Worried Face Sculpted Pumpkin With Buck Teeth

From pumpkin to porch

1. 1

   Map the face and gut through the back

   Draw the worried expression lightly on the front with a washable marker, marking the proud nose, the two mismatched eye bulges, the furrowed brow, and the trembling lower lip. Cut a wide access hole in the back or bottom and scrape the wall behind the face down to a workable thickness, around one and a half inches, so you have room to sculpt inward. Leave the front rind fully intact at this stage. Keep your rough lines loose since sculpting will refine them.

2. 2

   Rough out the nose and high points

   Since the nose sits proudest, establish it first by carving down the skin all around it so it stands up from the surface. Do the same for the two eyeball bulges and the rounded chin below the lip. Use a wide loop tool and remove material in shallow passes so you can judge the shape as it emerges. Working the tall features first gives you reference heights for everything else.

3. 3

   Carve the eye sockets and wrinkles

   Scoop the sockets deep around each eyeball so the eyes appear to bulge outward, making one slightly higher for that anxious mismatched look. Use a small loop tool to press in the furrowed brow folds and the crow's-foot wrinkles fanning from the eyes. Carve the deep frown creases running down beside the nose and mouth. Vary the depth so shadows pool naturally in the folds when lit.

4. 4

   Shape the mouth and buck teeth

   Carve the open mouth as a recessed dark band, then leave two rectangular columns of rind standing to form the buck teeth. Round and smooth the front of each tooth so they catch light, and cut just enough gap on either side to separate them from the lip. Keep a bit of pumpkin flesh anchoring the base of each tooth so they stay strong and do not snap. Shape the trembling lower lip as a soft rounded ridge beneath them.

5. 5

   Peel for glow and cut the pupils last

   Skin-peel the eyeballs and the fronts of the teeth so they take on a dim inner glow when lit. Save the only true cutouts, the two small round pupil holes, for the very end so the face stays sturdy while you sculpt. Bore each pupil with a small tool and clean the edges. Cutting these last keeps the delicate sockets from tearing.

6. 6

   Light it and take the photo

   Drop a battery LED inside, ideally a warm flickering one, and never a candle near all this thin sculpted flesh. Set it in a dim room and check that the pupils glow bright while the peeled eyes and teeth give a softer light. Rotate the light until the wrinkle shadows read as a worried expression. Snap the photo slightly below eye level to exaggerate the buck teeth and the anxious brow.