Pumpkin Carving!

Short post today. This year for Hallowe'en, I got to go to a pumpkin-carving meetup. Over the years, I've become something of a pumpkin-carving nerd, and have graduated to designing my own patterns. In today's post, I'll share about the pumpkin I carved, and a couple of patterns I've designed in the past. Maybe I'll update this post in the future with future carvings!

Designing your own pumpkin carving patterns is fairly easy to do using a vector-graphics program called Inkscape. Vector graphics created in Inkscape are a great way to create pumpkin patterns, since they let you create precise shapes without pixelation. I could have used something like MS Paint for this, but since Paint is a raster application that draws pixels, it is tricky to go back and change the shapes of my primitives later on. This can be a problem as your pattern evolves, and you want to make changes.

The Result

Because I value your time, I'll start with the good stuff right away. Here's the pumpkin I carved:

Pattern - PDF

Pattern - SVG (Vector Graphic)

Creating the Design

The first step is to download and install Inkscape. Their server is a bit flaky, so you may need to refresh the webpage several times to get it to load.

While it installs, you can find an image that you want to turn into a pumpkin pattern. I chose this picture of Captain Redbeard:

Import the template image into Inkscape, and put it in its own layer. Then, click the little 'opacity' control and lower the opacity so it's easier to see the vectors you draw

I'm a fancy pumpkin carver, and I like to cut the pumpkin up and also scrape off the the skin to get a translucent effect. This is useful when you want to have part of your carving glow, but don't want to compromise on structural integrity, or when you want to create fine details. I decided to scrape the skin for redbeard's hair, and for the skull on his hat. To make your life easier, create two layers in your Inkscape drawing: one for collecting parts you want to scrape, and one for parts you want to cut.

Then, start drawing shapes in the 'Scrape' and 'Cut' layers. I mostly used the 'Pen' tool to rough out my shapes, and the 'Node' tool to sculpt them to the contours of my template image.

Select the 'Node Tool', then click on the edge of the shape to drag it around to match the contours of your template image.

Select the 'Node Tool' then click and drag the edge of the shape to make it match the contours of your template image.

You can also use the 'Insert Node' tool to add extra nodes if you want to make the shape have extra corners, like the hair shapes or the crossbones.

Eventually, you should have lots of shapes to suggest the shape of your template image. Use your judgement and taste to hint at lines instead of drawing over every line in your template image, because your resulting carving needs to still be connected to the pumpkin body!