Carving Starry Night

 

So this Halloween i decided to tackle Van Gogh's Starry Night. To do this I have some wood carving tools I picked up at Michael's craft store. Clay tools really aren't sharp enough. i also have a couple small loops for carving out.

I printed off the picture. To conserve ink I just printed it under the "draft" setting. Didn't need a really nice print, just to get the idea. I used a regular ball tip pen to transfer it to the pumpkin. I did this freehand. You can make a couple pricks through the print to get a few points for size reference.

To start carving i clipped my print to a board so I could have it to look at as I went. After gutting the pumpkin and thinning the walls I got one of the tap lights that are battery powered and put it inside. I put the light in a sandwich bag 1st so it didn't get pumpkin on it. I liked the light so much that we ended up using it instead of candles when we were done.

To get the walls a uniform thickness i have a needle probe in my set and poked it through teh wall in several spots to cofirm that it was all the same thickness. I scraped it to about 1/2 - 3/4 inch thickness.

 

 I used a small curved blade for most of the pumpkin. To get the crisp outlines I partially cut into the skin following the lines I made than used a flat chisel blade and cut towards the outline cuts and chipped out small bits to create the outlines.

Slowly carve in layers! You can't un-carve. I worked away at he moon with large and small curved blades. I used a hole punch for the stars (you can see the tools in the background... and the pumpkin all over me!)

 Pumpkins like this are in revese. The deeper you go the brighter the spots get. I used the edge of the angled chisel to scrape the deepest lines by the mountain and moon. the Moon is nearly cut through on the outer edge and I did cut through around the points and circle

For the buildings I poked in straight with a flat chisel than cut towards my 1st cut to chip out the flesh.

 This angle shows the moon well.

 When I'm done I wash the pumpkin inside and out to get any hanging bits. this really does make a huge difference in how clean the lines of a pumpkin look! i than went and checked for any areas that needed touch ups.

This was only the 2nd time I have done a shadow pumpkin. I really am happy with this. I think I could have had more depth around the stars, but this is pretty good!

Thse are pumpkins that my kids did.

My daughter Anja's pumpkin

 My youngest son, Michael's pumpkin. he will be 9 in January and he cut this by himself!

You can see the tap light in this one. They really do work great!

 And my older son, Robert's pumpkin.

Halloween and... Pumpkins!

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. for me it feels like the whole holiday season kicks off with Halloween.

I took Anja to see the Rocky Horror Picture show Friday night. I did watch the movie with her at home a few weeks back and explained what seeing it in the theater would be like. But you just cannot explain well enough what the RHPS experience is like to someone who has not been through it.

Our theater didn't allow water but we brought our toast, rice, cards, nose makers, party hats, and toilet paper. We didn't have news paper. When the move started and people were yelling at the screen I don't think she quite knew what to think. Than at the wedding sceene when the rice started to fly she just exclaimed Oh My God! Of course I did what any good mother would do... handed her rice!

The theater was sold out. When they yelled Dr. Scott! I handed her our roll of toilet paper, she asked what to do with it and I told her to throw it ♥

She did have a good time. This is a shot of us at the theater


So we carved our pumpkins last night. We carve the day before or Halloween day because the thin line designs don't last long. I am very proud of mine this year. I think this is my best one yet!

and in the dark


Anja did Jack


and these are the boys pumpkins (Robert's is the one in front)



I dressed up for the trick-or-treaters this year. The makup is more convincing when not under such bright light. I stopped by unannounced to my sister's house and I scared my niece. I asked Anja to take a photo before i started to wash up. She only got a face shot. I had a gaping wound in the middle of my neck and my shirt was shredded (I had a flesh color cami underneath) and sprayed w/fake blood.

Halloween 09

So these are my halloween 2009 photos! I didn't get to put as much into it as I normally do. My pumpkin didn't turn out quite as good as I had hoped. it's suposed to be Jack from "nightmare before christmas" and the other ones are the kids pumpkins. Michaels's is crying (anja did that one) and Robert's has the goofy mouth.

I somewhat decked out the porch for the cause. now to get all that cotton down! I'm going to see if I can get a better photo of my pumpkin tonight. last night was really windy and my candles kept blowing out.

The Piglet costume is one I made my self w/o a pattern several years ago for Anja.

My favoriate Halloween photo

This is a old photo. In fact Robert is wearing this same Tigger costume this year and Anja is 12 now. But her cousin Brad is in the front