Kam-tastic

I don't know if any of you got the hint from my last post, but I decided to brush up on my pumpkin carving skills today. Some people train for marathons by running before the event; I train for Halloween by carving watermelons.

OK, so honestly, there's nothing special about watermelons and I don't actually do this every year.

I just happened to have an uneaten watermelon lying around. And since Kam's birthday's coming up, I decided to do one of him. I asked Jenny to send me some pictures of this snarky face that he does. We decided that one of them would be perfect if we just added some horns...



Jenny's the one that actually drew on the horns. I think they're perfect, as is that sweet face and the arched eyebrows. Isn't he just the cutest thing ever?

Oh, and I made the executive decision that for this portrait, Kam would be bald. I just couldn't face all that thin hair. Not until I figure out a better way to do it, anyway.

One of these days, if I have an entire weekend to do nothing but carve pumpkins, take pictures and write instructions (because there are a lot of instructions), I'll post exactly how I do this. Until then, please check out this fantastic tutorial by Nitrozac. It's where I got the idea for this. For the most part, I follow the steps he describes.
Here is my abbreviated version...
-Find (or make) high contrast black & white picture.
-Draw lines around white areas, gray areas and black areas.
-Tape to watermelon/pumpkin with clear packing tape.
-Use pushpin to mark dots along lines.
-Drill white dot in middle of iris.
-Completely carve out the white areas, remove skin on gray areas and leave black areas alone.
-Look at it lit up, in the dark and refine.

So, I didn't actually get any pictures of the in between part. Mainly because I was, you know, carving. I did stop to eat some pizza and watch 30 Rock, but other than that, I kept at it. And it really wasn't that difficult. It took me about 2 hours or so. Doing his gigantic noggin was the most tedious part. Very hard to get smooth. I need to get a better scraper. And I definitely like the eye on the right (when looking at the picture) better than the one on the left. And the ear was a bitch. I just couldn't figure it out. But I think for the most part, it turned out pretty cool. I think I'm getting better.



You also may have noticed the flashlight shining in on it from the left there. This is because after I cut off the top (and Jenny and Kam helped scrape out all the pink stuff) I realized that Kam's head would fit much better if it were sitting sideways. So, there's tip number one... match your picture to your watermelon/pumpkin before you cut into it. Although, it did work out fine, because it was easy to refine with the flashlight just lying next to it to light it up.

And here's a picture showing it with the lights on. The Kam-mask with the glowing green eyes lying next to the watermelon is what I pulled off after poking it all over with a pushpin.



The cool thing is that the eyes actually turned green after I drilled into the middle of them. I guess if you did this on a pumpkin, they might turn orange.

So, I guess that's it.

Happy Birthday, Kam! If this doesn't show you how strange your Auntie Dee Dee is, you're just not paying attention.