IT'S TIME TO UPGRADE YOUR PUMPKIN CARVING!!!!

 

Hello charlie.

So it was spooktober earlier, and I’d like to talk about how I go with my pumpkin carving. I like to say that I know what I’m doing in this department.

It is a rather fun activity and this blog is addressed to you! yes you! You the person on the other side of the screen who’s tired of doing those pumpkins every year, maybe to the point where you let go of the activity!

So I’d like to walk you through how I go with my carvings. So you could step up your pumpkin game if you’d like!

Just a head’s up there are 3 main problems with this art form,

1 it’s temporary your creation won’t last 2 days at best. Fragile parts will fall apart, the warmth of the candle will have burnt through the interior, and most importantly it’ll rot and smell terribly.

2 it takes a while to make, generally an afternoon for the ones that I do (maybe plan a nice podcast or a spooky playlist),. And it is messy. Very very very messy. so wrap your head around the fact that you will have to do a fair bit of clean-up later for all of the pumpkin you’ll have put on the floor and table.

3 the tools, I’d suggest you buy a set of woodwork tool sets like I have myself, it is rather cheap (i got mine for I think like 8 to 12€ at Carrefour) and it will last all your life and most probably will outlive you. And if you don’t have those good luck with your knife and your raw skills.

 

Now that’s done: First when you start out, you need to have an idea of what you want to do. It can be anything, and I like to run wild myself. And to choose what you want, look at what you want if it has been done as a pumpkin, this can give you some ideas on how to do it.

So, find a design that suits you, and if you can’t get a clear picture of what you will do try to sketch it. If you want to prepare imagine this if you will:

you have 3 colors to work out of black when you leave the ‘skin’ on,

bright yellow for when you make a complete hole,

and then a variation of colors ranging from reddish orange, to orange and then yellowish orange based on how much you remove matter when you have peeled off the skin.

So you can try to do your design of what you want to do in a 3 color sketch, doesn’t have to be precise, you just should know what you’re going to do before jumping in.

 

Golden rule when sketching: REMEMBER THAT GRAVITY EXISTS! You will not be able to cheat it. Think of how your design is going to hold up, so no part should be floating in the air, or at least. Maybe think of a pole like system where there's enough material so your creation can be held up in the air by the rest of the pumpkin (like my little fish friend or this old guy)           
    

Only once you have your idea figured out, you should buy the pumpkin, because you don’t know if you’ll need something a specific type of size of pumpkin. (for example if you buy 2 giant pumpkin but in the end you chose one big boy and a little one... well the illusion won't be as good)

 

Now that the preparation before carving is done.          IT'S TIME TO GET MESSY

You can start by drawing your design on your pumpkin. use a FELT pen. And i cannot stress this enough, DO NOT take a ball pen or a pencil because with these you WILL damage the pumpkin and we don’t want our pumpkin to be scarred on all sides even before you even pulled out your knife.

ALSO, don’t feel pressured when you take this FELT pen, some water and a tissue will erase it in one easy swipe and it won’t leave any mark on your pumpkin. And it will inevitably be erased by you touching your pumpkin or the pumpkin’s flesh humidifying its surface once you started ripping piece of it off (plants bleed too). The lesson to take from this is that you will have to redraw it, so don’t feel like you have to draw a masterpiece on it.

For these tools. The knife is for the lid (don’t stab yourself in the heart be careful, a good rule of thumb, if you’re scared after one stab, stop let someone more able-handed do the job), then you take out your big spoon, you empty the pumpkin and be ready to really scoop out some of the flesh, it will help you cut chunks out.

I you want to know which tool is for what, the ones with the straight blades are made to take out the chunks so you have an open window to the interior of your pumpkin. Then the other ones it’s to remove the skin or to shave off flesh.

Then you go ahead and carve my little Michelangelos

You can choose to go in whatever order you want. maybe first emptying then cutting the chunks and
finishing with peeling, mix it up in whatever way you want, you cn decide to go area by area and mixing all of the steps together changing from one to another.       You Do You.

However, there are 2 things you need to keep in mind, you empty the pumpkin over a sink and only once you have done this you can carve the holes. 

Personally, I like to outline by peeling bits of the skins so I will just have to follow them and not divert from the path, just like when you got to color something, to not draw over the lines. And so the holes are more precise.

One rule you have to remember, you will always be able to remove more, so don’t remove big chunks in one go, don’t be afraid to cut less than what you thought of cutting. And once you’ve cut a good bit, test it out (do that mostly for the peeling), go to a windowless room, close the door and see if it’s okay (Try to go for toilets because it has already room for you to put your creation on and just look at it). Generally, I like to just remove a bit of the skin and then do multiple tests to see what hue looks the best, it’ll take some matches, but you’ll have something beautiful. And as you’re testing you can see some errors, like for my Alastor I saw that the little spikes he has instead of pupils were way too thick so I managed to cut some of it down, thinning it so it looked better in the final iteration.

                 Details are important

To finish I'd like to have little trip through what I did that might give you some ideas:

Working with shadows behind is nice                                                 Two faces might be good if you don't              but try to keep it small and simple.                                                    have enough material but it's still not the best.   

                     

Then t might be funny to have one in another. I did it with chewing or with a secondary bulbous face, but there's tons of ways to do it. Have fun with it

 

So maybe try to find a way to have a branch with everything           maybe try decors around it

                            

And sometimes, the classics are fun to go back to.

 So now you have all of my knowledge and maybe remember this post next spooktober and maybe have little more fun with your carving. 

Have a good one !