Show Your Pumpkins!

Nice Pumpkins Matt... I really like the Freddy...


I didn't get too creative this year...

This picture doesn't really do my Mean Face any justice, it had already started to decay by the time I took the picture... I probably shouldn't have waited a couple days to take the picture...

Here it is lit up...


Here's my Pirate Ship...

Here it is lit up...


Here is my Witch and Ghost Brew...

Here it is lit up... Came out a little blurry for some reason...


Here's a pumpkin I did for the Civil Air Patrol for my Son's CAP Halloween Party...

Here it is lit up...

Okay, I gotta ask: How do you do those insanely detailed ones?

-Fred

It varies... Some are done by Stencils while others are done by Freehand...

Wow! You guys are way more talented than I am. Those are impressive!

For mine.

I used the instructions at the pumpkin wizard.com to make my own patterns.

Find a pic on the net or scan it.

Import it into Corel Paint Shop Pro. Outline the photo, make the back ground black, greyscale it, and then use something called posterize.

I can reduce the colours to either 3 or 4. Then you can use the colour replacer if you have 4 colours to reduce it to 3 (this makes the pic a bit more detailed)

I then colour in the dotted parts so I have uniform colours throughout and it isn't pixelly.

Then I make sure I join parts so that there are no uncut islands in the middle of a cut part.

I use black to emphasize certain facial features like lips and eyes. which makes it uncut, because some times they are interpreted as being a shaved parts by the program.

Last I make it a negative.

Once the pattern is printed, you take out the pumpkin guts. Then you tape the pattern to the pumpkin and trace it using a push pin. Then I remove the pattern, and then trace the lines with a pen. I then cut the holes starting with the smallest using things like drill bits and an electric carving knife. Then I shave certain parts using wood carving tools.

Then I colour the uncut/unshaved parts with a black marker.

Freddy took me 8 hrs. Queen of Blades from Starcraft took about 4 hrs... my wife's pumpkins too her about 1 hr.

Damn man, that sounds like too much trouble...

I get the Stencils at the Store that come with the little carving saws... If I don't use something that came in the package then I just freehand it like I did the Tex Pumpkin 2 years ago...

I also haven't done anything that involves shaving the pumpkin... It's either cut out or it's not, that's how I do it... But Kudos to those of you who do, you're pumpkins look great and you should be proud... I don't think I have the patience to go through all of that...

Wow, you guys sure know how to carve a good pumpkin! Great work!

-Cub. =o)