Halloween 2011 pumpkin carvings

this post by my John

Halloween in the D
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It's devil's night in the D. and anyone who grew up in the Detroit area knows that up here, we take halloween very seriously. I thought I would share a couple of this year's jack-o-lanterns that I just finished carving. In typical fashion, it all starts with a plan.

First, you find a decent image and due a little photoshop magic to convert it into a posterized image with three levels of grey. I did this with the old glory caster back in the challenge, but used 5 levels of grey. Then, the paper image is taped to the gourd.



Using my handy dandy little roller pokey thingy, I trace all of the edges of the pattern transferring the image to the pumpkin.



Remove the pattern and take a peek. Make sure everything is traced because putting the pattern back on isn't an option.



Now, take a sharpie and darken the lines. A sharpie works great and doesn't wear away with all the pumpkin juice that accumulates.



Gut the pumpkin next. save the seeds. they are gold.



Now, with cheapo saw tools and a cheapo wood carving tool, cut out the voids where the lightest color is and remove the peel from the middle grey areas.



clean up the surfaces of the greys with a broader faced chisel.



Drop in a candle and shut off the lights. Heeeeeeere's Johnny!



Anyone know this guy? He was a Detroit TV icon in the 70's.