Finally did an Obama carve:

[HughBeaumont]

I've always liked the photo, so I added the logo to it for good measure.

[Hawkeye-X]

1. Beautiful work!

Hope no-one smashes the pumpkin...

[HughBeaumont]

3. I display them one day and one day only.

I worked too long and hard on these things to lose them to vandalism.

[sandnsea]

11. WOW!! Do you preserve them?

Those are incredible. I can't even do the traditional triangle eyes and two-tooth smile.

[HughBeaumont]

16. They're all Michael's Craft Pumpkins.

I used to put patterns like this on real pumpkins, but the whole "all that effort . .. aaaaaand I get to throw it out when it rots" routine got tiresome. So I learned to carve them on these things (which is a lot harder than it looks) and now I can keep them and display them every year.

[surrealAmerican]

31. That's a good way to keep the squirrels an raccoons from ...

... showing too much interest in them too.

[fishwax]

21. wow! those are great!

:applause:

[malaise]

24. Absolutely beautiful

Thanks for the thread. :yourock:

[Berry Cool]

25. Wow! Can you PM me and tell me where you are?

Maybe I can come by and see 'em, depending on where it is. I'm on the East Side.

It would just be cool to be able to see them in person.

[Joe Fields]

2. nicely done!

:toast:

[bleever]

4. I doubt I'll see a better pumpkin this year.

That's beautifully done.

[tabasco]

5. How the hell do you do that??

Amazing.

[HughBeaumont]

9. Dremel with a 1/32 drill bit, mostly.

Also a 1/32 screwdriver, Xacto knife and a finishing bit to smooth things out.

The pattern is a hybrid of a logo and a 2008 photo in 8-bit negative grayscale on a clear plastic label so it sticks to the pumpkin.

[lunatica]

6. Cool artwork!

[Warren DeMontague]

7. That is some good work.

:applause: :thumbsup:

[ChoppinBroccoli]

8. For Those Of Us Who Struggle To Cut Triangle Eyes, Etc.

Can you tell us how this is done? I'm particularly interested to hear how you do the different shading effects. Do you thin the walls of the pumpkin from the inside or something? This truly has become an art form.

[HughBeaumont]

14. They're all Michael's Craft Pumpkins.

The only thing you thin on those things is the dreaded "black line". It's part of the inner mold of the pumpkin and you have to sand that down, which is tricky to do. Otherwise, your carves will have a solid black line through them when you turn the light on.

Patterns are done by taking a photo, putting it to 8-bit greyscale, posterizing it just a little bit and making the image a negative. All of this can be done on Microsoft Photo Editor, or if you have something more advanced, there as well. I print the pattern on a clear plastic label, cut it up in sections and match the parts as best I can (you have to do this because you're carving on a curved and bumpy surface).

All carves are done with a 1/32 drill bit and a Dremel hand tool. I use X-acto knives for the detail and carve in the dark with the night-light inside the pumpkin so I can best judge how deep I'm cutting. Smoothing can be done with a finishing bit, nothing stronger.

Regular carving tools you buy in stores won't work on a Michaels pumpkin - the clunkiness of those tools wouid just tear it to shreds.

It really takes practice. The first carves I ever did on Michael's pumpkins didn't even come close to the ones I do now.

[corpseratemedia]

10. all of them are amazing!!

[firedupdem]

12. Wow!! Great Job!! n.t

[blogslut]

13. Nice job!

You should be proud. :hi:

[lonestarnot]

15. I want one of those!

[Narkos]

17. Wow, that's incredible! n/t

[ZombieHorde]

18. Sweet! Good job. nt

[Odin2005]

19. OMG!

That's AMAZING!!! :wow:

[greenbriar]

20. amazing

thank you

[HughBeaumont]

22. Kick.

:kick:

[annabanana]

23. That is GREAT! . . A work of art. . . n/t

[rvablue]

26. Awesome! n/t

[Spazito]

27. OMG! That is beautiful!

You do incredible work, wow!

Recommended.

[Morning Dew]

28. Beautiful !

But I hope that's not an AP photo you used.

:rofl:

[HughBeaumont]

29. Oh, it is. Everything I do is technically illegal.

It's along the same lines as day care centers being told to paint over their walls if they put a Batman mural up. DC, Marvel, AOL Time/Warner, Universal, etc . . . their attorneys, even though all I'm doing is merely displaying an image, not making a single cent of monetary gain off of them in ANY way and not selling any pumpkins for profit, STILL view this as a violation of copyright and intellectual property.

One of the sites I go to, called The Pumpkin Wizard . . . the webmaster said that the above corporation's attorney's issued a C & D order on 70% of the patterns for various cartoon and movie characters he made for the site. It's absolutely unbelievable. We don't care about lost jobs or stagnating wages, we care about stopping someone promoting terrorist rogue pumpkin carving. :eyes: :eyes: :eyes: :eyes: :eyes: :eyes: :eyes: :eyes: :eyes: :eyes:

The suits defend the actions, saying "it cheapens the character", even though they stick their cartoon and movie characters on everything from lunchboxes to thong underwear.

Sh'yah . . . good luck trying to stop that. Pictures are on the internet everywhere and there's nothing anyone can do to change that. I have this little thing called a scanner and another little thing called video capture (that's where the two side scenes on the Clockwork pumpkin above came from). It's not happening. I'm carving pumpkins, not cooking meth. In this aspect they cannot tell people what they can and cannot do in the privacy of their own homes, and it's impossible to think they'll be able to do so to everyone.

[Morning Dew]

30. Seeing those makes me want to carve Pumpkins again -

and the Michael's craft pumpkin idea is perfect.

[madokie]

32. I'm impressed

good work. I grew up in the company of a great artist in wood, Willard Stone. I was encouraged by him to take up carving but I had better sense at the time, as kids always do.