Pumpkin Carving Time! Picture Thread

[Gold Metal Flake]

Things just getting started.



The after pix later. Post yours!

[Turbineguy]

1. This is not mine originally

but it will go in the window:

[stuntcat]

32. nice

VERY nice :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[ulysses]

2. "the yucky part" last night...

[Gold Metal Flake]

12. What a great picture! He looks so excited.

Telling ya how to do it? :-)

[ulysses]

15. he kept wanting me to put the "hat" back on the pumpkin.

:D

[ThomCat]

13. But the yucky part is what produces

the garlic and pepper roasted pumpkin seeds! :9

[ulysses]

17. every year I say I'm going to save and roast the damned things.

I think I did once.

[raptor_rider]

21. Aww he is so cute!!!

and getting so big. Sorry, I was a long time lurker and signed up a couple of years ago, I have followed your baby years. What a wonderful experience for him. You two are such wonderful parents!

[ulysses]

27. thanks!

:hi:

[Ava]

3. posted mine here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=105&topic_id=7085344&mesg_id=7085344

:hi:

[ThomCat]

14. Cool. I love the nose!

:)

[Gold Metal Flake]

16. Hah! Great stuff.

The stem-nose is a good idea. Most store bought pumpkins have short stems that don't work well for a nose.

They look great all lit up!

:hi:

[YankeyMCC]

4. My son did 80% of the work

He drew the template, taped it onto the pumpkin to 'trace it out' with a pick, and then almost all the carving.

I just cut the top hole and scooped out the goop.

[ulysses]

5. nice design!

He did a nice job with that.

[Gold Metal Flake]

18. We use the same carving kit. The tools are real useful.

My part is usually hogging out the insides, thinning the front. My wife is better at the fine work.

Is that a Cougar or a Tiger?

[YankeyMCC]

25. Bruins emblem

[lost-in-nj]

6. I miss it

putting newspaper on the table..
the kids all digging and cutting.....

sigh....


lost

[Der Blaue Engel]

9. There's no law says you can't do it yourself

I always do all kinds of silly holiday things by myself because I like them, and I don't care who knows it. :D

I carve pumpkins by myself (usually), pick out and trim the tree at Christmas, make holiday decorations and watch holiday movies appropriate to the season. Been doing this basically alone since my mom died when I was 14, including making my own birthday cakes and wrapping my own presents...lol. Sometimes I have a partner who looks on and enjoys vicariously, sometimes not. My son hasn't really been into the holiday trappings since he was small, so I just do it for me. :)

[piesRsquare]

7. Pumpkin carving...

:evilgrin:

[Rabrrrrrr]

8. Not to brag or anything, but...

[lost-in-nj]

10. They are wonderful

but aren't you afraid someone is going to complain about the noose?????



lost

[Gold Metal Flake]

11. Go ahead and brag. Your Google image skills are quite good!

:hi:

[Rabrrrrrr]

19. Darn right they are! And no pumpkin shit on my fingers, either.

Or in my carpeting.

:hi:

[Gold Metal Flake]

20. LOL! Too right!

It's not exactly a pleasant smell, either. Pumpkin guts, that is. So, I'm surfing while they are carving.

[stuntcat]

33. hahaa WOW

the owl, the grave :headbang:

[Spacemom]

22. We did ours tonight

The 12 yr old is pretending to be too old for Halloween, but the 7 yr old is really in the spirit of things. As he and daddy were scraping out the insides he said "We're scraping out the guts to eat like zombies." A kid after my own heart. :D

[SeattleGirl]

23. MrSG just did this one:

[Connonym]

26. that is really creepy in an awesome way

[RFKHumphreyObama]

28. Oh my gosh MrSG obviously likes our Prime Minister

I can see the resemblance....and well our Prime Minister is pretty creepy and evil so it's all good:)

[DesEtoiles]

24. Nice George Nelson clock. Is it authentic? Could be worth big bucks.

[Gold Metal Flake]

30. Yes, a salvage.

It was missing the hands and it's workes. I replaced the works with a standard quartz movement and a talented friend made new hands for it. We are collectors of mid-century modern.

[HughBeaumont]

29. Did the last one last evening . . .

Pale Man (Pan's Labyrinth)


Mommie Dearest. I just wanted to have fun with that one.


Burning River Rollergirls. That's the wife's league (she's on the Hard Knockers team).


Carrie. Had to do it.

These, like all my pumpkins, are done on Michaels' pumpkins, so I get to keep them and display them every year. These were done over a span of three weeks.

I'll have the whole display later on this evening.

[Gold Metal Flake]

31. These are amazing!

Tell us how you do it? I can't pick a favorite, they are all so good!

[HughBeaumont]

35. They're all Michaels pumpkins, for one.

The carving is done first by creating a negative of the photo you want to use. Greyscaling and posterizing (you choose the bit rate) on PhotoEditor or Photoshop reduces the pixelation on the photo where all of the intricate detail is still there. Darkening the negative and posterized result also helps. Pure negatives are harder to go on because of their non-edges and multiple shades. Ideally you would want a photo that has no more than 4-8 shades of greyscale.

I put these on clear label paper, cut them in workable sections (because of the spherical surface), stick them on the pumpkin (it doesn't lift the paint off) and match each of the sections as I go down. Usually I go top to bottom, as pretty much all of what I do are portrait-style photos.

With these, I take an Xacto knife to the intricate sections of grey and leave the label on the sections that are supposed to come out dark. I use a Dremel Multi-Pro with 3/64 and 1/32 bits. 1/32 bits capture the best detail, but the drawback is that they break and/or bend very easily due to their thinness.

The depth is achieved with practice, as with that Pan's Labyrinth pumpkin. I have never done anything to that degree of detail before, which is why it took so long to do. The shading was the biggest task with that one, since much of the design required layers of shade over a large area.

You'll see with the whole pumpkin display how much things have progressed. Some of the early ones, I wish I could have back.

[stuntcat]

34. my first pumpkin ever :)

That I remember I mean. I did it last night. That's my black cat looking out the window, I can't get her to stay there tonight though.

[sakabatou]

36. Hellsing pumpkin