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pumpkinsbylisa — Goblin
Published: 2007-02-14 06:58:17 +0000 UTC; Views: 5498; Favourites: 95; Downloads: 0
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Goblin, 2005Sculpted with a paring knife.
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Comments: 18
wow this must be even harder than the others man you must be a pro or something
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Not exactly scary, but I like it. I was actually thinking of trying relief carving myself. Maybe start with a flat skinned surface on the outside, then take a dremmel on the inside so that only when the light's on do you see a scary face. Otherwise, you see just a flat featureless circle.
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For some reason, this looks very... touchable, like something a little kid would be drawn to in an art gallery.
Negative image or not, I'm curious what this would look like all lit up.
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Thank you! It was actually really fun to touch. After the pumpkin is out for a few hours it starts to feel like leather. Since you asked so nicely.... here is a pic of it lit up [link]
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Oh, wow. His mouth is really quite blinding.
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Yep, it's definitely not as cool lit up.
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fantastic work! really lovely, even though it is quite scary. He looks like he's going to jump out .. great!
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Picked this one because it was the only one shot in daylight,is the relief carving like this that allowes you to get the tone variation?I'm simply blown away,by all of them-never seen anything like,would probably not have believed that it was possible,quite literally at a loss for words...
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This is actually the only pumpkin that is carved in relief. Relief carving actually causes the pumpkin to display a negative image when it is lit up. That's because the high areas in the carving (which should actually be a highlight) glow darkest when lit because there is more skin for the light to shine through. That's why this one is shot in daylight. The rest of my pumpkins are carved in a technique that only looks correct when lit. It's a 3 color carving technique where the cut through areas are the brightest, partially shaved skin is the middle tone, and left alone pumpkin is the dark tone. I take a photograph and using photoshop, I decide which areas should be which of the three tones, paying special attention to what is being cut out to make sure all the pieces are connected.
The photoshop piece is actually the most difficult part. Then I transfer the pattern and start carving. To give you an example of what it looks like when it is lit in the dark vs. a day light shot: daylight shot [link] night/lit shot: [link]
When I tried my hand at relief carving for the first time, I really enjoyed it and wanted to pursue it more. I felt like that would take me to more of a "respected" medium. So I decided to enroll in a wood carving class at a local art center. The day before the class was supposed to start, I got a call from the art center telling me that the class didn't get enough people to sign up so they were cancelling it. They asked if I would like to take something else in the mean time. Just by chance there was some sort of ceramics class that happened to be offered on the same day and time as the wood carving class. I wasn't the least bit interested in ceramics. I actually disliked pottery, but I was disappointed that I was going to have to wait an entire session, so I figured this would help pass the time. Needless to say, I never ended up taking the wood carving class, and you see what has come out of the pottery class. That was in March 06. It's funny how things fall into place sometimes. So, when people ask, "How did you decide to become a potter?" it's always a difficult question to answer. Somehow "because I was an obsessive pumpkin carver" doesn't really make much sense.
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Wow,Lisa-that is something else,simply unimaginable how many complex skills involved.You know how it is nowadays,how art is cloaked in some fudgy pop-psychology,with the technique mostly frowned upon,but i,for one,hold that skill and organisation of this very sort is indispencible to anyone hoping to get anywhere as a visual artist.Deeply gratefull for you taking the trouble to describe it so congently.
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I'm fascinated by techniques. It's the biggest reason I create art. I never went to an art class before I took the pottery class. However, I have been making things out of other things for as long as I can remember. So I LOVE to share techniques with others and learn about others' techniques. That's what makes a piece of art interesting to me - knowing what they went through to get the finished product. I guess that makes me more of a craftsman than an actual "artist" but that's ok with me.
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That's a great way to be,i can really respect that.It implies that your mind is always open to improving your art,to call oneself an artist is not only presumtious but indicates some final,static state,no further to go.Tastes,aesthetics,they all are transitory,and often meaningless,only the quality of material and execution are constant,of real value,both to the craftsman and to the person who ends up posessing the object,hopefully for a long time.
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