Pumpkin Carving - Craving

Pictures of each step will come once I have started to carve.

Now it is time to talk of the carving. First I have to mention another relevant tool I had forgotten previously. Crayola washable felt pens. These are for transferring the designs onto the pumpkins. With them being washable you can erase mistakes and when you are done carving to clear the excess marks on the pumpkin after carving it.

Transferring the design
After you have made the design on paper it is time to transfer to a pumpkin. The reason that I prefer to do it free hand is to adapt to the contours of the pumpkin and to scale it appropriately to the shape of the pumpkin. Once you have a design on it that you like. It is time to cut.

Breaking the skin.
This is where the paring knife comes in handy. Small knife with a curved blade. Use it to trace along the design marks to not cut all he way but to cut about a quarter of an inch in. This is typically the more arduous and time consuming exercise of the carving. Once it is broken with this easy to use blade it is much easier to carve. After all the skin is broken, take a wet cloth and erase excess markings.

Plan your pieces
As you start carving out chunks it is important to undercut in tight spots to get later. For example if you are to leave a small piece of specific shape attached it can be hard to cut with the weight of the rest of the piece. So cut a larger berth of a section around to come back to later to detail into the smaller piece. Ensure that you leave enough space to get leverage on the piece.

Angle of pieces
The angle of the cuts is important to think about as it can add effect or get in the way of your design. For example you can make something look hollowed, thick and long if you cut at an angle that makes the area of the outer side of the piece larger then the area of the inside of the pumpkin. In some instances you want to cut pieces the opposite to best show a design from how you present the pumpkin.

General tips
Cut all pieces before you push them out. You can easily have small pieces broken off, or other pieces collapse if you are leaving close together thin strips.
Make sure you cut all the way through before moving out a peice. If you do not and try to pull the piece you could easily pull out a section you want to leave.
When moving out pieces cut out dummy sections and remove them to make it easy to remove delicate sections.
When you move the cut pieces out, push them in or out, based on where the larger surface area is
If you have a thick pumpkin you may want to thin the walls in the cleaning process to make it easier to carve.

This post I will edit, with pictures and more advice once I start carving, but I hope that this series has been helpful.