A glowing jack-o'-lantern is one of the simplest ways to make
Halloween feel like Halloween.
The classic face still works perfectly, but a pumpkin also gives
you a surprisingly good little canvas for creating silhouettes,
landscapes and spooky scenes.
Below are three GhostlyTV design ideas ranging from a haunted
house to creatures of the night. You can copy them closely or
simply use them as inspiration for your own design.
Choose Your Pumpkin
Before choosing a design, look at the pumpkin itself.
A broad, fairly smooth pumpkin gives you more room for detailed
scenes, while smaller or oddly shaped pumpkins can be perfect for
simpler faces and characters.
Simple
Large shapes, bold eyes and wide openings are easier to
carve and show up clearly after dark.
Detailed
Haunted houses, trees and animals work best on a broad,
relatively smooth carving surface.
Silhouette
Dark shapes surrounded by glowing cut-outs can create
dramatic scenes without requiring tiny details.
Carving Tips
Complicated designs become much easier if you plan them before
making the first cut.
Draw first.
Sketch the design directly onto the pumpkin with a
washable marker before carving.
Work from the centre outward.
Carving smaller internal details first can reduce the
chance of accidentally weakening the whole design.
Keep important bridges thick.
Narrow pieces of pumpkin can snap easily. Leave enough
material connecting important parts of the design.
Test the light.
Turn the room lights off occasionally and illuminate the
pumpkin from inside. You'll quickly see which areas need
opening or thinning.
You don't always need to cut through.
Carefully removing only the outer skin allows light to
glow through the pumpkin flesh and can create different
levels of brightness.
Don't Chase Perfection
One of the best things about carving a pumpkin is that it doesn't
need to be perfect.
Uneven teeth, crooked windows and strange-looking trees often make
a jack-o'-lantern more interesting. Once the lights go down and
the pumpkin starts glowing, tiny mistakes tend to disappear.
And if something goes catastrophically wrong, there is always the
traditional emergency solution:
Make the hole bigger and claim it was intentional.
Make Your Own
These three designs are starting points rather than strict
templates. Mix pieces from each one or invent something completely
different.
Put the haunted house beneath the wolf's moon. Add the cat to the
graveyard. Fill the sky with bats. Or ignore all of it and carve
the most ridiculous face you can think of.
When the candle goes in and the lights go out, it's a
jack-o'-lantern either way.
