Library

Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, Margaret Liebman Berger Forum

 

We'll be doing some of the exercises from my new book Unstuck along with a classic craft from my Skull-A-Day project!

The event is FREE and open to the public, though they do recommend making a reservation since space is limited. All the details can be found HERE.

If you're in the area I hope you'll come by and say hi!

image: 17. Pile O'Books Skull

100 Painted Skulls: #70

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... 

For some reason I find it particularly difficult to try to paint something in soft focus. Transitioning between the darkest and lightest areas is especially hard.

Skull Appreication Day T-shirt Bonus

In anticipation of this year's impending Skull Appreciation Day, for a limited time only, we're adding a little bonus to every order of a Skull Appreciation Day shirt: a Free limited edition League of Space Pirates jumbo Übercorp sticker (4 x 4 inches on silver mylar)!

You can get the shirts in either silver or black at the Skull-A-Day store.


 

Deep Thoughts Skull

Aspiring bioarchaeologist, Kelly Taylor, created a concept drawing of this skull with some deep thoughts, and her sister finished paining it for her.

Kelly wrote that this has painting has no symbolism, but I beg to differ. Even without trying Kelly conveyed the thoughts of every skull. It seems fitting that a skull would dwell on it's final resting place since it has an eternity to spend there. Make sure your skull gets out and enjoys today before it spends a "deathtime" in the same place. Like the saying goes, "If you ain't living, you're dying." Thanks for the message, Kelly!(intentional or not)

100 Painted Skulls: #69

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 used a lot of glazing liquid to create translucent layers that allowed the grain of the wooden panel to show through.

Easter Skulls

Dawn Doty created "A little Easter inspired sidewalk art."

We normally wait a few weeks before a submission gets posted, but since Easter was yesterday, I thought I would post this one to coordinate with the recent holiday. I love a bit of temporary art. Sidewalk chalk is a great way to create something temporary easily. The pastel tones of basic sidewalk chalk fit in well with the classic shades of Easter decor.

Sunday Simulacra - Version 5.45

Today's skulls were found on coffee.

Chris A Theodore found this little skull floating on his coffee.

Tana from Richmond, "Found this little guy at McDonalds."

We need help from our skull hunters. If you see a simulacra skull, photograph it and send those pictures in to our submissions address.

Charlotte's Skull

"Charlotte who?", you might ask. Charlotte is the 13 year old daughter Jeff Coffin. Jeff is a proud dad who wanted to submit this watercolor painting he received for a Christmas gift from her. Charlotte's model was a real skull that Jeff owns.

I like that this is modeled after a real human skull.  The imperfections in the teeth and the bone structure are testaments to the fact that none of us are perfect, even down under skin level.  Luckily, the physical only limits us in our perception of beauty.  If we can learn to see past that, and into the inner makings of each other, we can realize that it's all of those imperfections that make each one of us wonderfully unique,  not the physical casing that houses our souls. Thanks for the reminder, Charlotte!

Made-up Skulls

Melanie Harris and her sister-in-law Amanda Moore sent this is a photograph taken on Halloween 2011. Melanie said: “We both did our own make-up, hair, and wardrobe and our husbands took the photographs.”



Hollie-Marie from Roswell, GA also showed us herself as a skull from a recent Halloween.


Mel Rudgley from Austraila sent us this rendition of a “Mexican Cowgirl skull”


C-liner says:

Thank you all for sharing your personal human canvases with us. It is always a pleasure to see and feature the faces of those who support Skull-A-Day through reading and/or submitting their original skull creations to the site.

[Flashback Friday] 5.44 - Dia de la Abby's Crochet 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: #2 Filet Crochet Skull

This was my 2nd Dia de la Abby piece, during my 1st year with Skull-A-Day. It's one of my favorite pieces that I've done. It took several days to complete and is a fairly advanced pattern, though there were a couple attempts at the tutorial by other people. A few months after doing this piece, I attempted a different crochet skull.

Dia de la Abby: #17 Tessellation Skull

My intention was to make this one into a scarf, but I never completed it. That was probably because it had more closed filet crochet boxes than I normally do with this stitch. Also, I don't feel that the skull tessellation was as clear as I wanted it to be. In hindsight, I should have made the repeated pattern bigger. The tutorial for this scarf also included the pattern and instructions for the 1st skull scarf I ever made, a Double Ended Skull Scarf. It's one that I still wear every Fall and Winter. One day, I will master a 3D skull...which will test my advanced crochet skulls substantially. Of course, should I ever make that, I will share it with you.

 **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.

Dia de la Abby #73: Fallen Petals Skull

This morning, I noticed that half of the flower petals from a tree had fallen.

The petals had just bloomed last week. This skull is a reminder that life and death can happen quickly. With Spring comes plants sprouting new life, but death of flowers can quickly happen. They are beautiful, but very temperamental and fragile. I never noticed this much until I spent a year photographing nature. Now I have a better appreciation for the natural cycle of life.


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.

"Death Meal" Skull

Simon Delattre from Renne, France created this piece titled "Death Meal" from letters.

I have fond memories of playing with my alphabet pasta to form words. I like seeing the alternative, of making shapes with it. This skull does speak to the "deadly" ingredients contained in the cans of tomato sauce covered pasta. It's one of my daughter's favorite foods, but it's packed full of chemical food additives. I've stopped letting her eat it. Now, if I can find a dry alphabet pasta, I'd happily cook that for her...and of course play with it too.

Decorative Skulls

Jules Andrault sent us a pair of skullrific work that they have completed.


Algae C says:

I am very much drawn to these pieces in different ways. The first reminds me of a ominous flaming sun burning so hot that it is in the blue spectrum not the yellow one like our regular sun. The next one reminds me of celtic pattern workbut the additional vampire fangs makes me wonder if there is any Celtic mythology that has a Dracula-like figure that I have missed. Thank you for submitting these wonderful pieces of art for us to share.

100 Painted Skulls: #68

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...

Played with a variety of techniques on this one, including giving it a white background behind the skull for the first time.

If you'd like to own this piece you can buy it in the Skull-A-Day store HERE.

100 Painted Skulls: #67

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 wanted this one to look a bit like a black velvet painting with a big contrast between the highlights and the deep black shadows.

If you'd like to own this piece you can buy it in the Skull-A-Day store HERE. 

"Zofsallonika" Skulls

Today we have two terrific paintings from Thessaloniki, Greece. Paschalidis Achilleas, aka "Zofsallonika", brightens your skull's day with some color

This is more proof that all skulls don't have to be dark and dreary. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and if you use the right color scheme you can bring the image of death back to life. Thanks for sharing!

100 Painted Skulls: #66

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 this piece and then paused to go see a movie with my wife, so it was a bit of an uphill battle to finish it. I used a larger brush for everything but the background sections, as a way to force myself to work differently. The teeth as always proved to be the trickiest part.

If you'd like to buy this piece you can get it in the Skull-A-Day store HERE.

Skull and Filigree Nails

Bianca from Boston, MA, "painted some nail art skulls" and filigree.

I love nail art. Skull nail art of course is even more interesting to me. I love the simplicity of the skulls, though from experience, I know it takes several hours to do even a simple design. The added filigree is a nice accent. The base coat appears to be a iridescent clear shimmer polish. Bianca does nail art every week. Check out her blog for new designs.