When he's not creating artwork for comic book covers and trading cards, Dave Devrie works on an unusual side project - converting children's primitive crayon doodles into lifelike oil paintings.
Check out "The Monster Engine" for more information.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
The Monster Engine
Delicious?
Here are instructions for creating an edible "meat head" to serve on Halloween.
Pros: It's easy to make and looks great.
Cons: Jell-O and cold cuts? That doesn't seem like a very appetizing combination.
Haunted Headstones
Haunted Headstones creates professional quality, highly-detailed tombstones for the haunted attraction industry. Each gravestone is made from solid pine, weighs approximately twenty pounds and is free-standing. Unfortunately for the home haunter, these tombstones are fairly expensive. They range in price from $109 - $307. (They also have a line of economy stones for $20 - $70, but they don't look nearly as good.)
Even if you don't have any intention of making a purchase, you should definitely check out their designs. One of their props might inspire your next homemade stone.
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Wedding rings made of bone
If gold seems too hackneyed, and platinum to humdrum, perhaps a band of bone will suit your fancy. Thanks to a UK-based company, couples are being given the opportunity to grow wedding rings out their own bone cells.
Click here to read an article on the procedure, and here to visit the company's website.
Balloon Manor
This ten-room, 10,000-square-foot walk-through haunted house was created entirely out of balloons. It took fifty balloon artists from around the world five days and 130,000 balloons to create every wall, monster and object. Proceeds from the event went to a local cancer center.
Click here to learn more about this scairy display.
Offensive display of the week
This aircraft mechanic created a fake plane crash for his Halloween display. It was so realistic that even the police were fooled.
Halloween records
This site is devoted to haunted albums of yesteryear. Click here to enjoy the vintage cover art and listen to tracks from each album.
Tuesday, January 9, 2007
Sleep in a coffin
Next time you're visiting Berlin, consider staying at the Propeller Island City Lodge. This theme hotel offers a wide variety of unusual rooms, including The Mirror Room (covered floor to ceiling in mirrors it "gives you the impression of living in a kaleidoscope"), The Upside-Down Room (where all of the furniture is glued to the ceiling), and for the haunt enthusiast, The Coffin Room (where $150 gets you a pair of coffins for the night). Why should the dead have all the fun? Try sleeping in a coffin today.
Disney's "Skeleton Dance" cartoon
Produced and directed by Walt Disney in 1929, "The Skeleton Dance" has certainly held up well through the ages. In 1994, it was named one of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time. Click here to watch these skeletons swing. And here for more information on the cartoon from Wikipedia. (via Boing Boing.)
Disappearing tattoo
What a great idea! Tattoos that only appear under ultra-violet light. I could get my entire body done up like a skeleton and not have to worry about looking like this guy. I may wait a little while though. It looks like the UV inks they're currently using may be causing some health problems.
Click here for more shots of this skeleton arm tattoo and other UV tattoos.
Skeleton Cycle
After I wrote about the Munster's cars yesterday, numerous people e-mailed me links to this amazing motorcycle. The bike features an anatomically-correct, solid titanium skeleton that is a structural component of the frame. John Farr, the bike's creator says, “The skeleton is the top half of the frame. It isn’t bolted on or there for decoration. Its backbone is the frame’s backbone. The leg bones are the frame’s legs.”
Click here for more shots of this terrific motorcycle.
Monday, January 8, 2007
The Munster's cars
Until I came across these photos, I'd forgotten all about the Munster's cars.
The dragster (named "Drag-u-la" and built from a coffin for the episode "Hot Rod Herman") was used by Grandpa Munster to win back "The Munster Koach" after Herman lost it in a race. Today, "Drag-u-la" hangs from the ceiling of a Planet Hollywood in Atlanta. Both of these vehicles were created by George Barris, the king of custom cars. He's the person who built the Batmobile for the 1960's TV series.
Click here to see these two cars in action.
Magic trick
Here is a very clever Halloween-themed online magic trick. Click on the link and a ghost will perform it for you right through your computer screen.
Sunday, January 7, 2007
Dumb idea of the week
AnimalHead.com produces over 100 different types of animal heads for their line of wall-mountable
"faux taxidermy". They also do special orders, like the hats seen here that were created for an “ecological performing group”.
It's hard to look cool wearing one of these. The only thing that they're good for is embarassing your teenage daughter in front of her friends.
Animatronic singing skeletons
Inflatable decorations
I'll be the first to admit that I've never had much respect for inflatable Halloween decorations. I'd rather see a few well-carved pumpkins than a 6-foot-tall Scooby-Doo dressed as a witch. Creatable Inflatables has made me change my tune though. Their figures are much more impressive than anything you'll find at Party City. They carry 15 and 25-foot-tall witches, and a Frankenstein that measures a whopping 35 feet tall!
I'm sure that these inflatables are way too expensive for most residential decorators, but business owners may want to consider renting a 20-foot-tall grim reaper for the Halloween season. I'd certainly be more likely to patronize a business with one of these out front.
Light for those who prefer the dark
If lavender and lilac scented candles are too bourgeois for your taste, you may want to give "Dark Candles" a try. They provide gothic and horror themed candles to people "who have a penchant for the macabre and the darker side of life." You wont find any cinnamon scented votives here. Their unusual scents include:
Coffin ("It’s a dead ringer! A bit of old rotting wood with a bit of earth underscored with a masculine lavender to give it some 'body'.")
Corpse ("A dark and full base pierced with a stinging balmy mint scent, pleasantly reminiscent of a cold embalmed corpse.")
Graveyard ("An old forlorn, crumbling cemetery with strong tones of wet earth blended with a hint of Frankincense and a touch of myrrh.")
Haunted House ("A spellbinding blend of haunting forest woods, spooky spices and the witch’s little dark secret. A dark sensual fragrance with a musky quality.")
You can check out all of their scary scents here.
Awesome costume
Here's another great costume... This one, created by D. Strand of North Dakota, won 1st place in the "Adult Costume" category of 2005's "Picture Perfect Halloween Contest".
Friday, January 5, 2007
How to make zombie clothes
If you've got some old clothes, a patch of dirt and don't mind waiting three months you too can make amazingly realistic zombie clothing. My friends over at Skull & Bone will show you how.
(I followed their method and achieved great results in less that three months, so don't be discouraged if you can't invest that much time in your zombified clothing. It'll still look great!)
Rubik's Cube costume
Rubik's Cubes must be making a comeback. At Christmas all the toy stores carried a new "Anniversary Edition", the film "The Pursuit Of Happyness" added one to it's storyline, and now I've stumbled across this guy's instructions for making a Rubik's costume. Next thing you know, some television reality show will pit Rubik's Cube solving celebs against each other. (Hmmm. That's actually not a bad idea...)
The world's cutest Humpty-Dumpty
I'm not usually one of those people who go all moon-eyed over pictures of adorable babies or kittens playing with yarn, but even I have to admit that this is the cutest little Humpty-Dumpty I've ever seen. Apparently, others agree with me because this shot won 1st place for "Cutest Baby Costume" in the Picture Perfect Halloween Photo Contest.
Prop idea of the day
In keeping with today's lighting theme, check out GrimVisions' skeleton lights. I love these things. Very creative. I'm sure they look amazing hanging on the front of his house.
UPDATE:
According to Krough at GrimVisions, the "skin" on the ribcages of these skeletons was made by coating waxpaper with "Sculpt Or Coat" (by Sculptural Arts Coatings)
Click here to see a picture of these lights at night.
Steal this idea
Check out this facade! I'd love to see someone turn the front of their house into a giant demon face. This is a photo of "L'Enfer" ("Hell") a Parisian nightclub, circa 1900. (This historic entrance was recreated by the makers of the film "The Moulin Rouge". They used it as a supposed gateway into the Montmartre section of Paris.)
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