Re: Joey's 2012 Jack-o-Lantern Thread! [Updated 10/29]
Posted: 13 Nov 2012 02:30 am
I am the triple posting master! Muwahahahaha!
Nah seriously, got to update with the last pumpkins! I have not forgotten! First up, some carving from the weekend after Halloween, which is totally a reasonable time to still be carving pumpkins:
The Haunted House from Zombie Pumpkins that I had wanted to carve on Halloween but ran out of time! It went and cracked on me when I rehydrated it to take pictures, but it still looks ok so I posted it anyway.
Then I moved on to my official group theme of the year, pumpkins inspired by my trip to Japan:
This took forever, but I'm really happy with the results. It's a waka poem from the Kokinshu, which translates to:
There is deep sadness in autumn's every aspect.
Only consider how leaves fall and meet their end still flaunting their brilliant hues.
I was trying to capture the mono no aware type feeling of the sadness of transience. Which totally applies to pumpkin carving.
Then I carved a maneki neko, because I came home with like 4 of the statues, they're so cute.
And then a Noh mask, since they're creepy so I figured they'd be fitting on a pumpkin. I also got to see some live Noh while in Japan. Got kind of experimental with this one.
And finally, a temple silhouette and sunset. Kyoto's got temples everywhere, this one in particular is based on the Toji Temple. I tried a little bit of pumpkin sculpting with this one, and I'm really liking how it turned out.
All together:
With these four I tried to carve a little more artistically than my usual fanart pumpkins, and I'm really happy with the result. I tried entering the later picture into a still life photo contest, but as of now I've been disqualified since the contest runner believes that I missed the deadline (I didn't).
Normally that would be it for the year, but I had a few designs that I had missed out on carving that I still wanted to finish, so I extended the season into this weekend as well:
Princess Luna, from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I actually watched most of FiM while carving this weekend, so I'm all ponied out. I'm super super happy with how this one turned out. The pics don't really do it justice, I think.
Milotic, since I had the time and a good sized pumpkin, and someone suggested it. Unfortunately outshined by my other two this weekend, but it's still a darn good carve I think.
And finally, Princess Zelda. I've carved a lot of really awesome pumpkins this year, but I'm actually thinking that this one may be the best. It took 9 hours, and there are 7 different layers total. It totally made the extra weekend of pumpkin carving worth it.
All together:
Kind of an impromptu Princess theme going on, if you consider Milotic a princessy pokemon. I think I was up til like 4 last night just staring at all these guys glowing.
So that's it for this year! I do have one pumpkin left, but I'm pretty exhausted of spending every weekend carving and need a good break now. I ended up carving 19 this year, plus the 4 watermelons. Not a bad total.
Nah seriously, got to update with the last pumpkins! I have not forgotten! First up, some carving from the weekend after Halloween, which is totally a reasonable time to still be carving pumpkins:
The Haunted House from Zombie Pumpkins that I had wanted to carve on Halloween but ran out of time! It went and cracked on me when I rehydrated it to take pictures, but it still looks ok so I posted it anyway.
Then I moved on to my official group theme of the year, pumpkins inspired by my trip to Japan:
This took forever, but I'm really happy with the results. It's a waka poem from the Kokinshu, which translates to:
There is deep sadness in autumn's every aspect.
Only consider how leaves fall and meet their end still flaunting their brilliant hues.
I was trying to capture the mono no aware type feeling of the sadness of transience. Which totally applies to pumpkin carving.
Then I carved a maneki neko, because I came home with like 4 of the statues, they're so cute.
And then a Noh mask, since they're creepy so I figured they'd be fitting on a pumpkin. I also got to see some live Noh while in Japan. Got kind of experimental with this one.
And finally, a temple silhouette and sunset. Kyoto's got temples everywhere, this one in particular is based on the Toji Temple. I tried a little bit of pumpkin sculpting with this one, and I'm really liking how it turned out.
All together:
With these four I tried to carve a little more artistically than my usual fanart pumpkins, and I'm really happy with the result. I tried entering the later picture into a still life photo contest, but as of now I've been disqualified since the contest runner believes that I missed the deadline (I didn't).
Normally that would be it for the year, but I had a few designs that I had missed out on carving that I still wanted to finish, so I extended the season into this weekend as well:
Princess Luna, from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I actually watched most of FiM while carving this weekend, so I'm all ponied out. I'm super super happy with how this one turned out. The pics don't really do it justice, I think.
Milotic, since I had the time and a good sized pumpkin, and someone suggested it. Unfortunately outshined by my other two this weekend, but it's still a darn good carve I think.
And finally, Princess Zelda. I've carved a lot of really awesome pumpkins this year, but I'm actually thinking that this one may be the best. It took 9 hours, and there are 7 different layers total. It totally made the extra weekend of pumpkin carving worth it.
All together:
Kind of an impromptu Princess theme going on, if you consider Milotic a princessy pokemon. I think I was up til like 4 last night just staring at all these guys glowing.
So that's it for this year! I do have one pumpkin left, but I'm pretty exhausted of spending every weekend carving and need a good break now. I ended up carving 19 this year, plus the 4 watermelons. Not a bad total.