Quote:
Originally Posted by bethene
HolyMoly!!!! I can not believe how beautiful and detailed your pumpkins are!! Wow!! I have done some degining pumpkins, they turned out prettty good, for a beginner. I usually have so many thnigs going on that i don't take the time to get alot of pumpkins done, even though i love them. Again, Wow, fantasitc work!! Do you grow your own pumpkins, or buy them?
|
Right now I just buy them. I get my large ones (70 pounds or above) near the end of September so I get them before the hotels and business snatch them up (they use them for their entrance way displays). But my mother recently got a place in the country with like 8 acres on it. Either this year or next I'm going to plant seeds and see how they do.
Also, I usually already have a decent idea what I'm going to carve when looking for my pumpkins. Sometimes I need a nice flat "portrait" surface to do a large shot like the Maleficent Dragon above. Other times I'm looking for a round pumpkin - I need this for pumpkin "sculpting" efforts like doing the Star Wars Death Star (posted later). Other times I'm looking for a mid-sized pumpkin with two good "sides" to do two patterns on it, like the two dragons above, for instance. In general, smoother surfaces are usually better - this too is a factor. Most important though is to get one that's not rotted. This has been a real problem the last few years.
You guys here will probably appreciate this one more than most. This is the Lord Of Darkness from the Legend movie:
Unfortunately, the pumpkin wasn't the best to carve on, so I wasn't totally thrilled with his face, but I thought the rest of him turned out OK. I made the pattern from a bust I own:
