Did you know that when you’re at a haunted house, the haunting is actually tiny neuromonsters wreaking havoc in your brain?

If we were living in the 1500’s, that idea would be considered homonculi, the common belief at the time that the brain worked because there were tiny people in it. Like many ideas from the dark ages, it’s not true. But the ghosts of ideas past haunt us! This Halloween we’ve reimagined the homonculi as neuromonsters, inspired by the real structures of neurons of the cortex. You can check out science.eyewire.org to learn more about them.

Dust the cobwebs off your crayons and sharpen your scythes. Be like Dr. Frankenstein and bring these neuromonsters to life!

Let your creativity fly as you color outside the cube in the first ever Eyewire coloring contest! Zach Herman, Eyewire Illustration Intern ’18, created these fantastic creatures that rule the Halloween mind. Keep an eye out for them during Grim’s Haunted Carnival.

Rules:

Color one or color them all! All species are welcome (check out this WIP from a Siamang monkey that’s cared for by Eyewirer Atani).

Submit as many colored neuromonsters as you like by Wed, Oct 24 to coloringcontest@eyewire.org.

Our distinguished judges panel includes Reza Farazmand, author of the amazing webcomic Poorly Drawn Lines and many ghosts of Eyewire illustrators past. Together, they will choose a winner to be announced during the Haunted Carnival Closing Ceremony on Oct 26 at 4 pm US ET on eyewire.org.

The winner will receive a free tote of his or her choice from the Eyewire shop, shipped anywhere worldwide! We’ll make a gallery of all submissions, so let us know if you do not want your art included when you submit.

Save and print the sheets below or download a PDF of all 5. We can’t wait to see your neurocreature creations!

Judges:

Reza AKA Poorly Drawn Lines

Daniela Gamba, Eyewire’s Master Illustrator and Nurro Wrangler

Zach Herman, Neuromonsteur in Residence

Soy Lim, Pluto Aficionado

Julian Samal, SFX Sensation=

Beth Almeida, Eyewire’s OG Designer

The forms of these creatures are inspired by the shapes of cortical neurons as will be mapped in Neo. Do you see the resemblance of the spine-like structures on their limbs to the spines (synapses) of the neuron below?

All Neuromonsters in this post, both outlined and colored, were created by Zach Herman.