Day 3: Wentzville, MO
Wednesday Oct. 22, 2008
After two long days of driving, we took it easy and relaxed at Alan and Tina’s house. We watched their three girls and and 1 nephew get ready for school. Alan was telecommuting so we got time to just hang out and catch up with him and Tina. Julie and Megan wandered around the yard, and the neighborhood, and when the kids came home from school, Julie and Megan spent time with them. While Winston spent time carving a Megan-o-Lantern and in the evening took some group pictures.
How to carve a Megan-o-Lantern (be sure to see the photos for intermediate steps) We brought along our pumpkin carving tools, and a pumpkin because we ran out of time at home prior to the Megan tour to carve it. (Ou pumpkin carving kit includes a set a wood carving tools (sold in craft sections of stores) and pumpkin carving tools that they sell every year around halloween with the rest of halloween paraphernalia. )
See also Joy of Tech’s How to Carve a Mac-o-Lantern.
1. Choose a photo to carve, There isn’t too much detail you can carve, so it should be a photo that has high contrast and very obvious characteristic features. We chose for this year a 16th Month portrait shot.
2. In Photoshop, I cropped out everything but the head, erased the background, lowered the saturation, and increased the contrast. Since you really only have about 4 shades to work with (Black, Reddish-Orange, Orange, Yellow), the contrast is pretty severe.
3. I then printed out two copies, one to put on the pumpkin, and one to use as a reference. (I would recommend that you use a laser printout like I did, rather than an inkjet, because during the transfer process, the pumpkin is going to ooze and ink will run.) I then outline the contour lines to distinguish between the contrast regions. Basically I outline the lightest and the darkest areas. Make sure the lightest areas don’t complete encompass any others. Since you’ll be carving all the way though the lightest areas, any enclosed sections won’t have any support.
4. Picking a pumpkin: a Large pumpkin that has a smooth clean side, that doesn’t have too deep of ridges, and not scarred. Also preferably one that tilts slightly up the side you’re going to carve. The print out you made needs to be the right size for your pumpkin.
5. Secure your printout to the pumpkin. I used tape. You’ll also need to fold sections to account for the curvature of the pumpkin. I make sure all of the folds don’t hide any important features.
6. Carve a rather large opening in the top. (Especially if you’re going to use a lantern to light it up. I usually carve a teardrop shape, so the fit is obvious. ) Clean out the inside of the pumpkin.
7. Use a push pin to transfer the outline to the pumpkin. This can take a while. I started with the outline of the lightest areas, and then used my discretion on the darkest areas. You can see that I sacrificed a bunch of Megan’s bangs to capture the representative curls. I also didn’t try to get every single strand of hair.
8. A drill was used to achieve specular highlights in the eyes, tip of the nose, and the teeth. (I didn’t really like the way the teeth came out, but I’m not exactly sure how to do it better.)
9. With a wood carving knife, I traced over the outlines to transfer them completely. Pieces of paper will fall out as you complete the outline, which gives a rather ghastly effect. Once you’ve traced over all the lines, you can go ahead and remove the rest of the paper.
10. Using a pumpkin saw from a pumpkin carving, carve out the lightest sections first. The lightest sections you carve all the way through like you would for a traditional jack o’lantern.
11. Next for the non-black areas, strip away the rind, I used various gouging tools from the wood carving kit.
12. Once the rind is removed, put a light source inside the pumpkin, I find a lantern or a LED spot light to be handy. Turn off the outside lights and you can see how the portrait glows. Using the wood carving tools, blend the lightest and darkest regions by removing pumpkin flesh, but don’t go all the way through. Remember that the more flesh that remains the darker the shade is. In my case, Megan’s cheeks were too dark, as was the forehead and chin. Also the outline near the chin needed to be expanded
13. Once you’re satisfied with the results, you can have some fun. I carved Megan’s name in the back of the pumpkin by just removing the rind for the letters.
14. Then you can place the Megan-o-Lantern anywhere. As a table setting, as a photo prop, or on your porch.
15. One final note. Pumpkin portraits don’t age well, so don’t carve them too far in advance. As they dry out, they’ll shrivel up and your carefully carved details will be distorted, so don’t wait to take photos
See the Photos
How to carve a Megan-o-Lantern (be sure to see the photos for intermediate steps) We brought along our pumpkin carving tools, and a pumpkin because we ran out of time at home prior to the Megan tour to carve it. (Ou pumpkin carving kit includes a set a wood carving tools (sold in craft sections of stores) and pumpkin carving tools that they sell every year around halloween with the rest of halloween paraphernalia. )
See also Joy of Tech’s How to Carve a Mac-o-Lantern.
1. Choose a photo to carve, There isn’t too much detail you can carve, so it should be a photo that has high contrast and very obvious characteristic features. We chose for this year a 16th Month portrait shot.
2. In Photoshop, I cropped out everything but the head, erased the background, lowered the saturation, and increased the contrast. Since you really only have about 4 shades to work with (Black, Reddish-Orange, Orange, Yellow), the contrast is pretty severe.
3. I then printed out two copies, one to put on the pumpkin, and one to use as a reference. (I would recommend that you use a laser printout like I did, rather than an inkjet, because during the transfer process, the pumpkin is going to ooze and ink will run.) I then outline the contour lines to distinguish between the contrast regions. Basically I outline the lightest and the darkest areas. Make sure the lightest areas don’t complete encompass any others. Since you’ll be carving all the way though the lightest areas, any enclosed sections won’t have any support.
4. Picking a pumpkin: a Large pumpkin that has a smooth clean side, that doesn’t have too deep of ridges, and not scarred. Also preferably one that tilts slightly up the side you’re going to carve. The print out you made needs to be the right size for your pumpkin.
5. Secure your printout to the pumpkin. I used tape. You’ll also need to fold sections to account for the curvature of the pumpkin. I make sure all of the folds don’t hide any important features.
6. Carve a rather large opening in the top. (Especially if you’re going to use a lantern to light it up. I usually carve a teardrop shape, so the fit is obvious. ) Clean out the inside of the pumpkin.
7. Use a push pin to transfer the outline to the pumpkin. This can take a while. I started with the outline of the lightest areas, and then used my discretion on the darkest areas. You can see that I sacrificed a bunch of Megan’s bangs to capture the representative curls. I also didn’t try to get every single strand of hair.
8. A drill was used to achieve specular highlights in the eyes, tip of the nose, and the teeth. (I didn’t really like the way the teeth came out, but I’m not exactly sure how to do it better.)
9. With a wood carving knife, I traced over the outlines to transfer them completely. Pieces of paper will fall out as you complete the outline, which gives a rather ghastly effect. Once you’ve traced over all the lines, you can go ahead and remove the rest of the paper.
10. Using a pumpkin saw from a pumpkin carving, carve out the lightest sections first. The lightest sections you carve all the way through like you would for a traditional jack o’lantern.
11. Next for the non-black areas, strip away the rind, I used various gouging tools from the wood carving kit.
12. Once the rind is removed, put a light source inside the pumpkin, I find a lantern or a LED spot light to be handy. Turn off the outside lights and you can see how the portrait glows. Using the wood carving tools, blend the lightest and darkest regions by removing pumpkin flesh, but don’t go all the way through. Remember that the more flesh that remains the darker the shade is. In my case, Megan’s cheeks were too dark, as was the forehead and chin. Also the outline near the chin needed to be expanded
13. Once you’re satisfied with the results, you can have some fun. I carved Megan’s name in the back of the pumpkin by just removing the rind for the letters.
14. Then you can place the Megan-o-Lantern anywhere. As a table setting, as a photo prop, or on your porch.
15. One final note. Pumpkin portraits don’t age well, so don’t carve them too far in advance. As they dry out, they’ll shrivel up and your carefully carved details will be distorted, so don’t wait to take photos
See the Photos