Hey there! Did you pick up the October issue of Food Network Magazine yet? I got mine in the mail a couple of weeks ago and immediately turned to the pages showing who is where and found my pumpkin carving. Take a look …

 

Halloween is on the way people and unless you want to be in a line down the block at the costume store on the day of your party, we suggest you get planning now! This ‘Shining’ pumpkin from last year was such a hit we thought we’d remind you how we got Jack Nicholson’s face on that thing.


I’ve had a few people ask if I actually carved this myself. I’ve always loved art work and did pretty well in those courses when I was in school. Yes, I sure did :-). There was a room full of us all hacking into our pumpkins. Mine started the day before as a picture. I printed it, then shaded in the dark areas and made a stencil. Here’s my starting picture …

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Then I put it over the pumpkin and secured it with tape. Then, I traced the stencil with little pricks from the tip of an Exacto-knife. Next I used carving tools to remove the blank areas of the stencil. If you look in the bottom right of this picture, you can see the finished stencil.

 

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It’s actually easier than you think! At first I just carved out the skin to recess the design into the flesh, but when I was done the finishing touch was to run the direction of the carving with the flow of the picture. So, forehead lines across and in the nose area, I followed the contour of the outline. Really helps it look good close up. Shout out to my girl Arti! If you are wondering what she’s doing in the background, take a look at the blog I posted last year when we carved these, I called it Carving Out Time for Pumpkin/Burger Time…

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That’s after I used black ink (that was impromptu and someone went to buy it when I decided it would look better. I rolled most of the ink on, then used a brush to cover the smaller areas. Here’s a close up…

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Then I decided the pumpkin needed more action all the way around…

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This is a long shot …

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Finally when I was done, I took it across the room for it’s close up. That’s Levi Brown making my pumpkin look it’s best!

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I did my best to stay out of the way, but knew I’d want to blog about it, so I stepped in between a few shots for a close up under all the lights. Check one side of the pumpkin you won’t see in the magazine because of space …
I took this carving idea from the movie The Shining. I’ve seen a few pumpkins out there with similar ideas. In the magazine it says I’m a huge movie fan, but actually I’m really a Stephen King fan. He was the first author I bought every book from without question. I’ve moved on now to other authors, but I love his stories. I fall asleep on a movie in the first 30 minutes if it doesn’t grab me lol.

 

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Alright, hope that solves the question of whether I actually carved it or not. Teeheehee, very flattered a couple of people have questioned if I actually did it! Halloween is on the way and I’m working on pumpkin vodka!!