3D Pumpkin Carving - Brainy Monster

Hello. It's a Halloween tradition for me to carve a few 3 D pumpkins every year. This is one of my newest creations. This was a fairly large pumpkin that I picked to carve. I thought it would be fun if I made the top 1/3 of the pumpkin a brain that could be separated from the face at the bottom. I tried to give it a real Frankenstein's monster/Zombie kind of vibe.

1. pumpkin
2. exacto knife
3. sculpting tools (I mainly use just the small triangle shaped tool and the peeler tool)
4. knife
5. lights

My first step was to draw out what I wanted to carve on paper first. It is easier for me to get a better idea of what I want to carve if I have an image to refer to. For example, on this pumpkin the top part was a brain. I only vaguely remember what a brain looks like, so I needed to get a picture of a brain for a more detailed reference. Not everyone works the same way, you may not need to draw anything out beforehand. For me that has always been a big help.

I started by using the sculpting tool in the picture. I call it the peeler (not sure of the actual name). I use the edge of it to carve a line across the top half of the pumpkin first. Then I start scraping downward. I scrape off half of the skin on the pumpkin. It is basically like peeling a potato. It will be messy. Be sure to keep a broom handy to sweep all the peels off the ground.

The main two tools I use to carve are the small triangle sculpting tool and an exacto knife. The pumpkin should be skinned at this point. I like to think of the exacto knife as an outliner. It is used to create depth which makes areas stand out more. I usually lightly use the triangle tool to carve a rough sketch of what I want to create on the pumpkin. I almost always start with the right eye. I made mine into a diamond shape. I cut out about an inch of pumpkin for the eye hole. Then I started to make a spherical shape inside the hole. I used the exacto knife at the edges of the eye hole to give it more depth. His eye is looking upward so I used the exacto knife to cut a circle towards the top of the eye. I then used the back of the triangle tool to make the pupil by pushing it into the center of the circle I made. I also used the triangle tool to carve a few curves under each eye to give it wrinkles and a triangle above the eye to make his eyes look more sinister. There are a few different ways to make pumpkin eyes but this way worked alright for this project. Now I jumped over to the left eye. It was looking to the right, so I made the center of the eye and the pupil towards the right side of the eye.

On the image 1, I showed the order that I usually take when cutting the nose area. The depth and size of the nose really depend on the thickness of the walls of the pumpkin. The area between the eyes and below the brow, I cut about an inch deep. That will be the top of the bridge of the nose. Then I start to cut three spherical shapes at the bottom of the nose. After that, I try to smooth out the transition from the top of the nose to the bottom.

I usually start to cut the upper part of the mouth about three inches from the bottom of the nose. I cut a top row for the teeth and gums going left to right. Then a deeper row underneath that is for the mouth opening or tongue. Then I made a less deep row under that for the bottom row of teeth. The teeth are shaped like upside down U's. I make the sides of the teeth and gum line with the exacto knife. I also used the exacto knife around the inside border of the mouth to give it more depth. I slowly scraped away the area around the outside of the mouth opening to form lips. I also added those grooves that come down from the nose to around the mouth.

I really looked at my reference picture for this one. If I had to describe what trying to make a brain felt like, it would be similar to making a squiggly path by scraping grooves on the sides of the path. I used the triangle to scrape away pumpkin on the sides of the path. There is usually a line going down the middle of the brain to separate it into two halves. I cut that line first then I started to carve out the squiggle line. Next, I used a knife to separate the brain from the bottom half. I left the pumpkin innards attached to the brain side of the pumpkin. Now that the pumpkin is opened up, I scraped out the seeds and guts from the bottom half of the pumpkin.

For this pumpkin I used a few of these remote-controlled lights. These lights have a few different color options, they are bright, and are also waterproof. I really liked to use a green light on the outside and a pink light on the inside. I have also used different colored light strands in the past. Those also work well.

Optional. I also bought bendable pumpkin arms and posed them in different positions.

And that is all... Be sure to take all kinds of photos of your pumpkin. They don't last long and after they are cut the integrity starts to change pretty quickly.

Well, I tried my best to describe how to cut a 3 D pumpkin. Hope you enjoyed reading my tutorial. Be sure to like and subscribe.