How lucky I was to finish my pumpkins in time for today’s Halloween display. This year I had a lot of trouble coming up with ideas first until I surfed the web for inspiration. I actually found some material I can use next year.

The weather was cool enough and helped these pumpkins to stay in a good shape for a few days. It was also good I started out quite late this time. We got the pumpkins last Sunday. I was still working on some of the patterns before I could begin to transfer them. On Monday evening I carved my first pumpkin. The following evenings were dedicated to the other pumpkins.

When Ingmar Bergman died last year I thought about dedicating one pumpkin to one of the greatest directors in cinematic history. I tried to create a pattern based on one of his movies, I thought about The 7th Seal or Hour of the Wolf, but then I thought nothing would be more appropriate than a portrait of the master himself. It turned out really well. I’m very happy with the result.

This motive was such a lucky find. Originally I was just looking for ideas relating to George Orwell’s 1984, and got reminded of Shepard Fairey‘s work who impressed me with his Orwell book covers, Obama posters, and his other propaganda style obey posters and stencils before. I found this ‘obey frank’ stencil here, and thought it was just perfect and almost already made for my pumpkin. A few minor adjustments and I was ready to carve Donnie Darko’s Frank.

My third pumpkin was dedicated to Stanley Kubrick’s unforgettable Clockwork Orange and my costume this year. It turned out well although I once lost a bit of track in the facial area.

With these more complex patterns of 3 shades it’s nearly impossible to work with a ‘poke-along-the-outline’ technique. I found it very difficult to trace the outline with a pen, too–pressing hard enough, or using transfer paper. Standard carbon transfer paper doesn’t stick on the pumpkin surface. A blue textile transfer paper worked better before, but not well enough. I found the best way to transfer a pattern is to print it out, perhaps in 4 tiles, then cut the carving areas out with a scalpel or sharp blades. Paper is easy to cut, and such a template will make it much easier to transfer. All you have to do is fill the holes with a sharpie and then carve out the filled areas. Spray paint might work there, too. Maybe I will try that next year.

The last pumpkin was inspired by M.C. Escher’s tesselations, in this example his lizards. Actually, it was my first pumpkin I carved as a warm-up piece on Monday. I tried to save it later, but without much success. I made so many mistakes with this one: It all started when I cleaned the interior of the pumpkin out. I didn’t remove enough from the inside, so the wall I had to carve ended much thicker than I wanted it to be. Mistake #2 was the transfer. I first used my old method that worked alright for simple one-sided patterns. But it didn’t work well  in 360 degrees around the pumpkin-shape. The lizards didn’t match up properly, and I tried to fix it manually with a pen. In the end I got nothing but a chaotic pen-drawing on the pumpkin’s surface that didn’t work at all.

So I started over and cut out a single lizard to use as a template. This worked much better because a single lizard fit much better on the pumpkin surface and made it easy to trace along its outlines without having to use transfer paper, pushing pens hard or poking needles. With the existing drawing the outlines turned even more chaotic and difficult to identify. I could hardly see which lizard to carve as a hole, shave off from the surface or leave intact.

The first test didn’t look great at all, you couldn’t recognize any of the lizards. Yesterday I worked on this again and completed the 360 degree circumference. I could improve the outcome somewhat, and it didn’t look too bad after all. However, it didn’t look as I intended. Next year I will have to try another one. :)

Happy Halloween!

Last weekend it was time again for a two day meditation on a hand full of pumpkins. What would our favorite holiday be without a carving challenge? I have to admit that again I had some difficulties in getting into the right mood this year. It was way too warm, and I wasn’t sure which subjects to choose this time. Luckily the weather cooled down after last week’s rainy days, and I was finally all ready and set to carve my new patterns.

I believe David Lynch’s Eraserhead was my first pick this year. It has been one of my favorite films for many years, and not too long ago I was reminded of it when I read about the coming Eraserhead screenings at the Charles threatre. So no question, this had to be a perfect pattern.

Next, there’s Freddy vs. Jason although I have never actually seen the 2003 film of the same name. I grew up with both Freddy Krueger and Jason as great horror icons of the 80s, and still remember when I saw first Nightmare on Elm Street. So I had to create a pumpkin with both of them. At the same time I thought it would be great to have one motif everybody could recognize. This pumpkin turned out to be very difficult because there was not much material to cut out. After hours of work I didn’t like the final result at all, but after I saw the photos thought it was alright in the end.

The third pumpkin is graphic novelist Alan Moore in the famous Aleister Crowley pose. I always enjoyed Alan Moore’s work, and a reference to “The Wickedest Man in the World” seemed quite appropriate for Halloween.

The fourth and last pumpkin is Klaus Kinski in Werner Herzog’s 1979 Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht. Maybe a bit obscure for a Halloween pumpkin, but a great pick for moviegoers!

Enjoy, and Happy Halloween!

Last year I skipped Halloween and my carving tradition because we were in Germany during that time. I decided two make up for this and carve a few more this time. After some initial troubles trying to come up with an idea I finally remembered a creepy scene: the face that flashes in a dream sequence for just a split second in the original Exorcist.

This gave birth to my idea to create a pumpkin series of classic horror movie moments. Now it was easy to come up with Jack Nicholson in The Shining, the mystery man in David Lynch’s Lost Highway and, as a warm-up piece, Pi, hinting at Darren Aronofsky’s movie of the same name.

For the first time ever I also carved an apple this year: the Cheshire Cat from Alice In Wonderland. I’m really surprised it stayed in such a good shape for several weeks after I applied some lemon juice.

Happy Halloween!