Now before anyone makes the comment that sugar skulls don't go along with Halloween, I want to say I know :) -but- I really wanted to make a skull, and I couldn't pass up doing the sugar skull because of all the bright colors and the playfulness that goes along with it.
I was super pleased how we were able to shoot the skull with all the autumn leaves in the background because it really helps bring forward the feeling of Halloween. It was also really cool to see the skull hanging from the trees in real life since I think he looks 10 times better. I kind of wish I could make like 100 of these real quick and go and hang them up all over the city. He hangs in a corner of my room, and it gets a little creepy when I find him staring at me through his yellow flower eyes- so imagine how it would feel if you suddenly found yourself in a whole forest of them!
I made the outline of the skull with one continuous piece of wire, and 'strung-on' the eye flower petals as I went along. Getting the right shape of the skull was probably the hardest part, but once that was done, the rest came along pretty fast. You can see more of the thought process in this post. I like how I made him really simple, with just including the main features- the nose, teeth and eyes, yet it turned out to be just right. I love it when I have an idea and the end product comes out better than what I imagined.
P.S.- can you tell which way the skull is facing in that last pic? At first glance I thought it was just an odd picture, and I wasn't going to choose it for the blog, but then I looked at it again and realized I didn't know which way it was facing!
Update! Find a commissioned version here