"Obama Hope" Pumpkin Carving & Pattern

[sfam]

Hi all, here's my carving of Obama's famous pop-style poster:




Here's a day shot:



If you're familiar with pumpkin carving, give it a go. Here's the pattern I created - first the mockup:




And the pattern, which you trace onto the pumpkin:





For other carvings, feel free to check out my site:

http://www.fantasypumpkins.com

[tblue]

1. Is that hard to do? I'm not really good at artsy stuff.

[sfam]

4. Its easier than it looks, but there are a few difficult parts of this...

The eyes and the rainbow are a tad difficult for those first starting with this type of pumpkin carving.

I've been doing it for a while though...here's my site:

http://www.fantasypumpkins.com

[endthewar]

22. You really think you're going to convince us this is easier than it looks?

Well, I guess you're right since it looks impossible, but is probably only very hard.

[sfam]

26. If you want "impossible", try these carvings...

And yeah, I did all the patterns for these as well...























Actually, the last one, the Death Star, is fairly easy - although I'll be doing it on a 186 pound pumpkin this year, so not so much when you do that size....

But the patterns are all online at my site (http://www.fantasypumpkins.com ) so knock yourself out.

[Frank Booth]

44. Woah! Those are awesome.

[NikolaC]

46. Absolutely Awesome!

I envy you your talent .

[HughBeaumont]

51. The Death Star.

You need to do the vampire Bewsh. If I didn't have so many Repuke neighbors, I'd do it also.

[Parker CA]

2. Those are incredible! How long did it take you to do the Obama one?

What kind of tools do you use? I'm guessing it gets pretty precise with the cutting and shaving needs.

Very, very cool!! I might give it a go if you can lend some advice on what tools to use.

[sfam]

3. About 4 hours, but I did lots of minor cleanup. I just fixed the eye for instance...

For tools to you, you want to use "V" groove woodworking tools for like 5 bucks. Or splurge for a speedball set for like 12 bucks. You can get these at your local craft store.

Here's a link to show you want you can use:

http://www.carvingpumpkins.com/sales/pwshop.shtml

Carvingpumpkins.com also has pretty good instructions on how to get started with 3-color patterns.

[beltanefauve]

5. Wow, thanks for this,

sfam! You're incredibly talented! And thanks for sharing the carving tips, too! I've tried my hand at this a few times and it's great fun!

[Joe the Liberal]

6. Careful Republikkkans might try to steal that....

Just like they have been stealing all of the Obama signs.

[sfam]

8. I'm actually thinking of dropping this off at the local Obama office on Halloween...

I'm guessin folks will still be doing calls then. If so, this should raise their spirits some.

Anyways, I'll have another 25 pumpkins sitting outside my house, so stealing isn't really a worry. There's pretty decent traffic at my place that night.

[Joe the Liberal]

9. Sounds like a great idea.

I forgot to mention that you did a really great job.

[Raine]

7. COOL...

GREAT job!!!

[silverojo]

10. Holy crap, that's amazing!!! - n/t

[VolcanoJen]

11. OMG... you're amazing!!!

You're an artist! How beautiful!!! Thank you for sharing this!

[krkaufman]

12. impressive! n/t

[Hope And Change]

13. K & R!

[1Hippiechick]

14. I get it - where the pattern is white, no pulp is carved away. Depth of carving determined by

degree of white (no pulp carved out), black (where the most pulp is carved away thus allowing more light through), and grey (less carved out than the black part of pattern.) Makes perfect sense - would have never thought to do this, though. (No copyright violation, is it?)

Great!

Hmmmmmm...I like this pattern better than lipstick on a pig!

[sfam]

18. Disney is really the only worried about pumpkin carving copywright violations...

A few years back, there was bunches of free patterns posted that people made from Disney characters. Really, this was free marketing for Disney in the sense that there's something magical about transitory art - its only there for that day, and then its gone. Lots of folks carved Disney characters for their neighborhood to see. So I still carve Disney pumpkins, and share the patterns via email to the pumpkin carving community, but I don't post them on my website (which is really just a holding bin for my carvings and patterns I give away).

Disney sent out bunches of Cease and Desist letters to everyone, so nobody puts their Disney patterns online anymore.

Regarding my own patterns, I usually contact the artists whose prints I use to make my pumpkin patterns. For instance, this year I'm doing a cool fairy pattern from Molly Harrison - she's thrilled to see this carved.

Regarding the carving itself, yeah - you either cut all the way through, or you scrape off the skin. You need to carve the inside to about 1/2 inch thick. In some cases (like my Obama carving), the pumpkin will have deep green veins which dirty up the carving. There is little you can do about this, but this is a minor problem.

[kywildcat]

15. You are gifted! Thank you. nt

[Clio the Leo]

16. Here's one I did of John McCain....

I'm really not all that talented, but I think I at least got the teeth right.

[sfam]

33. One of the pumpkin carvers did the McCain "Nope" pattern...It's a Carving Contest now...

In the pumpkin carving community, things are a tad more toned down, but still...

http://www.carvingpumpkins.com/newqna/viewtopic.php?t=5...

Paul, the guy who did the McCain pattern is a great carver - I'm interested to see how he does with his McCain pattern, but, um, I bet mine is better!

[alphafemale]

17. That's great!

[sfam]

19. Thanks for all the compliments everyone.

Thanks for the kind words. Hopefully the carving and pattern get out into the blogosphere.

[BlooInBloo]

20. NIIIIIIICE!

[sfam]

21. BTW, if I get around to it, my next political carving is far less hopeful...

Here's the pattern I'm working on now...



I'm a big believer that Halloween, at least in front of my house, isn't about politics - its for the kids (and teens). So I won't be putting this out in front of my house with my other 20-some pumpkins (I learned this right after 9/11 - I did a Uncle Sam pumpkin and got absolutely no comments or interest in this - the reaction made it clear that they were looking to escape from the world's issues, which I fully agree is necessary on occaision).

But if there's interest online for a picture of this (or perhaps if someone in the DC area would want to take this to a Democratic event around Halloween), I'll take the 6-7 hours or so to make it.

[Basement Beat]

23. Wow awesome stuff...

I do a lot of stencil/spraypaint art so I'll give this go!

[sfam]

24. Oh, I'd love to see that!

Do it!

[RayOfHope]

25. Did you send it to yeswecarve.com? They would love it! (Its the Barack O'Lantern site) n/t

[sfam]

27. I sent both the pattern and pumpkin carving to YesWeCarve yesterday...

Hope to see it online today.

[RayOfHope]

29. Yes! You did an AMAZING job. I could barely carve the "O", lol. n/t

[Cha]

28. True artistic

genius! Are you kidding me!

[Beaverhausen]

30. way cool!

[Lorien]

31. That's wonderful! I've sent it out to my friends

and I LOVE your site!

[sfam]

32. All compliments accepted. Thanks!

And yeah, send it out far and wide.

[boppers]

34. YES WE CARVE

http://yeswecarve.com/index.php

...a website just for Obama pumpkins. (You should totally submit images!)

[sfam]

35. I sent them late last night to YesWeCarve...hopefully they go up soon...nt

[lizzieforkerry]

36. Amazing!

My 7 year old son walked by just as I was looking at your death star. I guess we are going to give that one a try. Thanks for the inspiration! You have added some special magic to our Halloween.

[sfam]

37. Oh terrific! You saw the tutorial, right? BTW, I have a 186lb pumpkin for the death star this year

Should be fun!

[sfam]

38. Kick...

[ailsagirl]

39. WOW! That's awesome!! Thanks for sharing

[Kukesa]

40. Terrific! And thanks for sharing the patterns. n/t

[phusion]

41. WOW

awesome stuff. I checked out your website too!

I'm going to try something like this I think...Thanks!

[sfam]

42. I'm always looking to indoctrinate more pumpkin carvers...

Good luck!!!

[minnesota_liberal]

43. I like it but scary pumpkins are my forte

Can you do a design for a scary McCain pumpkin?

[sfam]

45. Here ya go...

[minnesota_liberal]

48. Thanks!

[medicswife]

47. Holy Crap fricking awesome!!!! I now have a project! :)

[sfam]

49. Be sure to post the picture!

[HughBeaumont]

50. Guess who's ALSO on DU!!

Great carve and what's up from the PW message board???

[sfam]

52. Hey Hugh, Howaya? Lets see your Obama carve!

And I actually call it the carvingpumpkins.com message board - it has two domain names hitting it, but such is life.

Its nice to see you here. I say we take over the pumpkin carving contest. I'm trying to get Villafane here, which of course would mean the contest is over, 'cause if he does one of his sculptures of Obama similar to as well as he just did Predator, we'll all be bowing down to his greatness.

[Beausoir]

53. Wow. That is art.

And waaaayyyy beyond my pumpkin carving skills.

I still do the upside down triangles for the eyes and nose and then do the peg teeth for the mouth.

I would PAY to have someone carve me one of those to put on my front steps.

Very well done.

[sfam]

54. There are many out there who do take orders for pumpkins...lemme know...

if you want some leads.

Personally though, I keep money far away from my pumpkin carving. I'm quite happy making it a major money losing endeavor.

[road2000]

55. Fantastic!

Farthest I ever got was Garfield!

[sfam]

56. Garfield is always good, but Scooby and Sponge Bob absolutely dominate...

There is NOTHING that beats those two in terms of crowd reaction.

[road2000]

58. Oops!

I was remembering 1988 when my son was four, and Garfield was HUGE!

[D23MIURG23]

57. Badass.

[Steelworker In OH]

59. Heres Mine!

I did a blend of 2 patterns I found online, it's my first skin only carving (tri color), I thought it came out nice. Had it out in front of the house for a while tonight.




I got 3 more to carve this weekend, not political ones, more traditional.

[President Decider]

60. K&R for the PCOA Local #1216 - Pumpkin Carvers of America