The Great Pumpkin... Massacre

     I've always liked carving pumpkins, and for some reason I decided to really go for it this year. I'm not at all a visual artist, nor am I much of a "handyman." I got a B in shop class, in other words. But for some reason, pumpkins inspire me to at least try to be both. It all really started around high school, when one year I decided that the traditional three triangles and some jagged teeth weren't going to cut it, so instead I made the Grateful Dead Steal Your Face logo. I have a picture of it somewhere, but I can't find it at the moment. Here's what the logo looks like:

So, just imagine that in pumpkin form, with a bit less detail, and carved by a teenager with not a whole lot of artistic talent. Anyway, it was the first time that I actually put a lot of time into carving a pumpkin, and the result was worth the effort, even though my parents didn't get it, and nobody else really cared. I even used toothpicks to carve out the details as best I could. It took a few hours, but I was proud of it.
     A few years later, I made Trogdor from the Strongbad online cartoon.

Here's the source picture:

Trogdor was pretty easy, though I messed up his arm a bit. Again, not perfect, but I was proud of it. It took a little bit of time to do, but not as much as the grateful Dead logo. Two years ago I did Jason Voorhees' mask from the Friday the 13th movies:

I'm pretty sure I got the stencil online, but I don't really remember. I think it turned out pretty well. Not perfect, but not bad for an amateur. I love the Friday the 13th movies, so this was a lot of fun to do. I drilled the holes with a skewer, which worked surprisingly well.

Last year I got married on Halloween night, so I didn't get to carve pumpkins. Maybe that's why I'm over-compensating so much this year... I decided to do two this year. It took me awhile to think of what to try to carve, but I decided on Hello Kitty for my wife, because she's big into Hello Kitty, and I did Jerry Only from the Misfits for myself.

 Hello Kitty finished pumpkin.

Jerry Only finished pumpkin.

   Hello Kitty is from a stencil that I got online at Cartoonjr.com. The stencil was a little too small though, so I drew the stencil on myself free hand. I think it turned out pretty well. I did make a mistake, but it's at least somewhat hard to notice. The whiskers and the bow were a bit challenging, but they turned out great I think. 

    My Jerry Only pumpkin is an adaptation of a logo that I got from Misfits.com.

 It's actually an homage to Shepard Fairey's artwork. He's most commonly known for his Andre the Giant "Obey" graffiti. He did a version that incorporated the Misfits' Crimson Ghost logo:

...so the Misfits created a Jerry Only version to re-pay the tribute. I had to change the design a bit, leaving out the nostril marks from the original design. And if you look closely enough, you can see where I had to use a toothpick to repair some structural damage... A piece broke off, so I toothpicked it back together. I'm pretty proud of this one anyhow. I've been trying to create a Misfits related pumpkin for awhile now, but I just haven't been able to pull it off. I've been trying to adapt the Crimson Ghost logo:

But I haven't been able to figure it out. I saw some awesome versions that others have done where they shaved the pumpkin instead of carving it, and I think that's really the only way to do the Crimson Ghost logo. But I've never tried to shave a pumpkin, so I tried to find something else Misfits related instead. I'm pretty happy with the end result. 

   After I finished those two, I decided to make a THIRD pumpkin. I found a Lionel Richie stencil online at Creativetypes.blogspot.com and I just couldn't resist. Here's the stencil:

And here's the finished product:

Not too bad... Although this ultimately was a complete failure. You can't really tell from the picture, but the entire face is held together with toothpicks. I made it too small, so that only two tiny chunks of pumpkin were holding it up. They snapped, and the whole face came off. It was a good pumpkin too; not many seeds or stringy bits. Though the exterior was a bit tougher than I anticipated. I had to go for it though, and the result is pretty amusing. You're supposed to carve out Hello underneath the head, but I didn't want to risk it.

   So, I spent a total of about 6 hours on pumpkins this year. Roughly two hours on each one. To my surprise, Jerry Only was the easiest to do of the three. Lionel Richie was the most difficult, but that's mostly my fault for not making the stencil larger. I made a mistake on each one, but I'm still proud of them; Jerry Only especially. I almost wish I could could do even more, but I don't really have the room for that many pumpkins, and the house already wreaks of pumpkin. That and, you really shouldn't spend more than $20 on pumpkins, unless you're either talented or a professional, and I'm neither.

   All in all, 3 decent pumpkins, using minimal tools.

Just a pumpkin scoop, a paring knife, a wooden skewer, a butcher knife, and two longer knives. I didn't even really use much more than the paring knife, except to cut the tops off. But once again, the skewer proved to be an invaluable tool. I used it to do nearly all of the Lionel Richie detail work. And the pumpkin scoop isn't really essential, but it does make things easier. I like that I have a cutesy, a somewhat scary, and a funny pumpkin this year. nice variety. And I'm getting better at it, mistakes aside.

  Anyway, hope you like my pumpkins. Thanks for reading, and have a fun Halloween.