Varying Visages of Vincent!

Ok, macabre fans... this week marks HDH's 100th challenge! I can't believe it... who knew there were so many creeptastically cool people out there?! Thanks to everyone for tuning in and having fun with this little ol' blog :)

So, to celebrate this milestone, we're going to do a few things different this week >;) The general list of rules still apply (see sidebar), so be sure to follow them to be considered for the coveted Gruesome Twosome & Master of the Macabre titles!

There is BLOG CANDY-CORN to be had this week! That's right... keep reading...

Did you know that Vincent Price would've been 100 this year?!
Yes, so it is divine providence that this week's challenge is:

"Varying Visages of Vincent"

(translates to: the many faces of Vinny)
You are to create a dark, Gothic, or Halloween-based art piece

that is inspired by the TRUE Master of the Macabre, Vincent Price.
A movie, character, poem, narration, song or quote... anything that the great Vincent Price has touched can be used for inspiration. If you need a little help, HERE is a link for some images, HERE is the official Vincent Price website, and HERE is a link to a website with some audio clips.


Now, about the blog candy... Here's a pic so far:

There are rubber and clear stamps, a handful of cards created by The Masterful Mistress herself, chipboard shapes and letters, altered chipboard purse & album pages, skullies, ribbons, floss, embellishments, Distress Stickles, rub-ons... Even a cute stuffed jacko (he's my favorite)... and much much MORE!

As we get more comments & challenge entries,
there MIGHT be more thrown in throughout the week!
AND some of the Minions will be giving away additional blog candy on their own blogs...
be sure to check them out!

The rules for entering blog candy drawing:
1. Readers shall hop to each of the Macabre Minions blogs to see their take on the challenge...
readers must comment on each of the (6) posts.
2. Spread the word about the candy corn via your blog, Twitter, whatevah. Then just comment on this HDH post with a link to the announcement about it.
3. If you play along with the HDH Macabre Monday 100th challenge, you get TWO extra chances to win... just linky up and then add two more comments. We will be selecting a Gruesome Twosome like we normally do.

You should have come here from:

Creepy Cricut Cween Donna

This is my project. Did you kknow Mr Price was a rather famous gourmet?




I wanted to include the original photo that I worked from so you can see the changes, and I promised a brief tutorial as to how I achieved them. I'm going to try and word this so that it can be followed in any graphics program. Firstly, get rid of the background by whatever means you like best.
Then find a skull image that's roughly the same perspective (I ended up using three different skulls because Mr Price seems to like slightly sideway-but-forward-looking poses, and skulls don't come in that very often :P) Layer your skull or skulls over the original photo and lower the opacity so you can see through them. Fiddle about to line them up, paying most attention to nose and eye sockets and teeth. Stretch them, distort them, mirror them, whatever you need to do to get the important bits more or less lined up. Set the opacity back to 100% and play with things like hue, saturation, tonemapping, brightness and contrast until the skulls are of the same tone as your photo.
Then duplicate the layer with the human face on it and put that above the skull layer(s). Lower the opacity of the top layer so that you can see the skull(s) through it, set your eraser tool to a soft-edge effect and start peeling away bits of the face to reveal the bone underneath.
Then start playing with textures. I used one concrete texture, one water ripple texture and one unidentified-but-cool-looking texture that I liked the look of. Place the textures over the top of your images and change everything until you like the way it looks. Change blending modes, opacity, colour values and distortion. There is no "right" and "wrong". Just play until you like the way it looks. And that's about it, you should now have a wonderfully uniques rotting-corpse image :D

And for those of you who don't play with graphics programs, here's Mr Price's cookie recipe, originally published in A Great Treasury of Recipes by Vincent & Mary Price.

Vincent Price's Classic Cherry Butter Cookies

Preheat oven to 350

1 cup butter, softened (it must be butter - no substitutes)
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
2 tsp almond extract
2 1/2 cups flour
halved maraschino cherries


Cream butter in large bowl. Gradually beat in sugar until fluffy. beat in
egg and almond extract. gradually blend in flour. Chill dough for 30 mins
for ease in handling. Roll small spoonfuls of dough into little balls and
place on ungreased cookie sheets ( I use parchment paper on the cookie
sheets) Place half cherry, cut side down, in middle of each cookie and press
down slightly. Bake 8-10 mins or just until bottoms are golden. Remove and
place on racks to cool. leave them on racks overnight instead of putting
them in Tupperware, and keep extras in freezer until needed.

And your next stop on the hop is:

Agent of the Abominable Andrea

We can't wait to see everyone's take on this VIVP (Very Important Vincent Price) challenge!