Find an image to make the template from. If taking a screen shot from a video or movie, download the video and open it in Tracker, the open source physics video analysis tool. This will allow you to step frame by frame through the video to find the best shot.
Open the image in Adobe Photoshop. Increase the image size to about 12 inches high, and increase the resolution to 300 pixels/inch.
Convert the image to black and white.
Posturize the image. Decrease the levels so that the image is still recognizable, but not too complicated. Keeping more levels will make the next step take longer. Decreasing the levels too far will discard more detail. Keep in mind that fewer color changes and larger features will make it easier to carve; but it will also be less detailed.
Also start to watch out for "islands" at this point. Solid pieces of pumpkin cannot remain in the middle of a fully cut out section, unattached to the rest of the pumpkin.
Using the Lasso Tool, the Paint Bucket Tool (with Anti-Aliasing turned off), and the Pencil Tool, fill in the template. Do not use the Paint Brush instead of the Pencil; it will blend the edges, leaving more than a single color, and it will not be possible to draw single pixels with it. It may help to use a Wacom tablet for this, but it is certainly not nessesary.
The goal is to get the entire image down to only three different colors. If this is hard to accompllish, using a fourth color is ok, as long as the walls of the pumpkin are thick enough. The yellow will be cut all the way through, the orange will be cut part of the way through, and the brown will remain untouched, with the skin still on. The optional fourth color will have only the skin removed.
Avoid having very many very small features close to each other. Occasional thin lines or dots are ok in some places, but they will easily break next to other very small features. Avoid having thin "peninsulas" of shaved pumpkin jutting into regions of yellow, especially if they are thin. These tend to break very easily, and will dry up and shrivel pretty quickly. Do not leave any sections of orange or brown in the middle of a section of yellow. There will be no way for it to remain connected to the rest of the pumpkin.
Use the Paint Bucket to completly fill in a region of one color. Increase the Tolerance to have it accept a wider range of colors adjacent to the pixel that was clicked; decrease the tolerance to have it fill in only the exact color that was clicked on. Check Contiguous if you want only the specific region you clicked in to be filled in; uncheck Contiguous if you want every pixel of the same color in the image to be recolored.
Use the Pencil tool to draw your own sections where the existing lines and regions don't really work out. You can change boundries this way, enlarging or shrinking existing regions/features. It can also be used to simply clear out tiny details that are unnessesary.
Before printing, convert the image to greyscale. Fill in any large areas of black or grey with white in order to save ink. Just remember not to actually trace along these false boarders later when transfering the image onto the pumpkin.
Build a custom pumpkin light. A candle will make the pumpkin very warm inside, causing it to rot faster. They also flicker and do not provide a steady light. Flashlights are the wrong color (especially blue or white LED lights; incandescent flashlights may work in a pinch, if you put an orangish cloth or tissue paper over the lens). Some places do sell battery powered pumpkin lights; I have never found one that is actually bright enough, or one that uses rechargeable batteries. Plus, making your own is more fun anyways.
First find an old toy that uses about 6 volts worth of rechargable batteries. 4 AA, or in this case, a single 6V battery work well. Take out just the housing for the batteries; you may have to cut away some plastic.
Next, find an old strand of Christmas lights that has at least some orange bulbs in it. Cut off a single bulb, keeping at least a few inches of the wire attatched to it. Next time a strand of lights stops working, save all of the orange bulbs before you throw it out so that you have replacements if this one burns out.
Strip the ends of the wire and solder the bulb to a switch. If the toy that you canablaized has an on/off switch, you can probably use that one. Then solder the switch to the battery terminal.
Strip the ends of the wire and solder the bulb to a switch. If the toy that you canablaized has an on/off switch, you can probably use that one. Then solder the switch to the battery terminal.
Check the dimensions of the template that you just made. When looking for a pumpkin to choose, try to find one that has roughly the same ratio of dimensions as your template. Bring along a flexible ruler to find the largest pumpkin that will support the aspect ratio of the template.
Choose a pumpkin that has a relativly flat curvature, and does not have very deep ridges.
Print the template to fit the size of the pumpkin. It will probably need to span multiple sheets of paper. Overlap the edges of the previous section when printing subsequent pages. It is better to place the page break along a line with small details so that it is easier to line up and piece the pages together.
Cut away the margins, overlap the pages, and tape them together with scotch tape.
Cut out the whitespace outside of the image so that it will conform better to the shape of the pumpkin. Leave enough of a boarder to stick the tape to without having to cover part of the image.
Place the template over the face of the pumkin, and try to bend it to allow it to lie flush. Cut slits into the template, going only through large sections of a single color, in order to allow it to conform more closesly.
Place a sheet of carbon paper behind the template, and tape the template to the pumpkin using masking tape. Trace over every line on the template using a ball point pen. If the sheet of carbon paper is smaller than the template, remember to move it so that you are always tracing over it; otherwise the lines won't actually transfer when you run off the edge.
Cut the top off the pumpkin using a medium sized kitchen knife, and scoop out the insides. Be careful not to slop pumpkin guts on the front, otherwise the carbon lines will wipe off.
Trace over the carbon lines using colored pens. This will help make the lines last longer in case they become smudged or fade into the skin. Use a different color for each type of shading (through cut, partial cut, skin) to make it easier to tell which shading should be applied.
Shave down the inside of the pumpkin. The scooping tool that comes in pumpkin carving kits works very well for this, and is the only useful tool in the kit. The wall in the area where the image will be carved should be about an inch thick. Make sure that it has a uniform thickness over the entire area behind where the image has been drawn. The wall on the back and the sides of the pumpkin can be left thicker. Scoop from the bottom towards the top to remove more material faster. Then scoop from side to side to smooth out the uneven ridges. Make the inside of the walls as smooth as possible. Any bumps or waves will help cause it to rot faster, and will also distort the image when the light is placed inside.
Save the seeds. Clean, rinse, strain, dry, toss w/ olive oil, garlic, salt, and crushed red pepper. Roast. Eat. Share and enjoy.
Start carving!
Cut out the through cuts first. Don't cut all of the through cut sections at once, but do cut a through cut section before cutting an adjacent partial cut section. Before making a cut, slice through the skin along the line using a X-Acto knife. This will prevent the skin from cracking off or having jagged edges. Now cut perpendicular to the face of the pumpkin along the line using a coping saw blade.
To cut the shaded areas, first cut through the line along that sections boarder using an X-Acto knife. Then peel off the skin in small chunks using either the X-Acto knife, a flat head screw driver, or a bent razor blade, depending on the size. Do not peel the skin off the entire section at once, or else large chunks of pumpkin that was meant to remain intact may be ripped off. Instead, cut skin of the section up into smaller pieces using the X-Acto knife, and then remove those smaller pieces.
Once the skin is removed, scrape away the meat of the pumpkin underneath using the screwdrivers and clay tools. For large sections, use the bent razor blade to cleanly slice and pull chunks off. leave about half the thickness of the wall of the pumpkin intact. The surface of the exposed flesh should be smooth. Once the entire section has been carved out, scrape over it using an appropriatly sized clay too, or a tiny screwdriver if it is small detail section, to get a uniform smoothness to the area.
Clay sclupting tools. These have very sharp edges on the tip and come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Use them to scrape along the surface of the pumplin once the skin has been removed to give it a shaded look.
The curved tools can be used to push normal to the pumpkin to break off small chunks adjacent to a section that has already been carved down. They are also good for removing pieces of pumpkin more quickly, or from fragile pieces where scraping would cause entire sections to be ripped off. Gently push the tool into the pumpkin, slide it under the meat, and pull it up to remove chunks.
When not actively working on or displaying the pumpkin, take the following steps to preserve it longer.
If the inside has become wet, wipe out the moisture using paper towel or cloth. Bacteria will spread much more slowly the pumpkin is dry. Spray the inside and outside using an antibacterial spray, like Lysol. It is not necessary to spray the skin of the pumpkin, but any exposed insides, including the hat, should be disinfected.
To prevent the front from drying out, vasoline can be smeared on using a Q-tip. It may not be worth doing this, since removing the vasoline again later is a pain.
Cover the front an the opening in the top in saran wrap, an place the hat back on.
Keep it cold. If it fits in the fridge, stick it in there. If it's cold enough at night already, it can be left outside. When bringing it back inside to finish carving, place freezer packs in a plastic bag, and place them inside the pumpkin. Wrap the freezer packs in towels or an old t-shirt to prevent condensation from puddling up inside the pumpkin as they thaw out.
Finish carving with the light in the pumpkin in a dark room. Use the X-Acto knife to clean up any jagged edges. Use the clay tools to remove loose pieces from the inside of the pumpkin that are stuck to the backside of the cut holes.
Since the walls of the pumpkin are fairly thick, the cut holes will appear smaller than they actually are when viewed at an angle. Use a coping saw blade to widen the back of the through holes by cutting at an angle.
Once it is finished, photograph it before it turns to mush (unless you're a Buddhist monk). Hang a black backdrop behind the pumpkin. Black disposable table clothes work great since they are light and thin. But don't actually dispose of them; save it for next year. It can either be taped to the wall using painters tape, or draped over a large sheet of cardboard or plywood.
Turn off the room lights, and put the orange light inside the pumpkin. Set up the camera on a tripod, since a relativly long exposure may be needed.
In order to allow the pumpkin itself to be visible in the photograph, shine an incandescent flashlight (NOT an LED flashlight) at a whiteboard or piece of white poster board, and angle the reflection onto the side of the pumpkin. If you have fewer than 4 hands, use the time delay on the camera.
