Skull Tanks Chess Set

The animal skulls at RISD Nature Lab inspired me to make this chess set. I wanted to feature these evolutionary artifacts in some artistic form, without decorating or modifying the skulls too much. But I've obviously indulged in stuffing a great number of guns and bombs and turrets beneath them, in preparation for the final wars at the end of the space-dinner-time-continuum.

The aesthetic is 1970's Bakshi's Wizards, TSR's Gamma World, Sterling Lanier's Hiero's Journey, and the 1981 film Heavy Metal (which my mom took me to see when I was 15 - what torture).

I have successfully printed it all out, although the pictures (and my crappy printer) don't do it all justice. I printed the kings and queens at 11 cm, the bishops at 9 cm, the rooks and castles at 5-6 cm, and the pawns at 3-4 cm high. Everything is printed on its back.


Some of the credits are:
"Rhinoceros skull" (https://skfb.ly/WnN7) by University of Dundee Museum Collections is licensed under CC Attribution-NonCommer